The Berkshire Scholar 2018

The Berkshire Scholar 2018

The Berkshire Scholar A collection of academic essays Spring 2018

Emily Arriaga……………………………….……….…….......…..3 Development of Identity in Krakauer’s Into the Wild Chris Branch…………………………...………….…….....……...7 Fake News: A Solution Within a Problem Madi Gomez...............………………………………….....…...…11 Dear Ellen: An Open Letter Regarding Shakespeare Harley Frechette….………………………….….…..………........13 Reconstruction and the Black Codes Anastasia Romanova....…………………………...........………...16 Intangible Damage: PTSD and Vietnam Veterans Stephen O’Connell.….....………………………...……….....…...22 The Historical Neglect of Japanese Internment Victor Li.............……………………...………...……..…………28 The Realism of Shortcomings and the Literature of the Other Julie Kokot....………………………………....………....….……34 Linguistic Diversity and Political Identity in Spain Afterword.......................................................................................48

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The opinions and arguments presented in The Berkshire Scholar are the work of the writers only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors, faculty, or administration of Berkshire School.

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Emily Arriaga ~ English III

Development of Identity in Krakauer’s Into the Wild Identity. This has always been a phenomenon that dwells within the minds of adolescents, constantly shifting and changing due to the influences of society. It is a notion that many young adults seek. In this scenario we gain insight into Chris McCandless, a privileged young man from an East Coast family that underwent a journey to Alaska in order to live and survive in the wild.

Unfortunately, Chris perished on his journey. His story, however, was investigated by Jon Krakauer, a journalist from Outside magazine who had been asked to report on Chris’ death. Krakauer had also endured a similar experience to Chris, which was a reason why he chose to pursue McCandless’s story. Krakauer used a chronological structure in his writing not only to help the audience better understand the series of events that Chris negotiated through Krakauer’s perspective, but also to emphasize our own discovery of our individual identities as we too come of age.

The sequential order that Krakauer utilized in revealing the events of the book is reflective of the manner by which he had come upon information of Chris’ journey. For instance, at the beginning of the book Krakauer goes directly to the point of Chris’ demise. Rendering the chronology of events through the perspective of Krakauer is essential for the understanding of the reader since it influences and develops a perspective about Chris and the kind of individual he was. The choices and actions that Chris made, and the endeavors he was willing to undertake, permitted the readers to reflect and scrutinize the kind of person he was. Based off of the decisions that Chris made, the readers can see him not only as a character in this story, but also as a unique individual.

This proposition is demonstrated in the book when Krakauer writes about the initiation of Chris’ journey into the wild of Alaska: “Driving west out of Atlanta, he intended to invent an utterly new life for himself, one in which he would be free to wallow in unfiltered experience. To symbolize the The Berkshire Scholar 3

complete severance from his previous life, he even adopted a new name. No longer would he answer to Chris McCandless; he was now Alexander Supertramp, master of his own destiny.” (Krakauer 22-23) From this quote, the reader can see that Chris was adventurous, and he was seeking his own future as well as his own identity. The readers are able to perceive this idea because in the beginning of the chapter, Krakauer commences it with the background of Chris’ past life as a student as well as a member of a prestigious family.

He later describes the effect of Chris setting off into this journey and the insight of why he chose to undergo this expedition. This intentional organization and structure of events, which stem from Krakauer’s journalistic unearthing of Chris’s story, impacts the reader’s stance on the characteristics of his young subject.

The way Krakauer organizes the interviews with the people that Chris ran into is also relevant to the character development; this multiplicity of the perspectives contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of Chris. The readers are given descriptions of Chris and what he did, which enables them to perceive the kind of person he was. These descriptions are important because Krakauer uses them to explain that McCandless was a hopeful young man who was just trying to find himself. He depicts Chris more profoundly by introducing people, their thoughts, and feelings about Chris into the story. The inclusion of ideas and thoughts beside Krakauer’s own are seen through the interviews Krakauer has with Jim Gallien, Wayne Westerberg, Jan Burres, and others.

Krakauer’s interview with Wayne Westerberg can be used as another viewpoint to the type of person Chris was seen as: “He was the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. Didn’t matter what it was, he’d do it: hard physical labor, mucking rottem grain and dead rats out of the bottom of the hole- jobs where you’d get so damn dirty you couldn’t even tell what you looked like at the end of the day. And he never quit in the middle of something. If he started a job, he’d finish it. It was almost like a moral thing for him. He was what you would call extremely ethical.”

(Krakauer 18) 4 The Berkshire Scholar

In analysis to the corroboration, the reader can contemplate that Chris was persistent in accomplishing his ambitions. Krakauer adds credence to the presumption that Chris was a tenacious worker through the interview structure and order, thus providing the reader a variety of aspects about Chris’ identity.

Towards the end, Krakauer compares and contrasts Chris to several different people: Rosellini, the eldest stepson of a wealthy Seattle restaurateur; John Mallon Waterman, raised in Washington suburbs, a climber since thirteen; McCunn, an affable absent-minded Texan who moved to Fairbanks and went on a journey to the Alaskan Range; and Krakauer himself. These figures all undertook a similar journey into the wild. By this comparison the readers are given the opportunity to distinguish Chris’ personage. The similar treks by the various individuals were displayed throughout chapters of the book. In chapter eight, Krakauer writes about the differentiation and correlation that Rossellini, Waterman, and McCunn’s excursions had in relation to the excursion that Chris undertook into the wild: “There are similarities among Rosellini, Waterman, McCunn, and McCandless. Like Rosellini and Waterman, McCandless was a seeker and had an impractical fascination with the harsh side of nature. Like Waterman and McCunn, he displayed a staggering paucity of common sense. But unlike Waterman, McCandless wasn’t mentally ill. And unlike McCunn, he didn’t go into the bush assuming someone would automatically appear to save his bacon before he became to grief.” (84-85) Furthermore, Krakauer proceeded to tell his own story about his experience and his reasons for going into the wild during his own personal stage of coming of age.

All together, the comparisons and contrasts that Krakauer asserts are pertinent to the development of Chris’ character because they allow the readers to better understand Chris and see who he was based off the fact that he went into the wild just like these other individuals. But Chris went into the wild with a different purpose than theirs and a different mindset and this difference is what Krakauer really wanted his readers to glimplse. Chris was The Berkshire Scholar 5

just seeking to find out who he was. The stories of Rosellini, Waterman, and McCunn gave Krakauer the opportunity to create an explanation as to why Chris left everything behind to go live in the wild. The multiple perspectives also helped Krakauer to ameliorate his personal motive for writing the book: to reveal an individual’s quest to determine his own identity through exploration of the natural world.

In conclusion, this structure---the interviews, the order of events, the comparison and the contrasts---has been built upon Jon Krakauer’s personal notion of identity. Not only are the readers given the information to forge an idea of Chris, but they are able to better understand him. This is important because once the readers are able to comprehend him, the reason to why he left society behind become comprehensible as well. We as the readers and adolescents learn that as we come of age, search for our identity is becoming more and more important. The way we decide to define our identity is up to us - even if it means going to Alaska on a wild adventure to live off the bush, surrounded by the heart of nature.

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Chris Branch ~ Modern World History

Fake News: A Solution Within a Problem Fake news is one of the many problems that plague our political environment today. Regardless of whether or not one thinks that fake news poses a significant threat to the United States’ democratic system, it is quite difficult to deny that this concept poses a problem to the average citizen. Destabilizing doubt of valid news sources is being constantly spread due to the proven untrustworthiness of both corporate news stations and internet sources.

The compromised integrity of journalism affects every citizen.

Now that news is so easily accessible through social media and websites, false information can be widely spread within hours of release. Because of the agenda of many of these false news stories, political polarization is becoming increasingly prevalent while both conservative and liberal partisans are being fed blatantly false information ridiculing and attacking the other party.

Although the U.S. faces a serious issue in the form of the spread of fake news, there is hope for a solution to this problem.

If the population uses social media as both a way to educate the average citizen on how to deal with these falsehoods and a tool to verify reliable resources, we can collectively triumph over the scourge of fake news.

