Journal 37: the true cold

Quote:
“This man did not know cold. Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold…But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge” (London 1061)

Summary:
This is a quote from the story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. This thought appears after the man, who had managed to build a fire and eat his biscuits, decides to keep on traveling in this “real cold”. At this point the man is starting to get scared about the cold and about the numbness of his fingers but he decides to keep traveling, and the dog will follow him.

Response:

I think this quote explains the situation in which the man is right now. He basically doesn’t know what he is dealing with, and he is arrogant enough to think that the freezing cold won’t kill him. On the other hand, the dog knows, it has lived there all its life, and it knows that during such a cold weather it is supposed to hide and wait for it to pass. Thus, in this situation the man is the newcomer, and neither he nor his ancestors know anything about nature and the land where he is now.
Seeing the situation from the eyes of the dog, the man is the true ignorant, and he is totally unaware that the cold will kill him, but led by his greed, he won’t stop and think about it, he needs to move on and abandon the fire that could have saved him. Plus, the dog does not only see through the man because it compares the man’s ignorance to the ignorance of the man’s ancestors, because they were all strangers to that land, they invaded nature, and they didn’t know anything about how nature works in the Klondike.
Furthermore, like discussed in class, if we focus in the Marxist criticism, the dog would represent the Native Americans of the Klondike, and this comparison between the white man and the Native Americans would mean that even if these Native Americans had been conquered and reduced to the position of a dog, where they had to follow the white men and serve them, they still knew more than them. The Native Americans knew the land because they had lived there for hundreds of years, and this newcomer who thought was in control was just a fool who doesn’t know what he is doing, which is why at the end of the story the dog will live and the man will die.

Journal 36: Victory and loss

Quote:
“The little taste of victory did not satisfy a hunger in my heart. In my mind I saw my mother far away on the Western plains, and she was holding a charge against me” (Bonnin 1121)

Summary:
This is the end of “The School Days of an Indian Girl”. After Bonnin won a prize in the speech competition for her college, she is not totally happy because she feels she had abandoned her mother and had disobeyed her and taken a totally different path of life.

Response:

I think this moment was a very defining moment in Bonnin’s life, because before she still felt like she was in a liminal place between her Indian self and her assimilated white self. However, from this point on, she decided on her own to stay in the white people’s land and make her way through with effort and dedication, even if that meant disobeying her mother.

It is true that the taste of victory wasn’t enough to satisfy her heart, and it would have been very sad if it had satisfied the hunger in her heart. The struggle she is having between returning to her old life and staying in this new world, is the struggle that will lead to her success, because once she tasted victory she proved to herself that she was capable of making a change, that she was capable of making a difference in a world where her race was being looked down on.

Furthermore, the charge her mom would hold against her is basically her conscience telling her that she must not forget where she came from and that, even if she wins the world, she must keep her feet on earth and know that she can’t have everything. I think this charge against her is the weight of making her own decisions, because Bonnin chose to stay and continue her education, and by doing that she challenged her mother, but she can’t do anything about it, because she is choosing her own path to follow, and she must be aware of and accept the consequences.

Journal 35: Red Apples and Iron Horse

Quote:
“‘Mother; I’m going East! I like big red apples, and I want to ride on the iron horse! Mother, say yes!’ I pleaded” (Bonnin 1112)

Summary:
In the story “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” by Gertrude Bonnin, here is where Bonnin is being lured by the missioners to come with them to study in the East, which is where white people had settled in America. Here the missioners are asking Bonnin’s mother if she wants Bonnin to go study with them. At this moment Bonnin desperately wants to go with them.

Response:

This is Bonnin falling in the missionary’s hands and being lured into going to this really beautiful and different land that is full of apples and where she can still be free and enjoy life. Analyzing the symbolism of the red apple, at the moment when Bonnin pleads to her mom to let her go with the missionaries, it is clear that Bonnin bit the apple, she fell into temptation and was finally caught into this delusion of a perfect and beautiful place where she was going to have fun and experience new things. Plus, the apple is the temptation, but is Bonnin who driven by curiosity, like any other kid, is not aware of reality, she just wants to try the apple, see the world and change.

