Journal Entry on "Explosive Inheritence"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 16, 2011

Journal #28, Christopher Benefy

"But why the sickbed rather than the marriage bed? This is the occasion for Gordon’s boldest stroke. She has combed Dickinson’s poems for an “explosive ­image-cluster: ....  But Gordon thinks there were eruptions in Dickinson’s brain as well, accounting for the poet’s reclusiveness and even, perhaps, for her white dress, adopted for “sanitary” reasons. “What’s clear,” the author concludes, “is that she coped inventively with gunshots from the brain into her body."  But if she was an invalid confined to her house, what should we make of those baffling “Master letters”? Gordon suspects that the letters were little more than “a stirring fantasy,” mere “exercises in composition.” She argues, plausibly, that Dickinson’s imaginative fantasies about her Master “spilt into an actual relationship,” her romantic epistolary give-and-take with the newspaper editor Samuel Bowles"("Explosive Inheritance", http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/books/review/Benfey-t.html?_r=4&src=me).

 

 "Rich and other feminist critics have worked so successfully to dispel the idea of Dickinson as a hyper-feminine poetess that we now tend to overlook other salient features of her works. This focus upon the powerful images in Dickinson's poetry has provided a necessary corrective to the "belle of Amherst" myth, but we should not allow it to blind us to a whole range of other images. Rather than ignore or suppress Dickinson's diminutive figures and personae, we can return to them now, armed with feminist interpretive practices and prepared to read them anew. In our new approaches to reading the conventionally weak or powerless figures in Dickinson's poetry, we discover that she uses these figures in unconventional and complex ways. For instance, Margaret Homans provides a rereading of the daisy in Dickinson's poetry and letters, demonstrating how the poet, in her use of the daisy, consciously reworks that image. Homans argues that Dickinson employs the daisy as a forceful figure: the daisy inverts the power relationship with other figures such as the "sun" and the "Master," thus affirming its own strength. Homans firmly places the daisy beside the volcano, the loaded gun, and the bomb as representative of Dickinsonian power, not restraint (201-206). Joanne Feit Diehl, Jane Donahue Eberwein, Suzanne Juhasz, Mary Loeffelholz, Cristanne Miller, Barbara Antonia Clarke Mossberg, and Vivian Pollak also"("The Emily Dickinson Journal", Project Muse, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/edj/summary/v002/2.1.anderson.html).

 I think that Gordon's analysis of who Emily Dickinson was is very revealing and cuts rather deep.  The idea of her being stuck in her bed because of some ailment like epilepsy is striking enough as it is, and something surprising to me.  This thought did not even cross my mind when reading her poetry or information on her, but it seems to make perfect sense.  The lack of factual information on her seems to be the most interesting part as there is plenty of room to speculate.  However, reading some of her poetry again through the lens that Gordon makes clear, the words seem to take on whole new meanings.  I can clearly see them as the works of a young woman, stuck in her bed from some sort of ailment, and shut in her room by her own choice to avoid some of the explosive feuding taking place in her family.  She found an escape in her poetry and in a sense hid in her room from the imaginable screaming and yelling and disruptive arguments that probably took place in the household as a result of some of the feuds and craziness.  The sexual and marital nature of these feuds would have undoubtedly given her some subject matter for her poetry, yet she seems to almost rise above it, perhaps seeing it all as superficial and silly ti fight about.  This would lead her to her sick-bed rather than marriage-bed.  She did not want to have the responsibilities of married life, saw the difficulties that it could create, and had more pressing issues on her mind: her poetry.  She rather, confined herself or almost hid from the noise of everyone else, inside her room and was able to find refuge there, delving into herself, unsatisfied with the depth of the world that surrounded her.

Journal Entry on Emily Dickinson, part 2

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 15, 2011

Journal #27, Emily Dickinson

 "I died for Beauty - but was scarce / Adjusted in the Tomb / When One who died for Truth, was lain /In an adjoining Room - / He questioned softly "Why I failed"? / "For Beauty", I replied - /"And I - for Truth - Themself are One - / We Bretheren, are", He said - /And so, as insmen, met a Night - / We talked between the Rooms - / Until the Moss had reached our lips - / And covered up - Our names -"(448, p.86)

"That Emily Dickinson published almost no poems while she was alive yet became enormously popular when her first book appeared four years after her death is a well known fact.¹  The 1890 volume went through eleven printings and led to a Second Series in 1891 and a Third Series  in 1896; an edition of her letters appeared in 1894 (Sewall 707, n.1).  Today she and Walt Whitman are generally regarded as the two greatest American poets of the nineteenth century.  In Jungian terms, she is a "visionary" artist who compensates for collective psychic imbalance through an archetypal vision of another possibility (see Snider 6-7).  What Jung says of visionary literature clearly applies to the best of Dickinson’s work:          " [. . .] it can be a revelation whose heights and depths are beyond our fathoming, or a vision of beauty which we can never put into words. [. . .] the primordial experiences   rend from top to bottom the curtain upon which is painted the picture of an ordered world, and allow a    glimpse into the  unfathomable abyss of the unborn and    of things yet to be" ("Psychology and Literature" 90)."(Emily Dickinson and Shamanism, http://www.csulb.edu/~csnider/dickinson.shamanism.html).

 This poem I found to be particularly interesting, although somewhat dark.  I first read this poem and heard a negative social commentary.  From the very first lines, "I died for Beauty, but was scarce".  Beauty was scarce in the world, disappearing, dieing, and being died for.  Then one who died for truth, as all the precious and supposedly innate human rights and core values are threatened, believer's dieing for their cause.  She paints a bleak world, but this is not where the two subjects of the poem reside, they have departed that world and speak to each other from adjoining tombs.  One does not recognize it at first, but the other announces that they are the same thing, beauty and truth.  They are brothers, they are sure friends, as they have died for the same cause.  Perhaps this is a hint at saying that there was a lack of unity and acceptance between people, leading to less than successful, full lives, and to divided failure.  He asked why she has failed, as if dieing, the only entirely inescapable universal theme, was a mark of failure.  Perhaps, they have both failed, and he asks the question as much of himself.  But soon they spoke between the walls, until slowly a moss began to grow.  This may be some comment on how beauty and truth were seen to the people of her contemporary time.  Not only has the struggle to maintain beauty and truth died, but the very names, definitions, and idea of them has faded and been covered by natural growth and time, leaving the new generation with nothing to even compare the current society to.

Journal Entry on Emily Dickenson, part 1

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 15, 2011

Journal #27, Emily Dickinson

 

"340  I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, / And Mourners to and fro / Kept treading- treading- till it seemed / That Sense was breaking through- / And when they all were seated, / A Service, like a Drum- / Kept beating- beating- till I thought / My mind was going numb- / And then I heard them lift a Bok / And creak across my Soul / With those same Boots of Lead, again, / Then Space-began to toll, / As all the Heavens were a Bell, / And Being, but an Ear, / And I, and Silence, some strange Race / Wrecked, solitary, here- / And then a Plank in Reason, broke, / And I dropped down, and down- / And hit a World, at every plunge, / And Finished knowing- then-"(Emily Dickinson, 84)

"Dickinson attended primary school in a two-story building on Pleasant Street.^[12] Her education was "ambitiously classical for a Victorian girl".^[13] Her father wanted his children well-educated and he followed their progress even while away on business. When Emily was seven, he wrote home, reminding his children to "keep school, and learn, so as to tell me, when I come home, how many new things you have learned".^[14] While Emily consistently described her father in a warm manner, her correspondence suggests that her mother was regularly cold and aloof. In a letter to a confidante, Emily wrote she "always ran Home to Awe [Austin] when a child, if anything befell me. He was an awful Mother, but I liked him better than none"("Emily Dickinson, Wikipedia).

