Message no

Message no. 297
Posted by Dr. Suellyn Winkle on Monday, March 31, 2003 1:50pm
Subject Questions for Class Discussion

Questions for Class Discussion Week 12

1.     Recount the two dreams Williams has—one as a child

and one as an adult—and comment on what the imagery

suggests in each.

2.     Describe the persona of the narrator in the essay.

What kind of a woman is she?  How do you know?

3.     Williams’ concern goes beyond what has happened her

and to the women of her family.  How far beyond the

personal does her concern go?  Use quotations to back up

your assertions.

Message no. 298[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by JAMES ANDREW FOGLE on Monday, March 31, 2003 2:43pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

In message 297 on Monday, March 31, 2003 1:50pm, Dr.

Suellyn Winkle writes:

>Questions for Class Discussion Week 12

>1.    Recount the two dreams Williams has—one as a child

>and one as an adult—and comment on what the imagery

>suggests in each.

>The imagery in the first dream suggests how much of an explosion the bomb really was.  They describe the bomb as a huge mushroom cloud that covered the entire sky, and how "a light ash was raining on the car."  There were several colors that illuminated from the bomb, and "the sky seemed to vibrate with an eerie pink glow."  The imagery in the second dream suggests how the people felt towards the testing of the atomic bombs.  The women would "circle a blazing fire in the desert," symbolizing how they knew that the bombs were extremely harmful, and how they wanted the tests to subside.  The women felt that people who were "even-tempered" towards the tests were crazy, and the women were out to "reclaim the land" by chanting their anthem.

>2.    Describe the persona of the narrator in the essay.

>What kind of a woman is she?  How do you know?

>The narrator of this essay is a very personal writer.  The points made throughout her essay suggest that she is a very emotional writer, who feels very strong about how the tests of the atomic bombs resulted.  She would love to let everyone know her pain through the essay, to maybe even persuade people's thoughts so that they understand what really happened.

>3.    Williams’ concern goes beyond what has happened her

>and to the women of her family.  How far beyond the

>personal does her concern go?  Use quotations to back up

>your assertions.

Message no. 300[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by DANIEL T TOTEV on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 3:16pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1.   The dream of Terry as a child tells us how powerful

was the nuclear bomb in 1957. She speaks of the “flash

of light” that permeates her being, the “flash of light”

on the horizon that illuminates “buttes and mesas”

/664/. But she seems unaware of the harmful effect that

can come from this light. When she realizes its nature,

she feels deceived and she and the women in her second

dream “spoke of a change” /667/. She can feel the fear

from the nuclear bombs in every living creature in her

second dream: “rabbits felt the tremors” and “ravens

watched the desert heave” /667/. The women for this

dream can be seen as rebels or “as sparks [which] broke

away from the flames and entered the night sky as stars”

– the sparks which will make the environment better for

next generations /667/.

2 & 3.        Terry Williams’ family is faithful to God:

Terry’s grandmother compares breast cancer as “the most

spiritual experience” /663/. Terry’s mother, Diane, is

also devoted to her religion: “I felt the arms of God

around me” /663/. It seems that Terry inherited this

spirituality: “We believed her [Diane],” she said /663/.

Prayers make it easier for humans to accept premature

death. The best way for most people to lessen the

anguish from a loss of a relative or to ease the pain

from severe illness is through religion. Terry used to

be one of them. But she goes beyond prayers: “I must

question everything, even if it means losing my faith,

even if it means becoming a border tribe among my own

people,” she said /667/. We see the persona growing up:

she becomes wiser than her grandmothers, her aunts, and

her mother. She used to be like them – dedicated to her

culture, according to which, “authority is respected,

obedience is revered, and independent thinking is not”

/666/. But now it is a time for a change: “Tolerating

blind obedience in the name of patriotism or religion

ultimately takes our lives” /667/.