Fake news certainly does not seem to be slowing its takeover of the internet, and one of the reasons is the rise of monetized content on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. These systems rely on the popularity of certain content distributors. In other words, the more clicks received by an account on one of these sites, the more revenue the accounts generate from their respective outlet and the more money goes to these outlets for advertisements under the particular article. This is how sites like Facebook and Instagram make money. According to a recent study by Reuters, Facebook makes fifty-three percent of their revenue through their mobile app, which means that easily accessible information, much like the information on one’s phone, is becoming increasingly The Berkshire Scholar 7

central to their business model. With 1.8 billion users on Facebook, the providers spreading outrageous information have no real incentive to stop distributing the content that gets the most clicks. The more crazy and false information that is spread, the more money that is made for all parties involved.

The effects of this harmful epidemic are evident. Doubt continues to spread among the people of the United States; even though this is helpful towards avoiding some extreme forms of false information, this doubt can shroud pertinent and valid information as well. In a study conducted at PEW Research, fifty percent of U.S. citizens have minimal trust regarding the legitimacy of the media as a whole. These citizens may have some logic behind their conjectures, as there are countless examples of false information showing up in mainstream media happen everyday. For example, a lie recently circulated through major news networks that was started within President Donald Trump’s own administration.

The lie stated that Trump had the largest inauguration audience in history. This blatant falsehood circulated for hours before being publicly debunked. If American citizens can’t rely on major news networks to provide basic political facts, the future of United States news consumption looks bleak. American citizens have been fed so much of this false information that it is no surprise doubt is spreading like wildfire.

Even though the looming problem of fake news seems to be unstoppable, there is hope in educating the public through the very media that have led to the crisis. Students today receive education on how to avoid false sources. Here at Berkshire, for example, students are lectured on these issues every time we are assigned a paper. However, previous generations received little education on how to avoid false information, and that includes the generation that controls the political sphere of the United States. In another study at PEW Research, it was recorded that sixty-two percent of adults in the U.S. obtain news on social media. While it can be an impediment, this environment can also be a tool in reversing its own negative effects. Because of the sheer amount of people using social media, education spread on this platform is incredibly effective and well received. If social media sites such as Facebook 8 The Berkshire Scholar

implement some sort of widespread campaign in which they advertise educational material on how to avoid fake news through their most popular media distributors, the user base as a whole would be much more adept in spotting false information. This initiative would be effective in injecting meaningful safeguards into a user’s daily intake. This new knowledge would make the social media circuit as a whole more credible and more easily navigated. Making citizens aware of just how to avoid and combat fake news is a priority since the issue seems to be here to stay, and campaigning education on social media is a fantastic first step.

Education and information are not the only steps the social media world can take in the fight against fake news. Another useful step in making this platform a safer place would involve social media companies creating a system of verification for providers that provide reliable news. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook already have a system of verification in place to notify users of which accounts are celebrities, corporate businesses, or accounts that hit a certain amount of followers. This means that it is quite possible to implement a system of verification based on the validity of News Sources. According to a study done at Buzzfeed, when three-thousand Americans were shown fake news articles, 75% of them believed stories that they had already been exposed to. This is sadly how the news cycle often works; fake stories are passed around through countless amateur news accounts on social media and subsequently are dropped into users’ feeds. If there was a quick and easy way to spot reliable news sources, such as a stamp put on by the social media directors to indicate the validity of reliable accounts, users would be less inclined to believe stories put out by distributors without this stamp of approval, and therefore fake news would be less frequently encountered. This simple program, if put in place by developers of social media, could drastically improve the way users find and consume media.

Fake news poses a significant threat to our society, especially with the dangerous and important issues circulating in our political climate today. Fake news is so prevalent, citizens have picked up a smattering of paralyzing doubt directed at any news source that puts out even the most valid and unbiased news. Fake The Berkshire Scholar 9

news also shows no sign of stopping on its own, as the rise of social media and all the inconvenient “conveniences” that come with having a world wide web’s worth of news at one’s fingertips.

There is hope for a solution, however; if social media providers both begin to put out educational information about avoiding fake news into user’s feeds, and create verification systems for identifying valid news sources for the user population. If these steps are followed, fewer people will be exposed to fake news. There may even be hope for the post-fake future of news consumption.

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Madi Gomez ~ English iv

Dear Ellen: An Open Letter Regarding Shakespeare January 28, 2018 Ms. Ellen Degeneres Warner Bros. Studio 11 3000 W Alameda Ave. Burbank, CA 91505 Dear Ellen: I have always been a huge fan of the Ellen Show. I loved it growing up, but came to respect the program even more when, a few years ago, I realized that the show was a place that mastered open discussions on controversial topics in a positive and effective manner. One of the issues that you take great pride in advocating for is the LGBTQ+ community. I believe that, with your help, I can raise awareness of the fact that classical literature subconsciously perpetuates a taboo around the LGBTQ+ community; William Shakespeare’s piece The Merchant of Venice is a prime example of this age-old phenomenon.

In The Merchant of Venice, the relationship between the main characters Antonio and Bassanio is made out to be platonic, but the underlying tone of their actions and words suggests a more intimate connection. The most profound and obvious act of love between the characters occurs when Bassanio confesses that he would give up everything he has, including his wife, to keep Antonio alive and by his side: “But life itself, my wife, and all the world / Are not with me esteemed above thy life. / I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all / Here to this devil, to deliver you” (IV.i.296-299). Immediately after this, Portia—in disguise as a doctor of laws prior to her marriage to Bassanio—mysteriously finds a legal loophole in the charters of Venice and removes the need for any action to be The Berkshire Scholar 11

taken between Antonio and Bassanio. Shakespeare’s decision to suppress their relationship in the interest of anti-Semitic merriment is similar to narratives today in which the obvious connections between members of the LGBTQ+ community are masked or diminshed in an effort to suppress non-traditional views on sexuality.

It is known that the people and ideas we surround ourselves with tend to influence our personal beliefs. By teaching the young adults about the work of famous literary figures such as William Shakespeare while failing to address the social issues within those texts, we are tacitly encouraging homophobic views. While reading Shakespeare’s plays does not directly lead to the alienation of the LGBTQ+ community, doing so in a manner that ignores those of alternative orientations reinforces the trend to suppress those perspectives. The fact that many Americans are uncomfortable recognizing the LGBTQ+ community stems from to common opinion that we propagate through literature praised as “brilliant”.

I believe that a major step in opening minds to the LGBTQ+ community is addressing issues such as this head on. I do not wish to claim that William Shakespeare was homophobic nor do I suggest removing of his works from school curriculum— on the contrary, I see this as an opportunity for someone of your stature. If you could make people more aware of this issue, then maybe schools would explore this topic next time they read a play like The Merchant of Venice. Since you are such a powerful leader, especially among the LGBTQ+ community, your invocation could make a difference.

With your help, we can raise awareness of the fact that classical literature has often aided in the prolonging of hostility towards members of the LGBTQ+ community. If students know this, reading Shakespeare’s plays becomes a learning opportunity, rather than a means for subconscious absorption of covert homophobia.

Most sincerely yours, Madi Gomez 12 The Berkshire Scholar

Harley Frechette ~ United States History

Reconstruction and the Black Codes Upon the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War, the United States of America started taking necessary steps to restore the Union and rehabilitate the relationship between Northern and Southern states. The intentions of rebuilding the United States were thoughtful and displayed optimism for a healthier nation; however, the era brought many challenges and foreshadowed the difficulty the nation would soon face regarding race in the years to come.

President Abraham Lincoln strove to create an equal country by the end of the Civil War, starting with granting the freedom of millions of slaves. However, Lincoln’s successor, President Andrew Johnson, supported white supremacy and continued to safeguard confederate power in the South. As the South implemented numerous restrictions on the newly freed slaves, many white supremacist groups emerged and prospered under Washington’s watchful eye.

Significant steps were taken by Southern states to keep slavery an existing institution by restricting where black Americans could live and work. Reconstruction had the best intentions of bringing equality and restoration to a distraught nation, but instead the movement deepened the racial divide and provided a space for white supremacists to display their beliefs and shackle freed slaves further into the confinements of racism.