 This poem particularly fascinates me.  I first read it as from an auto-biographical voice of someone being driven slowly to insanity through too much knowledge and too much social stimulation.  The last lines lead me to believe that it has something to do with a surplus of knowledge, although perhaps sarcastically.  The last line, 'And Finished knowing- then' seems to imply this idea of the culmination of the pursuit if knowing and the arrival at the end of the path to insanity as occurring simultaneously.  I almost read it as a sarcastic, fictional, and vaguely darkly humorous plotting of her own path.  She knows that she is not going crazy, but perhaps feels it momentarily from intruding visitors in her room, from some of society's formalities, and from solitude.  I can see Dickinson thinking up this almost silly idea of herself pursuing endless knowledge, but constantly being disrupted, distracted, etc.  Then, this path leads her fictional self down a path to insanity just as she reaches the end of knowledge and has finished.  She writes a poem that tells this story, but it does more.  It is written in a way that shows the reader rather than tells.  She does not talk directly of the person's actions or even of reality.  She does not describe the subject of her poem in third person, nor give any hint to what they look like from an external point of view.  She instead, speaks first person, limits details in order to make it almost universally applicable to the individual, and speaks only of the person's perceived reality and how these things slowly make them crazy.

Journal Entry "Walt Whitman's America"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 10, 2011

Journal #26, David S. Reynolds

 

 "Whitman fastened to the word 'kosmos'.  ...[I]t pictured nature not in chaos or conflict but as a source of calmness, always in equilibrium, with humans as the acme of creation.  ...The infinite diversity but ultimate order suggested by the notion of cosmos is what made the word meaningful to Whitman.  ...For Whitman as for Humboldt, 'cosmos' signified both the order of nature and the centrality of human beings.  Humboldt said he wished to present nature not only in its 'external manifestations' but 'its image, reflected in the mind of man'"(245).

"Humboldt viewed nature holistically. He tried to explain natural phenomena without the appeal to religious dogma. Humboldt used extensive observation to get the truth from the natural world. He had a vast array of the most sophisticated scientific instruments ever before assembled. ... Essentially everything would be measured with the finest and most modern instruments and sophisticated techniques available, for all the collected data was the basis of all scientific understanding. This quantitative methodology would become known as "Humboldtian science." Humboldt wrote "Nature herself is sublimely eloquent. The stars as they sparkle in firmament fill us with delight and ecstasy, and yet they all move in orbit marked out with mathematical precision"(Alexander von Humboldt, Wikipedia).

Humboldt and his idea of cosmos are identified by David Reynolds as extremely significant and influential to Walt Whitman and his writings.  He begins with a description of Whitman's religious and deistic influences from his father as he was growing up.  His faith in religion was not extinguished, but his faith in the institution of the church was disrupted.  He witnessed, as other great minds of time did, that capitalism and materialism had infiltrated the establishment and hijacked their purposes.  He no longer saw churches that were centered on religion, faith, or spirituality, but rather on money.  Whitman read many of the science books of his time including "Kosmos" by Alexander von Humboldt.  He found great comfort, reason, and meaning in the ideas within it and direct correlations can be seen throughout his poetry.

Whitman clearly believes in this idea of the people, the plants, the animals, the earth, the stars, every single thing within the entire universe as being part of a whole.  This seems to have brought him comfort and some sort of an answer to his persistent questions about death.  This meant that death was not the end; birth was not the beginning.  There is simply a changing of roles as one leaves their body, playing another part of the whole, the cosmos.  This can be seen in many passages from "Song Of Myself" where he speaks of grass growing from the chests of men, of corpses fertilizing the plants, of the continuation of matter and life, despite any individual's actions.  Whitman's poetry is not only the image of nature reflected in the mind of man, that Humboldt speaks of, but also the depiction of how it is mirrored.  Humboldt used literary descriptions of nature to show what he meant by this reflection.  Whitman not only describes and reflects nature,  but illustrates his part in the whole.

Journal "Song Of Myself"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 10, 2011

Journal #25, Walt Whitman

 "Apart from the pulling and hauling stands what I am,

Stands amused, complacent, compassionating, idle, unitary,

Looks down, is erect, or bends an arm on an impalpable certain rest,

Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next,

Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it.  

... I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,

And you must not be abased to the other"(33).

"Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society.^[105] This connection was emphasized especially in "Song of Myself" by using an all-powerful first-person narration.^[106] As an American epic, it deviated from the historic use of an elevated hero and instead assumed the identity of the common people.^[107] Leaves of Grass also responded to the impact that recent urbanization in the United States had on the masses"(Walt Whitman, Wikipedia).

This quote comes after Whitman's description of his environment.  A detailed, beautiful list of what is around him in the city.  He says that he stands apart though.  He is of it, but not entirely defined by it.  He speaks of himself as an observer, watching the game that everyone plays, watching the people run around performing their roles in this society.  He is not entirely separate  either.  He is not just an observer, not just watching, but also sees himself within it.  This passage, in this way, almost seems like a description of an out-of-body experience.  He is writing from the perspective of watching all of society and the environment, including himself.  He is witnessing the entire society both from an outside perspective and that of every single person inside it.  He describes many of the different jobs that people are doing, many of the different sounds that are being made, many of the different things that make up the city, large and small.  He does this from a first person perspective to reinforce that he is all of them.  He speaks of a difference between his soul and the other I.  The soul is the artist, the observer, the one who sees all from an outside perspective.  The other is him as a man.  It is physically him within the city, literally what he does daily and the role that he plays.  He speaks from the perspective of his body, his physical being for a moment to say that he believes in his soul, speaking directly to it.  He explains that his soul cannot give in, cannot allow itself to be belittled or lowered by the other, physical identity.  He also says that this physical identity, the Walt Whitman that walks the city all day, cannot lower itself or be subservient to his soul.  As an aspiring musician, this makes a great deal of sense to me and strikes deeply.  I often feel as if there are two inside me; one is the physical self that goes to school everyday, relates with friends, goes to work, etc. and that of the soul which observes all, comments on it, feels in touch with all, transcends physical limitations, and thinks more deeply and creatively.  I feel that art, true art, needs both sides.  Whitman obviously understands this and seeks to portray it in his poems.  I try to do so in my music as well, especially in my lyrics.  The artist must be able to observe from outside and relate to each within, but also be aware of his own physical presence and capability.  It is a delicate balance and a fine line to walk.  It takes tremendous effort at times to keep both sides of oneself alive, equal, and functioning, but it can pay off in spades.  Creativity is achieved not when one bridges this gap, but when one becomes aware of the different parts within him and holds both as important, fosters the growth of both, and thinks and imagines from both, bringing the outside view of one's soul to the people in a way that they can readily relate to.

Journal Entry "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 3, 2011

Journal #24, Walt Whitman

"You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers,
We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate henceforward,
Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves from us,
We use you, and do not cast you aside--we plant you permanently within
       us.
We fathom you not--we love you--there is perfection in you also,
you furnish your parts toward eternity,
Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul"(25).

"A great city is that which has the greatest men and women".

"And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero".