       Terry knows that she cannot bring back her relatives

who passed away as a result of nuclear tests. She wants

to testify not because the government will pay to her

family compensations, but because she wants

radiation-free environment for the children in Utah: she

gives her testimony “so this would not happen again to

any of the generations coming up after us” /665/. The

government and the country can be rich and wealthy, but

they cannot buy one thing – health. They cannot buy

people’s lives. She realizes that somebody has to stop

nuclear tests in Nevada desert, which were still going

on 38 years after the first bomb was dropped. As a

result, she trespassed the military land at the Nevada

Test Site, although she knew that she would be arrested.

    It takes strength of mind to go against your

government and country, and it takes power of spirit to

question your religion and distrust your family’s norms.

That is what Terry Williams did: she is “one of the

soul-centered and strong women who recognized the sweet

smell of sage as fuel for their spirits” /669/.

P.S.  This essay reminds of the Chernobyl accident - the

result of another irrisponsible government. The

Chernobyl accident in former USSR in 1986 was the result

of a flawed reactor design that was operated with

inadequately trained personnel and without proper regard

for safety. The resulting steam explosion and fire

released about five percent of the radioactive reactor

core into the atmosphere and downwind. 30 people were

killed, and there had been up to ten deaths from thyroid

cancer due to the accident in the following one year.

Probably, this accident caused other cancer diseases,

but unfortunately as Williams said it is impossible to

prove the slow detrimental effect of decades of

radioactive exposure. Another problem of nuclear power

plants and nuclear test is that once radioactive

particles get into the atmosphere they can stay there

long enough so that radioactive clouds can travel and

spread across countries and continents. As a result of

the Chernobyl accident, people’s health in Asia, Europe,

and Africa was and is still jeopardized.

Message no. 301[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by SELENA EDWARDS RIESS on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 8:45pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1.     The dream that Williams had when she was a child is

that of a “flash of light in the night in the desert”

(664).  The light had been so bright that the image had

been imprinted in her mind.  Whenever Williams headed in

the southerly direction where the light was last seen,

she would see it over and over again as it lit up the

“horizon, illuminating buttes and mesas” (664).  This

type of imagery leads one to envision that Williams

dreamed of a huge explosion, or fire, of some type.  It

was so bright, that not only did it perhaps momentarily

blind Williams, it lit up the sky and everything

surrounding the area near the explosion.  Also, Williams

says it “permeated my being” (664) which suggests that

the explosion was very close and the heat waves that

emanated from the fire scorching.

When Williams was an adult, she had a dream of “women

from all over the world circling a blazing fire in the

desert” (667).  The women “spoke of change” (667) and

“mocked at the presumption of even-tempered beings”

(667).  As they “danced wildly” (667) around the fire,

the women sang a song of the Shoshoni Indian women that

had been passed on through generations.  I see an image

of women united for a cause that ties in with the bright

light that Williams saw in her first dream.  As they

dance around a bright fire in the middle of the desert,

they sing a song that has been passed on through

generations.  The women seem to be saddened, yet angry

at the same time.  The song that they sing is haunting,

for the land, a symbol of their future children, has

been taken from them.  There is a strong desire to

reclaim the land, as they dream and hope for rebirth one

day.

2.     The persona of Williams in the beginning has one

believe she accepts things without question due to

family beliefs, religious affiliation, and ancestry.  It

seems that she is of Shoshoni descent since she talks

about the Indian song sang by these women and of “a

contract” that “had been broken between human beings and

land” (667). When she finds out that a recurring dream

is actually based on a live event, “above ground atomic

testing” (664), and has a correlation between the cancer

in her family, Williams feels “deceived” (664) and

begins to question what has always been accepted.

Williams is willing to put all her beliefs aside, “I

must question everything, even if it means losing my

faith” (667), as she works hard in trying to piece this

puzzle together for herself and for her family.  I see

this strong woman, who with other affected women, have

questions that need answering and just want to

understand why this has happened to them so that maybe

they can reach an inner peace within themselves and with

the government.

