“The Making of an Un-American” by Paul Cowan

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Analysis
Works Cited

Introduction

The harsh realities sometimes can make a clash with certain presupposed visions of the way certain circumstances and situations should have been. In the book “The Making of an Un-American: A Dialogue with Experience” by Paul Cowan, the author writes about the times he joined the Peace Corps with romanticizing ideas that did not match the real-life he faced. This essay demonstrates how the illusions of the author illusions were disrupted by the reality show by actual African Americans based on a passage from the aforementioned book.

Analysis

Describing the passage where the author is playing with the children from the town, the romanticism of Cowan can be witnessed in how he tries to be closer with the kids from the town. He was trying to teach them something childish, he was flattered by them knowing him, and had the confidence that they like him.

This is a bright image of the reality that the author is visioning through his eyes and presuppositions which might have been real due to the fact that the kids might have been in the age where the presuppositions of the adults had not reached them yet. The kids do not realize the differences of colors and races, and it could be said that the author and the kids had the same bright romanticizing image, the author due to his ideas and his mission and the kids because of their age.

The illusions of the author were disrupted when he met Bill, who despite working close with Cowan showed his disapproval of the approach he communicated with the kids referring to it as based on hypocrisy. This rage could be explained as the obvious distinction of race that Bill is seeing and supposing already. It is obvious that Bill sees and pays attention to race and color more than the author, where Bill says “dark urchins”, “your skin is white”, and “our black children”.

For Bill, the reason that Cowan was playing and spending some time with the kids is no more than a game in which he can play some role after which he will leave and the situation would stay the same, thus he does not want the kids to leave in an illusion.

He already predicts that the kids will not leave their “hovels” or at least not by some who is white-skinned. Bill’s tirade can be explained in a way that ironically despite that Cowan is white and works with him he blames all the white people in the face of Cowan, indirectly stating that they are responsible for the situation of poverty that they are in, and Cowan is merely is atoning their guilt. This is also seen through the author is recalling essays written by Bill where he argues that “genocide was the only means by which white people could deal with the race problem in America”

Although Cowan the reaction to Bill is known to him due to his temper and provocative manners, it can be said that his illusions about his mission have crashed on the wall of realities that he did not expect to be this way. It can be outlined that in some situations good intentions are not enough to break the stereotypes and restore faith and trust in the good.

Works Cited

Cowan, Paul. The making of an un-American. New York: Viking Press, 1970.

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“The Making of an Un-American” by Paul Cowan

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