President Andrew Johnson failed to hold Southern states under strict instruction to create an equal nation, as a result, many Southern states took advantage of the slack administration and passed bills that restricted freed slaves in nearly every aspect of their lives. The Black Codes, a series of laws passed by Southern legislatures, were an attempt by former confederate states to fight northern reconstruction policies. The laws stated that in order for a freed slave to work, they needed registration granted by a judge, and even then, the black men were restricted to labor and agriculture occupations. A freed slave’s lineage was traced back to determine how eligible they were for a labor license. Interracial The Berkshire Scholar 13

marriages were prohibited entirely and freed slaves needed to take many steps to marry within their race. The Black Codes strengthened the notion of white supremacy in abundant regard. In the institution of slavery, white men had exercised the ability to restrict every move a slave made, so there was no room to be a liberated individual with opportunities to create an exciting future. The Black Codes maintained the white man’s ability to determine when and where black men and women worked, where they lived, and whom they married. In the eyes of the federal government, black men and women possessed rights equal to those of their white counterparts; the legislation and implementation of Black Codes, however, undermined every right granted in emancipation and ensured that the system of race-based slavery, while rendered illegal, was not truly eradicated from the lives of African Americans.

The United States of America failed in constructing a beneficial plan to restore comfort and strength to a damaged nation.

Emancipation infuriated former confederate states, but the reconstruction institution allowed Southern States to continue to demoralize freed slaves and restrict their freedoms and whereabouts.

Many unjust laws were spread in the South that allowed southern states to bend federal expectations under a lenient President.

Although Reconstruction had every intention of fixing the racial divide apparent in American society following the dismantling of slavery, the strategy failed miserably and provided the mechanism for Southern States to restrict freed African-Americans as if they were still slaves.

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Bibliography “Black Codes of Mississippi (1865).” American History. ABCCLIO, 2018. Accessed January 9, 2018. https://americanhistory.

Schneider, Carl J., and Dorothy Schneider. “Reconstruction: 18651877.” Slavery in America. Facts On File, 2007.

Miller, Paul T. “Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 18902001.” The Western Journal of Black Studies Volume 26, no. 2 (2002): 123+.

Schneider, Carl J., and Dorothy Schneider. “The End of Slavery: 1861–1877.” Slavery in America. Facts On File, 2007.

Staff. “Black Codes.” History.com. 2010. Accessed January 10, 2018. www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes.

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Anastasia Romanova ~ English V

Intangible Damage: PTSD & Vietnam Veterans “War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.”

--Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

Writing about war should be left to its veterans; our obligation as civilians is to deal with its impact upon the soldiers and the society as a whole. Destruction, famine, economic downturns and depressions - are all apparent to the lives of average citizens who have not been involved directly in the combat. However, the invisible, hidden consequences of war are overwhelmingly more devastating than any immediate ones.

Many veterans struggle with guilt which never seems to diminish; for Americans who served in Vietnam, this was especially true. Abandoned by their government, isolated from their families, lost and drowned in the dull civilian routine, they seek forgiveness which never seems to come (“Soldier Talks about His Struggle with Depression and PTSD”). Unfortunately, only a negligible minority of individuals is capable of reaching self-forgiveness without an external aid, and thus, guilt keeps poisoning one’s existence inevitably and unobstructedly if left unattended. Consequently, an inability to acknowledge and release one’s guilt results in one’s ultimate destruction, which often happens as a result of the wrong transitions of veterans from war to civilian life (“Your Time in Iraq Makes You a Threat to Society”).

Various other societal triggers of self-reproach range from minor quarrels to dishonesty to betrayal to acts of violence; the leading cause of guilt, however, remains to be experiencing war first-hand and taking part in all its cruelties (“PTSD: A Growing 16 The Berkshire Scholar

Epidemic”). Individuals in society have the opportunity of sharing their guilt by the means of communicating with other people; however, in some instances veterans’ guilt is so profound that mere communication is not enough to alleviate it (O’Brien 131). A medical diagnosis that can stem from or include this kind of guilt is post-traumatic stress disorder, better known as PTSD. PTSD, widely known as “shell-shock” at the time, had had a significant influence on American society throughout 1900s; however, it received official designation only in 1980, when the American Psychiatric Association added it to the third edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (“PTSD Diagnosis Faces Challenges in the U.S.”). A tremendous amount of research has been done in order to investigate both causes and effects of PTSD, but scientists still are unable to list all of them accurately (Hamzelou). Thus, PTSD is not taken as seriously as it should be by many governmental organizations, including the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. As researchers struggle to shed more light on the elusive disorder, the symptoms of PTSD remain ambiguous; however, the one symptom American psychologists have agreed upon so far is numbness, or distancing oneself from society (Hamzelou). Self-imposed isolation immediately worsens the mental state of an individual suffering from PTSD, and an unreleased guilt often leads to the development of other far more concerning symptoms.

In order to provide help for those suffering from PTSD, the U.S. government, along with a board of scientists, worked to clarify how PTSD is diagnosed and when it qualifies as a perilous mental disorder (O’Donohue and Levensky). The section that sets forth criteria for “Diagnosis of PTSD” is one of the most detailed in the Handbook of Forensic Psychology by William T. O’Donohue and Eric Levensky. The article outlines three clusters of symptoms, as well as a specified duration and the degree to which symptoms must be observed in order to conclude that an individual suffers from PTSD and certain assistance is needed. The article also informs the readers that there are, in fact, two types of PTSD observed in patients as a result of different circumstances.

An acute PTSD strikes an individual immediately after the trauma The Berkshire Scholar 17

has taken place and lasts for no more than six months; the other type, chronic PTSD, usually becomes apparent six months after the traumatic event and stays with a patient for more than half a year (O’Donohue and Levensky). The high degree of variability of the symptoms is another difficulty of dealing with PTSD on the federal level. The failure to diagnose the disorder and to provide adequate medical and psychological help oftentimes results in one’s selfdestruction, such as attempt to commit suicide, or life-threatening actions toward other individuals (“Your Time in Iraq Makes You a Threat to Society”).

One of the most notable cases of PTSD was observed in 2013 in a US veteran, whose name remains unknown to the public. The video of him talking about his experience has been added to a number of informational sources in order to ensure that other individuals affected by PTSD will learn from his story and demand government assistance. Coming back from Afghanistan, the soldier on the video goes through the most severe symptoms of PTSD, such as apathy, numbness, unreasonable anger, distancing himself from society and attempts to escape reality by abusing alcohol or drugs (“Soldier Talks about His Struggle with Depression and PTSD”). He starts cutting himself while still in Afghanistan in order to get rid of fear and anxiety building up inside him over the course of his stay there until one of his comrades notices stains of blood on the soldier’s shirt. Shortly afterward, the soldier comes back to the U.S., where he plans to get psychological help. However, the authorities have chosen to close their eyes upon the case, and the soldiers is left to deal with PTSD on his own (“Soldier Talks about His Struggle with Depression and PTSD”). The mental state of the soldier remains unknown for the time-being.

Another story of dealing with PTSD without external aid is told by a veteran, Andrew Chambers, who has made two trips to Iraq and never fully recovered after them. Coming home was an enormous transition for him. He was twenty-one at the time, and even though he had no visible disabilities, there was something wrong going on inside him. He was paranoid and anxious, carrying his pistol with him at all times and assessing the level of danger of every place he went (“Your Time in Iraq Makes You a Threat to 18 The Berkshire Scholar

Society”). Eventually, Chambers’ family persuaded him to get psychological assistance. He went straight to the Veteran Affairs Mental Health Department, where he was given sleeping pills and told to return in six months. However, he did not make it six months.

He got arrested for an attempted murder in the bar he used to visit with his friends. One of the customers pulled out a knife and might have harmed someone, but Chamber took action to prevent it.

After clearing the perimeter, he started beating the customer, and could not stop. Eventually, Chamber was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment. He still suffers from multiple PTSD symptoms and is unable to receive government assistance due to his conviction (“Your Time in Iraq Makes You a Threat to Society”).

For soldiers, PTSD takes on a form of an everlasting nightmare. In most instances, they cannot share their memories of war with those who have never experienced it for two major reasons.

One, they are ashamed of their actions, and two, they are afraid that civilians will never understand their struggle (Powers 99). The second reason usually prevails, and thus soldiers prefer to stay in a cocoon of their own tragedy and refuse to acknowledge the problem and ask for help. Even those who do ask for it rarely end up getting an adequate treatment (Flournoy).

Based on the arguments and personal stories provided above, the U.S. government must address the issue of PTSD on a far more comprehensive scale than it does right now. Psychological and medical assistance should be provided for every soldier suffering from the symptoms of PTSD immediately upon their return home and until the soldier’s mental condition improves, allowing them to safely meet the demands of civilian life. Every soldier should have a designated medical professional who would be regularly informed about the soldier’s mental state and be responsible for dealing with any deviations from the soldier’s normal behavior.