" After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains".        --Walt Whitman

 This passage is the last few lines of "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" and is a very motivating, inclusive string of words that is dripping with the ideals of democracy.  Whitman begins with challenging statements confronting the reader and accusing.  He is admonishing people for waiting, and deeming them dumb.  But, he quickly spins on his toe, from dumb to beautiful ministers.  But, in a protective move, we are encompassed by the society,  by the us.  He goes on to say that we, meaning society and its people, use you, again speaking to the reader.  But it is not a damaging use of the individual, but a rooting and securing one, protecting.  He says that "we use you, and do not cast you aside--we plant you permanently within us."  His placement of "us"on the next line, indented, alone, is done to emphasize the all-encompassing sense of community.  The society loves the individual, the reader specifically in this case, and sees perfection in him simply because of his place within it, Whitman seems to say.  Each person must furnish their part, must play their role, must not because they are forced to, but must because it is impossible for a mind not to.  This translates to some of the ideals typical of democracy.  He is trying to challenge the individual to action, then encompassing and protecting as the individual as he acts, and using him.  But through his use, he benefits by gaining acceptance and support.

Journal Entry "Unveiling Kate Chopin"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 3, 2011

Journal #23, Emily Toth

" --but neither one could ever expect to have a profession.  St. Louis had few women's clubs or opportunities; there were no abolitionist or suffrage activities like those that occupied women in the East; and women were not allowed to attend law or medical school or St. Louis University.  Kate and Kitty knew intellectual and well-educated and capable teachers and administrators among the Sacred Heart nuns--but those women were cloistered.  They had taken the veil, and given up the world"(17).

 

"Even today, much of the criticism of Chopin's most famous work centers on Edna Pontillier's morals-- is she a fallen woman, a bad mother, a selfish human being? Why does the character still, in an era where sexual openness is not totally condemned, point us toward a discussion of what makes a woman "bad?" What does the novel say about constrictions and constructions of the feminine role, today and during the time it was written? What does the novel say about human consciousness, and conscience?"(Kate Chopin, womenwriters.net).

This passage comes from a description of Kate Chopin's early childhood growing up in St. Louis.  Her best friend Kitty was from similar social and economic status, although her father was still alive and the harmony seemed intact within their family's structure.  The young girls have few figures of women in high positions.  There is little attention given in their community to the growing tide of feminism and the only women of any intellectual prowess or freedom that the girls seem to exposed to are nuns at Sacred Heart.
I found this quote particularly interesting because of its relation to the woman in black from "The Awakening".  There is a mysterious woman in black, never introduced or fully described to the reader, that follows from a distance or tags along in various meaningful scenes.  This woman counts her rosary beads and seems almost devoid of personality or character, but still significantly ominous as a figure in the background.  Throughout the novel, the woman in black is often also placed alongside the two, in-described and un-introduced lovers that seem to follow Edna around in a similar manner.
Their places next to each other, the woman in black and the lovers, could be seen as either to highlight their differences and point to different paths that Edna could fallow, or, perhaps more likely, to show the almost conflicting extremes of citizens in this strict society.
If the woman in black in "The Awakening" can be seen as a religious figure and a nun, not much of a stretch since she counts rosary beads, then Edna could be seen as influenced strongly by religion.  There is an undercurrent of religious themes throughout the book once read like this, and, as Kate probably discovered and felt as a child, there are points that define the figure of religion as a both a role model and something to avoid, both examples of individual freedom despite society's limitations, and as the results of someone desiring to be free, but stuck within the iron cage of society.
I feel that Kate probably took both of these messages away from observing the nuns when she was a child.  She at once saw them as something to look up to; a woman that has cast aside society's shackles and devoted themselves entirely to the quest for truth and freedom, separating themselves from both social and economic pressures and constraints.  However, this means that the free woman must be chaste.  Something that Chopin obviously did not agree with.  Her rejection of isolation from society in favor of defiance of society is clear in "The Awakening" in which Edna commits suicide as a direct result of her solitude and isolation.  The pervading sexuality of the story also speaks to Kate's own opinions of what a 'free' and 'proper' woman are supposed to be.  Religion does not play a huge role in either case, the story or her life, but a background one of both reproach and warning, and of encouragement and exampled  success, excluding sexuality to fit into a religious theme, and not meshing well in this respect with Chopin's own attitudes.

Journal Entry "The Awakening"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

March 3, 2011

Journal #22, Kate Chopin

"When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore.  He was naked.  His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him.  Another piece called to her mind a dainty young woman clad in an Empire gown, taking mincing dancing steps as she came down a long avenue between tall hedges.  Again, another reminded her of children at play, and still another of nothing on earth but a demure lady stroking a cat.  ...pictures of solitude, of hope, of longing, or of despair"(554).

"Chopin now found herself in a state of depression after the loss of both her husband and her mother. Her obstetrician and family friend, Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer, felt that writing would be a source of therapeutic healing for Kate during her hard times. He understood that writing could be a focus for her extraordinary energy, as well as a source of income.^[6] She was quite successful and found many of her publications inside literary magazines. Some of her writings, though, such as The Awakening (1899), were far too ahead of their time and therefore not socially embraced. After almost 12 years in the public eye of the literary world and shattered by the lack of acceptance, Chopin appeared as a virtually nonexistent author"("Kate Chopin", Wikipedia).

 

This passage comes as Chopin describes Edna's reactions to the music being played.  Madame Ratignole had played the piano for her and it had evoke images in her mind.  This description of the images comes in as she waits for them to reappear, listening to Mademoiselle Reisz beginning to play.  The images do not appear, instead she feels as if her very soul is swaying in the gale-force breeze being stirred up by the notes.  Chopin's descriptions of the pictures that Edna had imagined tells much about her state of mind, personality, and thoughts over the past days at Grand Isle.

The way that Chopin separates Edna's visions into four parts and then lists four words to describe the emotions of them lends itself to the idea that each descriptive emotion was intended to relate to the respective image in her head.  They may all be interconnected, however, and the four words, solitude, hope, longing, and despair, may relate to all four images.  Yet, if you specify them to each respective image, they take on more specific, descriptive meanings.

The first image, of a man standing naked on the beach relates to solitude.  She is feeling solitary, and excluded in her sexuality and passion, or perhaps because of it.  She cannot stand the life with her husband, watches Robert slip away, and at the same time experiences awakenings of feeling within herself.  She is opening up to her own desires and sexuality, but either destroying or losing all outlets for it.  This leaves her feeling alone; awake in solitude.

The second image, described as hope, is of a young woman musically walking down an avenue with tall hedges on either side.  This seems like a reference to her youth, walking with blinded peripheral vision, hopefully and cheerfully headed to the future. 

The next is of children at play, corresponding to a feeling of longing.  This could mean longing for innocent and blissfully ignorant youth, or to a longing for her own children.  She has drifted away from a strong motherly relationship with them, if that was ever the case.  She cannot relate to them, cannot provide what she feels that they need, and yet feels the responsibility to fill this role.

The last image is of a lone woman stroking a cat, evoking feelings described as despair.  This is the stereotypical image of a 'cat woman'.  This represents either loneliness, as in the unmarried cat woman that has no other relationships, shut off  from the world, or it displays conforming to the social norms, losing identity, becoming 'homely' and easily content.  She feels despair, fearing this as a possible future for herself, as either shut out through her own actions towards that, or of giving in to societal pressures, dumbing herself down, and being a 'good victorian wife and mother'.

Despite her repeated claims to the reader and herself that she neither thinks of past nor present, these thoughts along with others show that she is very much aware and conscious of them pulling her back and directing her forward.