Bonnin’s words sound so eager, but at the same time they are so innocent. She is just thinking about red apples, without considering her mother’s feelings, she is totally blind by this desire of going to the unknown, of seen this different world. Also, calling a train “the iron horse” shows that she doesn’t know anything about it but what she’s heard from other people. In other words, Bonnin was just a child, with the illusion of experimenting something new, different and delightful; but the truth was far off from what she was hoping for. I think Bonnin describes herself when she was little in such a way to show us how these white men, arrived for another land, saw and conquered her world, making a change that didn’t allow going back to the same old life she used to know.

Journal 34: The pet of the class

Quote:
“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 ways amused and delighted everyone” (Sin Far 886)

Summary:

This comment from the mission woman happens at the end of the story when Lae Choo is finally able to take her child back. This is happening in the school where “the little one” is being kept. The mission woman is leading Lae Choo to where her child is, while commenting about him.

Response:

After reading this story and reading “The School Days of an Indian Girl” by Bonnin, I can’t help but find a great similarity to the way both children are treated. First of all, “the little one” was taken to a school, was given an American name, Kim, and was “the pet” of the school. This means the baby is being assimilated into American society in ways that he cannot comprehend because he is merely a baby, and since children “so often forget”( Sin Far 886); it would be easier to assimilate him into American society. Maybe this was not the same case with little Bonnin, because when she was taken to the missionary school, she realized of what was going on and she fought against it for a while, but in the end both kids are evolving to be part of American society.

However, the real similarity is that these two kids are treated like animals. Of course in this story, Kim, the little one is “the pet” which is a more soft way of saying that they are using Lae Choo’s kid to amuse everyone and he is basically being reduced to a pet. But this is ok because he is just a little child, different from white American kids, which is so funny and entertaining for everyone. In Bonnin’s case, the logic was “kill the animal, save the man”, which is a harsh way to say that all Indian kids where little animals that needed to be converted into humans. Therefore, this similarity between both characters shows that there was a common belief about how strangers to white American society should be treated.

Journal 33: Not One hundred man good

Quote:
“Pointing to the lawyer, she cried: “You not one hundred man good; you just common white man.”/ “Yes, ma’am,” returned James Clancy, bowing and smiling ironically” (Sin Far 885)

Summary:
In the Story “In the Land of the Free”, this is Lae Choo answer to the lawyer, after she thought he was really trying to help them recover their child, but she was told that they had to pay, so she yells at him. In the end he takes for payment Lae Choo’s jewelry, and they manage to fix the paper for the child.

Response:

From this passage I can draw some conclusions about who is the “common white man”, according to Lae Choo, who reflects Bonnin’s feelings. First, Lae Choo thought the lawyer was going to help bring “the little one” back, but it was too innocent of her to think that a “common white man” would help her without seeking his own interests. Lae Choo realizes she is like every other American man, no different from the ones who took her baby away. This white man wants to bring the baby back but for a huge amount of money, which Hom Hing doesn’t have, but Clancy doesn’t care about this, because he is playing the role of proposing a solution to the couple’s problem but if they can’t pay, there is nothing he can do about it. Basically, this man has no feelings; he is only there to do business, because he knew the parents were really frustrated and hopeless about getting their baby back, so he will take advantage of this situation to make his own profit.

Furthermore, the fact that the lawyer simply answers “yes ma’am” and the smiles ironically means that he couldn’t care less about what Lae Choo thinks. He is after all a common white man, and he doesn’t care about their situation because they are the ones in trouble; he is only doing his job. Plus, the irony for him would be that he is after all white and they are the immigrants, they do not belong there, so whatever the Chinese woman says to him is meaningless. I think with this passage, Sin Far is clearly showing the position of the Chinese immigrants in the American society by that time.