3.     I tend to believe Williams’ concern doesn’t go too

far beyond the personal.  Even though she mentions that

she “crossed the line at the Nevada Test Site” (669),

Williams says it was “more than a gesture of peace.  It

was a gesture on behalf of the Clan of One-breasted

Women” (669).  As Williams talks of other families

affected, it seems to be done in a matter-of-fact way

without a lot of emotion.  Williams speaks of a

resident, Irene Allen, but just describes her as “a

mother of five children and had been widowed twice”

(665).  Also, that Irene Allen was “the first to be

alphabetically listed with twenty-four test cases”

(665).  Further on, Irene Allen’s case is “just one

story in an anthology of thousands” (665).  There is

more emotion when Williams speaks of the women in her

family as she and other family members have sat “in

waiting rooms hoping for good news, always receiving the

bad” (666).  One can feel the genuine pain Williams has

had to deal with as she relays how she “cared for them,

bathed their scarred bodies” and “watched beautiful

women become bald as cytoxan, cisplatin and adriamycin

were injected into their veins” (666).  In the end,

after Williams has been booked for “civil disobedience”

(669) and is on the bus to Tonapah, Nevada, her eyes

look outside the bus window at the Joshua trees in the

desert.  It is brought home to the reader the enormity

of the impact the atomic tests have played in this

author’s life when she speaks of “the Joshua trees

standing their ground had been named by my ancestors who

believed they looked like prophets pointing west to the

promised land” (669).

Message no. 302[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by MARK DEVALIANT on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 8:52pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1. Williams first dream is simple and indistinct.  It is

just the dream of a flash of light.  There is little

imagery and no detail just a sense of definite

importance. This is in spite of the actual cause of the

dream, which at the time remained unknown to her.

The second dream is less dream, more vision of events

she would like to see come to pass.  It invokes powerful

images of women reclaiming their birth rights and the

futures of their children.  "They would reclaim the

desert for the sake of their children, for the sake of

the land."(667)  The preparation for this takes weeks,

clearly showing determination and purpose.  The images,

"Stretch marks appeared.  The land was losing its

muscle."(667) clearly show how the land hurts from the

tests, to the point where life hangs in the balance and

is terminated, "The red hot pains beneath the desert

promised death only as each bomb became stillborn."

(667)  Written as a woman, as the child of a woman, as a

potential mother, the imagery cuts deep and touches on

raw nerves and social taboos that are largely left well

alone.  Williams writes of the lengths that should be

gone to to achieve the desired objective, including

breaking the law.  This "dream" acts as a blueprint for

her own actions to come, but I think her dream is as Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr., "...had a dream."

2.  Williams is driven by her conviction, which in turn

leads to her conviction, or at least arrest.  She is

angry, being moved to break out of her up bringing

despite the cost, "...even if it means losing my faith,

even if it means becoming a border tribe among my own

people." (667) She is also sure that what she is doing

is right, that the earth and its offspring, the people,

need to wake up,"What they didn't realize is that we

were home, soul-centered and strong, women who

recognized the sweet smell of sage as fuel for our

spirits." (669)

3. Williams main thrust is the threat that the nation

lives under without ever knowing it.  The lies that the

givernment perpetrate then perpetuate that get people

killed, lives ruined, "It was at that moment I realized

the deceit that I had been living under." (664), "...it

does not matter whether the United States Government was

irresponsible, whether it lied to its citizens or even

that citizens died from the fallout of nuclear testing.

What matters is that our government is immune." (666),

"The fear and inability to question authority that

ultimately killed rural communities in Utah..." (666)

Message no. 303[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by NATALIE A PETERS on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 9:33pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1. Recount the two dreams Williams has—one as a child

and one as an adult—and comment on what the imagery

suggests in each.

Williams’ childhood dream that later turns into a

childhood memory is that of a “flash of light in the

night in the desert… illuminating buttes and mesas”

(664), which she later finds out, is the testing of

nuclear bombs. She says this image “permeated [her]

being (664) which shows exactly how overwhelming this

image must have been. Her father calls it a

“golden-stemmed cloud, the mushroom” (664). The imagery

suggests the age of Williams, how naïve and young she

was and that she didn’t know any better at that time

than to think it was a dream.

The dream Williams has later in life shows her maturity

and age. She dreams of the consequences her earlier

dream has on women and their lives, along with hers. The

maturity in her dream is portrayed the effect of the

bombs on people along with nature as a whole. When she

says “The land was losing its muscle” (667) it shows

that the world is not able to fight against the bombing,

as people are also not being able to do anything about

it. “A contract had been broken between human beings and

the land” (667).

