California has been perceived as a place apart: linked by
air and rail and asphalt to the rest of North America, yet somehow a separate
region, with its own mystique and climate and economic history, its own legend—ever
tied to that first tumultuous era of settlement—and crossroads culture that
grows increasingly complex (Hicks et al., 1).
What then does it tell us, this vision of Montalvo’s? It
tells us California is an island. It tells us it is filled with gold. It also
tells us the dream came first .The place came later. His novel was a concoction
that actually fed the hopes of the region’s earliest explorers (Hicks el al.,
3).
This twin legends from the early years of settlement tell us
the Land of Promise is really a Land of Two Promises, where fertile
possibilities and the potential for disaster coexist in the elements
themselves. . . the Donner Party saga gets bleached out by the blinding light
of the boom times so many prefer to remember, the great example of the dream
coming true. It continues to be news when things go wrong in the Golden State,
for many who lived here, as well as for many who regard it from afar (Hicks et
al., 4).
Some say California is the final haven of the ancestor of
all legends, the great American Dream. . . High expectations can move people to
try things they might not otherwise try, and sometimes achieve things they
might not otherwise achieve. At the same time, large hopes can lead to
particularly sharp, often crippling disappointment (Hicks et al., 6)
About Asian-American writers: For them—or their forebear—this
is not the end of the line. It is the point of arrival in the new world (Hicks
et al., 8).
The Donner Party - https://css.history.com/topics/donner-party
Works Cited:
Hicks, Jack et al.
“General Introduction.” The Literature
of California, vol. 1, University of California Press, 2000, pp. 1–13.
History.com Staff. “Donner
Party.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2010,
css.history.com/topics/donner-party. Accessed on 6 February, 2019.
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