My visions of California before taking this course is a sunny, beautiful, happy and carefree place and those visions are partly because I visited there nine years ago. Upon my visit I concluded that I would eventually move there when I'm ready to start a family. My visit to California had left a tainted image in my mind, an image of a place where I could leave all my cares behind in hopes of staring anew, but what has left me speechless is the fact that I have no memory of particular events that lead me to this strange obsession over the state. When I first visited California I was 13 years old, and at the age of thirteen there isn’t much you can do there, your options are very limited. My mom and I stayed at a hotel downtown LA for an event where we did the basic, sightseeing, but noting extraordinary so why is it that I’m so obsessed with the state?
Physically, California is a beautiful place with lots of space. Downtown Los Angeles was not like the typical downtowns in cities like Chicago, New York, or even Atlanta, but it was more spacious and “clean”. I didn’t see a lot public transportation around like the ones that frequently amass typical cities with high population rates, which means less traffic and noise. California, for many of us, is like the Promised Land to the Israelites, a place of complete bliss and delight and peace. While I was there, I found myself at peace and when I returned to Chicago, O’Hare airport, I felt as though my peace was disrupted, disrupted by loud horns honking at pedestrians and big busses taking up massive amounts of space. I found myself agitated and annoyed while wishing that I were back in California, where I was able to saver my peace. Strangely, I didn’t bring back eventful memories f...
... middle of paper ...
...areas and the economically deprived ghettos. These events are essential in order to understand how the US is quickly following in California’s wake while being a model for other nations. The residents who believed that they had arrived into their Promised Land quickly came to the realization that they were in hell because natural disasters started taking place, natural disasters like earthquakes, fires, and floods constantly plagued California and all other sorts of devastating tragedies like pollution, poverty, riots, tax limitations, spending limits, bans on affinitive action, harsh laws, and denying services to illegal immigrants. On the surface California seems to be a great place with endless opportunities but underneath it’s one of the biggest disappointments ever, and if we are following a state like California we will then become a disappointment as well.
California represents is not as easy to attain as they once thought. The characters in The Day of the
Bright sunshine to frigid snow, all within hours of travel. A place for everyone, all ages, all cultures, all types of people. When choosing a place to live, we decide on the one that pleases us and our busy lives. For those who enjoy constant activity and sunny warm beaches, California and Florida tend to be on their list. Once learning all that California has to offer, they will jump on the decision to pack their bags and head for their new home. California offers exploration and something new every day. “If they can’t do it in California, it can’t be done anywhere.” -Taylor Caldwell (Fun Quotes about California by Stephen Frank, www.capolitical news.com)
other people just like them, aiming for the same goal, California. This parallels to the depression again in how the large amounts of people, that were broke, hungry, and
James J. Rawls perspective of the California Dream consists of promise and paradox. People from all over move to California in hopes of finding opportunity and success. However California cannot fulfill people’s expectations.
Because of the devastating disaster of the dust bowl, the Joad family was forced to leave their long-time home and find work and a new life elsewhere. They, like many other families, moved to California. "The land of milk and honey". The people in the dust bowl imagined California as a haven of jobs where they would have a nice little white house and as much fruit as they could eat. This dream was far from the reality the migrant farmers faced once in California. The dreams, hopes, and expectations the Joads had of California were crushed by the reality of the actual situation in this land of hate and prejudice.
Some women came to California with their husbands and children. Men thought of the adventure...
During the late 1840's California did not show much promise or security. It had an insecure political future, its economic capabilities were severely limited and it had a population, other than Indians, of less than three thousand people. People at this time had no idea of what was to come of the sleepy state in the coming years. California would help boost the nation's economy and entice immigrants to journey to this mystical and promising land in hopes of striking it rich.
The Corollary chapter Nineteen deals with the history of California. How it was settled by the feverish Americans. Through these descriptions we can start to understand the Californians prejudice against the migrant workers. The chapter describes the initial owners of the land, the Mexicans, as being "weak and fed". This description would suggest that the Mexican's were like well fed livestock.
As you take a walk on the street, you can feel wind from the cars and the energy of the city. OUt of 195 states, California is quite a busy one. With this in mind, there are a few important points to learn before living there,such as some background information, advantages, as well as the disadvantages.
Before you begin reading the main narrative of my essay, I want to let you in on some details about my life and myself. I was born in Manhattan, New York and when I was about twenty two days old, I boarded a plane with my parents on a journey across the United States to the city of San Francisco, then to the town of Grass Valley. This is where my grandmother and grandfather resided. They had been telling my parents that the city of Manhattan was no place to raise a child and that we should move to California and live with them. Before making this life changing decision of leaving most of their friends and loved ones in New York to come to California, my parents sent me off to live in India with my uncle. Keep in mind, I was about the age of two when this all happened. The opportunity of leaving me with my uncle gave my parents about a year to think things over and pull themselves together, in efforts to properly raise a child in a country that was so
Starr, Kevin. Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
The motivations of both the East Bay African-Americans and the Los Angeles Native-Americans in relocating to California were very much the same. For Native-Americans, the motivation was one of economic opportunity, where during WWII, there existed significant prejudice, discrimination and racism, and where reservation life, offered very little to no upward social or economic mobility. The reservation provided very little hope of obtaining economic or social freedom, and was plagued with alcoholism, poverty, and limitation, all issues that were very well known to those Na...
California society, and people as individuals, could not decide whether they relished their newfound freedom or despised it. Some people attempted to recreate the lives they knew at home, while many others threw off the shackles of their old proper lives. Victorian culture emerged in the 1820’s and 1830’s in America. At 1850, the time of the Gold Rush, it was at it’s high point. Anyone who came to California from the states, no matter what their position, would have come from a place influenced by the Victorian way of life. This included strict ideas about the roles of men and women, taboos on drinking and gambling, high value set on hard work, Christian ethics, and ethnic prejudices.2 People who came to California experienced something quite different.
It is seen from the moment you get here, to the moment you leave, and I believe that that is the reason why California is so memorable. The diversity that is seen is in our history as well, which can allow outsiders to understand where we our diversity rooted from. In the lecture named “Space, Identity, and Public Power in Nineteenth-Century Los Angeles”, Dr. Daniel Torred- Rouff defined race as a “system of power”, which can mean that race is man-made divider of people, and it has affected each and every state, but California has been moving in a progressive way to end or lower the risk of any racial altercations. The largest groups of race have some sort of history here, from Latinos to Asian, and these races have helped built California from the ground up, which can be seen in the rail roads and the agriculture. This cultural diversity has built and sustained this state afloat, and that diversity will continue to grow, because of the progressive mind set of
Rawls, James J., and Walton Bean. California: An Interpretive History. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Print.