Journal Entry "The Storm"

"The society was agreeable; many of her old friends and acquaintances were at the bay.  And the first free breath since her marriage seemed to restore the pleasant liberty of her maiden days.  Devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego for a while.  So the storm passed and everyone was happy"(534).

"Chopin had the gift of equanimity and wrote on a lapboard in the midst of a busy household.  Many of her stories were written in a single day.  She claimed that she wrote on impulse, that she was 'completely at the mercy of unconscious selection' of subject, and that 'the polishing up process ... always proved disastrous.'  This method, although it ensured freshness and sincerity, made some of her stories anecdotal or thin"(529).

This passage comes from the end of "The Storm", describing Alcee's wife's feelings after receiving a letter from her husband telling her to feel free to stay at the bay longer if she wished.  Alcee has just had sex with Calixta during a thunderstorm.  They were lovers in the past, but Alcee ran away, pride not allowing him to violate a virgin.  However, now that she is married and not a virgin, he goes ahead.  Calixta's husband and son are out in the storm and hurry back, stopping only to clean the mud off of themselves and try to look presentable for her.  Neither person tells their spouse of their cheating during the storm, and it is presumed that everyone lives on happily ever after.

This ending seems rather shallow, unbelievable, unrealistic, and silly to me.  I doubt that in real life any affair that involved as much passion as was pictured between Alcee and Calixta would have ended nearly so innocently.  They obviously have a remaining passion for each other and both are unsatisfied with their marriages.  I believe that a more accurate picture of how this situation would end includes either, admittance and guilt by one of the involved parties, or probably more likely, continued interactions between the two and/or increased stresses within their marriages. 
At the same time, this passage and the rest of the story do convey some probably very realistic issues with marriage and gender roles at the time.  The women are both constricted by their marriages, trying to escape; something that seems to be a common theme in a lot of Chopin's writings.  This may represent a possible issue within her own marriage, but also probably represents common experiences of the time.  It also points to gender inequality and issues with traditional gender roles.  The women feel pressured to marry, yet obviously are not happy with their marriages.
The reference to "the pleasant liberty of her maiden days" implies remembering the past as better than the present.  This also seems to be something common in the two women in this story as with many in "The Awakening".  The people seem preoccupied with their past enjoyments and freedoms, leading them to feel trapped in their present situations.  They forget though, that they led themselves to this place, and are responsible for their own fates.  The women complain of issues in their marriages, yet do not try to fix them or find pleasure in what they have, but simply cheat on their husbands and contribute to the negative aspects of their present situations.

Journal Entry "Tahoe Beneath The Surface"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

February 25, 2011

Journal #20, Scott Lankford 

 

"For better or for worse, however, both floating odysseys ultimately end with the death of freedom.  Huck's friend Jim, an escaped slave, is ultimately returned to his 'rightful' owner, while Huck himself can only dream of 'lighting out for the territories' someday.  For Clemens and Kinney, catastrophe strikes.  Returning to their Tahoe timber camp one evening, Sam lights a campfire, turns his back to retrieve a frying pan, and finds that his campfire's sparks have ignited a massive forest fire. ... Now here's an even stranger point to ponder: in a letter to his mother describing the fire's 'devastation,' Twain constantly chooses military metaphors to describe the towering flames"(125).

 

This passage comes out of a description of the remarkable similarities between the experiences of Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain's first trip to Lake Tahoe, then Lake Bigler, an those of his famed future character, Huck Finn.  Sam Clemens and his friend set out for Lake Bigler, looking for virgin timber to claim and make a fortune with, but when Sam accidentally sets their trees ablaze, they watch their hopeful fortune go up in smoke from a raft on the lake.  Huck Finn and Jim float down the Mississippi River, hoping for freedom and fortune, but eventually have a similar outcome.

 

It is interesting and easy to see the correlation between the two; the descriptions of what it's like to be on a raft are remarkably similar.  In my view, it is believable that when Sam Clemens later returned to the Mississippi, seeing from the water the destruction on shore that was left behind by the Civil War, his mind wandered back to the experience in Tahoe.  He saw his old town, his old state, and his old ways of life literally and figuratively burned to ashes.  The wake of destruction left from pillaging soldiers, and failed attempts to truly free the slaves was, in a sense, the timbers that the future was banking on, were burning in an uncontrollable blaze.  This experience, if Huck Finn is meant as a metaphor for failed attempts at anti-racism, undoubtedly brought the metaphor to Twain's mind.  

On the question of why he consistently used military metaphors in his description is complicated.  He may have seen ahead to later destruction caused by the Civil War.  He may have seen it taking place and felt that both his old home, the South, and his new claims at freedom, wealth, and success (the timber claim) were going up in flames simultaneously.  Or he may simply have been surrounded by talk of war and enjoyed the comparison or even merely had the related vocabulary on his mind.  Either way, I believe, even with my limited scope of his work, that his experience on Lake Bigler or Lake Tahoe influenced his descriptions of floating the Mississippi in Huck Finn, probably drawing the correlation, consciously or unconsciously drawing the connection between the destruction that he witnessed in the post-Civil War south, and in his own accidental disaster, the flaming hopes of the past and the bitter reality of the present.

"It is not in the least likely that any life has ever been lived which was not a failure in the secret judgment of the person who lived it."

- Mark Twain's Notebook

Journal Entry "Letters From The Earth"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

February 24, 2011

Journal #19, Mark Twain

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. " -Mark Twain

“…yet they have tranquilly accepted this kind of a heaven—without thinking, without reflection, without examination—and they actually want to go to it! …they dream of it, they talk about it, they think they are going to enjoy it—with all their simple hearts they think they think they are going to be happy in it!  It is because they do not think at all; they only think they think.  Whereas they can’t think; not two human beings in ten thousand have anything to think with”(313).

The above is a portion of one of the letters sent back to St. Michael and St. Gabriel from Satan describing Earth.  He specifically focuses on the human’s religious beliefs, poking fun at their ridiculous nature, having seen and spoken with the creator himself.  In Twain’s story, humans are an experiment of God’s and our biblical stories and Christian practices are not true and come across as simple minded.  In particular, in this passage Twain, or Satan, is describing the follies of our human definition an description of heaven; it is full of harps, singing, and prayer which we do not enjoy on earth, and lacking any form of sexual intercourse, which the angels hold above all else. 

            This passage and the entire story, “Letters From the Earth” seem to continue one of Mark Twain’s big themes, the description of the ridiculousness of man.  He points out how silly it is for us to believe in, and even look forward to, dream of, a heaven consisting almost solely of things that people do not enjoy here on earth.  Twain, similar to his pointing out Fenimore Cooper’ literary offences, is highlighting the contradiction and ridiculousness in some of our traditional religious beliefs. 

            Twain obviously holds thought high on the list of important qualities.  However, he makes the distinction between thinking one is thinking and actually thinking.  In his exaggerated style, he states, “not two human beings in ten thousand have anything to think with”.  Twain seem to be one of these in his own mind, and in truth as history proves.  He sees through the curtains of pretence that we use to explain why certain things are held in popular belief.  His systematic discounting of each aspect of heaven, breaks this curtain down and shows that we were simply told to like it, to believe it, to dream of it, and we do not actually.  They way that he lays out the arguments, almost lawyer-like in its argumentativeness, clearly shows a high value for reason.  Twain consistently sets up what we believe as true, only to apply truly common sense and basic logic and reason to it, shattering its appearance of validity.  He seems to be at once laughing at and mocking the utter ridiculousness of our behaviors and beliefs, while almost annoyed at our ignorance and stupidity letting it go unnoticed, unquestioned for so long.  Not that he was the first, or the last to highlight the absurdity of people, but one of the great minds to do so.  It is as if he is saying, ‘wake up people.  Come on, just open your eyes, and try to think, just give it a shot.  You’re all crazy’.  And I tend to agree.