2. Describe the persona of the narrator in the essay.

What kind of a woman is she?  How do you know?

Williams could be considered a “black sheep” of her

family and her Mormon religion. She was taught that

“authority is respected, obedience is revered, and

independent thinking is not” (666). Williams goes

against this when she tries to understand and

investigate what is happening to her family and the

people around her. She gets arrested for trespassing to

find out what is happening and why it is happening. She

says “I must question everything, even if it means

losing my faith… tolerating blind obedience in the name

of patriotism or religion ultimately takes our lives”

(667). She holds on to her religion to help her cope to

what is happening to the people she loves and others

around her, but she does go against many of their

practices.

3. Williams’ concern goes beyond what has happened to

her and to the women of her family.  How far beyond the

personal does her concern go?  Use quotations to back up

your assertions.

As she trespasses and gets arrested when she tries to

find out exactly what is happening to those around her,

she is trying to help out all of the inhabitants of the

“virtually uninhabited desert terrain” (667). She wants

questions for the “Clan of One Breasted Women” along

with those members of her family. Williams is not doing

this for just herself and her family, she is out for

answers to questions to see that the “Clan” does not

acquire any new members. She speaks of Irene Allen, who

testified against the testing, “so this wouldn’t happen

again to any of the generations coming up after us”

(665). Also, spoken in class, Dr. Winkle said Williams

chose not to have children so she would not pass the

problem to another member of the “clan.”

Message no. 304[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by MELISSA M RIVELL on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 10:25pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

Questions for Class Discussion Week 12

1.     Recount the two dreams Williams has—one as a child

and one as an adult—and comment on what the imagery

suggests in each.

The first dream Williams has as a child contains a flash

of light in the desert at nighttime. Her father later

tells her that her dream is real and that she, as a

child, had seen testing of a bomb while her and her

family were driving back from California through the

desert. The imagery in this dream suggests almost a

beautiful light “on the horizon, illuminating buttes and

mesas”(664) which is ironic considering this light

resulted in problems from radiation not only within the

Williams’ family but also for many people in the region

surrounding the nuclear testing site.

Williams’ second dream includes more details. Williams,

as an adult, dreams of “women from all over the world

circling a blazing fire in the desert” who “danced

wildly as sparks broke away from the flames and entered

the night sky as stars” (667). These women sang a song

that Western Shosone women sang on March 18, 1988 while

crossing the Nevada Test Site line in an attempt to

reclaim their land. The women in Williams’ dream were

also crossing the line to “reclaim the desert for their

children”(668). They wore mylar and “[wrapped] long

streamers of silver plastic around their arms to blow in

the breeze. They wore clear masks that became the faces

of humanity…The women moved through the streets [of

Mercury] as winged messengers, twirling around each

other in slow motion, peeking inside homes and watching

the easy sleep of men and women. They were astonished by

such stillness and periodically would utter a shrill

note or low cry just to verify life” (668). These women

were detained by soldiers in desert fatigues and sang

another song “louder and louder, until they heard the

voices of their sisters moving across the mesa”(668).

The imagery of this dream presents powerful, courageous

women protesting the wrong doings that the government

has done and continues to do to the people of the

desert.

2.     Describe the persona of the narrator in the essay.

What kind of a woman is she?  How do you know?

The narrator, whom I believe is Williams, has a dynamic

persona. She describes herself in her youth as a

compliant, obedient Mormon girl. The tragedies her

family encountered due to breast cancer caused her to

change her compliance into questioning. She places

knowledge of the truth above her faith. The narrator

realizes the importance of knowing herself and her

connections to the earth and others and standing up for

herself and her family. She has the courage to get

arrested for her beliefs.

3.     Williams’ concern goes beyond what has happened her

and to the women of her family.  How far beyond the

personal does her concern go?  Use quotations to back up

your assertions.

