1. From a Native daughter
Trask is a native of Hawaiian which had a proper education until she has got her scholar. She has learnt the history of Hawaii when she was in the university. She is interested to learn it. During her learning, she found many things wrong in term of the history of Hawaiian. She bravely declared to the public especially Hawaiian that every thing they know so far is wrong. Hawaiian is laid by the previous history. Her strong willing to distort Hawaiian history results a new story of Hawaiian history. It is quite different with the story (history) that Hawaiian has ever heard before.
a. The mistakes made by Haole in term of Hawaiian land tenure
Trask realized that there was something wrong in the history of Hawaiian. She got different story from her mother and her school relating to Hawaii. After she got Ph.D, she believed that the historians were mistaken of creating the story of Hawaiian especially for land tenure. The story that she got from her boarding school that their ancestor was a primitive group. “Hawaiians had been ruled by bloodthirsty priests and despotic kings who owned all the land and kept our people in feudal subjugation”. It was a public history but this story was different with her mother’s story. It was wrong to transform the Kanaka’s habit at that time as feudal. Their ancestor thought that the nature did not belong to anyone. There was no rule in term of land tenure. The Kanaka at that time believed in their chief as the steward of God. This mistake absolutely came from misunderstanding of Haole (white) when they tried to understand the habit of Kanaka (the native). When the western came to this land and made their own colony, it was believed that they did not understand the language spoken by Kanaka. So they implied Kanaka’s habit as feudalism. They built their own colony, they neglected the language of the native and they applied free occupancy into oppressive.
b. The mistake of Hawaiian history
It was clear that the historians made the story of Hawaiian were absolutely Haole, because in the past the majority was from Haole. They came with their modernization. Based on the history they made, Haole liberated Kanaka from primitiveness but the fact they colonized the land of Hawaiian. It was proved when they built their own system without caring about Kanaka’s habit. The native at that time actually had their own way to live with their nature together. “Every body could plant and fish before the haole came”. This can not result the meaning that Haole liberated Kanaka from primitiveness.
“Historians, I realized, were very like missionaries. They were a part of the colonizing horde. One group colonized the spirit; the other, the mind”. It shows that Haole not only tried to colonize the land but also the native’s mind and belief. It was probably the form of puritan brought by Western.
2. In 18th century the condition of US was very terrible, because at that time there were two opposite area; southern and northern area. Southern US was an agricultural area where many slaveries and the farmland’s owner were occupied this area. The northern United States, however, was industrial area. In the beginning of 19th century, there was a slavery movement because they had to release themselves from inequality but this movement period affected unstable condition.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page )
This condition happened to Lizabeth and her family. The character of Lizabeth in the story that she was actually a good woman. She cared about her family. She tried to work hard as good as possible. But, the condition of southern United States at that time was terrible. Lizabeth’s family were blacks (in this story, it is called as colored man or woman) and they became slaves. Debt made Lizabeth’s Pa going away to the north. When her Pa never went home and he just leaves a debt, Lizabeth and her family decided to go to the north also. But the cruel condition in north made them fighting into a difficult condition. There is actually a law in the north but the realization did not work well. Especially for Lizabeth’s family, they must faced inequality at that time. It could be seen when they go to the police for Benny’s lost. She stopped going after she saw the policeman at the desk wink another when he told her “ Sure! Sure! We are looking for him everyday”. The police accepted their report but they did no do any thing. When she wanted to save her family from starving, she becomes brutal because the relief station could not give any help as soon as possible. This condition influenced Lizabeth physiologically. She got a bad character until the highest conflict, Lizabeth killed her son.
