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.

Douglass 7/15/09

I found Frederick Douglass's writing to be way more factual and imposing, at least on me, than Jacobs's or Stowe's writings. The main reason for this is the accounts of the "typical day of a slave". I.e. what they wore on a daily basis, their chores, the way they were treated, etc. The beginning of chapter 5 stood out above all other parts of the reading. In it, Douglass describes what clothes they were distributed, as well as what little food they received. " I suffered much from hunger, but much more from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, I was kept almost naked...He that ate the fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied." In this excerpt, Douglass describes the little clothing they received, resulting in him having to resort to sleeping in a corn bag to keep warm when little. This affected me because it just showed how little slaveholders care about their slaves. This was a first-hand account, made public after the writings' publication to non-slaveholders and people who didn't know the inner, cruel details of the slaveholder/slave relationship. Douglass then went on to tell how they ate. They got little food, and the food they did receive was called "mush" (boiled corn meal). Douglass's owner at the time refused to give them a sufficient amount of food, so when the slaves did receive the "mush", they had to act almost like animals, fighting for scraps, wrestling, with no utensils, forcing them to eat with oyster shells and other makeshift items, unless they aren't in contact with any, in which they resorted to using the bare hands. This treatment forced them to act like animals. Anyone being food deprived would act the same; fight over the little food that presented itself. These accounts I found to be really powerful, way more powerful than anything that appeared in Stowe or Jacobs's writings. It gives the cruel details that some didn't care to share or know, or that some (probably in Stowe's case) never even knew how bad it could get. Stowe probably couldn't even fathom what slaves went through on a daily basis; this caused a bias in her writing. Douglass's account is real, filled with gruesome details that did not come to the public's knowledge before him. He informed the greater nation of what it was really like to be a slave, using these daily accounts to sum up the sorriness of slavery.

Jacobs 7/14/09

I found Harriet Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" to be very interesting as well as compelling when compared to Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin". The obvious difference between the two is that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is all fictional and written by a white woman who had no idea what it was like to be a slave, much less even knowing what it was like to be an African-American back then. Jacobs's work is mostly nonficitonal and written from experience. I find this difference to be the basis of comaprison between the two works. While Stowe is writing from her perspective, Jacobs is offering hers, which is way more factual coming from experience. "Where laughter is not mirth; nor thought the mind; nor words a language; no e'en men manking. Where cries reply to curses, shrieks to blows, and each is tortured in his separate hell." I found this quote to be extremely influential in comparing Jacobs's work to Stowe's. While Stowe is somewhat igniting the reader to feel pity for the slaves, Jacobs was describing what it was actually like to be one. This quote displays the actions and feelings of what it was like to be a slave, tormented every day of their lives while in that hell. I felt that Jacobs reached out to the reader to show what happened "behind the scenes". Though "Uncle Tom's Cabin" may have been more influential over time, I felt that Jacobs came straight from the heart, giving it more legitimacy.

Stowe 7/13/09

I agree that Harriet Beecher Stowe used various forms of emotion in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that were heavily involved in allowing the novel to be a success worldwide as well as a strong form of social change. You see throughout the chapters we read, the Bible is referenced by both the slaves and the slave trade participants. Stowe allows the reader to identify with the slaves by using the Bible to refer to the moral wrongs being committed by tearing people away from their families to live a life of hard labor with basically very minimal freedom. I found one quote, spoken by Tom, in which he really summed up how horrible and morally low it is to be a slave trader, that really stood out to me. "'...but the Lord's grace is stronger; besides, you oughter think what an awful state a poor crittur's soul's in that'll do them ar things,-you oughter thank God that you an't like him, Chloe. I'm sure I'd rather be sold, ten thousand times over, than to have all that ar poor crittur's got to answer for.'" This quote stood out to me because of how Tom would rather be a slave for the rest of his life than have the "poor soul" of Haley, a slave trader out to get him. It shows the reader how morally wrong slave trading is by using the dialogue of characters. She uses Tom as a tool to allow the reader to identify with the slaves, because we are all humans. We can all relate to each other. But, at the time, slaves weren't treated humanely at all. Allowing us to identify with what it's like to being treated in such a way the slaves were, Stowe has created a vehicle for social change. That vehicle is "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and the emotions portrayed by the characters.

