English12レポート Persecution Essay編

こんにちは。
今日もessayです。当面noteを書く時間が取れないのでこれで勘弁してください…。

今回のessayはたぶん今までで一番真面目に書いたと思います。エッセイを書くだけで7時間程度、それに加えて本や映画を観る時間もあるので、合計で13時間程度費やして書きました。いやぁ疲れた。

肝心のエッセイの先生からの評価は…

上のpersecution essayってやつです。86.7%。そこそこの評価だと思います。学期全体の評価はこれのおかげで60%から65%に上がりました（50%以下で単位落第）。幸せです。

とりあえず、下に貼るのでごゆっくり見てください。Works Cited（僕がessayを書くために使った本、映画）も貼ってるので、気になる方はAmazonかなんかで買ってみてください。

It is hard to imagine that before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, only 5 years before the moon landing, discrimination based on race, sex, or religion was completely legal in the US. During the 20th century, several racial and ethnic groups have suffered discrimination and oppression based on their background. Maus by Art Spiegelman tells the story of his Jewish parents, who lived in Poland when Nazis Germany was in power. After the war, racial discrimination and separation was a severe issue in the US. The movie, The Help, directed by Tate Taylor, was originally written by Kathryn Stockett and it tells how people in the 1960s stood up for racial equality. Although these stories take place in different times and places, there are some common points between them as to why the persecution happens and how it goes. Both stories show strong examples of separating people based on race with the separations based on false information. The harmful economic impact of this was added to the problems faced by the victims of the separations, and the result was a negative impact on the lives of those discriminated against.

During the 1960s America, false information took a significant role in justifying racial discrimination and separation. In The Help, this is evident when Hilly, a white lady who hires an African American maid in her house, believes that black maids “carry different diseases than [whites] do” and tries to build a washroom outside only for the black maids (Stockett 0:28:10). She tells her friends that she has “drafted the Home Health Sanitation Initiative. A disease-preventative bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help...I’ll do whatever it takes to protect our children”(Stockett 0:27:40). This false claim, that African Americans carry different diseases, is used by the Hilly to justify the separation of whites and blacks. In fact, she knows that there is no evidence that the black maids have illness. If she really believed that they carried illness, she would not hire black maids. She hires them because she needs cheap labor to take care of the house. Throughout the film, the author of The Help uses the toilet as a symbol of the boundary between blacks and whites.

In Maus, the author symbolizes people as animals such as mice, cats and pigs. The author tries to show the readers their status through their appearance. In the minds of the people, the status of mice is the lowest of the animals in Maus. People do not have many good images of mice. They think mice are dirty - they are an animal which should not be in people’s houses. Some of them really do not want to see them and call a company to kill mice. In fact, the same thing happens in the story. They are the most vulnerable animals portrayed in the book, and the other animals have better status than mice. They take refuge in small hiding places as they are hunted by the Nazis like mice.

The protagonists and people around them of both stories are treated unfairly by the image which is created by the image made of false information such as that the black maids have illness. They know it is unfair, but they did not try to change the society at first because such action would have been very dangerous for them at that time. They may get lower status or be treated more unfairly.

In The Help, the black maids work at the white people’s house. They are treated unfairly as I explained earlier. They never become the employers of the white people. They are scared that they would face even more of the racism than they were already experiencing. Hilly is white and thinks the black maids have an illness. She recommends her friend, Elizabeth who hires the black maids to build the washroom only for the black maids. She says “I feel my lip curling. Of course we are different! Everybody knows colored people and white people ain’t the same. But we are still just people! Shoot, I even have been hearing Jesus had colored skin living out there in the desert. I press my lips together”(Stockett 0:31:10). It shows that she believes Hilly’s opinion and hates black people. She knows that there is no evidence which the black maids have illness with. In fact, she hires the black maid because she needs manpower. If they really have an illness she does not hire them. In the opening scene, Aibileen who is a black maid takes an interview. This scene’s mood is dark. The viewer of the movie sees her low social status and how she lives there as a black maid because she does not have enough money to live alone in her own house. Because she is black, she is not given enough freedom to choose her profession at that time. White people hire black maids as manpower with low wages. The black maids need to work at white people’s houses to live even if they cannot get high enough wages.