Furthermore, financial assistance must be provided for families of the soldiers who sustain any kind of disabilities, both physical and mental. It takes time for government to take action, especially one of such a tremendous complexity to the U.S. government. Thus, in the meantime, society should make sure that the soldiers who fight for their countries are not disregarded and forgotten upon their The Berkshire Scholar 19

return.

Although the stories of those veterans might seem distant and unimportant at times, people still go to war, and there is no guarantee that the next soldier joining the armed forces will not end up harming himself or others due to severe forms of PTSD (“Your Time in Iraq Makes You a Threat to Society”). Returning home after experiencing combat is almost always a challenge for soldiers, which is not recognized by many as a serious shock, significantly impacting the soldiers’ mental health. This issue must be addressed. All the veterans, including Tim O’Brien, Andrew Chambers, and the unnamed soldier on the video, encourage civilians to reach out to the soldiers rather than to alienate them. Guilt will attack every one of us who has ever had a chance to help but has chosen not to. “Presence is guilt enough,” suggests Tim O’Brien, and thus when we see a person in need of assistance, it is our duty to provide support (171). This is what every war story is meant to convey, and this is what we all should adhere to.

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Works Cited Flournoy, Michèle A. “We aren’t doing enough to help veterans transition to civilian life.” The Washington Post 2 Apr. 2014, p. 1.

Hamzelou, Jessica. “The Aftermath.” New Scientist, vol. 231, no.

3091, 17 Sept. 2016, p. 1.

O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Mariner Books, 2009.

O’Donohue, William T., and Eric Levensky. “Diagnosis of Ptsd.”

Handbook of Forensic Psychology: Resource for Mental Health and Legal Professionals. Elsevier Science & Technology, 2003.

Posluszny, Donna, et al. Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine. Edited by Susan Ayers, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Powers, Kevin. The Yellow Birds. New York, Little Brown, 2012.

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Stephen O’Connell ~ College Writing

The Historical Neglect of Japanese Internment The United States of America is a country with a rich history, especially notable in its drive to seek out the most democratic, equal, and just society. We live in a country that has developed a profound belief in freedom and equality. Our nation was founded on the principles of the revolution and the ideal that, if something is unfair, one can fight and have the opportunity to enact change.

Nonetheless, in our country we have struggled with turning these ideals into reality. Beginning with slavery and its later effects, which are still evident, to the more recent Muslim persecution that people from the Middle East face every single day. However, why is it that Japanese internment, which was the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II, is overlooked? These American citizens were stripped of their identities, homes, businesses, and overall livelihoods. So why is Japanese internment mentioned in a sentence in history books, while other events similar to this take up chapters? My belief is that, as a nation, we are afraid and embarrassed.

Let’s start with Pearl Harbor, the attack on the American military base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This operation, launched by the Japanese Imperial General headquarters, was a surprise aerial attack by the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force on the morning of December 7, 1941. This single event led the United States to decide that it was time to enter World War II. Naturally, the United States felt at risk, since there was a large population of Japanese Americans living on the Pacific Coast of the nation. However, no one knew what would happen next in regards to the thousands of Japanese-American citizens living on American soil.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to install internment camps for Japanese American residents living on the Pacific coast of the United States. This commenced what is now known as “A Tragedy of Democracy” by Japanese internment scholar Greg Robinson. Robinson explains that Japanese 22 The Berkshire Scholar

Internment within the United States was a time where we did not stay true to our democratic principles, because all of our injustices regarding individual rights and freedoms. At this moment in time, the U.S. was involved in a World War with Germany in Europe and Japan on the Pacific front. To avoid the possibility of covert espionage by the Japanese, President Roosevelt installed executive order of #9066. This order forced the “relocation and incarceration in camps in the interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of whom lived on the Pacific coast.” This is a huge number, encapsulating a large portion of the Japanese American population residing on the West Coast at that time.

Nevertheless, after the attack on Pearl Harbor many newspapers and civic organizations were on the side of the people of Japanese descent, thus staying true to our nation’s founding principles of individual rights. They said the idea of internment was an overreaction, and that it was totally illegal and going against the founding principles of our nation. However, as time passed, people allowed their political and economic interests to take hold and they began to believe the stories that the government-influenced media was promoting. Out of almost nowhere, major papers began to clamor that the Japanese were evil and spies, but looking back on it we know the reasons for this sudden shift in outlook: greed. This shift was also marked by newspapers writing more about racist denunciations of the Japanese, rather than the articles talking about the enormous number of Constitutional violations. This is where the trend of us denying this horrific past began, and where it should have ended but sadly did not.

This whole thing might seem insignificant because of the term relocation, which feels like these people were moved for a short period of time and were able to return to their previous lives with little or no change at all. However, this is not the truth. These internment camps were primitive, crude, and stripped any pride the American Japanese population had for themselves. The act of relocating these individuals into these camps is regarded as one of America’s biggest travesties. It is also regarded as one of the most “flagrant violations of civil liberties in American history.” At the The Berkshire Scholar 23

camps themselves, it was as if these people were living in a prison without the title, not so different from inhumane facilities set up in Nazi Germany or imperial Japan. The people at these camps lived in cramped barracks where they were allowed no interaction with the outside world due to the restrictions on radios and newspapers.

Erica Harth, detainee during Japanese internment, stated in her memoir, “I understood well enough the significance of the barbed wire, but I was protected from other terrible truths: America’s racism against us, America’s hatred of me because of my ancestry, the fact that even as a child I was viewed with diminished humanity.” In addition to having no contact with the outside world, they were rationed on food and drink. People in these camps had no idea what direction their future was heading in America, if there was going to even be one. These were farmers, fisherman, business owners, and students. A majority of them lost their homes, businesses, belongings, and careers. Once they were finally able to leave the camps, they returned to nothing.

When I was in the seventh grade, my history class focused mainly on the United States. We covered the American Revolution; slavery and the Civil War; Native American relocation; and the Civil Rights movement. However, not until I was a sophomore in high school, when I took AP U.S. History, did I really ever hear about Japanese internment. I felt that this was odd and that I must have missed something, but in reality it had been hidden from me. I didn’t miss this shameful episode; the authors of my history books did not feel the need to mention it. At this point, I felt betrayed and was outraged by the fact that I was so unaware. So I now ask the question why is this clear racial jab overlooked, when we focus so much on all the others? It is time to now address why and to begin to move forward by spreading awareness and making sure this never happens again.

Louise Hung from the Global Comment surveyed seventyfive Americans between twenty-three and seventy-five years old.

The people were asked the question, “Do you know what the WWII Japanese American internment camps were?” If the answer was yes, they were asked, “To what extent were you taught?” The results were staggering. About a third had no idea what Japanese 24 The Berkshire Scholar

Internment was, while the other third said they were vaguely taught; only the final third said that they had full recollection and complete understanding of the topic.

I did my own test, to further this argument with my own Berkshire School community, and sent out a survey consisting of four basic questions concerning Japanese Internment within the United States during World War II. The individuals whom I surveyed come from a variety of areas across the world, so diversity in upbringing was assured. The results were truly eye opening.

The first question that was posed to the subjects of my survey was, “Have you ever heard of Japanese Internment?” 74 percent answered yes, and 26 percent answered no. The second question I asked was, “Were you ever taught about J.I. in a formal classroom setting?” 47.47 percent answered yes, while 52.53 percent answered no. This question was followed by, “If you answered yes to the previous question, how many class periods did you spend on this topic?” 60.34 of the respondent’s percent said one class, with varying small numbers for the other choices. The final question, which was what I was trying to get at initially asked the question, “If you have heard of J.I. within the U.S. do you feel as if you have a complete understanding of it?” 27.17 percent of the respondents said yes, while an overwhelming majority of the respondents, 72.83, to be exact, said no. Although these results were disturbing and profound in my argument research, they were not unexpected.

My thesis was proven correct. Therefore, what I learned from this medium scale but helpful survey was that in fact, Japanese internment is overlooked within the United States.