Journal Entry "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

January 26, 2011

Journal #18, Twain

"The reader will find some examples of Cooper's high talent for inaccurate observation in the account of the shooting match in The Pathfinder.  ...for this nail head is a hundred yards from the marksmen and could not be seen by them at that distance no matter what its color might be.  How far can the best eyes see a common house fly?  A hundred yards?  It is quite impossible.  Very well, eyes that cannot see a house fly that is a hundred yards away cannot see an ordinary nail head at that distance, for the size of the two objects is the same.  It takes a keen eye to see a fly or a nail head at fifty yards--one hundred and fifty feet.  Can the reader do it?"(299).

"On Nov. 30, 1835, the small town of Florida, Mo. witnessed the birth of its most famous son. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was welcomed into the world as the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. Little did John and Jane know, their son Samuel would one day be known as Mark Twain - America's most famous literary icon"(Bio, "The Official Website of Mark Twain, http://www.cmgww.com/historic/twain/about/bio.htm).

Mark Twain is in the middle of making it either painfully or humorously clear, depending on whose side you are on, that Fenimore Cooper's writings are not accurate, in any way, shape, or form.  Twain has listed multiple examples of Cooper's mistakes which range from poor word choice, to inconsistencies in his characters, to simple physical impossibilities.  In this particular situation in Cooper's novel, Deerslayer, three men are engaged in a contest, shooting at a nail head from a hundred yards, calling each shot from this distance.

Twain's scathing criticisms seem well grounded and backed with plenty of evidence.  At first, as the reader, I felt some sympathy for Cooper, being publicly challenged and given the dunce hat to wear.  However, Twain quickly points out numerous examples of his inept writing, and decidedly names his failures in a confident voice, although with only a slight air of authority or arrogance. 
The most meaningful and telling parts of Twain's critique seem to be his emphasis on accurate observation and true possibility in the details.  Twain exemplifies realism, chastising Fenimore Cooper specifically for his inaccuracy in observation.  Cooper's story lines do not come off as believable, because they are not, as Twain says. 
The natural restrictions of what is physically possible, what is truly reasonable, and what sort of speech is realistic for the situation, are obviously on the forefront of Twain's mind, clearly influencing not only his opinions of the contemporary hailed literature, but also his own work.  These criticisms surely helped Twain grow as a person and as a writer into what he became.  They shaped what his picture of quality writing was, and they inspired him to accurately observe. These ideals come across in all of Twain's writing.  His ability to observe, record, and accurately reproduce dialect, physical features, and natural tendencies on top of his outstanding ability to create brilliantly humorous, flowing, elegant, natural, story lines and characters while incorporating meaningful social commentary in his novels, short stories, and satires are what led him to his post as one of the greatest, if not the greatest writers of American Literature to have ever lived.

Journal Entry "The Other Two"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

January 26, 2011

Journal #, Wharton

 "...to ask himself if it were not better to own a third of a wife who knew how to make a man happy than a whole one who lacked opportunity to acquire the art.  For it was an art, and made up, like all others, of concessions, eliminations and embellishments; of lights judiciously thrown and shadows skillfully softened.  His wife knew exactly how to manage the lights, and he knew exactly to what training she owed her skill"(841).

 "In 1885, at 23 years of age, she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was 12 years her senior. From a well-established Boston family, he was a sportsman and a gentleman of her social class and shared her love of travel, although they had little in common intellectually.^{[citation needed]} From the late 1880s until 1902, he suffered acute depression, and the couple ceased their extensive travel.^[2] At that time his depression manifested as a more serious disorder, after which they lived almost exclusively at The Mount, their estate designed by Edith Wharton. In 1908 her husband's mental state was determined to be incurable and she divorced him in 1913.^[2] In 1908 she began an affair with Morton Fullerton, a journalist for The Times, in whom she found an intellectual partner"(Edith Wharton, Wikipedia).

Waythorn is wondering to himself what it means to be married to a woman who is twice divorced.  He has just met both of her former husbands.  His boss is ill and Waythorn has to fill in for him, dealing with the business of Mr. Varick, his wife's second husband.  Her first husband, Mr. Haskett has come to see his daughter who lives with Waythorn and his wife, but is too sick to go see her father as before.  Now that Waythorn has met the two of them, her past is beginning to unravel, and the answers to some of the questions in Waythorn's head are hinted at.  He is contemplating on what it means to "own a third of a wife".


The first thing that struck me was his sense of ownership of his wife.  In today's world this would be a clear example of sexism and extreme misogyny, but in the contemporary society this was probably in line with the prevailing attitudes about marriage, gender, and sexuality.  If we hear his words with a more romantic tone to them, he is simply thinking natural things; does his wife still 'belong' to her ex-husbands?
He comes to the conclusion, whether he actually believes it or merely convinces himself for his own peace of mind is hard to say, that he can actually benefit from his wife's past.  It seems more likely that, in an attempt to justify, and find satisfaction in, his current situation he convinces himself that the result of his wife's divorces is that she has learned how to treat a man; he is happily, now this man.  These are natural ways for him to think about his wife.  There is disharmony in his mind as he thinks of her past lovers, and to restore harmony, he changes his attitude rather than behavior.  He stays with her, continuing their marriage at least for the time being, and begins to think about the situation differently.
The image of light and shadow as the medium for the art of performing in this hyper-rich 'high' society is far-reaching in its implications.  Light is clearly associated with 'good', in this case meaning socially acceptable behavior.  The shadows represent parts of her, parts of her past, and parts of their life together that do not fit into this highly conservative and judging society.  The art that she performs of "judiciously throwing" this light, this respectability and pose, while "skillfully soften[ing]" the shadows of her past is a delicate balancing act.  The presence of both the light and the shadow is telling.  Even in this strict social setting, there are shadows.  She is not, he is not, and in fact no one is just light.  Everyone seems to be some combination of the two, and it becomes how they show and cover, and what they choose to project or hide, that is the art of, in context, being his wife, but translated to a slightly larger scale, the performing art of surviving in this culture of class.

Journal Entry "Daisy Miller: A Study"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

February 15, 2011

Journal #16, Henry James

"... it occurred to him, as a lover of the picturesque, that the interior, in the pale moonshine, would be well worth a glance....  Then he passed in among the cavernous shadows of the great structure, and emerged upon the clear and silent arena....  One-half of the gigantic circus was in deep shade; the other was sleeping in the luminous dusk.  As he stood there he began to murmur Byron's famous lines, out of "Manfred"; but before he had finished his quotation he remembered that if nocturnal meditations in the Colosseum are recommended by the poets, they are deprecated by the doctors....  Winterbourne walked to the middle of the arena, to take a more general glance, intending thereafter to make a hasty retreat"(426).

 "James's works, many of which were first serialized in the magazine The Atlantic Monthly include narrative romances with highly developed characters set amongst illuminating social commentary on politics, class, and status, as well as explorations of the themes of personal freedom, feminism, and morality. In his short stories and novels he employs techniques of interior monologue and point of view to expand the readers' enjoyment of character perception and insight"(The Literature Network, "Henry James", http://www.online-literature.com/). 

