Sunday, December 2, 2012
Valley of the Dead Air locals
I was confused as I went through this reading. The mentioning of the haole salesman made me think that all of the residents of the valley were Hawaiian natives with conventional western names. As I read however, it seemed more like they were "locals" in the sense that they had lived there for years, not that they were native Hawaiians. Jacob is probably the only true Hawaiian here, being referenced as a kahuna on pg. 41 of the reader. I believe the story is a metaphor for Hawaiian resistance to their illegal annexation and displacement by other ethnicities, as demonstrated by Jacob's revenge on the "locals". That Jacob was finally appeased might be indicative that Hawaiians have accepted their stance as citizens of the States, if somewhat reluctantly.
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I agree with your post about Valley of the Dead Air. You echoed so much of what I was thinking when reading the story. My initial response to the theme was the same. It was a really interesting read, and it probably came to a surprise to the rest of the Hawaiian "locals" when they found out Jacob and his family actually owned all the valley and the land, and "den dah Cox family wen come in and take dah land away from his family. Something about Jacob's family not paying dah land tax or water taxor something li'dat, and dah haole wen pay instead." The story itself also to me, feels like a homage to Native Hawaiian's and their past. The main conflict of the malodor in the story following the death of Jacob is actually a part of a joke being played on the farmers, who are haole themselves, by Native Hawaiians of the past, represented by the soil and Hookano. Author Gary Pak references the native impression of Hawaiian's annexation with elements throughout his story as well. The U.S. government's swindling of Hawaii is a motif that appears several times in the story.
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