Statistics show that in adults born between World War and the early 1990’s, there is a severe gap in knowledge and awareness around this topic. There are many educated people in their late twenties to early sixties who graduated from esteemed private and public schools who have no idea that our government incarcerated over 120,000 Japanese Americans in the 1940’s. This is truly remarkable that the entire world knows about the Nazi’s and their massive faults in the past but why is Japanese Internment not common knowledge for Americans? It is because this episode has been hidden from us. The government must believe that it is too The Berkshire Scholar 25

shameful to bring to light these horrible mistakes and blunders. It took approximately 45 years for us to officially apologize but it was too late. President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, in 1988, to repay more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II. This act offered this community an official apology from the United States government, and presented each living victim $20,000 in compensation. While this is a start, there is no set figure that would be equivalent to what the victims of Japanese Internment lost.

It is time for us as a nation to become more aware. We spend a great deal of time and thought on the other racial issues, but we have to acknowledge this mistake. If we are able to acknowledge our mistakes, then hopefully we will make sure that something like this does not happen again, and maybe finally live up to the ideological philosophy that makes our country so special.

Jeanne Houston, a wartime detainee, put it perfectly in October 2001 when she stated, “We can never afford to forget what happened at Manzanar and the other wartime camps. Those events remind us that this is something that must be learned and learned and learned again.� It is our duty as American citizens to make this heinous deed the final one of its kind, and we can move on as a more unified, and cohesive country in all aspects of societal affairs.

In future years I expect that as nation we do not fail in our duty to teach our students about our nation’s shortcomings, like they failed to do with me as well as many others, so that we may not see history tragically repeat itself.

26 The Berkshire Scholar

Works Cited “Japanese-American Internment.” USHistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. History.com Staff. “Japanese-American Relocation.” History.com.

A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. Whitney, Jake. “Japanese-American Internment & Roosevelt’s Domestic ‘War on Terror.’” The Daily Beast. 19 Aug. 2015. Web. Robinson, Greg. “A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America.” Transnational American Studies (June 2010): University of California . Web. Kitagaki, Paul, Jr. “The Injustice of Japanese-American Internment Camps Resonates Strongly to This Day.” Smithsonian Jan. 2017.

“MANZANAR.” Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. Matsuda, Gann, and Daniel Mayer. “Aunt Terry and Manzanar.”

Pajamadeen.com 26 Aug. 2007. Web.

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Victor Li ~ AP English Literature

The Realism of Vice and the Literature of the Other The Hafiz-Goethe Memorial in Weimar comes to mind every time I pause to ponder the encounters between disparate cultures. The monument, a symbol for Oriental-Occidental cultural exchange, consists of two granite chairs facing each other, aligned east to west on a platform decorated with Persian designs. Indeed the imagery of the German poet sitting across from the Persian bard strikes me as a poignant picture of the best possibilities that different cultures can afford one another despite their differences, that is, mutual appreciation and mutual inspiration. Such possibilities, however, remain by and large scarce in history, obscured by the intolerance and persecution that come between. The differences across cultures and civilizations have proven to be more conducive to mass expulsion and ghettoization than to friendship and collegiality, and xenophobia almost seems an inevitable human instinct.

Victimization and persecution have been a subject of contemplation for as long as literature has existed. No sensible person can deny that there are differences between groups of people, and that these differences, inevitably condemning certain groups of people to disadvantages, present a conundrum to those who wish to build a functioning pluralistic society. More valuable to the literary mind, perhaps, is the human condition that such differences produce, as any society that contains majorities and minorities (namely, all of them) is bound to result in the alienation of individuals, a perennial theme in human imagination. Miseries, it could be argued, are a source of inspiration, and the malaise of the oppressed, the segregated, and the unaccepted has given birth to a long literary tradition. Said tradition deals with the question of the Other and the problem of how exactly we are to treat people who are different from ourselves. It is no coincidence that the literature of alienation or marginalization tends to yield the most human characters; its raison d’être is to retrieve the humanity of those whose humanity 28 The Berkshire Scholar

is ignored, and its most powerful tool is character-building.

The Merchant of Venice is perhaps the most recognizable title in this lineage. Whether the recognition stems from one’s highschool classroom or from Al Pacino’s recent cinematic rendition, many Anglophile readers know The Merchant of Venice; if they no longer remember Portia’s undeniably witty eloquence or Antonio’s possibly homoerotic loyalty, they still recognize Shylock, the Jewish moneylender who, after centuries of being viewed and played as a comic villain, manages to turn the script on itself and receive sympathies unthinkable to his original Elizabethan audience. When Al Pacino gives the “Hath not a Jew eyes” monologue, one almost feels as if Shylock were a Jacobean tragic hero taking revenge upon the society that despises him. The reason we feel this way is not only that the lessons of twentieth-century history have granted us an acute sensibility for voices from the margins, but also that the character of Shylock possesses a kind of vitality that defies our tendency as readers to confuse and forget characters that don’t fit within our preconceived notions.

What is at the root of Shylock’s vividness as a character, precisely? His flaws, I would answer. If one may be bold enough to propose a general principle for creating fascinating characters, it ought to be that the most virtuous characters tend to be the most boring ones. The reason is intuitive: people in real life are not perfect. Such is the Pauline doctrine that “all have sinned” (Romans 5:12) translated into literary method, and such is Shakespeare’s technique. The most remarkable thing about The Merchant of Venice is that Shakespeare refrains from thrusting forth a perfectly virtuous Jew. In fact, the construction of an undefiled Jewish do-gooder probably would have been counter-productive. Shakespeare’s wisdom lies in his refusal to deify the victim: he knows full well that the best way to bridge cultural gaps through literature is not to assign to the Jew all the virtues in the world, but to confer real life upon him. A perfectly virtuous character is also perfectly dismissible; only a realistic character can draw the reader closer.

Few readers of the Scripture identify themselves with Jesus; it is in the imperfections of people like Saul, David and Paul that we glimpse ourselves.

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Centuries later, when Chinua Achebe found himself also in a position to bridge distances, he did with Okonkwo just what Shakespeare had done with Shylock. Of course, Achebe’s task is different from that of Shakespeare. After all, Shakespeare was not a Jew, and his plays were not meant for political impact. To read progressivism into Shakespeare would be like, to quote Stendhal, “a pistol shot in the middle of a concert.” Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, on the other hand, is cursed to the status of a “thirdworld text” (despite the Yeatsian title), which is to say, it will never lack people who take it seriously, but it will always be discussed as a part of “world literature,” something to which the West owes attention but whose difference makes Western theory ill at ease.

Achebe knows this, and he understands, as Frederic Jameson does, that in third-world literature, “the story of the private individual destiny is always an allegory of the embattled situation of the public third-world culture and society.” The story of Okonkwo has political stakes before it even starts, whether Achebe wills it so or not. Now, a rational move for Achebe might be to write a national epic for Igbo Nigeria, in which the asymmetrical conflicts between the tribes and the colonizers resolve in Africa’s total defeat. In such an epic, presumably, the hero would be someone whose virtue blinds him to reality, and the villain is only able to get the better of him through scheming. However, Achebe does not write his novel like this since he has no intent to portray pre-colonial Africa as a utopia. In order to re-introduce Africa to the West through literature (Achebe’s explicit mission), Okonkwo’s world must contain both good and evil, just like the real world.

Achebe’s realism-through-imperfection is mostly concentrated in the character of Okonkwo. An angry man, a victim of his own impatient temperament, and an easy case for psychoanalysis, Okonkwo is driven by the fear that he might fail the same way that his father has failed. We might attempt to appreciate him for his loyalty to his principles, and gasp at the disasters that befall his tribes, but Achebe seems persistent to remind us of Okonkwo’s own character flaws, going as far as in Chapter Five, when he almost shoots his own wife in a fit: When he called Ikemefuna to fetch his gun, 30 The Berkshire Scholar

the wife who had just been beaten murmured something about guns that never shot. Unfortunately for her, Okonkwo heard it and ran madly into his room for the loaded gun, ran out again and aimed at her as she clambered over the dwarf wall of the barn. He pressed the trigger and there was a loud report accompanied by the wail of his wives and children. He threw down the gun and jumped into the barn, and there lay the woman, very much shaken and frightened but quite unhurt.

He heaved a heavy sigh and went away with the gun. (25) Is this the demeanor of a hero? Okonkwo’s impulse leads him again and again to sickening brutalities. Chapter Seven, he lets his protégé be executed by the tribe, and when the first machete fails, he kills him himself, only to maintain his flimsy sense of masculinity: “He heard Ikemefuna cry, ‘My father, they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his matchet and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (38).