In this passage, Winterbourne is walking home from dinner, past the moonlit Colosseum in Rome.  He decides to gaze inside at the beautiful contrasts highlighted by the moonlight.  He steps inside and recites to himself a poem, "...the night / Hath been to me a more familiar face / Than that of man; and in her starry shade / Of dim and solitary loveliness, / I lean'd the language of another world. ..."  His eyes grow accustomed to the darkness and he begins to make out the dim image of people at the foot of a cross hidden in the shade cast from the Colosseum walls.  It is Daisy and Mr. Giovanelli, whom he eventually approaches, warning Daisy to get home quickly to avoid the Roman Fever, caught in just such damp, shadow-filled, ambiguous places as this.  He suddenly sees her as immature, the distinctions between right and wrong, so clear and exits the shadows back to the light.

James uses the imagery of light, shadow, and the border between the two as metaphors for the thin line between youthful innocence and social acceptability, and that of "inconduite"(397) and socially unacceptable behavior.  The arena in the Colosseum is simply the setting for the final meeting of the two sides, both for Winterbourne and for Daisy.  In his case, Winterbourne has been drawn to the edge of socially acceptable behavior, dabbled in improper conduct and meant to hastily retreat.  This edge, this beauty, dimly lit in the moonlight, somewhere between the deep shade and luminous dusk, was Daisy.  He was drawn to her, ventured into the arena to get a better look at the goings on in the shade.  He goes to the castle with Daisy, unattended, tiptoeing dangerously in the shadows of what the hyper-rich society would accept.

The poem he recites speaks of being more familiar with the dark, starry night than with the faces of men, and through the "dim and solitary loveliness" of the shade, the language of another world is learned.  He has seen tastes of this 'immoral' side of society, through Daisy, but now, in a sense, can speak the language of both that world and his, of high society's snobbery. 

He walks to the middle of the arena to get a more general glimpse, an illumination to spending time with and chasing after Daisy, hoping to get a better view of the other side.  He plans to retreat hastily, hurrying back from the darkness to the light of high society.  But he is drawn in by Daisy, following her on and on, deeper into the shadows.  He then realizes the distinction, as if all of a sudden emerging from the shaded side to see him self lit up, between right and wrong, falling back to his old circles and no longer seeing Daisy as important.  She is not worth worry, she sits in the shadows with Mr. Giovanelli as Winterbourne watches from the luminous dusk.

Journal Entry "Emigrants from Erin"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

February 11, 2011

Journal #15, Ronald Takaki

"Victims of English prejudice and repression in Ireland, the Irish in America often redirected their rage in a pecking order.  'They [the Irish] have been oppressed enough themselves to be oppressive whenever they have a chance,' commented an observer, 'and the despised and degraded condition of the blacks, presenting to them an very ugly resemblance of their own home circumstances, naturally excites in them the exercise of the disgust and contempt of which they themselves are very habitually the objects"(151, Takaki).

"His initial teaching experience was at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he taught the first Black History course offered at that institution.^[1] One of his students on the first day asked what the class was going to learn about "revolutionary tactics," and he later recalled that his immediate response was to suggest that he hoped students would learn skills of critical thinking and effective writing—and that these could be quite revolutionary"(Ronald Takaki, Wikipedia).

Takaki uses the words of an observer to help describe the basis for the Irish view of blacks at the time.  That time, was after the destruction and ruin that the potato famine had wrought sent thousands of Irish to America in a desperate flea for survival.  They arrived in America to find a land in stark contrast to what they had heard, and expected; the typical example of them being surprised at the lack of gold paving the streets provides a good metaphor for the general feeling of arriving to a new life and land that does not live up to the immigrants great expectations.

The quoted observer points gracefully points out the roots of much of the Irish anti-African American feelings at the time.  They stemmed from lack of space and jobs, just as many white Americans, nativists,  turned this fear to hatred towards immigrants such as the Irish, they saw the black population as threatening to their jobs, houses, money, and share at success in America.  However, the Irish also gained important 'whiteness' from scapegoating blacks and joining in with an unfair majority.  They were angered at seeing what they saw as an ugly, but similar creature.  The Irish were constantly compared to apes and to blacks in the white media, they lived in similar financial, spacial, and geographical situations, and were excited to racism by this.

The idea of a people being "oppressed enough themselves to be oppressive whenever they have a chance" is interesting and relates to many other situations.  Specifically to the story "Maggie" by Stephen Crane, in which the mother clearly shows the manifestation of this thought pattern.  She has dealt with horrid conditions for much of her life, the story hints and history tells, and she changes into a terribly oppressive figure because of it.  She routinely beats her children, chases her husband out of the house, and destroys anything resembling nurture in the household.  She rips curtains down, up-ends the furniture and drunkenly curses at the children.  This idea of being oppressed as a cause for oppressive behavior also applies to her children's behavior.  Her son is constantly in fights in the streets and tries to oppress, or conquer and control others.  Her daughter becomes a prostitute, no doubt feeling the strains of oppression from her surroundings.  It does not take too big of a leap to see her, in the future, in her mother's position, with violent, oppressive bursts of anger caused by her past and current oppressive circumstances.

Journal Entry for "The Open Boat"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

February 8, 2011

Journal #14, Stephen Crane

"The correspondent wondered if none ever ascended the tall wind-tower, and if then they never looked seaward.  This tower was a giant, standing with its back to the plight of the ants.  It represented in a degree, to the correspondent, the serenity of nature amid the struggles of the individual-nature in the wind, and nature in the vision of men.  She did not seem cruel to him then, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise.  but she was indifferent, flatly indifferent"(pg1013, "The Open Boat").

"In 1896, Crane endured a highly publicized scandal after acting as witness for a suspected prostitute. Late that year he accepted an offer to cover the Spanish-American War as a war correspondent. As he waited in Jacksonville, Florida for passage to Cuba, he met Cora Taylor, the madam of a brothel with whom he would have a lasting relationship. While en route to Cuba, Crane's ship sank off the coast of Florida, leaving him adrift for several days in a dinghy"(Stephen Crane, Wikipedia).

The correspondent dreamily observes as he sits in the lifeboat heading towards shore.  He has just woken up from a night of waiting offshore, unable to navigate the waves on the coast at night.  The day before one of the people on shore had seen them and signaled by waving his coat, but had failed to help them or run to get help, he had simply faded into the gray dusk.  He awakes to see the shoreline spotted with black cottages and they find themselves forced to brave the crashing waves until the tiny boat can take no more, then swim into shore.  He, in a surprisingly calm state for the situation that he is in, the correspondent draws a connection between the tower of wind over the breaking waves and nature itself.

The first thing that stands out in this section is the correspondent's seemingly ridiculous, calm and speculative mood in the midst of a critical, life-threatening experience.  He does not focus on the significant challenge ahead of him: dragging his own thoroughly exhausted body to shore, avoiding the perilous surf separating him from safety, but rather on the enormous tower of wind, hovering above this scene, presumably with its back turned on humanity and its eyes gazing seaward.  The wind-tower is compared to nature, serenity in the midst of the futile struggles of the ants.  The language used and the description of nature as indifferent to human-kind, focused away from rather than towards the comparably tiny and insignificant humans, clearly display a determinist view of the world.  The people's, or 'ant's' struggles are useless, and even unnoticeable in the presence of this great towering invisible force of Nature.
This indifference that nature displays towards the human race is central to the correspondent's unusually calm attitude, as he now sees this wind-tower from the other side.  He sees the insignificance of the day-to-day struggles and attempts of people in comparison to the vast expanse of nature, specifically the wind and the sea.  Through a newly found, or simply awoken lens of determinism, the correspondent now has to need to nor any reason to worry about, or fight back against his situation.  He sees the coming events from a bird's eye view, perceiving the scale and his own, in fact all of humanities, actions.  From atop this wind-tower, nature sees the ants run around senselessly and ineffectively behind her back, as she gazes seaward into the distant, pervasive power of the ocean, of the wind, and of herself.