Williams has such passion not only for the misfortunes

the women in her family but also for anyone who has

suffered from the results of bomb testing. She tells us

“I must question everything, even if it means losing my

faith, even if it means becoming a member of a border

tribe among my own people. Tolerating blind obedience in

the name of patriotism or religion ultimately takes our

lives” (667). Throughout the essay, she cites

information about nuclear testing and the effects of

radiation, which proves she has questioned what has

happened to the people in the nuclear testing area. The

essay itself serves as a message to the world attempting

to tell everyone about the injustice of what the US

government has done to its own people.

Message no. 309[Branch from no. 304]
Posted by ANGELA-ROSE MANESS on Wednesday, April 2, 2003 1:27am
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

Melissa,    Wow, I really liked your response to

question two.  I think that it was well though out and

articulated nicely.  I'm not sure how I answered that

question, but I think that you brought out the essence

of the persona in a comprehensive and concise manner.  I

like how you described Williams as dynamic and as a

woman who knows the "importance of knowing herself."

With your response, you helped me to realize some things

about the persona that I did not know.  Great job!

                    --------Angela

Message no. 311[Branch from no. 309]
Posted by MELISSA M RIVELL on Wednesday, April 2, 2003 2:04pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

Hey thanks! I wasn't sure if I was getting anywhere with

the question. I was kind of searching for something to

say.  Glad that I helped you! ~Melissa~

Message no. 315[Branch from no. 304]
Posted by SELENA EDWARDS RIESS on Tuesday, April 8, 2003 7:37pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

Hi Melissa,

I like and agree with the point you made in the third

question about Williams' essay serving as "a message to

the world" about "the injustices of what the US

government has done to its own people." It is sad to

think that a government that was formed "by the people,

for the people" to protect us, actually has done the

opposite, either with or without the required

information needed to make a sound descision.  This

essay certainly makes one stop and think.

Great post.

Selena Riess :o)

Message no. 305[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by CARLING ANNE MARTIN on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 10:54pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

In message 297 on Monday, March 31, 2003 1:50pm, Dr.

Suellyn Winkle writes:

>Questions for Class Discussion Week 12

>1.    Recount the two dreams Williams has—one as a child

>and one as an adult—and comment on what the imagery

>suggests in each.

In Williams first dream, as a child, she sees bright

lights in the desert.  She later finds out that these

lights were atomic bombs being tested.  Her dream as an

adult is that of a group of women standing in the desert

at night, chanting.  There are bombs going off in the

background.  These women (some of which were pregnant)

trepassed into the town of Mercury and they were seized

because pregnant women and children wer not allowed due

to the hazardous radiations.  These women were singing,"

You can't forbid us everything, You cant forbid us to

think, You cant forbid our tears to flow, And you can't

stop the songs we sing"  They also said, "We are mothers

and we have come to reclaim the desert for our

children."  I believe that the imagery here is that this

dream represents the authors wish to be free to fight

this case of the bomb testing causing the cancer in her

family members.  It also symbolizes the fact that the

Mormon women and all women of this town are concerned

that these tests were being done on the land they lived

on and the land thier children played on.

>2.    Describe the persona of the narrator in the essay.

>What kind of a woman is she?  How do you know?  I believe that she is a strong, devout women but she is torn between her devotion to her families religios beliefs and her independence and will to do the "just" thing.

>3.    Williams’ concern goes beyond what has happened her

>and to the women of her family.  How far beyond the

>personal does her concern go?  Use quotations to back up

>your assertions.

She doesnt just care about what has happend in her

family, she is concerned for anyone who is having "the

wool pulled over their eyes" so to speak.  She is

concerned for other people who may be witnessing

inhumanities, like she once did, but are afraid  to

stand up for themselves due to government control or

religious beliefs. An example from the text would be on

the last page where she says, "But as I walked toward

the town of Mercury, it was more than a gesture of

Peace.  It was a gesture on behalf of the Clan of One

-Breasted Women."  She says that she was practicing

civil disobediance in order to stand up for women and

people everywhere who were suffering or who had suffered

at the hands of someone elses disregard and callousness.