Whatever presuppositions about the protagonist we have had entering the book are at this moment fully dispelled, and Okonkwo seems more akin in our moral judgment to a cunning, stingy moneylender who attempts legally sanctioned murder than to, say, Aeneas (protagonist of another nationalistic epic). Yet despite all this, his eventual self-slaughter still hurts us. Why? Because his tragedy is universal. His condition as a solitary figure standing apart from his people, a post-lapsarian being who cannot best his own worst instincts, is not parochial in scope, and our mixed feelings towards him need not come into conflict with our appreciation of his tragedy: they simply recapitulate the ambivalence we hold towards people in our own lives.

Shylock and Okonkwo teach us that successful life-making of literary characters is a lot like the art of kintsugi, or golden repair, in which the cracks of broken pottery are joined with goldpowdered lacquer in order to emphasize rather than conceal defects. A third example of this method that I will cite comes from The Berkshire Scholar 31

Zadie Smith’s debut novel, White Teeth. I am referring to the character of Samad Iqbal, a Bangladeshi who fought for Britain in World War II, proud great-grandson of Mangal Pandey, and a sanctimonious Muslim who, despite his advocacy of tradition and observance, commits adultery with his sons’ art teacher. The social context for Smith’s novel is similar to that of Shakespeare’s: London’s Brick Lane (or Banglatown, as it is more often called) is to the Bangladeshi diaspora exactly as the Venetian ghetto was to the Jews, but for the absence of overt legal circumscription. The motif of cultural difference, if not already clear from the juxtaposition of the two male protagonists (Archie and Samad, white and brown, atheist and Muslim), is found in Samad’s last name, a reference to the poet Muhammad Iqbal, the “spiritual father of Pakistan.” The nomenclature of Samad Iqbal invites us to think of him not just as a Bangladeshi, but as a sort of pan-Oriental envoy, “The Message of the East” (which, incidentally, was the title of one of his namesake poet’s most praised books). Both novels, invoking the Hegelian principle that reality is a historical process, deal with the awkward, asymmetrical encounter between the dominant West and the marginalized East.

We see the same pattern continue: the character representing the marginalized is conferred with major personal flaws. In Chapter 8 of the book, Samad enacts yet again, as Okonkwo does, the archetypal male tyrant by hitting his wife Alsana. Although the severity of the act eventually dissolves in a scene of comic relief, in which Alsana overcomes Samad in a backyard fight by means of her body weight and a garden rake, we as readers are not exactly impressed by Samad’s behavior. Nor are we swayed emotionally every time he shows his zeal for tradition through unilateral mandates to his family, which seem more like an expression of dogmatism than piety. Not even his inner monologues reflect well on him; consider this artful little psychic drama before his fight with Alsana: It was with surprise that Samad greeted the vision of a violently weeping Alsana.... He did not think, Ah, she has discovered what I am to do with Magid... because he was not 32 The Berkshire Scholar

conscious of plotting any crime. Rather his first though was, So she knows about Poppy, and in response to this situation he did what every adulterous man does out of instinct: attack first.

Samad reveals himself as a brutal, if ineffectual, misogynist. “So I must come home to this, must I,” he challenges her. ”I spend all night in that infernal restaurant and then I am having to come back to your melodramatics?” (Smith 164). To the modern sensibility, this kind of behavior isn’t only all-too-human, but by all measure subpar. Once again, there is no Bangladeshi Aeneas the Pious; there is only Samad Iqbal the Jerk.

The most humorous and incisive passage about race and diversity comes from an exchange between Samad and Poppy BurtJones, art teacher of his children and his later love affair. Poppy is the archetypal white liberal, whose idealizing admiration and saintly respect for the Other lead to hilarious irony. When Poppy speaks with him, Samad thinks: Yes! said the anthropomorphized voice that had taken up residence in Smad’s right testicle. Whatever the question the answer is yes yes yes. Yes, we will make love upon this very table, yes, we will burn for it, and yes, Miss Burt-Jones, yes, the answer is inevitably, inescapably, YES. Yet somehow, out there where conversation continued, in the rational world four feet above his ball-bag, the answer turned out to be -- “Wednesday.”

The farce stems from Poppy’s (despite her good will) inability to read Samad as anything but the figment of a kind of group consciousness, a representative of group identity. Poppy cannot perceive how it is possible for one to have human motives, when surely one is filled with Muslim motives, Bangladeshi motives and South-Asian motives. This moment in the book does not do Samad’s character image any good, nor is it meant to. This passage is as ridiculous and uncomfortable as it is humanizing. In order to be “human, all too human,” Samad Iqbal has no way but to smear our The Berkshire Scholar 33

opinion of him; in any other case he would have been an inconsequential character, a “token Asian.”

I hope my survey of the formation of a few characters has been sufficient to point out the connection between the literature of alienation, marginalization and hegemony and the depiction of flawed humanity. The thesis could be condensed as: (1) the literature of the Other is one which humanizes those whose humanity has been ignored, and one which sets off to treat xenophobia; (2) in order to humanize, there must be invented a character who is at once representative of a marginalized group and wholly him/ herself; and (3) in order for a character to have a life of its own, it must be flawed. As Baudelaire once said: “Virtue is superficial, artificial… Evil is done without effort.” Although this rather extreme statement by no means eliminates the possibility of the “good” in literature, we should be wary of our contemporary tendency to consecrate victimized individuals and groups, lest the literature lose both its outward energy of social criticism and its inward aesthetic value. In sum, the human archetype of victim should never be holy, for what is holy remains distant. Distance is no cure to prejudice.

34 The Berkshire Scholar

Julie Kokot ~ Advanced Humanities Research

The Diversity of Languages Within the Spanish Political Landscape Introduction Spain’s 1978 Constitution came about after Franco’s fall from power in 1975 and symbolizes the country’s ambitions to proceed quickly with democratic reforms. Article 3 establishes Castilian as the official Spanish language of the state and cites that the other languages, Catalan, Galician and Basque, are official in their respective Autonomous Communities. Citizens of Spain must know Castilian, but it is mentioned nowhere in the Constitution that citizens of the autonomous communities must know the spoken language of their community--that is called a right, not an obligation. Even before analyzing the Statute of each autonomous community, the conclusion can be drawn that there is inequality between Castilian and Catalan, and Galician and Basque. The inequality continues as language planning policies limit the reach of each language community to promote their tongue. By establishing legal rights for respective languages within the overall governmental framework, the Constitution very much reflects the endemic conflict that pervades many intrinsic aspects of Spanish life.

The Spanish nation is diverse in its languages and politics because of its diversity in religion, modern unification and basic geography. Through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469, and the Reconquista in 1492, Spain was effectively unified under a single Catholic monarchy. The history of Castilian Spain follows quite a linear path, beginning with great economic growth that allowed the country to conquer the Americas. Subsequently, various heads of state, or kings, fought to unite the Kingdom’s many social and linguistic factions, all under Catholicism and a single nationalism. The Restoration period of Spain’s history allowed Spain to recover from the War of Succession and the Carlist War and to develop political and economic stability.

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As a result of this stability, Gen. Primo Rivera took the opportunity to establish a dictatorship by means of a coup d’etat and removal of King Alfonso XIII from the throne. Rivera’s rule lasted until the Second Republic was proclaimed in 1931, calling for municipal elections to resolve the tension between conservative and progressive forces. Leftist governments passed the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, which changed the general attitude towards peripheral nationalisms significantly, but the conservatives won the elections of 1933. Shortly afterwards, in 1936, army officer Francisco Franco succeeded in launching a military coup and instating an oppressive regime in the name of the Popular Front. The end of Franco’s dictatorship, which was characterized by bloody conflict as well as social and economic repression, marked a turning point in Spanish culture. The Constitution of 1978 aimed to clearly and definitively outline the rights and duties of all Spanish citizens, and to acknowledge the autonomous communities and their respective Statutes of Autonomy. At present, Spain’s government is primarily run by a parliament in conjunction with the President and Monarch, but contemporary Spain faces the same complicated calculus with regard to the national identify of peoples and languages.

Spanish Languages and the Statutes of Autonomy Castilian Statutes generally give the same rights and duties to the citizens of their respective communities; one such example is the Castilian Statute of Autonomy. The language and content of the document give it a noble air, almost one of superiority, which seems to coincide with the general attitude of the community.