Poe 7/12/09

What I found similar in the three stories we read written by Poe was the issue of mental instability and sanity. In "Tell-Tale Heart", the main character tries to plead his sanity after he has killed a man, that reason being specifically unidentified, yet the more he does, the more it becomes evident that he is guilty. In "The Black Cat", the lead character also seems to be on the verge of insanity, in which when the character thinks the cat is trying to avoid him so he hangs it. Then when coming in contact with a similar looking cat, he tries to kill it, only to be stopped by his wife, who then he kills because she tried to stop him. All the while, he is fighting the guilt that is brought on by his actions, trying to convince himself he is in fact sane. "The Fall of the House of Usher" deals wth the lead character, Roderick Usher's mental problems. Many mental diseases are described by Poe that cause Usher to act insane and leads the narrator, a visitor, to think he is in an extremely poor mental state. All three of these stories dealt with the inner mentality of people, and what can happen when one actually does lose his or her sanity. This acts as "Americanizing" gothic literature in which just as English goth writers used castles and demons to convey fear and uncertainty in the novels, Poe uses the inner mental sate of human beings and how though someone may appear normal on the outside, no one knows what's actually going on inside that person. He shows his readers that mental instability can be just as dangerous and frightening as anything else.

Hawthorne 7/8/09

All three of Hawthorne's stories that we read involve the saying "everything isn't as it seems" about the subconcious natures of human beings. In "Young Goodman Brown," Goodman strays from his village and family to follow a mysterious figure who you find out is the devil. He meets with him and follows him. While following him, he finds more and more people joining the ceremony that they were heading to, many of these people being from Brown's village, and one of the last to show up is his wife, Faith. He sees all these people, people he thought were decent and good, following the path of the devil and about to join the higher powers of wickedness. He realizes how those he previously thought of as devout Puritans expressing their will for the devil. His emotions boil over when it's he and his wife's turn to join wickedness, yet right before they do he asks his wife to resist and stay with the church. She doesn't, and suddenly everyone disappears, leaving Goodman by himself. In "The Minister's Black Veil," a minister in starts wearing a black veil one day, and doesn't take it off until he dies, while never telling anyone why he's wearing it. What he does portray to the people of the village is that they are all wearing black veils, they all have sinned and are trying to hide it, but the black veil brings it out. In "The Birth Mark," a husband, Aylmer seeks perfection by persuading his already beautiful wife, Georgiana, to get the birthmark on her face removed. He doesn't notice it until they are married, but every day he sees it it makes him love her less. This affects Georgiana because she realizes how her husband doesn't love her as much, causing her to want it to get removed. Once it's removed, Aylmer is allowed a moment of perfection until his wife dies. I believe this is a story exemplifying the saying of how you only achieve perfection a moment before death. All three of these stories concentrate on the subconscious levels of human beings, but are dealt with in different ways. Goodman Brown refuses to forgive his friends and family for being sinners and following the devil, ending up with him being left alone and somber. Reverand Hooper wears a black veil to symbolize that he's a sinner, even if people don't know how he sinned. This shows his followers that a lot of other people are sinners, they just try to hide it, but with a black veil, no matter if people know what you did or not, they know you are a sinner, and essentially you are hiding nothing. In "The Birth Mark", Aylmer doesn't realize how much his wife's birthmark bothers him and almost makes him hate her, until they become married, then after his loathing builds up every time he sees her. His strive for perfection is subconscious, and ends up ruining both his and his wife's life while searching for it. All three stories dive into the subconscious aspect of human beings and how it can destroy many lives, unless it is realized and dealt with.

