Tuesday, September 17, 2013


  • The South, in fact, while this vast Northern development has gone onstill remains an English colony, stagnant and complacent, having progressed scarcely beyond the early Victorian era. It is culturally sterile because it has had no advantage of cross-fertilization like the Northern states....

       What I believe Bourne is saying through this quote is, southern states are not culturally mixed up as the northern states are. Like the English colonies, the south hasn't mentally developed with being opened to new cultures having an impact with their already stable culture. The south in many ways is set in their way of living and have no advantages like the north, due to their "no room for change" attitudes. The dominant idea in the south is very Anglo-Saxon and anyone who lives there has to live by that idea despite what culture they may be native to. Due to their Anglo-Saxon mind frame, they truly have lagged behind in development, compared to the north.

        In the same sense I feel the south hasn't really developed as much as the north because they are to this day still very closed to a lot of different cultural influences. Though many different types of people from different cultures dwell their now, I feel the south is still very much Anglo-Saxon mind driven. I chose to interpret this quote because it stood out to me the most. For a greater part of my childhood, I was raised in North Carolina, so I can say I have personally observed what the south's dominant ideology is.  Maybe due to the south's history, the Civil War and Civil Rights movement, I feel the south is still very developmentally sterile and closed minded to other cultures. I lived in both the south and north and can tell there is a clear distinction of the two.