Message no. 307[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by SHERRY M ISLER on Tuesday, April 1, 2003 11:47pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1)  In William's dream from her childhood (what she

thought was a dream) she saw a "flash of light" that she

later found out was in fact, a bomb being dropped in an

"uninhabited" space where she happened to "inhabit."

Her childhood dream is ironic, because it foreshadowed

the after-effects that would be felt many years later by

she and her whole family.  She saw the "light", the

explosion that secured her membership in the 'clan of

the one-breasted women' and eventually led to her dream

she had later in life which depicted women around a fire

circle and encouraged her to trespass into Mercury in

protest.  The imagery from the childhood dream signifies

her innocence and the unexpecting victim that she was,

along with many other people, of a tragic fate that was

to befall upon her and all the other innocent victims

residing in the area of nuclear testing.  The imagery of

the second dream is that of impowerment, quite opposite

of the innocent, unsuspecting victim.  The women are

impored and driven to speak up and stand against what

has been, of no control of their own, a tragic fate

determined by and for the "greater good."

2)  From the persona of William's in her essay, I know

that she is a strong woman with great faith in herself

and her beliefs.  She is strong willed and has faced

devistating challenges and loss within her family,

herself, and her community.  She refuses to quietly

accept her fate and "not rock the boat" as she

demonstrated with her opposition into Mercury as well as

the written protest she uses to educate and bring

awareness to these events.  The organization, the

method, the careful organization and inclusion of

certain details; she's highly intelligent and extremely

strong.  The kind of woman that makes you take a breath

and pause for a moment of admiration for her strength

and ambition.

3)  Her concern goes beyond herself and her family for

sure.  The sheer fact that she is writing her story to

bring attention and recognition to the story is evidence

of that.  As a writer, she is reaching to educate an

audience beyond the boundries of her residence.  She is

defending her clan of one-breasted women.  When she

speaks of her demonstration they staged in Mercury she

says, "it was more than a gesture of peace. It was a

gesture on behalf of the Clan of One-breasted Women."

"But one by one, I watched the women in my family die

common heroic deaths. We sat in waiting rooms hoping for

good news always recieving the bad. I cared for them,

bathed their scarred bodies and kept their secrets. I

watched the beautiful women become bald as cytoxan,

cisplatin and adriamycin were injected into their veins.

I held their foreheads as they vomited green-black bile

and I shot them with morphine when the pain became

inhuman. In the end, I witnessed their last peaceful

breaths, becoming a midwife to the rebirth of their

souls. But the price of obedience became too high"

(666).  She was raised to repect authority and to "just

let it go" but after all the dispair and sadness she

witnessed, her concern and love for them became to great

to sit idle and say nothing.

Message no. 308[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by ANGELA-ROSE MANESS on Wednesday, April 2, 2003 1:14am
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1.  When Williams's story first begins, she recounts a

recurring dream of hers about the nuclear-bomb testing

in Nevada.  To her surprise, she is told that this dream

really happened.  Then, her father vividly retells their

frightening story of their encounter with a mushroom

bomb.  This creepy "dream" conveys an eerie feeling of

death and elicits a deep sense of sympathy from the

reader.  The way in which her father retells the story

helps to bring the reader to that time and place and

lets the reader see the same ghastly sight that they

saw.  When the vision of "this golden-stemmed cloud, the

mushroom" arising from the desert floor comes into one's

imagination, he is left with a scary sense of war,

death, and total destruction.  These feelings of

destruction are intensified with the narrator's sad

story about her family background.  When the second

"dream" is told about the  women who danced, drummed,

and sang around the fire and twirled through the streets

of the radioactive-saturated city of Mercury, an image

of empowerment, life, and defiance is conveyed.  This

image is the message that the author is trying express

to her audience.  From these images, Williams is telling

others to take back what's theirs; she is saying that

the strength of life can overcome the dreadful

consequences of any devastating experience.  She lets

the reader know that people need to stand up for what's

right, even if this means committing an act of civil

disobedience.