In Maus, a lot of Jews fight against persecution. However Vladek says “It wasn’t so easy like you think. Everyone was so starving and frightened, and tired they couldn’t believe even what’s in front of their lives” (Spiegelman II.63). The situation at that time is terrible for them. Vladek sees people living in fear, starving, exhausted, with the spectacle of other prisoners being randomly beaten or killed around them. He says to himself, “to die, it's easy...but you have to struggle for life” to encourage himself (Spiegelman I.122). His experience during the holocoast is terrible such as a constant struggle to survive, first as his factory and income are taken away, then as the Jews are sent into the ghettos, and ultimately in the nightmare of Auschwitz. They were in an exceptional situation that nothing in their previous lives could have prepared them for. He sometimes loses his power to survive because of this terrible situation in which the wealth they get is all taken or destroyed. The persecution tortured Jews both financially and mentally.

The people in both stories suffer financially, and it leads to mental distress too. They don’t have the finances to have healthy and culturally minimal lifes. Their poverty is connected to their mentality. The persecution makes them poor and unhappy. As it continues, the economic gap between the people who have good social status and those who don’t gets wider. They are not even allowed to strive for good social status.

In The Help, people don’t fight against the racist society at first because they are scared that they would get lower status because of their action. However they noticed they need to take action to stop being treated unfairly even if there are some risks to do it. Aibileen decides to help Skeeter, the reporter who is trying to write an article about the persecution of a black maid. She says “I reckon I’m ready to talk about Miss Leefolt now. Baby Girl is still gonna wear a diaper when she sleeps at night. And it doesn't get changed till I get there in the morning. For about ten hours she had to sleep in her mess. Now Miss Leefolt is pregnant with her second baby. Lord...I pray this child turns out good. It’s a lonely road if a mama doesn't think their child is pretty...Miss Leefolt should not be having babies. Write that down”(Stockett 1:17:30). This statement shows her readiness to fight to change her status quo. It also shows that her actions can endanger the baby, and her actions are dangerous because they are against public opinion. Nowadays, opposing something is a part of the right of a human being, but it was dangerous at that time. She knows it is fighting against racism that puts her life at risk, but she thinks it is necessary to get rights as a human being.

The story of Maus is basically centered around the tragic stories the Jewish people experienced. The propaganda showing images of Jews stealing German jobs makes them very vulnerable and weak. As it continues, it supports the persecution of the Jews. The Jewish people experience terrible things such as suffering from deprivation, hunger and death in Auschwitz concentration camps and inability to live safe, healthy lives. Vladek who is a holocoast survivor also suffered from the guilt that they are alive as many Jews die. Also, Anja, who is Vladek’s late wife kills herself after being persecuted. Pavel who is a holocoast survivor and feels the guilt says “Yes, life always takes the side of life, and somehow the victims are blamed. But it wasn’t the best people who survived, nor did the best ones die. It was random!” (Spiegelman II.35) It can compound the guilt of the survivors, who may not feel they had a right to survive when more deserving people died.

The people in both stories suffer financially, and it leads to mental distress too. They don’t have the enough financial margin to have healthy and cultural minimum lifes. The financial margin is connected to their mentality. The persecution makes them poor and unhappy. As it continues, the economic gap between the people who have good social status and those who don’t gets wider. The people in both stories try to survive, but there are always some risks and dangers. Their lives were confused by oppression, financial hardship, and the resulting mental suffering. While both works have similar themes, the ending of each story is very different. The ending of the story of The Help is an optimistic one, showing the black maids and Skeeter seeing the light of hope through publishing the book about the black maids. Even though their effort plays a significant role during the civil rights movement, the issue of racial divide and discrimination in the US continues to this day. On the other hand,at the end of Maus, the holocoast survivors still feel guilt, the trauma and suffering.

The terrible life in both stories comes from the false image of the black maids having disease in The Help and Jews being shown as mice in Maus. Economic problems are not connected to only their property. They don’t have the enough financial strength to have healthy and culturally minimum lives. Their poverty is connected to their sorry mental states. Both the false image and economic problems take people’s power to fight against racism away and produce further repression. It is important for people nowadays to learn from these lessons of history as they look to the future, so they can stop racism and the persecution of groups in society. In fact, some incidents such as black people being killed by white people for no reason occur even today. What people need to do is focus on those incidents and also the economic problems that help cause the violence. They need to learn why it happens, so they can protect themselves from it in the future. Both might be connected to the result, which is a negative impact on the lives of those discriminated against.


Works Cited

Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor's Tale. New York : Pantheon Books, 1986-1990

Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. Directed by Tate Taylor, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 9 Aug. 2011.

以上。
長文お読みくださりありがとうございました！

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English skillは上がってるかよく分からないけど、essayは徐々に上手くなっていってると自分で感じます。

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