To the Discussion Leader
William Durbin, the author of The Journal of Otto Peltonen: A Finnish Immigrant, says, "Though I have written in a variety of genres including poetry, plays, and essays, historical fiction remains my favorite. Interviewing people and searching through period newspapers, diaries, letters, books, and magazines in an attempt to capture the character of another time is both a challenge and an adventure."
In his second novel for the My Name Is America series, William Durbin succeeds in capturing the character of another time. Set in the author's own hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota in 1905, the journal weaves the story of Otto Peltonen and his Finnish family who come to America in search of the good life as father and son work in the mines of northern Minnesota.
Readers will be able to put a human face to terms such as scab labor and being blacklisted. Durbin presents graphic word pictures of terrible working conditions; management's disregard for human life; corrupt supervisors; and an iron-willed determination on the part of the mine owners to squelch any attempts that the immigrant workers might make to unionize.
Clandestine union meetings, and fellow workers and neighbors paid to spy on behalf of the Oliver Iron Mining Corporation, add intrigue to a tale of immigrant dreams and harsh realties in a new country. Mostly, though, this is a story of human resilience and hope for the future.
Summary
Fifteen-year-old Otto Peltonen, with his mother and two sisters, leaves his home in Finland to join his father already working in the iron mines of Minnesota. It is May of 1905, and the two-week crossing is wretched, with seasick passengers crowded into steerage, "the lowest compartment of the ship." Yet the promise of a better life in America, where there are "big, white houses and broad, tree-lined streets," gives the family hope.
After a joyful reunion in Duluth and a short train ride to Hibbing, reality sets in. Otto sees that their house is really a "three-room shack with a second bedroom tacked on the rear " in a squatters' camp called Finn Town. Dust from the mine covers everything, and mosquitoes swarm through the cracks in the walls. Otto's father must work long hours for low wages under dangerous conditions where miners are constantly being injured or killed. He dreams of earning enough money to buy a farm and move his family out of Finn Town.
Otto becomes friends with Kaarlo (Nikko) Nikkola, and together they go fishing and explore the town. Nikko introduces Otto to his wonderful collection of books and lets him borrow them any time he wants. Otto begins school, but decides to drop out after a year and work in the mine in order to help save money for the farm.
The miners, angry at the poor working conditions, begin to talk about Socialism and striking, but they must guard what they say because there are hired spies who can blacklist a miner so he'll never work anywhere again. Father goes to Socialist Party meetings and joins the Western Federation of Miners. When the Union submits just three demands to the mining company, the company fires 300 workers. The miners strike, but with few supporters, they gain nothing. The company hires replacement workers, and things get violent. Many Finns are blacklisted and forced to leave town. Some, like Nikko's family, must return to Finland.
Fortunately, Father has found a farm to buy and with the money he and Otto have saved is able to pay the down payment. With the extra money Father has earned from woodworking, they buy a cow, tools, and a plow and get ready to move. Their dream of oma tupa, oma lupa has become a reality.
Thinking About the Book
1. Who inspired Otto to keep a journal? Why?
2. What were some of the reasons so many Finnish people left their country between 1900 and 1920 to start a new life in the United States?
3. How does the son's opinion of his father change when Otto goes to work in the mines?
4. What is the meaning of the Finnish proverb "Oma tupa, oma lupa?" Why is it important to Otto's family?
5. Why do you think the author of The Journal of Otto Peltonen, William Durbin, put the Nikkola family in this book? What happens to the family by the end of the story? Why?
6. Otto and his father try hard to get the miners organized and get better pay and working conditions, but that never happens, though the family does save enough money to buy a farm. Do you think The Journal of Otto Peltonen is a story of success or failure? Explain.
Student Activities
1. Divide the following terms among the members of your discussion group. Ask each person to define the term and explain its importance in The Journal of Otto Peltonen.
socialism
sauna
women's suffrage
Wright brothers
Andrew Carnegie
scab workers
2. Otto wishes he could play baseball for the local team in Hibbing, Brady's Colts, but "Mr. Brady doesn't let Finns play on his team." Why were Finns discriminated against? Check out web site
http://news.mpr.org/features/199706/10_losurem_finnpoor/finnpoor2.htm
and read the short history of the Finns in Minnesota. Discuss with
your group why you think Finns were treated so poorly.