Apess/Emerson

After reading Apess's "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man", I really understood many of the points Apess made. Basically, the main point he was maintaining in my mind was that "All men are created equal." He brought up really great points about how if someone did something noble, is it not as noble in God's opinion if it's not done by a white man? He refers to God and Jesus a lot, in which he describes actions that both white men and everyone else are capable of, and then displays how they are no different in the minds of God and Jesus Christ whether you are white, black, etc. Why, Apess asks, must prejudice and oppression, especially to Native Americans, exist when everyone knows it's not right yet it keeps going on? I found Emerson's speech to be a lot harder to grasp. In his speech, he too describes what it is to be man. While Apess writes about how all men were created equal, thus should be treated equally, Emerson narrows down mankind into one who is "Man Thinking". "Man Thinking" isn't just a human being, but one that can perform and make the world a better, more efficient place. Just "Man" is the man on the farm, yet "Man Thinking" is the man who is utilizing the farm, and using it for the better of society. "Man Thinking" is what separates humans from all other beings. The ability to utilize yourself and become productive by using thought and logic creates a whole new type of being, different than the one who was born without any real experience in the world. We turn into "Man Thinking" throughout our lives, so what I feel that Emerson is getting at is that though we are all created equal, some utilize their abilities to think and make logic of things more often and better than others, creating inequality. He describes the "American Scholar" as a person that can do this, and a person who other people stive to be, some being more successful than others. That is the main difference I found between Apess's writing and Emerson's speech.

Introduction/Rip Van Winkle

Introduction:
My name is Charles Elrod. I'm from San Antonio, Texas. I am 21 years old and a junior at TCU. I am an advertising/PR major. If I were chancellor at TCU, I would try to build stronger relationships with the students, like creating more traditions as well as allowing a fun tailgating scene at football games, and changing the food situation so that they can eat at other restaurants other than the cafeteria, which gets old after a while. If I could have dinner with any three people they would be Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Seinfeld, and Seth Rogen. Really the only time I read is during the summer when I'm not busy with school. I read mostly magazines like "Rolling Stone", "Sports Illustrated", and "The Sporting News". I also enjoy reading books. Some of my favorites in the past have been "Catcher in the Rye", "Jimi Hendrix: Room Full of Mirrors", "Stairway to Heaven", "In the Company of Heroes", and "A Million Little Pieces". I believe I am good at writing but I don't necessarily enjoy it. It's very frustrating sometimes when you have writer's block. Like most other people my age, I text message a lot but I haven't gotten into the twittering because I don't really understand what it is. I have read, understood, and agreed to the syllabus.

Blog Address:
Charles Elrod, ENGL 20503, http://charleselrod.blogspot.com

Rip Van Winkle:
I really enjoyed the "Rip Van Winkle". I'm not really into the superhuman, mythology, almost sci-fi genre that is present in the story, but I enjoyed it in this particular one. I feel as though Rip Van Winkle is kind of a weak man. He would do stuff for other people but when it came to himself and his family, he never seemed to prevail. In a sense, he represents America while it was just a set of colonies controlled by Great Britain. His wife, I feel, represents Great Britain because she's always chastising him and scolding him for the things he does wrong. He then climbs up the mountains with his dog, meets and old man who gets him drunk and passed out from liquor. He wakes up 20 years later and comes back down to realize how much everything has changed. At first frightened by the change, he realizes that the United States is now a country after defeating Great Britain in the Revolution. He's scared until he hears the death of his wife which occurred a few years earlier. What this story represents is the change of America after the Revolution. In the end of the story, Van Winkle is looked up to by other men who wish they could've drank the liquor that was served to him, but before, like America, he was weak and despised his wife while also being frightened of her (just like the colonies' relationship with their mother country). While he wasn't really accepted by those when the colonies were ruled by Great Britain, he finds himself finally accepted when he comes back to a new, stronger country.