Differences In William Apess's Son Of The Forest

During his childhood, he was blessed with an individual spirit and the intelligence to understand the knowledge of the world. In spite of this, he reckoned his abilities as transgressions. He acknowledged that the way of life was that “Everything which comes from the many is good. Everything which comes from the one is evil” (Rand 85). Equality strives to accept the totalitarian society and consequently, he desperately struggles to disregard his abilities and subdue his desires. The grisly effects of society are portrayed immensely through the profound sense of guilt he suffers while committing the Sin of Preference. He continually recites that, “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by, and for our brothers who are the State. Amen” (Rand 21). Gradually, his aspirations contradict with the dogma of society. He discovers that he finds more joy committing the Sin of Preference rather than restraining himself from happiness, which ultimately, allows him to elude his conscious premises. Equality’s belief that “[he] [has] torn [himself] from the truth which is [his] brother men… [he] knows [this], but [he] [does] not care” (Rand 76) marks his complete triumph over collectivism. Prior to his transformation, he belonged to a society in which the Sin of Preference revoked all rights for any desire, which ultimately disallowed citizens to think for freely. If permitted to do so, no

He then goes further and states that there can be no white churches and even the establishment of one is blasphemous due to the idea that these institutions center on the oppression of another human race.

William Apess broke the mold by writing this autobiography titled A Son of the Forest in 1829, considering it was not a common literary form for his time. Apess also set the bar as the earliest autobiography written and published by a Native American. Throughout the piece we learn his highs and lows, the prejudices he encountered, his different jobs, and his ordainment and success as a minister.

Some may wonder, does the use of rhetorical devices like logos, pathos, and ethos enhance an argument? Well, does a bear shit in the woods? William Apess fills “An Indian’s Looking-glass for the White Man” with all three forms of rhetoric, but perhaps the one of most significance is ethos. Apess spends a good deal of time using ethos to establish a connection between himself and the intended audience, white Christians; this collective identity that Apess forms allows him to make better use of pathos and ethos in his writing. Even though Apess’s ideas may not have presented well to his audience, his arguments based in logos and pathos would have gone over rather poorly had he not established a clear connection between himself and his

Mr. Smith, on the other, hand was very harsh and “saw things as black and white. And black was evil…” (pg.184). That unfortunate turn of phrase was indicative of ignorance and his attitude from the beginning toward the natives of Umuofia who were dark skinned. Under his control, or one might say lack of control, the “over-zealous converts… now flourished in full favor” (pg. 185) causing the church and clan to meet collide to head for once and all when “Enoch had killed an ancestral spirit” (pg. 186).

Apess describes “whites” as prejudice. An examples he gave was that “whites” view themselves as supreme because at this point in time they walked all over the Indians, and African Americans. He states that the “whites” have no consideration and that they are selfish. Apess says, “They would think it no crime to go upon Indian lands and cut and carry off their most valuable timber, or anything else they choose; and I doubt not but they think it clear gain.” (Apess, 761) Additionally I believe that his strongest argument was that God had not intended for humans to discriminate based on race. He quoted many verses from the bible talking about love. This is when he goes into his discussion about hypocrisy. He argues that “whites” think that they are superior to God, because they are disgracing His masterpieces. All people are created in God’s image, so when you disgrace a group of people, you are also disgracing God. Apess states, “Why do you, who profess His Gospel and to have His spirit, act so contrary to it?” (Apess, 763)

“I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people. And while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and

In the first chapter of the novel, readers see that, at an early age, the citizens of the society are taught to think nothing of themselves and more of the World Council. Equality tells us of his childhood in the Home of the Students where they were required to say the following every day, “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the

Many societies strive to make every person as equal as possible to the next, believing that this makes everything fair for everyone. In all truth though, society cannot function in this way; no matter what, there will always be someone or some group that has more power than everyone else. Equality should only concern the important issues, such as equal rights for all races and each gender. Both the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell and the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. are the quintessence of inequality and prove this point; all equal societies do not work. There are many similarities the book Animal Farm shares with the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, one

How would you want to live in a Society? In Anthem by Ayn Rand Equality- 7-2521 struggled to learn about individuality in the strict society he lived in. Equality would let his society be free and let the people in it make their own decisions. He believes that everyone should take pride in the word I. Equality would not make his society like “The City of the Damned.”

white men were enemies and that he had to stick to his own blood. He was used to his

“I have no race prejudice,” he would say, “but we people of mixed blood are ground between the upper and the nether millstone. Our fate lies between absorption by the white race and extinction in the black. The one doesn’t want us yet, but may take us in time. The other would welcome us but it would be for us a backward step" (467).

The idea of equality is one that has been entrenched into the hearts and minds of the citizens of the United States since the days of the founding fathers. The thought that one person is better than another is an ideal that as a nation, the founding fathers strove to overcome. They believed that each person should have the identical rights and opportunities of every other person in our society. This sentiment becomes grossly perverted in Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron”. In the tale, the American government has taken the idea of equality to an extreme that is not only inhumane, but in essence takes away our freedom and individuality, the very fabric of what we consider American.

Apess begins his work by declaring the Indian and the white man are one in the same under God. The opening words, “Having a desire to place a few things before my fellow creatures who are traveling with

Neanderthals, called Whites or “Trolls”, were the oldest settlers of the land. They were pale-skinned, tall with prominent eyebrows compared to the dark Cro-Magnons. The Neanderthals had a primitive language composed of mostly two similar sounds. The Whites were a matriarchal society where women chose their mates whereas the Blacks were patriarchal. The Blacks took pride in having sons because in the Black culture, a man without sons was not a man. A Black man’s role was to hunt, fight, beget sons and seek the mystery power of the unknown. A woman’s role was to bear children, gather the harvest and obey the man who chose her. The black children and adults have small faces and little brows, features that are characteristic of a young child. The whites regarded blacks as gods and felt tenderness towards them. Although the whites and blacks were different, they lived off the same land,