Cassie Oestreich

American Literature

Creel

To my beloved Havii,

     I write to you in my most uncomfortable hour, from a tiny swamp-hole located somewhere near the Andromeda galaxy. I miss your company most dearly and greatly regret the actions of my past, to which I owe my present unhappiness. I hope that someday I may return to Viltri, and if this proves impossible, selfishly wish for you to join me here, a land called Earth, although I ascertain that you would not find this land in the least enjoyable. Over the past years I feel that I have gained some knowledge as to what drives the intelligent species of this planet, but must admit that I have the most difficult time attempting to relate to their aspirations. Everything is so different here, as to the extent, you will no doubt fully realize upon reading this letter. The main behavior that I have noticed on this land, which is referred to as “North America”, is that of violence due to a generally accepted feeling of selfishness and greed, which remains present through the history of ages.

     To begin, I must inform you that the vast majority of this information comes from books and something called the “World Wide Web”, which I have read in the sprawling libraries of this land, and not, unfortunately, from direct observation. The reason for this, I am not ashamed to admit, is due to the disturbing odor that the humans (the intelligent life form of this planet) emit, and the most fowl chemicals they apply to their bodies, which I find myself unable to stand for more than a moment before I regurgitate whatever nearly inedible nutrients I had previously ingested. This bit of information aside, I would like to tell you about a very strange human named John Smith, and expand to your knowledge some of his tendencies towards this violent nature of which I speak. I must explain to you beforehand that John Smith was a human who moved from one land to another via a decent sized piece of water, once he arrived in the new land he began causing trouble with the native inhabitants as well as his own people (Montgomery). An example of this violence from Smith's own written document; The generall historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles, together with The true travels, adventures and observations, and A sea grammar, occurs when Smith “realized that the Indians had nothing worth trading for” according to a school discussion by Brenna Mulhollam. He stated of himself; for some reason in third person point of view, that “[Smith] let fly his muskets, ran his boat onshore, whereat they all [Indians] fled into the woods” (93). When I first read of this I couldn't believe that someone would try to harm another due to their lack of objects which could be gained. I am sure that as you read this you are feeling the first initial shock that I, myself felt in the beginning. In Smith's writings it is apparent that he thinks nothing of this violence and perceives it as being a normal part of his duty as a vagabond settler. His actions indicate that he was a human driven by sheer greed, and would go to any lengths, even as far as killing other humans to get what he, in the moment, desired. I find myself wondering what would have stopped him from harming the natives even if they did have items to trade, by the sounds of this human he would have killed them and stolen what he coveted, due to his blatant selfishness. I urge you not to think of this as barbaric behavior of the past, as I assure you that similar activities take place in recent times. For example, I read in the New York Times not very long ago, a young human was killed for his shoes, if you can believe it.

     Now Havii, my dear, I must give you warning to not feel sympathy for the natives that I mentioned quite yet, as they have their own violent activity to account for. One particular piece of writing called a captivity narrative, composed by a female Puritan; which is a human that wishes to purify their religious affairs, depicts a scene directly from a nightmare in which the natives attack her people. She stated “Oh the little that we think of such dreadful sights, and to see our dear friends, and relations lie bleeding out their heart blood upon the ground. There was one who was chopped into the head with a hatchet, and stripped naked, and yet he was crawling up and down”(Rowlandson). All of this violence apparently took place so that the natives could acquire puritans to hold for a ransom, another example of these human's need for violence and avarice. Again, you may think this event took place too long ago, but I must make reference to a current affair with similar characteristics, in which a man was kidnapped and held for ransom only two Earth years ago in the city of Phoenix. You may be interested to know that the place called Phoenix is known as the “kidnap for ransom capitol” (Las Angeles Times). Can you accept that there is such a thing? These examples, I feel are nearly the epitome of the point that I am attempting to have you understand Havii, this place is not at all like our native planet with its allocentric ways, it is indeed the opposite; full of self centered beings. I feel that this is why I was sent here, as punishment for my own selfishness.

     A source of the violence on this planet is due to inequality. This may come as a surprise to you Havii, despite all that I have already told you, but the females who inhabit this place were once thought of as property, and treated in an extremely poor manner due to the male's arrogance and what seems to be greed over knowledge. I have read the most wonderful poetry written by Anne Bradstreet; a female human who lived during a period in which an intelligent female was forced to live in great fear and hide her talents, lest she be “ridiculed, banished, or executed ...” according to Bradstreet's biography by Ann Woodlief. In fact, that is just what happened to Bradstreet's friend Anne Hutchinson; another intelligent female of the time (Woodlief). According to a well informed woman of the present; Ann Brady, “In Bradstreet’s time, cooking was considered women’s work, while poetry was not”. This I found to be quite true unfortunately. At this time, I would like to quote from one of Bradstreet's poems a few lines which remind me of how I deeply regret our forced absence from each other, and implore you to think on how a writer of this depth could ever be anything but adored. From Bradstreet's “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold/Or all the riches that the East doth hold/My love is such that rivers cannot quench/ Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense” (ll.5-8). I'm sure that you will appreciate the fine imagery that this female used to describe her love for her husband. However, I feel the need to return to my point about the violence of this place, and give you current example of violence due to inequality. Now you are well aware that on Viltri love knows no bounds and cannot be controlled, but you may be interested to find out that homosexuality is generally frowned upon in this place called North America. Not only are homosexuals treated unfairly as far as their ability to form legal unions and create families, they are often victims of violent crimes. One example is of a young man from Salt Lake City, who was recently beaten badly because of his sexual preference (Deseret News). This differs little from what could have happened to Anne Bradstreet, had she been seen as a threat to the male folk. It is insane to me that some humans feel the right to harm others because they disagree with their beliefs. Does this selfishness and injustice burn you as it does me?

     As you can see, the planet Earth is whirlpool of violence, mostly stemming from pure greed and idiocentric nature, which does not dissipate over time but only manifests itself in different ways. From Smith and the natives, who bring violence upon each other, to the innocence of Bradstreet and the unfortunate time in which she lived, the humans seem to always find a scapegoat for their ferocious and compulsive tendencies. Even now they do this, in a time that they feel has better equality than any other in their history. I sincerely hope that this letter finds you well Havii, and wait most impatiently for your reply.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Yours faithfully, Vizzini