3. Locate Lehtimäki, Finland on a map. Trace Otto's route from there to Denmark, England, Canada, Duluth, and finally, Hibbing, Minnesota. Using the mileage scale, decide approximately how many miles Otto's journeyed.
4. There is another character in the My Name Is America
series who is also an immigrant who comes to America with dreams
in his head. Compare Otto's experiences with those of Wong Ming-Chung
in The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner, California,
1852, by Laurence Yep (0-590-38607-7). How are these immigrant
experiences in America the same? How are they different?
An Interview with William Durbin
Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D. & Eleanore S. Tyson, Ed.D.: In the Acknowledgements you thank your Finnish friends who shared their stories with you. How did these stories find their way into Otto's journal?
William Durbin: The Mesabi Iron Range, the place where I've lived for the past 25 years, was a common destination for Finnish immigrants at the turn of the century. Many of the parents and grandparents of my friends experienced the same things that Otto lives through in his journal. Because of strikes or accidents or being blacklisted they left the mines just like the Peltonens did, and they started small farms on the rocky, cut-over lands of northern Minnesota.
RFA & EST: Who is your favorite character in Otto's journal? Why?
WD: My favorite character is Otto. It was fun for me to imagine what it would be like to arrive in a strange country at such a young age. I was also able to use some first hand experiences, because when I was not much older than Otto, I worked in an iron mine operated by United States Steel (the parent company of the Oliver Mining Company, which I describe in my journal).
RFA & EST: Otto's journal is filled with unsuccessful attempts to get the miners to unite for better pay and working conditions, but in the end the attempts fail and the Peltonen family starts life anew on a farm. Is The Journal of Otto Peltonen an optimistic or a pessimistic story?
WD: Though the story starts out pessimistically, I think the ultimate success of the Peltonen family in obtaining their homestead gives it an optimistic tone at the end. Unfortunately, in real life not every family was able to realize their dream of land ownership.
RFA & EST: Newspapers such as the Mesaba Ore play an important role in Otto's journal beyond the fact that they were used as wallpaper. What newspapers and other documents were most helpful to you in creating Otto's journal?
WD: In addition to the Mesabi Ore newspaper, I studied a number of other newspapers, magazine articles, speeches, interviews, books, and doctoral theses that recount the history of the Mesabi Iron Range. I was also fortunate to correspond via email with a teacher from Lehtimäki, Finland, named Heikki Honkala. Heikki helped me create a realistic picture of the Finland that Otto left behind, and he also secured the cover photo for the book from the Soini Historical Society. Other helpful sources included oral history tapes, immigration records, and mine accident statistics that are housed at the Iron World Research Library in Chisholm, Minnesota.
RFA & EST: Education, books, and reading are very important to Otto and his friend Nikko. How did the Finnish immigrants feel about the importance of education?
WD: The Finnish people had the highest literacy rate of all the European immigrants. They not only placed a great value on reading, but they were also skilled craftsmen, and they appreciated music and the arts as well.
RFA & EST: You've written historical fiction books in both journal and non-journal format. Does the format change your writing process in any way?
WD: Conventional fiction is developed through chapters that are linked together by transitions. However, a journal format should "leap" more from idea to idea as a real diary would. For a journal format to be realistic, it is also important to resist the temptation to tie the ending too neatly together.
RFA & EST: If you could ask young readers of Otto's journal one question when they finished the book, what would that question be?
WD: Can you see any potential dangers for our society if labor union enrollment and participation continues to decline as it has in recent decades?
RFA & EST: What is one thing you hope young readers will take with them after reading The Journal of Otto Peltonen?
WD: I would hope that by examining the problems that immigrants faced in 1905, young people will become more understanding of the difficulties that modern day immigrants are experiencing.
Discussion Guide written by Richard F. Abrahamson, Ph.D., Professor of Literature for Children and Young Adults, University of Houston, Houston, Texas and Eleanore S. Tyson, Ed.D., Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Houston, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Houston, Texas.
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