Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, Essay Example

The importance of Helen Hunt Jackson’s 1884 novel Ramona to American literature can be identified in terms of its unique treatment of the issue of race relations. Jackson’s work appears as a certain intervention within the dominant discourse of an America, a discourse organized around a largely European hegemony, in which those of non-European descent, such as Native Americans, are viewed as lesser citizens. In this regard, Jackson’s status as a female writer should also not be disregarded: this same dominant discourse of the time period can be construed as one that emphasizes a patriarchal hegemony. From this perspective, Jackson’s Ramona can be read as a resistance to the presence of discourses in the America of her time period that promoted any type of inequality. Jackson’s approach to race relations is to reveal the underlying ideological contradictions that perpetuate such a particular social construct. The aim of Ramona can thus be read as the attempt to deconstruct this very construct, in order to reveal its ideological core, while demonstrating how minorities are excluded from society. That is to say, Ramona demonstrates how race relations are structured through ideological contradictions: by revealing these contradictions, one can begin a movement to overcome such racism. At the same time, considering Jackson’s own status as a female writer, there is a crucial aspect of Jackson’s work that intimates the desire to overcome any form of exploitation whatsoever, through a demonstration of the stories of those who are excluded from the dominant discourse.

The narrative of Ramona is set against the backdrop of what may be termed a  colonialist discourse, yet a colonialist discourse that was very particular to the American paradigm. Davidson and Heryman suggest that the founding inclination of American ideology and the American political system, an ideology and system that informed the uniquely American approach to the colonialization of the continent, rests on the notion that “Americans had long believed that their country had a special, even divine, mission…Americans spoke of extending democracy, with widespread suffrage among white males, no king or aristocracy and no established church.” (427) The “manifest destiny” central to the American ideology was described by John L. O’Sullivan as follows: “manifest destiny [is] to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” (Davidson and Heryman, 427) What makes the American ideology and its particular discourse of colonialization complex is its novel intertwining of various themes: a commitment to a religious element in “Providence” that asserts the righteousness of such colonialization as fused to the emphasis on democratic principles against any centralized institutions of power. However, the same above citations reflect the clearly limited notion of such democracy: democracy is only to extend to white male immigrants. This initial colonialist vision dressed in religious and democratic rhetoric thus contains a radical exclusion of both women and those of different races.

Helen Hunt Jackson’s treatment of race relations in Ramona can be viewed as an attempt to show both the fundamental hypocrisy and injustice at the heart of such a discourse. The focus of Jackson’s text is precisely the issue of discrimination faced by the Native American populace. Jackson presents this through a melodramatic narrative, however with a potent internal message that intends to reveal the inner contradictions of the logic of racism. The race relations center around the story of the main character, Ramona, of half-Scottish and half-Indian descent, and her guardian, Gonzaga Moreno, who views herself as a Mexican. Their relation is structured around Moreno’s withdrawal of love for Ramona according to her half-Indian heritage. Accordingly, when Ramona wishes to marry an Indian man, their relationship is rejected by Moreno. The extent of Moreno’s racial prejudice is clear in her reflections on what to do with Ramona after she announces her love to Alessandro: “Ramona should be sent in disgrace to the Sisters’ School, to be a servant there for the rest of her life. The Senora would wash her hands of her forever.” (Jackson, 149) Despite the prima facie melodramatic plot device of Ramona potentially becoming a nun, the message of Jackson is arguably deeper: the solution the Senorita contemplates is precisely one of exclusion. The answer to the problem of racial intolerance becomes to exclude the so-called undesirables from society.

This gesture of exclusion crucially ties into the essence of the colonialist discourse that founds America. Insofar as this discourse is premised on a pseudo-democracy that emphasizes the rights of white males, such a democracy relies on a crucial exclusion: it decides who is to receive theses rights, and who is to be excluded from these rights. Jackson’s text is precisely concerned with this logic of exclusion, and moreover, the illogic of exclusion. For example, Moreno cannot tolerate Ramona marrying an Indian, despite the fact that Ramona is half-Indian; Moreno, moreover, considers her a proud Mexican. Jackson wishes to show the illogic of such stereotypes and the contradictions that are inherent to such a line of thought. These contradictions also show themselves when one superimposes the narrative of Ramona onto that of manifest destiny: the latter claims that democracy is its goal, but at the same time only allows democratic rights for some. Jackson is thus a critic of hypocritical discourses, which are founded on obvious contradictions.

Thus, in Ramona, Jackson uses the notion of race relations to think through some of the inherent contradictions of the discourses of colonialism, particularly in the form of American expansionism. Jackson’s critique of race relations centers on the paradoxes inherent to racial prejudice. Furthermore, these contradictions could be said to be symptomatic of the colonialist discourse of America that emphasizes a democracy only for some. By focusing on those excluded from the dominant discourse of American society, Jackson thus reveals the inconsistencies at the heart of this discourse.

Works Cited

Davidson, G. and Heryman, L. Narrative History of the American Republic. Nation of Nations. 5th ed. Volume 1. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing, 2009.

Jackson, Helen Hunt. Ramona. New York: The Modern Library, 2005.