Eric Sevareid's Writing
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ziasudraNot So Wild A Dream
New York: Atheneum, 1976
Setting: Velva, North Dakota. During FDR's time.
Theme: Identity, community, class perception.
Characters: Eric Sevareid, family/relatives, friends.
Condition: Drought.
Notable Quotes:
"Wheat was the common denominator of this democracy. It made all men equal, in prosperity or wretchedness."
"the soil was perfect for the crop...it required steadier purpose, harder work, and better men than the finding of gold; but the wheat was their gold. This was the Wheat Rush."
"Perhaps it was our common dependence upon the wheat that made all men essentially equal, but I do know now, having looked at society in many countries, that we were a true democracy in that huddled community of painted boards. A man might affect pretensions, but he could not pretend for long."
~ Wheat is a big theme in this section. It is an important commodity in this time of drought and national depression. It means no secrecy and individuality within the community.
"Very early I acquired a sense of having no identity in the world, of inhabiting, by some cruel mistake, an outland, a lost and forgotten place upon the far horizon of my country."
~ In a place where community is key, individuality is buried.
"Another boy said to me: 'Your father is a pretty good man, even if he is the richest man in town.' I had no feeling of pride; far from it. I was shocked, and hurried home, close to tears."
~ In this wheat community, distinctions are frowned upon. The rich is the "other," and draws contempt.
"Later, I read all the exalting literature of the great struggle for a classless society; later, I watched at first hand its manifestations in several countries. It occurred to me then that what men wanted was Velva, on a national, on a world, scale."
~ Themes: class struggle, identity. This is from the grown-up Sevareid's POV: reporting on different wars, living in the midst of socialist and communist revolutions around the world, etc.
"They came together in villages and put paint on the boards of their houses. They planted green trees, made a park as best they could. They put their money together and hired for their children teachers who knew a little more....Who, in his present comfort and easy knowledge, is now to sneer? They were of the men who built America; they are now of the men who keep America. They are America."
~ A key quote in this chapter. Identity of America, in America and =America.
"I hated the sound of the Norwegian tongue and refused to try to learn it. It meant nothing to me that my grandfather on my mother's side was one of America's most distinguished scholars of Scandinavian literature and life. The books in my classroom dealt only with the United States, and there lay the sole magnet to our imaginations."
~ The experience and psychology of 1.5-, second-, third-generation children of immigrant families. Deliberate detachment from one's ethnic heritage in seeking to adopt "America."
Setting: August, 1943. World War II.
Theme: War: fear, death, survival. Cross-cultural relationships.
Characters: Eric Sevareid the reporter, soldiers, Colonel Flickinger.
What: Flight to China. Plane crash over the Burma "hump."
"For a moment there was utter suspension of thought, and I existed in a vacuum. There were no articulated thoughts, only emotional protest. 'Oh, no, no! Oh, no! this can't happen to me, not to me!' The mind did not accept it, but the numb body moved toward the door."
~ Sevareid had to jump off a plane with a malfunctioning left engine. Face to face with mortality: "Why me?"
"I closed my eyes and leapt head first into space. The mind ceased to operate, and I have no recollection of thought. I do not know whether the air felt cold or warm, but instantly there was a terrific rush of wind. Some part of me was calculating, for I waited a long second before pulling the ring with both hands. A terrible blow struck my body, and my eyes opened.
"The silence. The crushing silence.
"I heard a loud voice saying: 'My God, I'm going to live!' -and realized it was my own voice."
~ Death and life -- in reality. The lack of thought, the silence, the utter disorientation of all senses. Fear and courage -- they are intertwined.
"Something stirred by my boot. It was a small jungle bird, trying to hop away from me, most of its feathers seared off. I killed it with a stick, the effort requiring all my courage. It seemed sickeningly brutal now to bring death to any living thing."
~ The paradox of life and death. Sevareid, who had just escaped death, killed. It was deliberate - not mindless - and required courage. What did it mean to the soldiers, who would be going to China for the war, to kill? It was as if Sevareid realized all of a sudden that war was brutal.