Despite this, certain statements seem to implicitly support the great diversity of the Spanish nation. This document does not play the same role as Spain’s state constitution, but nevertheless states that it has protected the identities of the seventeen independent communities of Spain from becoming lost within the culture of Castilla and Leon, and will continue doing so indefinitely. The statute also designates the rights and responsibilities of Castilian citizens in all aspects of the community and discusses how the statute should be 36 The Berkshire Scholar

amended, if need be, in the future.

This document governs inhabitants of Castilla y Leon and states the rights and expectations of citizens, outlines the branches of government, and includes mention of language. Castilian Spanish does not play the same kind of role as do the other Spanish languages in the nation’s political dynamics, because Castilian is the dominant language in all of Spain. Searching Castilian Statute of Autonomy in search of the word “lengua,” which means language in Castilian, one finds only two mentions, both appearing in Article 4. Pairing my previous knowledge of how Castilians value their own language, and how they perceive of the three other indigenous languages of Spain, I conclude that the Castilian Statute of Autonomy will support my identification of the language’s role in Spanish politics. Within Spain itself, Castilian is the most popular of the four official languages as everyone is required to be proficient.

It is important to note the names of the articles under which Castilian is primarily mentioned: Article 4, subtitled “Valores Essentials”, which translates to “essential values”, and Article 5, subtitled “ La lengua castellana y el resto del patrimonio lingüístico de la Comunidad”, which translates to “the Spanish language and the rest of the linguistic heritage of the community”.

In the statute as a whole, language is only briefly referenced. The titles of these articles, however, indicate that the the importance of Castilian. Direct quotes from the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla y Leon essentially declare that Castilian language and historical, artistic and natural heritage are essential values of the identity of the community of Castilla y León and shall be subject to special protection and support. Spanish is part of the most valuable historical and cultural heritage of the community, extended throughout the national territory and many other States. The Junta de Castilla y León will encourage the correct use of Spanish in the cultural, educational and administrative fields. The statute states that Castilian will be especially protected, but protected from exactly which forces or factors it does not divulge. The statute also mentions, in Article 4, the Galician language. Galician will be equally protected in the areas it is habitually spoken, as stated in the statute, but after Castilian, Galician is not the most widely spoken or used of The Berkshire Scholar 37

Spain’s languages. Though there is not a great connection between the speakers of Castilian and Galician language, this statement reflects that today’s administrative regions do not exactly match regions on a political map.

Catalan Catalonia developed within the borders of contemporary Spain. Rather than absorbing Catholic customs and values like most of the other autonomous communities, however, it became heavily characterized by aspects of Jewish culture. Catalonia has long been known for its economic contributions both domestic and international, and for its progressive ambition in all areas. Catholic Castilians have resented Catalonia’s prosperity, citing the community’s connection to Judaism, since the emergence of Catalan language in the medieval kingdom of Aragon. This marks the first bit of contention between Catalonia and other cultural groups. Over time Catalans have grown more discontented with being a part of the Spanish nation. What began as a religious issue became a language issue during Franco’s regime, as Catalan was widely suppressed in educational environments and public areas in general.

It is difficult to identify specific laws or policies, but Franco prohibited the use of all Catalan names. Religious services were held in Castilian, and Castilian was the only language permitted to be used in public. Few books were published in Catalan, and images of popular Catalan culture like the sardanes, a traditional dance, were also banned. Popular symbols of Catalan nationalism, such as statues, portraits, the flag, were all removed from public view.

The Catalan community emphasizes, through explicit statements in its Statute of Autonomy, that the Catalan language itself is its most valued aspect of culture. Catalan is the most linguistically similar language to Castilian whereas the other language communities, which are very dissimilar to Castilian, have generally better relationships with Castille. This irony points to the multifaceted relationship between Spain’s language communities and their political contributions and speaks to the many manifestations of this Castilian-Catalan conflict. The domain of education has long been dominated by Castilian, and Catalan has had to overcome 38 The Berkshire Scholar

government oppression in order to advance its cause. In addition to the Catalan Statute, both the Generalitat de Catalunya and the region’s secessionist political parties are dedicated to the language’s advancement. These groups are key contributors to the language community’s role in the political environment of Spain as a whole, and specifically, to promoting Catalonia’s secession. Catalonia cannot secede from Spain because of Article 8 of the 1978 Constitution, but the efforts of various groups to advance Catalan highlight the role of language in this debate.

Within the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, the Catalan word for language, “llengua,” is mentioned thirty-six times in the one hundred sixty-two page document. Finding this term repeated so often in the statute confirms the important of the legal status of language to the Catalan community. The language of any community of people is often its most protected cultural aspect, and this is clearly true of Catalan. The Catalan Statute of Autonomy is formally titled “Estatuto de autonomía de Cataluña: Texto Consolidado.” The preamble talks about Catalan, “La tradición cívica y asociativa de Cataluña ha subrayado siempre la importancia de la lengua y la cultura catalanas,” and stresses how rich the community is in history, diversity, and commitment to protecting the rights of all. The Catalan statute also creates expectations for how all citizens should behave and strive to uphold the tolerant and inclusive attitude of the community. There are clearly chapters dedicated to the governance of the autonomous state, but the Catalan parliament emphasizes, throughout the document, that the political and cultural aspects are indistinguishable.

The thirty-six mentions of Catalan in the Statute of Autonomy emphasizes the importance of the language to the community’s culture. Article 6 of the document, titled “La llengua pròpia i les llengües oficials”, translates to Catalan language. The article states that Catalan is the preferred language but that Castilian, the language of the Spanish state, is equally recognized and used as well.

Citizens have the right to choose which language to speak publicly and privately; the government is responsible for making both available in public environments, and promoting both in public schools.

Catalan citizens are also responsible for being familiar enough The Berkshire Scholar 39

with both Castilian and Catalan to succeed in school. Under Article 44, which emphasizes education and culture, students are expected to begin acquisition of any third language only after completing requirements in both official languages. The tolerant and inclusive attitude towards Catalan language, and all other languages, is proof of the success of the Generalitat de Catalunya--an institution dedicated to the subjects of its success since the year 1283.

Galician Of the four language communities, Galicia appears to be in the least conflict with Castilian Spain in every aspect. Its relatively brief Statute of Autonomy includes very little about the importance of Galician, despite the fact that the language is second most linguistically different from Castilian (after Basque). During the Middle Ages, Galician and Portuguese were almost indistinguishable, and historians still struggle to understand why Galicia was absorbed by Spain rather than by Portugal. Despite the vast differences between the Castilian and Galician languages, a conclusion has been drawn for the respectful attitude and minimal conflict between Castilians and Galician. Galicia developed a great lyrical-poetic tradition, which spread to Castile, leading Galician to become the accepted vehicle for court poetry. The Castilian community promoted Galician lore and literature in this realm hundreds of years ago, which certainly contributes to the peaceful relationships between the two communities today. Galician’s established role in Castilian culture also explains the mention of Galician in the Castilian Statute of Autonomy. By including Galician in the statute, Castilians formally acknowledge the positive contribution the Galician language and community has made to Castilian culture. Another reason for which the Galician community has not sought out the same level of recognition and retribution as the Catalan or Basque communities is that during Franco’s regime, the language and its speakers were not as aggressively oppressed.

Franco viewed Galician as a secondary dialect of the poor semiliterate population, the majority of whom spoke Castilian, so there was no great need for him to attack this community. These historical events and Franco’s generally passive attitude towards Galicia 40 The Berkshire Scholar

have really shaped Galician into a secondary language used for the arts. Whereas Catalan is the language of a financially prosperous and socially active community, Galician is the language of a community long dominated by the Castilian regime, and the Galician people seem to have accepted this reality quite peacefully.

The Galician Statute of Autonomy differs firstly from the three others I am studying. This statute presents language in the preliminary title of the document, under Article 5, and is just as short as the Basque statute. After initially noticing the above, I looked for mentions of the Galician word for language, “lingua,” just as I did in the Castilian and Catalan statues. I found only one mention of the word itself, along with other allusions to the topic of language. The “Estatuto Autonomía de Galicia” translates directly to the Galician Statute of Autonomy, and is obviously written in Galician, which is actually called Gallego by members of the language community. The introductory portion states that Galician community has an exclusive right to promote and spread its language. The statute discusses the overlap between the people of Galicia belonging to the historical community, but also recognizes Spain as a greater nation. The rights, liberties, and fundamental obligations of the Galician people are outlined in the Spanish Constitution and differ from those of other citizens only in that their rights, liberties and obligations overlap on a regional and national scale. Galicia has its own flag and anthem, as do Castilla, Catalonia and Basque, and can solicit recognition or attention from the national parliament at anytime.

