Pearl Diver Response

The film Pearl Diver portrays all Mennonites as simple farmers who avoid confrontation.  There is a lot of confrontation between Marian and Hannah but I am thinking more in the sense of confrontation with the outside world in the way that they seem to keep to themselves.  They are tight knit in their Mennonite sphere but they don’t really venture away from that sphere.  They keep their business private.  They are simple and strict and do not get mixed up in the ways of the world.

            The film seems to perpetuate a lot of stereotypes about the way Mennonites dress and act and the churches they attend.  Most Mennonites I know don’t wear such plain clothes or hair coverings. 

            I think that Goshen is a good location choice because of its high Mennonite population.  People can watch the movie and know that it is a real town that actually exists and not a set created to fit the movie.  However, it does seem to narrow the audience.  People from Goshen may understand things that others do not.  Some inferences may have more meaning to some than to others.

            The film seems to use technology to connect the main characters back to the old traditions of the church through the typewriter and the tractor and the burying of the necklace in the land.  There is still that attachment to the old ways no matter how things may change.

            Through Hannah’s manuscript, the film suggests that the Mennonite Writer and the Mennonite community will not often see eye to eye because the writer writes so that others will see their work while the community does not want their stories out for the public to see.  The work of a writer is not something they particularly agree with.

CMW Response

            In the current issue (Vo. 2 No. 8) of the CMW journal, the Indianapolis Writers Group focuses on Mennonite Identity.  The five members of the group each submitted article(s) and/ or poems that seek to uncover what it means to be a Mennonite, each having different answers because of their wide scope of experiences as Mennonites.

            This issue of the CMW journal caught my attention because of its theme.  Being a United Methodist, I do not know very much about Mennonites and their customs, beliefs, and focuses.  This issue is all about Mennonites seeking to explain what is a Mennonite.  In seeking to find the answer to this question I was pulled to this issue because of the different backgrounds of each of the writers who try to answer this question, especially “An Aggressive Mennonite” by Rodney Deaton.  I was excited to read a “non-cradle” Mennonite’s view of the Mennonite world.

            All of the authors in the issue seek to explain their viewpoint on Mennonite identity by telling their experience in the Mennonite world.  Daniel Hess, a “cradle” Mennonite, describes growing up in the very conservative Lancaster county Mennonite community and trying to keep harmony with them as he becomes less conservative.  Martha Yoder Maust talks of her experiences with many Mennonites all over the world and learning from their different viewpoints.  Ryan Ahlgrim started attending the Mennonite church when he was a boy and discusses coming into the Mennonite world with different traditions and habits than the other children in his Sunday School classes.  Rodney Deaton’s experience as a Mennonite is quite different from the other authors in the issue because he became a Mennonite as an adult.  He talks about mixing his non-Mennonite customs with those of the Mennonite ones he adopted.  Shari Wagner Miller’s poems talk of the life of a Mennonite farm wife.

            This issue of the CMW journal is inherently Mennonite, not solely because the subject is being a Mennonite.  Each article seeks to find peace and harmony where there is disunity.   Many of the articles show a belief in the importance of service and supporting each other and how the authors practice these beliefs throughout their daily lives.  Although their Mennonite journeys may have had twists and turns to get to where they are, they still hold to the core values of the Mennonite faith of following Jesus’ example, striving for nonviolence and harmony, and providing service and support for each other.  Hess not only tries to create harmony with his parents and home church in his autobiographical article but also in the three Garden poems he wrote.  Martha Yoder Maust seeks to do service through her gleaning while also seeking to keep harmony with those who do not understand why she gleans.  Rodney Deaton takes a different approach to harmony.  He sees the world differently than Mennonites who grew up in the Mennonite church and is okay with that.  He simply asks others to try to understand his hybrid view of nonviolence.

            After reading this issue on Mennonite identity, I still have questions about the views of Mennonites.  However, these questions center around the views of the more conservative Mennonite outlook.  I do not understand the strictness of their rules.  But then again, I have found that in almost every denomination one can find a conservative branch that is hard to grasp, or a branch of the same faith quite different from the others.