"I tried some phrases: 'Naiy gaw American—I am American,' and 'Kurrum oo—Help me,' and 'Ante nah aiy shara peh-kum sun oo?—Where are the Japs?' They smiled and shook their heads. Nothing worked. This must be a race or tribe the army had not provided for."
~ Sevareid was forced into a cross-cultural experience with some natives at the site of the plane crash. Recall back to his refusal to learn anything un-American. He now wanted to communicate with the "other," but in this case desire did not yield results. Identity, intercultural identity.
"Miller, the forty-year-old sergeant, said quietly: 'I, ah, used to hear you on the radio from London and Washington. Used to listen around suppertime.' He said it almost shyly. It was absurd that, even on this mountain in this lost section of Asia, the old pattern of familiar human relationships should already begin to take form. He was a 'member of the public.' I was the 'celebrity.' It gave me a small, sinking feeling of disappointment, but also of reassurance."
~ In an unknown Asian place among soldiers, Sevareid was singled out. He was different, an "other." His identity was at once comforting and distressing.
"A wrinkled old man squatted behind the Colonel as he worked. He had a whimpering baby tied to his back, and he tried patiently to get the doctor's attention. When he succeeded, he pointed to a large abscess under the child's ear, then opened his fingers to disclose an egg, which he had brought for the doctor's fee. Flickinger took a pill and demonstrated how the father should chew it in his own mouth, then spit it down the baby's throat. The man got the idea immediately and retreated with gratefully smiles."
~ This is a scene of cross-cultural interaction that worked. It was humanity touching humanity. Language was unnecessary. (Incidentally, it was the two Chinese soldiers among the crew who first established the friendly relationship with the natives, using Chinese customs. Closer cultural link between the two backgrounds?)
Sevareid was acute with people because he was acute with himself. There was a lot of introspection in his writing—not the inward brooding kind, but that of deep contemplation that took the rest of the world into consideration. His themes: identity, community, class perception, fear, death, survival, war, cross-cultural experiences...reflected who he was. He was a social commentator; he passed no judgment, but he had his stands. Everything he experienced in Not So Wild A Dream shaped him into the reporter he became.
New York: Atheneum, 1976
Setting: Velva, North Dakota. During FDR's time.
Theme: Identity, community, class perception.
Characters: Eric Sevareid, family/relatives, friends.
Condition: Drought.
Notable Quotes:
"Wheat was the common denominator of this democracy. It made all men equal, in prosperity or wretchedness."
"the soil was perfect for the crop...it required steadier purpose, harder work, and better men than the finding of gold; but the wheat was their gold. This was the Wheat Rush."
"Perhaps it was our common dependence upon the wheat that made all men essentially equal, but I do know now, having looked at society in many countries, that we were a true democracy in that huddled community of painted boards. A man might affect pretensions, but he could not pretend for long."
~ Wheat is a big theme in this section. It is an important commodity in this time of drought and national depression. It means no secrecy and individuality within the community.
"Very early I acquired a sense of having no identity in the world, of inhabiting, by some cruel mistake, an outland, a lost and forgotten place upon the far horizon of my country."
~ In a place where community is key, individuality is buried.
"Another boy said to me: 'Your father is a pretty good man, even if he is the richest man in town.' I had no feeling of pride; far from it. I was shocked, and hurried home, close to tears."
~ In this wheat community, distinctions are frowned upon. The rich is the "other," and draws contempt.
"Later, I read all the exalting literature of the great struggle for a classless society; later, I watched at first hand its manifestations in several countries. It occurred to me then that what men wanted was Velva, on a national, on a world, scale."
~ Themes: class struggle, identity. This is from the grown-up Sevareid's POV: reporting on different wars, living in the midst of socialist and communist revolutions around the world, etc.
"They came together in villages and put paint on the boards of their houses. They planted green trees, made a park as best they could. They put their money together and hired for their children teachers who knew a little more....Who, in his present comfort and easy knowledge, is now to sneer? They were of the men who built America; they are now of the men who keep America. They are America."
~ A key quote in this chapter. Identity of America, in America and =America.