My exploration of the Galician language concludes with a discussion of what the Galician statute states about Galician itself.

Of the eight articles under the Preliminary Title of the statute, Article 5 focuses on the Galician language. Though it does not delve into the topic as extensively as Catalan, the length of the content, and the content itself, are comparable to that found in the Castilian and Basque statutes of Autonomy. The only community who discusses language extensively within its statute is Catalonia. The Galician statute states that Gallego is the official language of the community. It explains that Castilian is also officially recognized within the community and that all citizens have the right to know The Berkshire Scholar 41

both languages and use them. The power of authorities in Galicia ensures the normal use of both languages in all environments, public, private, and cultural, and will ensure the means necessary to facilitate awareness of the language. Lastly, no one shall be discriminated against on the basis of language preference. This statute, like the others, places the task of maintaining and promoting the language on public authorities, though citizens are mentioned as also playing an important role in enhancing the state of the language.

Basque While the other three languages of this study connect through similar linguistic origins, Basque is completely separate in every aspect. Basque, otherwise called Euskara, is not a Romance language, and it is so ancient that its origins are virtually untraceable. Euskara also has eight known dialects, many more dialects than the other languages featured in this research. Even more than the Catalans, the Basque community was oppressed during Franco’s time in power; unlike with Catalonia, however, this suppression was more likely based on language than on religion as Basques are traditionally Catholics. in recent decades, Basque separatism, which is closely tied to language, has become the most violent and active of all the regional nationalisms within Spain.

The politically charged terrorist group ETA, for Euskadi ta Askatasuna (which translates to Basque Country and Freedom), felt that the Basque language was not being effectively promoted throughout all of Spain and formed with the exact goal of spreading Basque around the country as a means to foment separatist ideology. Though it has now been disarmed, at one time the group was active all over Spain and seemed to have gained sympathy with efforts on behalf of Catalan nationalism. The two nationalisms represent opposing ideals, but they found a commonality, maintained to this day, in expressing a want to secede from Spain for years. Both feel that the Statutes of Autonomy and various other efforts of normalizing their respective languages and cultures have failed. Basque is the prime example in this research of a direct relationship between a community’s language and political circumstances. The relationships between Castilian Spain and the other 42 The Berkshire Scholar

two regional communities are not quite as linear in that the conflicts that arise, and the connections made, are also due to historical events and religion.

Upon examining the Basque Statute, titled “Eusko Kontseilu Nagusiaren Aldizkari Ofiziala,� I find only one short Article that mentions language. Given the fact that Basque is the most different from Castilian and the two other official Spanish languages, one might expect more emphasis on its protection and preservation.

How does this minimal mention of language correlate with Basque sentiment regarding their lindigenous anguage and culture?

Euskara clearly appears very different from the other three languages I am studying, but in terms of the contents of the statute, they are almost identical to the other three. It is also interesting to note that the Basque Statute begins with the same statement included in the Castilian Statute, made by King Juan Carlos I. The former King asserts that Spain’s power has united people, but also torn people apart, but that is of no matter, for all shall be ruled by the organic law of the statute. The Basque statute asserts general dispositions and powers of the community; it outlines the function of government and explains the rights and expectations of all citizens.

Article 6 is most important to my work as it states that Euskara is the official language of the community, but also recognizes Castilian as an official language of the community. The article states that linguistic discrimination is intolerable, and stipulates that The Real Academy of the Basque Language will protect and preserve Euskara into the future.

The Basque Statute of Autonomy only mentions Euskera in Article 6 of the document, and the short article falls under the Preliminary Title of the overall statue; this fact suggests that language is a significant part of Basque culture despite how it may appear.

The Basque statute does not discuss language any further than its role as a means of communication between citizens and how it will be protected by various establishments. The Catalan statute discusses Catalan in much greater depth, and extends attention to the role of Catalan in public versus private situations, as well as in schools and how it relates to the rights of Catalan citizens. What strikes me as unexpected is that the Catalan community, whose The Berkshire Scholar 43

language is more similar to Castilian than Basque is to Castilian, seems to feel more threatened than does the Basque community.

The Basque statute establishes the minimum: Basque is the official language of the community, and both the language and its speakers will be protected. Because the language shares so little with Castilian, there seems to be little concern that Basque would get absorbed by the most popular language or dismissed by its speakers as could be the case with Catalan or Galician.

Conclusion This study has explored the legislation of four autonomous communities -- Castilla y Leon, Catalonia, Galicia and Basque -- and reviewed the linguistic and political histories of each community and of Spain as a whole. I have concluded that the political dynamics of Spain today continue to be influenced by the same factors as years ago. Language is the primary factor I explored through examining various pieces of legislation, and is the one ethnic element that people are most outspoken about. Castilian speakers are predominant all over the country, and citizens of Catalonia wants to secede due to feeling disrespected and undervalued.

Galician people have caused little political instability throughout history and the Basque, like Catalans, have fought to secede and become totally independent from Spain.

The language factor refers to Spain’s population speaking different languages, four officially recognized, across the country.

Each autonomous community, whose speakers speak Castilian, Catalan, Galician and Basque, feels their language and community has been disregarded within the greater Spanish state. This proves that Spain’s political landscape is more dependent on language than on any other aspect, and given that fact, one must conclude that topics on the forefront of political turmoil and agendas in any country act as representation for other underserved topics as well.

44 The Berkshire Scholar

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Coller, Xavier. “Society and Politics in Spain: A Comparative European Perspective.” Academia. https://www.academia. edu/4187283/Politics_and_Society_in_Spain.

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by Judith T. Irvine and Susan Gal. Santa Fe: American Research Press, 2000. 35-84.

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Sobreques i Callicou, Jaume. “Introducción.” El Estatuto De Autonomía De Catalunya. El Marco Histórico De La Autonomía De Catalunya. Madrid, Spain: Undarius, 1977.

Trask, Robert L. The History of Basque. 1997 ed. London [u.a.], England: Routledge, 2010.

Turell, M. Teresa, ed. Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups. N.p.: Multilingual Matters Ltd, 2001.

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Woolard, Kathryn A. Double Talk: Bilingualism and the Politics of Ethnicity in Catalonia. Stanford, CA: Stanford U.P., 1989.

Woolard, Kathryn A., and Tae-Joong Gahng. “Changing Language Policies and Attitudes in Autonomous Catalonia.” Cambridge University Press 19, no. 3 (September 1990): 311-30.

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AFTERWORD The Berkshire Scholar was selected, edited, and formatted by the members of Advanced Humanities Research, a selective program at Berkshire School that provides students the opportunity to pursue topics of personal interest in the humanities. Here are the students, with project titles and readers, from 2017-2018: Aisha Abdrashitova Time-Being: An Investigation in Religion, Philosophy and Science (Jay L. Garfield @ Smith College) Riley Bona “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”: Deng Xiaoping’s Contested Legacy (Lawrence C. Reardon @ UNH) Anika Helmke At What Cost: The Female Voice in American Journalism (Maurine Beasley @ University of Maryland) Victor Li The Nietzschean Temperament in Emil Cioran and Lu Xun (Christian Moraru @ UNC-Greensboro) Isabelle Nolan Children’s Literature and the Development of Gender Stereotyping (Katie Peel @ UNC-Wilmington) Liam O’Connor A Tale of Two Systems: Incarceration & Criminal Justice in the U.S. & Norway (John Pfaff @ Fordham U.) Anastasia Romanova Into the Non-Binary: Exploring Transgender Identity (Jack Halberstam @ Columbia University) Billy Zegras German and French Poets’ Expression of WW I Weaponry (Margot Norris @ UC-Irvine) Please contact A.J. Kohlhepp (ajkohlhepp@berkshireschool.org) with questions about Adv. Humanities Research at Berkshire.

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“The Berkshire Scholar� is produced, in part, with wind-powered mills and on a solar-powered press.