Journal Entry "In the Land of the Free"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

January 26, 2011

Journal #8, Sui Sin Far

"The mission woman talked as she walked.  She told Lae Choo that little Kim, as he had been named by the school, was the pet of the place, and that his little tricks and was amused and delighted every one.  He had been rather difficult to manage at first and had cried much for his mother; 'but children soon forget, and after a month he seemed quite at home and played around as bright and happy as a bird'".(886)

"Her themes are of utmost importance: racial insensitivity, the human costs of bureaucratic and discriminatory laws, the humanity of the Chinese. The creation of rounded characters is a secondary concern. Lae Choo is little more than maternity personified, maternity victimized by racial prejudice. But the very portrayal of a Chinese woman in the maternal role--loving, anxious, frantic, self-sacrificing--was itself a novelty and a contribution, for the popular conception of the Chinese woman, whose numbers were few in nineteenth-century America, was that of a sing-song girl, prostitute, or inmate of an opium den. In Lae Choo, Eaton gives the reading public a naive, trusting woman whose entire life is devoted to the small child that the law of "this land of the free" manages to keep away from her for nearly one year".(Edith Maud Eaton, http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/eaton.html)

Lae Choo has just given up all of her jewelry, gold, and valuables, save one ring given to her by her husband to signify their child.  She traded them for a fleeting chance at getting her son back from the missionary that United States Customs had placed him in.  She has waited in sadness to finally have her son back, and she is granted her only wish by an all-important paper sent from Washington.  She is led through the group of other children by a woman at the Mission who explains what her son has been like for the last ten months.  When Lae Choo finally reunites with her son, he has forgotten her and, "'Go 'way, go 'way!' he bade his mother".(886)

The missionary's words, when speaking about little Kim, are astonishingly animalistic in their description of the young child.  The way she speaks could be understandable if to one of her friends. talking about the children at the mission, but to his own mother who has waited ten long months to see him?  Her words seem ignorantly evil and have a saddening slant to them in regards to their treatment of Lae Choo's young son.  She literally describes the little boy as a bird, the cage taking the form of the mission, the government, and this entire "Land of the Free".
She begins by saying that the boy was as a pet there, saddened to be taken from its mother at first, but soon trained and domesticated. Somewhat thankful of the fact that he was taken young enough for this to be the case, the woman then relays that he was soon happy to be there.  She speaks as if he were a bird in a cage who, once its mother and past are forgotten, is quite content to sing, and perform "little tricks" for its new owners.
Like a wild bird or animal trapped and raised in captivity, when released, the boy showed no sign of recognition of his mother.  He was domesticated in the animal sense and assimilated as related to people, a cleverly substituted word to hide the true effects of its nature.  As terrifying as the state of her son is, the woman's lack of sensitivity through seemingly innocent ignorance in her interactions with Lae Choo, is at least equally appalling. 

Journal Entry "The Imported Bridegroom"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

January 25, 2011

Journal #7, Abraham Cahan

"A nightmare of desolation and jealousy choked her-jealousy of the Scotchman's book, of the Little-Russian shirt, of the empty tea-glasses with the slices of lemon on their bottoms, of the whole excited crowd, and of Shaya's entire future, from which she seemed excluded".(806)

 

"Cahan arrived in New York City in June 1882. Cahan transferred his commitment to socialism to his new country, and he devoted all the time he could spare from work to the study and teaching of radical ideas to the Jewish working men of New York. Cahan joined the Socialist Labor Party of America writing articles on socialism and science, and translating literary works for the pages of its Yiddish language paper, the Arbeiter Zeitung ("Workers' News").^[1] Cahan saw himself as an educator and enlightener of the impoverished Jewish working class of the city, "meeting them on their own ground and in their own language".(Wikipedia, Abraham Cahan)

This passage describes Flora's feelings of jealousy as she watches her new husband, Shaya talk and read with a group of educated men, discussing philosophy.  She came over to tell him that her father, Asriel, had reluctantly agreed to let them marry despite the new-found interest in gentile learning in this former 'prodigy' in Jewish Law.  Flora initially wanted him to learn these things and in fact study to be a doctor, while Asriel's plan for him when he brought him from Pravy was to study religious writings and become his ticket to happiness in the next life. Flora dreamed of marrying a doctor, and so encouraged Shaya to disobey her father and pursue gentile education.  She now sat before her new husband and a ragged company of intellectuals, none fitting her image of hat and spectacles, driving through central park.

Many of the characters in this story seem to be subject to feelings of exclusion and motivated by strong forms of jealousy.  Flora's naive idea of what it must be like to marry a doctor was slowly falling apart in front of her.  She was jealous of her other schoolmates and wanted to upstage them by finding her picturesque husband.  His company was ragged though, a diverse group of disheveled looking educated men.  She never ought to learn herself or to go to college on her own, yet was expecting with an entitled attitude that she would marry into the life that she wanted to live.

Cahan draws a parallel in Asriel's life and in his procuring of his daughter's bridegroom.  Asriel, a self-admitted boor, did not himself learn the teachings of religious scripts or Jewish Law, but rather chased financial success and ended up with quite a large purse.  However, as he aged, he began to fear death and the next life and wanted to rectify himself with the higher power.  Like his daughter, instead of putting forward any effort to improve himself, he travels to his hometown and buys a bridegroom that will save his soul.

It is interesting that of the main characters, the only one who seems to be satisfied for any sustained amount of time is Shaya.  Freed or imprisoned by America, he seeks to quench his insatiable thirst for knowledge.  He is the only one that is putting forth effort to better himself and to reach his goals.  Cahan makes references to both Asriel choking, as he storms out of the synagogue declaring the rabbi himself a liar, and Flora as her jealousy for and exclusion from the educated world surface.  Cahan's successful character is Shaya who is seeking knowledge of all forms.  Asriel and Flora do not strive to improve, but rather rely on others' achievements to mark them with success, each ending in subjective failure.

Journal Entry "Life Among The Piutes"

Stephen Greene

English 48B

January 20, 2011

Journal #6, Sarah Winnemucca

“Oh, can anyone imagine my feelings buried alive, thinking every minute that I was to be unburied and eaten up by the people by the people that my grandfather loved so much? … Oh, how I cried and said: ‘Oh, father, have you forgotten me?  Are you never coming for me?’ I cried so I thought my very heartstrings would break”. (505)

"At the time of her birth her people had only very limited contact with Euro-Americans; however she spent much of her adult life in white society. Like many people of two worlds, she may be judged harshly in both contexts. Many Paiutes view her as a collaborator who helped the U.S. Army kill her people. Modern historians view her book as an important primary source, but one that is deliberately misleading in many instances. Despite this, Sarah has recently received much positive attention for her activism". (Wikipedia, Sarah Winnemucca, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Winnemucca)

            These are the thoughts racing through Sarah Winnemucca’s head as she lies still, buried in the earth.  Her people, the Piutes, had just come down from the mountains to fish in the Humboldt River.  They had received word that white men were coming and everyone ran.  She was stricken with fear and could not run, so her Mother and her Aunt buried their daughters.  They lay them in the earth, planted sage bushes over their heads to protect them from the sun, and instructed them to be quiet.  The two young girls had to silently wait in fear of the white man that they believed would eat them until their mothers could come unbury them.

