https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/i-am-a-16th-generation-vermonter/Content?oid=2142222
Nick Cook
10/29/2019
Narrative Analysis of “I Am a 16th-Generation Vermonter” by David Carkeet
In Vermont, there exists a strong difference between people who were not born here and recently moved to the state, so-called “flatlanders”, and the people who’ve lived here for generations. For many old-timer Vermont communities having a family that can trace several generations to the state is a source of pride and more negatively they won’t consider people who’ve just recently moved to the state “real Vermonters”. In this piece, the writer David Carkeet mocks this idea.
Abstract
From the first paragraph “Not really. I just want eighth-generation Vermonters who read those words to know what it feels like to be eight generations behind in a race where it is impossible to make up ground.” Carkeet establishes the bold claim of the title and then relates it to his feeling of distance from native Vermonters due to native Vermonters claiming that you have to have this many generations to be a “real” Vermonter. The language used such as “a race where it is impossible to make up ground” really helps establish sympathy and the feeling of not belonging to a place.
Orientation
Carkeet describes his upbringing in Saint Louis and how no one wanted to identify with the area they came from while here in Vermont people seem psychotically attached to their roots. Carkeet then goes on to use examples such as a local paper starting an obituary for a woman who spent her life working for the state red cross with “though not a native Vermonter…” to establish the absurdity of how much people in Vermont cling to the idea of identity springing solely from birthright alone.
Complicating Action
“What virtue attaches to geographic inertia? In all other contexts, don’t we celebrate the spirit of exploration? Am I supposed to be impressed with someone because he’s never gone anywhere?” With a series of questions, the author reveals his main thesis that a Vermont identity centered on never leaving the state and having a family line that never deviated from those borderlines is fundamentally opposed to the spirit of innovation and change that Vermonters supposedly embrace.
Result
Carkeet talks about going back to father’s home in California and how that allowed him to relate to people who cling onto their long ancestral ties to Vermont. He describes the feeling of working the same land with the same tools his father used gives him a greater sense of purpose and connection to him and how these ancestral values create a sense of community. He then describes how over the years of living in Vermont he’s been able to participate in the same community values in spite of being a transplant to the state.
Evaluation
He finally evaluates the silliness of white Vermonters being obsessed with time spent in the state by bringing up the fact that the people from the Native Abenaki Tribe have lived here for centuries and that they are the only true inheritors of the title of “native Vermonter”
Coda
Carkeet ties it back to the start and the generation list-off.
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