2.  The persona in the essay is a strong and fortunate

woman.  She comes from a conservative, compliant Mormon

family, yet she seems to be just the opposite.  She was

pushed over the edge of obedience when no justice was

rewarded to their family and the families of the

"one-breasted women" for the nuclear-testing atrocities

in Utah.  She is fortunate in an ironic way.  I would

classify her as fortunate because she did not die from

the cancer that she got from the nuclear bombs.  Seven

of her relatives died from cancer, and she survived the

disease as she became part of the clan of One-breasted

Women.  This person must be strong to be able to deal

with the kind of torture that her family has suffered

and to be able to reclaim her life with a dignified

declaration of disobedience.  Not only is she strong and

fortunate, but she is powerful and effective in a unique

way.  She can express the injustice of the nuclear

testing and the "legal doctrine of sovereign immunity"

with a penetrating act of peace.

3.  Williams's concern is felt for all of the families

that were affected by the nuclear testing in Nevada, all

of the one-breasted women and any other diseased

victims.  Plus, she is concerned for the tolls that

taken on nature and its inhabitants.  She probably feels

the effects of the "fallout" greater than most other

victims and is still not self-absorbed in her own

hardships.  As a testimony of her concern for other

victims, she wrapped herself in mylar and plastic and

"wore clear masks that became the faces of humanity"

(668).  She did this to let others know that she is not

the only one suffering.  While many others like herself

suffered from the explosion of nuclear bombs, Mother

Nature also suffered.  She states, "[T]he roots of

mewquite and sage were smoldering.  Rocks were hot from

the inside out and dust devils hummed unnaturally...The

land was losing its muscle" (667).  She knew that these

tests were not just destroying the lives of thousands of

"virtual uninhabitants" (667) but were affecting the

lives of all creatures that subsided within that region

and the balance of nature.  Williams feels for all

things that suffered, and as a result, she partook in

ritual dances and songs and mischievous adventures in

hopes of "reclaim(ing) the desert for the sake of their

childeren, for the sake of the land" (667).

Message no. 312[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by ANNE C BAATSTAD on Wednesday, April 2, 2003 3:13pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1.  The speaker experienced a recurring dream of a

"flash of light" as a child that foreshadowed the

reality of the bomb testings. She didn't know that she'd

seen the bombs or that the bombs were bad, yet in her

dreams they haunted her: "I could not venture south

without seeing it again, on the horizon, illuminating

buttes and mesas" (664). The government tested these

bombs close to her home because the area was "mostly

uninhabited"... however, there is now an entire "clan"

of suffers who did indeed inhabit the area.     The

second dream has several images that provoke the mind.

Women from all over the world (world-wide suffers from

the disease) circling a blazing fire (bomb) in the

desert (uninhabited, vast area where representing their

homes). I'm not sure what is being illustrated here with

the waxing and waning phases of the moon, although I

believe it has something to do with fertility and the

consequences of the bomb. The women in the dream are

fighting for change, in hopes that the "hereditary

ailments" will cease, and their children with have hope.

2.  The persona of the narrator seems to me a bit

feminist, however, I don't see how one could be affected

in the way that she was with an entire family living and

dying by breat cancer - the women would have to possess

the strength to carry on in this way, knowing their

fate. Although her upbringing was Mormon and strict, she

speaks out against something that she believes can be

prevented in order to save the future generations. This

makes her a martyr in my book, that she cares this

deeply not only of her existance but of those soon to

be. It's very obvious to how the reader is, especially

when you compare the way she seemed before discovering

the testing and after realizing what was causing the

cancer.

3.  "A contract had been broken between human beings and

the land. A new contract was being drawn by the women

who understood the fate of the earth as their own".

(668) These women in this excerpt symbolize the women of

the world (primarily the narrator) who realize what is

causing the cancer and who fight to prevent it. Most

women don't realize the cause until they already had it,

so they fight to prevent the cancer in the future

generations. They want to warn as many as possible.

Message no. 313[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by SUMMER A SMITH on Monday, April 7, 2003 1:10pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1.) In the first of the two dreams that Williams

discusses in her essay, she describes what will later be

revealed to be a nuclear explosion, "I saw this flash of

light in the night in the desert." I found it especially

moving when she noted that - whatever it was, its power

"permeated" her "being." Physically speaking, there are

few objects in which a mere flash of light is capable of

penetrating like she mentions. Something must be

transparent, or translucent at the least, in order for

it be considered permeable. The imagery in the dream

suggest that the flash of light in the dream had an

affect more tangible than she'd expected.