            The image of Winnemucca being buried in the earth, fearing the arrival of the white man, can be translated as a metaphor for the terrible struggle that all of her people, the Piutes, and all Native Americans went through.  The whites had decided that the ‘savages’ had to be driven out or killed and, in a sense, bound by tradition, ties to the land, and lack of technology, her people were buried and waiting for them to come.  Of course, the whites that came did not eat them, but they did brutally and blindly kill thousands upon thousands of Native Americans and run the rest from their homelands.  They were a people very in touch with the land, living with it, not just on it.  In this way, Winnemucca being buried in the ground is a metaphor for her people’s situation.  They were at once in touch with the land and trapped by it.  They could not leave their hunting grounds or the rivers they knew because these were their sources of food.  They had no guns, no technology, and no knowledge of the white world.  They were stuck, silent as there was no one to hear their calls, waiting for the white man to come and unbury them, uproot them, and destroy their peaceful way of life. 

            In the words above, Sarah is crying to both her literal Father and to a higher power in desperation.  Her people were doing the same.  They cried to the whites, to anyone that could help them, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.  This led to silence and solemn patience, as they lay, buried in their earth waiting to be unburied and eaten up.

Journal Entry "The School Days of an Indian Girl"

Stephen Greene
English 48B
January , 2011
Journal #5  Zitkala

“I was neither a wee girl nor a tall one; neither a wild Indian nor a tame one.   …The pony reached the top of the highest hill and began an even race on the level lands.  There was nothing moving within that great circular horizon of the Dakota prairies save the tall grasses, over which the wind blew and rolled off in long, shadowy waves”. (118, “Impressions of an Indian Childhood”)

“She has been described by one critic (Dexter Fischer) as "...always on the threshold of two worlds, but never fully entering either." It seems to me more that from a position in the white world that she created in the teeth of a world as hostile to intelligent women leaders as to Indians, she created changes and improvements in the Indian world to which she was born. Though she was a mixed-blood or half-breed, she did not have identity problems as to which world was hers”. (Native American Resources, http://www.kstrom.net/isk/mainmenu.html#mainmenutop)

            Zitkala is describing a time when she had returned to the plains that her Mother lived on.  She had gone east for schooling and was lamenting her isolation from both the whites and now the Indians.  Her brother then arrives on his pony from the East where he too has pursued a formal education.  He ties his pony to the post and Zitkala grabs it when he turns his back.  She ignores her brother’s calls and races it up into the hills onto a plateau and looks around at the plains below her.

            In Zitkala’s moments of feeling lost, she describes being between tall and short, between wild and tame.  This reminded me immediately of Du Bois’ idea of a double consciousness.  She feels like neither part of the Indian culture nor the white culture, although the truth is that she actually a part of both.  Born to her mother who raised her in the Native American way and formally educated by the whites to become an award-winning orator.  She seeks acceptance from both and a merging of the two rather than an abandonment of either side of her.  Du Bois describes rising above the veil of prejudice, not tearing it down.  Likewise, in a metaphorical sense, Zitkala does not run to either the East or the whites, or to her mother’s arms or her Native American heritage.  She races the pony upwards, alone, to a place not scrutinized, not judged, and insignificant in the vast expanse, above the plains.

            I think that her word choice is extremely fascinating, particularly in “… neither a wild Indian nor a tame one” and “…an even race on the level lands”.  I think that her use of wild and tame to describe herself and fellow Native Americans displays a terrible side affect of her schooling in the East.  When she speaks of an even race, she is speaking, of course, of her pony literally reaching the flats of a mesa or plateau as she races it into the distance and up the hills of the prairie.  Figuratively, this is an escape.  She is, at least for the moment, running away, running upwards, and fleeing the tangled sense of self she has from the conflicts between her Native American culture and her white education.  In this context, her word choice implies a longing or at least thought about the Indian race being even with others (namely the whites) and on level land.  I think that this image of her on the level plain looking down at only the shadows of the wind moving across the grass creates a strong metaphor for her people and their fading struggle to uphold their identities.

Journal Entry "The Souls of Black Folk"

Stephen Greene
English 48B
January , 2011
Journal #4 W. E. B. Du Bois

"A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought to its own social problems.  But alas! while sociologists gleefully count his bastards and his prostitutes, the very soul of the toiling, sweating black man is darkened by the shadow of a vast despair.  Men call the shadow prejudice...". (898, "The Souls of Black Folks)

"Although Du Bois had originally believed that social science could provide the knowledge to solve the race problem, he gradually came to the conclusion that in a climate of virulent racism, expressed in such evils as lynching, peonage, disfranchisement, Jim Crow segregation laws, and race riots, social change could be accomplished only through agitation and protest." (Biography.com, W. E. B. Du Bois) 

        W. E. B. Du Bois begins this quote with a sentiment that many of the newly freed African Americans of the time undoubtedly shared, including Booker T. Washington.  This was a common feeling of being unprepared for the immense and foreign challenges that they suddenly faced.  They felt that they needed time and effort in order to reach a social level competitive with the whites of that time.  Du Bois, however, points out the fundamental flaw in this idealistic view: that the African American's place in society was by no means static, and in most cases, dynamic in a way that was resulting in negative outcomes.  That is to say, that during this time that many wanted to use in order to improve socially, they were being judged and slipping farther from their long-terms goals of racial equality as they spoke.

        Du Bois criticizes an ideal that many held at the time, including Booker T. Washington, that African Americans would be able to slowly work their way up through society until on an even footing with whites.  They saw the accomplishment of this goal as possible by industrial means and by perseverance.  From their achieved competitiveness with whites, the black man would then be faced the task of proving themselves as equal to those of lighter skin.
        This required a great amount of time in which, argues Du Bois, the framework for a society legally separating blacks as unequal would be established and soon set in concrete.  He points out that these newly freed African American are immediately being judged by the rest of the Nation, and to argue for all responsibility of movement towards equality to rest solely on the black man's shoulders was lacking sanity and practicality.  The very notion that the black man must move up in order to compete on a level playing field with his white counterpart allows for social injustices which only succeed in worsening the condition.  Du Bois criticized Washington's essential request for the black man to be given time to pull himself up by his bootstraps as foolish, seeing instead that equality was only possible with the help of those in charge. 
   In addition to the task of raising one's self out of persecution appearing insurmountable without assistance, Du Bois argues that the African American community cannot afford the time that it would take.  As he points out, the critical, white sociologist of the time were quick to find fault in the black community.  They undoubtedly stressed the presence of "bastards and prostitutes", thieves and criminals, or negative members of the block society beyond reality and lessened the impression that they gave of the blacks advancements as a civilized people.  This degradation and harsh judgment of black society served to make the ideal of self-powered rise from racism seem increasingly impossible. It did this by darkening the shadow of prejudice that whites held over blacks and by enforcing a feeling of failure and daunting hopelessness in the mind of the common black man.
        With both time which could not be spared, and effort which could not be matched necessary for the idealistic plan for change that Washington set forth, it is no surprise that he was met with opposition.  Du Bois is merely pointing out that, while the relationship between prejudice and the current state of the African American was clear, the question to be raised was of which is the cause?  Du Bois states that, "relentless color-prejudice is more often a cause than a result of the Negro's degradation". (907)