HB Text

Throughout reading the Humanities Base Text I have learned a great deal about a variety of issues. The one issue that stuck out most of all way the way the people of East St. Louis live. I cannot believe that in a country as big and as wealthy as the United States, that as a country we let people live that way. In such poverty, living with garbage piled high in their backyards; this is outrageous to imagine people living like that in our country. The United States claim is “The land of opportunity,” what kind of opportunity do the people of East St. Louis have? From what I have read in the text, not much at all because of the education they get and their living conditions, it is so hard for the people to escape to a better place. Before I read this story by Jonathan Kozel, I never knew that East St. Louis was so repulsive and how those people live in such unbelievable conditions. I could never even imagine a place so horrible in the United States before I read this story.
Secondly, the story by Alice Walker called “Everyday Use”, really caught me off guard on how badly some people can treat their family. Yes, I know some people do have horrible home lives and their parents do not want them around, however if your parents love and care about you, you should respect them treat them honorably. In the story, Dee completely leaves her family, comes back, and then expects her family to give her everything she wants when they have little to begin with as is. From this, I know it happens sometimes but I really had no idea how horribly some people can act towards their parents and it’s unthinkable to me to treat any human being with such disrespect. It really opened my eyes to the world and how naïve I am to a lot of things that occur.
The Humanities Base Text story “Translations” showed me what it’s like for a community to be on so many different levels of literacy. I am used to everyone being able to read, write, and speak without any problems, but in this particular society in only a select few people can. In today’s American society, if you are not literature, it would be so hard to fit in and be able to communicate with others, which I could not imagine having to go through. I have never met or been around anyone that cannot speak nor have any sort of speech problems so I compliment Manus on being able to teach Sarah and doing a very admirable job at that.
The Humanities Base Text really helped me realize so many new things that I have never experience or knew existed. It also helped me appreciate the life I have and how lucky I am to be where I am today and the future I can have.