Final Post 7/30/09

My favorite reading of the whole semester would have to be the first one we read, "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving. I found a lot of symbolism in it which made it very intriguing for me to read. I found that Rip Van Winkle represented America as it was just coming out from under the British's rule. I found Van Winkle's wife to represent Britain in that she seemed to rule Rip and once he comes back 20 years later from the mountains, she's dead and he's a new person (like America transforming from a set of colonies to an actual country). I thought this text had the most symbolism in it than any others we read. I would definitely recommend it to my friends, especially because it's not that long and my friends are big readers. I would definitely read it again because there may have been some stuff I missed that I would pick up a second or third time. I really understood what it was like to think outside the box when I read "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving because of the conclusions I drew afterwards. It was a great, short read that I definitely recommend to anyone who's interested.

Gilman/Wharton 7/27/09

I really enjoyed both stories. I felt they both incorporated strong points regarding the portrayal of women compared to men in society. In Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper" the lead character is supposively suffering from a nervous breakdown. Her husband treats her almost like a child, telling her explicitly what she can and cannot do while recuperating. The whole time the woman wishes to be able to go outside but instead she has to sit and look at this ugly yellow wall-paper, eventually driving her insane. The husband makes the situation worse by forcing her to live in that room for so long. The way he acts as if he knew everything and she didn't, treating her as if she was his subordinate, causes him to disregard her opinions or knowledge on the matter totally, and she's the one that's sick. "I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk...for I was crying before I had finished."
"Roman Fever" is about relationships involving women, yet instead between man and woman, Wharton's story focuses more on the relationships women have with each other. You can tell throughout the whole piece that both women are jealous of each other and though they are friends, they definitely have many negative things to say about each other. I really enjoyed the end when Mrs. Ansley revealed to Mrs. Slade, almost in full spite but coming off as innocent and nonchalant, that "'I had Barbara', she said, and began to move ahead of Mrs. Slade toward the stairway." While Mrs. Slade tried to trick Mrs. Ansley and write that note herself but sign it as her husband was extremely devious. Mrs. Ansley ends up getting back at her by telling her she had her daughter, who Mrs. Slade was actually jealous of her for, with Mrs. Slade's husband as a result of the letter. This happens after Mrs. Slade says Ansley and her husband had nothing compared to her and her husband. I found the emotion was really strong in this story and it really conveyed a lot.

Freeman/Chesnutt 7/26/09

I found Freeman's "A New England Nun" to be a good story but I also thought it was anti-climatic. It just seemed like the author spent so much time describing the scene and setting, yet when the action actually happens (when Louisa is overhearing Joe and Lily) there seems like there was no emphasis tied to it. It seemed almost ordinary or nonchalant like the reader was expecting to read this. I thought the way it ended was nice though because they both came to terms that they really didn't love each other anymore, at least not enough to marry each other. This result is hinted at all throughout the story:"But for Louisa the wind had never more than murmured; now it had gone down, and everything was still." This excerpt shows simply how love can lose its touch. How people can love each other so much at one point, but later on that same love has died down. It's almost like Freeman is displaying how we take love for granted. I found Chesnutt's "The Wife of His Youth" to be more race-incorporated. The way he describes people as "blacker" or "whiter" than others really stood out to me. We have not encountered this perspective of race by an author since we've been in this class. A lot of authors don't wish to step into that gray area, yet Chesnutt does. "'I have no race prejudice,' he [Mr. Ryder] would say, 'but we people of mixed blood are ground between the upper and the neither millstone. Our fate lies between absorption by the white race and extinction in the black.'"

Chopin 7/22/09

I thought Kate Chopin is different than any of the other writers we've read from. She explores the nature of relationships between men and women, as well as mother and child. We haven't run into this subject in depth this semester. Chopin describes the relationship between two men and a woman in "At the 'Cadian Ball" and its sequel, "The Storm". In it, Chopin portrays a the two different relationships two men, Alcee and Bobinot build with a woman named Calixta. Bobinot has always loved Calixta and vowed to marry which he does in the future while Alcee seems to be a crush of Calixta's and vice versa. They encounter each other frequently, unable to keep back from showing their love for each other and then ignoring the situation completely, even though Calixta is married to Bobinot. The story focuses on Bobinot's naive nature, and Calixta's nonchalant will to break the terms of her marriage for her unspoken love for Alcee. Alcee is also married himself, to Clarisse. Calixta and Alcee both ignore what happened between them and go on about their lives like nothing ever happened, much less both committed adultery. This is shown in the following passage how Alcee normally avoids the subject and tries to get his wife to stay away for longer.
"Alcee Laballiere wrote to his wife, Clarisse, that night...realizing that their health and pleasure were the first things to be considered." I found "Desiree's Baby" to be the most compelling of the three stories. It explores the gray area of mistaken race and it's effects on marriage. It was very powerful I thought as well as emotional. The twist at the end was great. "'But above all,' she wrote...belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slaver.'" Armand finds out he's not white after forcing his wife to leave when he finds out she isn't as well as their baby. W haven't run into any authors so far that explored race from this perspective. It raises a lot of moral questions that the reader is forced to think about had they been in the same situation in the same setting. Forbidden love, I feel, is the overlying subject of all three stories we read by Chopin.