In the second dream, Williams dreamt of women in song

and chant who encircled a fire demanding change, "They

mocked at the presumption of even-tempered beings and

made promises that they would never fear the witch

inside themselves." In her dream, the women danced for

weeks, in perparation for their plans to reclaim the

desert. Behind them, bombs were being tested as they

chanted. The smallest of creatures, even rabbits felt

the bomb's effect, "Their soft leather pads on paws and

feet recognized the shaking sands while the roots of

mesquite and sage were smoldering." The imagery

illustrates the point that every part of that desert was

being destroyed by the bomb testing. "Stretch marks

appeared. The land was losing its muscle."

2.) In the beginning of the essay, the persona seems

opressed. I believe that is due largely to the fact that

she and her family are members of the "Church of the

Latter-Day-Saints." The religion calls for a extremely

conservative ideology, that is also patriarchal -

leaving little authority/power to the female figures in

the family setting. However, because the bomb testing

had begun to take such a morbid toll on so many female

members of her family, it seemed that throughout the

essay, she began to emerge from that tradition and

exercise her right to dissent. Though it landed her a

criminal record, the persona seemed stronger

(emotionally) in the end.

3.) It's clear that William's concern/involvement goes

beyond the personal level as she cited cases that

involved people who were not members of her own family.

"Mrs. Allen was the first to be alphabetically listed

with twenty four test cases, representative of nearly

1200 plaintiffs seeking compensation from the US

government for cancers caused from nuclear testing in

Nevada." Beyond that, though, it seems that it isn't her

disgust with the testing alone that fuels her civil

disobedience. "Ike was it and the Cold War was hot. If

you were against nuclear testing, you were for a

Communist regime." From this quote it seems she felt

helpless, in her inability to demonstrate her

noncompliance without being accused of being

un-American, or Communist. Her concerns seem to

transcend the testing alone - there seems to be qualms

with our government in general.

Message no. 334[Branch from no. 297]
Posted by JOSHUA DANIEL COWAN on Thursday, April 10, 2003 5:16pm
Subject Re: Questions for Class Discussion

1. Williams has two dreams in her essay-one as a child

and one as an adult.  The childhood dream is of a

singular image-of a flash of light in the night in the

desert.  The impact of the image on her is evident:

it,"...had so permeated my being, I could not venture

south without seeing it again, on the horizon,

illuminating buttes and mesas.  Her adult dream is much

more detailed and vivid, as one would expect from a

person with more experiences and knowledge at hand to

draw from.  Women from all over the world came; they

danced and drummed for weeks to an old Shoshone song to

prepare themselves for the task ahead.  Finally, the

were ready.  They marched on to Mercury, Utah, draped in

Mylar and singing as the sun rose.  It became a template

for her crusade for the "Clan of the One-Breasted

Women".  She, just like the women in her dream, was

going to "reclaim the desert for the sake of their

children, for the sake of the land."

2. The persona of the woman in the narrative is that of

a woman transformed.  She has bucked the tradition of

the passive, unquestioning matron that dominates her

female ancestors and become a proactive, empowered woman

that reflects her time period and the general change in

the role of women in modern society.  One knows this as

she states so herself, "For many years I did just

that-listened, observed, and quietly formed my own

opinions within a culture that rarely asked questions

because they had all the answers...But the price of

obedience became too high."

3.  Her concern goes beyond just what happened to her

and her family to all the women of the "clan of

one-breasted women".  This is evident by her dream of

the women from all nations chanting and going to Mercury

to raise a ruckus.  "One night, I dreamed women from all

over the world corcling a blazing fire in the

desert...The women couldn't bear it any longer.  They

were mothers.  They had suffered labor pains but...the

desert promised death only as each bonb became a

stillborn."  At the end of the piece she says, "...as I

walked toward the town of Mercury, it was more than a

gesture of peace.  It was a gesture on behalf of the

Clan of One-breasted Women."