After reading James Fenimore Cooper’s novel, Last of the Mohicans, the excerpt by William Apess’ was a breath of fresh air. James Fenimore Cooper may have not have been a racist, but he certainly didn’t help to end discrimination against the Red Men, the Native Americans. Apess’ point of view as the inflicted, rather the oppressor, helped display the insights of the minority, and their interpretation of the discrimination.

Cooper describes the Indians in his novel as bloodthirsty cannibals. William Apess, a Christian Pequot Indian, responded to such fallacies with his piece, An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man, which was published in 1833.

Apess used several methods to get to the white people’s soul. One was guilt, which he laid on pretty heavy, and another being bible rhetoric. The white man claimed to follow the bible explicitly, laying claims to be righteous in doing so, yet Apess revealed the bible shuns racism, and discrimination of any kind.

“Let your love be without dissimulation. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” (1 Peter 1.22)

“If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.” (1 John 4.20)

“He who loveth God loveth his brother also.” (1 John 4.21)

Here William Apess is using the white-man’s gospel against them. The bible says if you do not love one another, then you are not following God. Apess is hoping this will create “self-doubt” within the white man, due to their unjust and cruel acts.

Apess uses color to describe the actions of the white man. More specifically, Apess uses the color “black” as a metaphor in many occasions.

“…are leaders a most unrighteous, unbecoming, and impure black principle…”

Here, Apess uses the color black to describe the evilness and wrongdoing of the nation’s principles, which were strongly held by the leaders.

“…but merely placing before you the black inconsistency that you place before me – which is ten times blacker than any skin you will find in the universe.”

Once again, Apess uses the word “black,” first to describe the evil-doings of the white-man, and then contrasts it with the “black” skin color, which the white-man found so heinous.

My personal favorite use of color by Apess is in the ‘national crimes’ paragraph. Apess asks the reader to imagine if all races had their national crimes written upon it, with black ink of course, whose would be darker? Hand’s down, it would be the white-man. Apess feels that the reader will realize the white-man’s travesty of a civil society.

Apess doesn’t stop there though. He brings to light the skin color of Jesus of Nazareth, which is most certainly not white. He then asks… “Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ, who is counted by all to be a Jew – and it is well known that the Jews are a colored people … and if he should appear among us, would he not be shut out of doors by many, very quickly?”

I think this question will get to the reader. Apess suggests: Will you slam your door on Jesus because of his skin color? And for those who were white devout Christians, which was the intended audience, Apess gets to them right here.

In conclusion, Apess may have not attended this piece to be a response to Cooper’s novel, but he uses writing as a forum to fight back against the white-man, who Apess allows us to remember to be the conquerors who stole the continent from it’s rightful owners.

Works Cited:
William Apess; An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man; Our Own Ground: The Complete Writings of William Apess, 1992.
Dr. Gibson Diaz; ETS 116, U.S. Literary History; Lecture, 2/4/00.

Chris Matthews is a political insider; he has seen the game played. Matthews took a lot of notes when he worked as an aide for former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, and collaborated his works, creating an inside look at the game, and the rules politics is played by. When Matthews’ confided to a member of the House of Representatives on the book he was writing, the listener replied, “Why do you want to go and give them away?”

Hardball‘s purpose was to unveil “the enduring human truths in the rules that politicians play by.” Chris Matthews lists the rules of politics, and explains how each one is important, and examples of the rules implementations.

There are a handful of basic rules to the game of politics, and Chris Matthews gives them all. The first is: “It’s not who you know; it’s who you get to know.” This rule was pioneered by President Lyndon B. Johnson. When the young pol (the short name Chris Matthews gives politicians) arrived in Washington, he sets out to meet everyone as fast as possible. The future President’s strategy worked. Within months of arrival, LBJ was elected Speaker of the “Little Congress,” the organization of House staff assistants. Lyndon Johnson made his rise to fame at the retail level, making each and everybody’s concern an issue. Jack Brooks, a Texas congressman and a friend to LBJ, knew quite well of the “Johnson treatment.”

“Lyndon Johnson would convince you that your concern, no matter how small it might seem to other people, was the most important thing in the world to Lyndon Johnson.”

The Great Retailer, as President Johnson soon to became known as, used his audience to create alliances. He knew the House republican from Arizona was not interested in the lakes of Minnesota, and used his knowledge and senses to use political retailing as a means to swing votes in Congress.

Similarly, this is where John F. Kennedy failed in the White House. Kennedy used his good looks and his television coverage to get elected. JFK was a “dashing wholesaler” but fell short on Capitol Hill, where the Great Retailer would get his way.

“Behind those vaunted closed doors lies not only the paraphernalia of power but a distinctive language, which I myself have learned to speak. It is a world of tough old alliances, Gothic revenge and crafty deal-making, but also of marvelous state-of-the-art tactics such as spin and positioning.”

No one perfected the maneuver of positioning as well as man they called “The Great Communicator,” President Ronald Reagan. One example of this maneuver was during his press conferences. Ronald Reagan always seemed to know the name of the reporters, calling them out on a first-name basis. For people watching at home, or the press corps at the White House that day, they saw a President that acted as a regular guy. The reason this conception took place was because the President had a seating chart, and spent hours learning it. When a reporter stood up to ask a question, the President would call out, “Pat!” The reporter, stunned that that the President knew his name, was not going to attempt anything “tricky” at that moment.

Furthermore, the “Great Communicator” used another ploy during his annual State of the Union addresses. The former actor took advantage of the new technology that was available in the high-flying eighties; in specific, the TelePrompTer. For viewers at home, the President spoke eloquently, flawlessly, and to both sides of the audience. These great speeches were attainable due to the two TelePrompTers located on the floor of the Capitol. Only on wide shots were the well-spaced glass plates visible to viewers. However on the television screen, they looked like bullet-proof security shields.

The impact of Chris Matthews book is larger than expected, at least to him: “…I had no idea this book would become a classic, that many hard-nosed politicians would employ it as their bible… that the word “hardball” itself would so penetrate the country’s vocabulary.”

The truth of the matter is this: politics is a game. And like all games, there are rules. You follow the rules, and you’ll do fine, but when the game gets tough, it’s only those who can play hardball that will survive… reelection.

Dear Teacher,

For my book, Hardball, by Chris Matthews, the subject is the game of politics, and how it is played. The thesis is that all politicians play this and though the citizens may not notice this fact, that’s just one part of the game. The author has many examples of all the parts of the game varying from Reagan’s positioning to Lyndon Johnson’s ability to speak to one person at a time, called retailing. The audience for this intriguing book is aspiring politicians, or those who want to learn the rules of politics. Everytime I see a press conference or a campaign rally, I see these rules in action. The mood is analytical. Chris Matthews looks behind every move a politician makes. The purpose is to reveal the game. As he worked in Washington he learned the in’s and out’s and made a book of it. A great book. For Spring Break, I’m going home and writing my critical essay.

Thanks,

Jeffrey B. Wisniewski