Twain/Harte 7/21/09

I enjoyed both of the pieces by Mark Twain and Bret Harte. Both used small regional areas as their settings and I think that really improved the stories and made them more understandable as well as interesting. Twain uses the region to its extremes in "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". Not only does he have the setting as a small county with not very many people in it and extremely rural, but he also uses the appropriate dialect in the dialogue of his characters. "Thish-yer Smiley had a mare--the boys called her the fifteen-minute mag, but that was only in fun, you know, because of course she was faster than that--and he used to win money on that horse, for all she was so slow and always had the asthma, or the distemper, or the consumption, or something of that kind." The way Twain writes his dialogues, it seems as if you, the reader, are actually talking to this person in real life. The use of nomenclature like "thish" instead of just "this" really legitimizes the story, making it more realistic and interesting for the reader. This style is really emphasized in Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" as well as in "Tom Sawyer". Harte uses a small regional area like Twain, but in different ways. He too uses a small, rural village-like setting, as wel. as the appropriate nomenclature in the dialogue of the characters for that certain region. I felt that Harte's story, though not as realistic and descriptive as Twain's, had a deeper meaning and thought into it. He describes the way a newborn isn't only experiencing his new life, but is also enhancing the lives of others. Harte describes the beauty of the birth of life and how it can impact anyone around them, even a bunch of men who aren't that sensitive. Harte uses the small village of only males to enhance the beauty of new life. One part I found to be really impacting was the end, when Kentuck dies after trying to save "Tommy Luck". "'He is dead,' said one. Kentuck opened his eyes. 'Dead?' he repeated feebly. 'Yes, my man, and you are dying too.' A smile lit the eyes of the expiring Kentuck. 'Dying!' he repeated;'he's a-taking me with him. Tell the boys I've got The Luck with me now:' and the strong man, clinging to the frail babe as a drowning man is said to cling to a straw, drifted away into the shadowy river that flows forever to the unknown sea." Kentuck's rural dialect really enhances the legitimacy of the scene, making the reader feel like he or she is right there with them. I also liked how Harte used such basic nicknames as Kentuck and Cherokee Sal to name the characters. They're obviously named after first impressions with not much thought behind them, something that guys tend to do when nicknaming each other. I felt that really contributed to the atmosphere of an all-male village, which would be a strange place to be I think.

Davis 7/17/09

I found Rebecca Harding Davis's "Life in the Iron-Mills" to be just as powerful as the works we've read by Douglass, Stowe, and Jacobs. Davis's critique of the harsh life of iron-mill workers raises similarities to the anti-slavery writings when Davis writes about hopeless lives of starvation, little money, as well as pure monotony. Davis brings out the horrors of living a working class life during the Industrial Revolution when workers were often abused by their overseers, just as slaves were abused by their slave owners, granted the workers were never whipped or hung. These workers suffered from harsh conditions with little pay and long hours, unable to see their families most of the days and most likely having to encounter major health problems later on in life. "If you could go into this mill where Deborah lay, and drag out from the hearts of these men the terrible tragedy of their lives, taking it as a symptom of the disease of their class, no ghost Horror would terrify you more." Davis refers to these men's social class as a horror, asking the reader, no matter what social class you may constitute, would you want to live in those conditions? Davis raises the question of why is the working class so oppressed at the hands of the wealthy? What makes a social class? What makes these people better or worse than others? Why does money decide this in so many cases? Why must one live such a horrible, seemingly meaningless life just because he or she doesn't have as much money? Davis raises questions in "Life in the Iron-Mills" regarding class and work oprression just as Douglass, Jacobs, etc. raised questions regarding the institution of slavery. That's why I think this writing was just as powerful.

Melville 7/17/09

At first I found Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno" to be really frustrating and difficult to read. For most of the story, the reader is left in the dark. Then at the very end, the reader is given the explanation for so much questioning. The ending is very good, I thought. It really rewards you for reading through the confusing material given before. The best part was to go back and find the hints, almost like putting the pieces in a puzzle. There were many events that hinted at what would happen later. Many clues showing evidence that "everything isn't as it seems". "He [Captain Delano] inquired how it was that the scurvy and fever should have committed such wholesale havoc upon the whites, while destroying less than half of the blacks." This hint asks the reader, if there was really a huge storm that damaged the ship and wasted so many lives, how come the whites were affected way more harshly than the slaves? "Although the scene was somewhat peculiar, at least to Captain Delano, nor, as he saw the two thus postured, could he resist the vagary, that in the black he saw a headsman, and in the white, a man at the block." Delano is viewing the servant and Don Benito in their respective postures, though they pass if off as if Babo is controlling Cereno. These hints really enlighten the reader after reading through the story once already. This story should be read twice to really understand what was going on.