"I hated the sound of the Norwegian tongue and refused to try to learn it. It meant nothing to me that my grandfather on my mother's side was one of America's most distinguished scholars of Scandinavian literature and life. The books in my classroom dealt only with the United States, and there lay the sole magnet to our imaginations."
~ The experience and psychology of 1.5-, second-, third-generation children of immigrant families. Deliberate detachment from one's ethnic heritage in seeking to adopt "America."
Setting: August, 1943. World War II.
Theme: War: fear, death, survival. Cross-cultural relationships.
Characters: Eric Sevareid the reporter, soldiers, Colonel Flickinger.
What: Flight to China. Plane crash over the Burma "hump."
"For a moment there was utter suspension of thought, and I existed in a vacuum. There were no articulated thoughts, only emotional protest. 'Oh, no, no! Oh, no! this can't happen to me, not to me!' The mind did not accept it, but the numb body moved toward the door."
~ Sevareid had to jump off a plane with a malfunctioning left engine. Face to face with mortality: "Why me?"
"I closed my eyes and leapt head first into space. The mind ceased to operate, and I have no recollection of thought. I do not know whether the air felt cold or warm, but instantly there was a terrific rush of wind. Some part of me was calculating, for I waited a long second before pulling the ring with both hands. A terrible blow struck my body, and my eyes opened.
"The silence. The crushing silence.
"I heard a loud voice saying: 'My God, I'm going to live!' -and realized it was my own voice."
~ Death and life -- in reality. The lack of thought, the silence, the utter disorientation of all senses. Fear and courage -- they are intertwined.
"Something stirred by my boot. It was a small jungle bird, trying to hop away from me, most of its feathers seared off. I killed it with a stick, the effort requiring all my courage. It seemed sickeningly brutal now to bring death to any living thing."
~ The paradox of life and death. Sevareid, who had just escaped death, killed. It was deliberate - not mindless - and required courage. What did it mean to the soldiers, who would be going to China for the war, to kill? It was as if Sevareid realized all of a sudden that war was brutal.
"I tried some phrases: 'Naiy gaw American—I am American,' and 'Kurrum oo—Help me,' and 'Ante nah aiy shara peh-kum sun oo?—Where are the Japs?' They smiled and shook their heads. Nothing worked. This must be a race or tribe the army had not provided for."
~ Sevareid was forced into a cross-cultural experience with some natives at the site of the plane crash. Recall back to his refusal to learn anything un-American. He now wanted to communicate with the "other," but in this case desire did not yield results. Identity, intercultural identity.
"Miller, the forty-year-old sergeant, said quietly: 'I, ah, used to hear you on the radio from London and Washington. Used to listen around suppertime.' He said it almost shyly. It was absurd that, even on this mountain in this lost section of Asia, the old pattern of familiar human relationships should already begin to take form. He was a 'member of the public.' I was the 'celebrity.' It gave me a small, sinking feeling of disappointment, but also of reassurance."
~ In an unknown Asian place among soldiers, Sevareid was singled out. He was different, an "other." His identity was at once comforting and distressing.
"A wrinkled old man squatted behind the Colonel as he worked. He had a whimpering baby tied to his back, and he tried patiently to get the doctor's attention. When he succeeded, he pointed to a large abscess under the child's ear, then opened his fingers to disclose an egg, which he had brought for the doctor's fee. Flickinger took a pill and demonstrated how the father should chew it in his own mouth, then spit it down the baby's throat. The man got the idea immediately and retreated with gratefully smiles."
~ This is a scene of cross-cultural interaction that worked. It was humanity touching humanity. Language was unnecessary. (Incidentally, it was the two Chinese soldiers among the crew who first established the friendly relationship with the natives, using Chinese customs. Closer cultural link between the two backgrounds?)
Sevareid was acute with people because he was acute with himself. There was a lot of introspection in his writing—not the inward brooding kind, but that of deep contemplation that took the rest of the world into consideration. His themes: identity, community, class perception, fear, death, survival, war, cross-cultural experiences...reflected who he was. He was a social commentator; he passed no judgment, but he had his stands. Everything he experienced in Not So Wild A Dream shaped him into the reporter he became.