Journal 32: Sin Far

Quote:

“‘This is the law,’ said he… “and ‘twill be but for a little while—until tomorrow’s sun arises”/“You, too,” reproached Lae Choo in a voice eloquent with pain, But accustomed to obedience she yielded the boy to her husband, who in turn delivered him to the first officer” (Sin Far 881)

Summary:

This quote from the story “In the Land of the Free” of Sui Sin Far happens at the beginning of the story, when Lae Choo comes back to America with Hom Hing’s child. At this moment the officers who control the entrance of people to San Francisco tell Hom Hing that the child cannot go with them because he has no papers. At this point Lae Choo refuses to let her child go, but in the end the officers take him away.

Response:

When I read this passage I really imagined a very helpless Lae Choo, it is like she was not even considered in the moment when the decision was made. She was supposed to be obedient, even if it was her child that they were taking away. When Hom Hing says “this is the law” he is resigning to his child, because there is nothing he can do about it. Maybe the officers told him that if he didn’t give the child away, his business was going to be in jeopardy, because as we saw in class the Chinese Act was passed in 1892, so anything Hom Hing did against the American law would put him and his wife in danger.

Furthermore, it is interesting how the gender roles are portrayed. The officers only talk to the father of the child and they see the wife as nothing but a burden, which is why when she takes the baby away and says that she is not going to give him away, all the officers do is talk to the husband. Thus, they are taking away all the importance the mother can have. Plus, like it is said in the passage she was “accustomed to obedience” so she had to follow the orders, she has no authority at all, which is perfectly accurate to the time the story took place.

I think Sin Far wants to portray the cruelty with which Chinese immigrants were treated during this time, and what worse cruelty that taking a baby away for his parents, just for the reason that he had “no papers”. And the way Sin Far portrays the mother, when the mother says “you too” it is like she is making the husband part of the American people, part of the injustice. Sin Far in these few lines made me understand the social, political and racist injustices made to Chinese immigrants.

Journal 31: Daisy Miller: A Study end

Quote:
“‘You were right in that remark that you made last summer. I was booked to make a mistake. I have lived too long in foreign parts.’…he went back to live at Geneva…A report that he is “studying” hard—an intimation that he is much interested in a very clever foreign lady” (James 329)

Summary:

This is the end of the story of Daisy Miller: A Study. Here, Winterbourne is talking to Mrs. Costello, saying that she was right about the Millers. After Ms. Miller death, Winterbourne went back to Geneva and went back to his normal life, where he was supposedly studying and also was having an affair with a foreign lady. Hence, nothing changed.

Response:

This ending shows how these rich people live their lives without worrying about meaningless details such as the death of Daisy. In the end Winterbourne considers the entire story a “mistake”, taking away any other possible meaning to the relationship he had with Daisy. Plus, he admits this to Mrs. Costello, who from the beginning was against the Millers, because they weren’t of status enough. In other words, Winterbourne faced this fact to and now knows that it was indeed a mistake to get involved with such a family, making the acknowledgement of Daisy just one more experience where he could learn something about American young ladies, who are actually just flirts.

It is really unclear what Winterbourne’s final thoughts about Daisy, because even though he had been thinking about her after her death and about the message she left him, it is not clear if he is really hiding the fact that he liked her or he is just thinking about the experience he had. Either way, he ends up returning to his normal life, which didn’t change at all, because he is still breaking social rules where he is interested in this foreign older lady, and he is supposedly studying really hard. I think Henry James is showing the superficiality of the world of rich people. It is just useless to think that such a gentleman as it was Winterbourne would worry too much about trivial matters such as the death of this American young lady. If he finally concludes that he made a mistake maybe it was the mistake of meeting her or liking her, but then he will not bother to think about it anymore, he will just go back to his usual life, like nothing happened.

Journal 30: Château de Chillon

Quote:
“Miss Miller looked at him a moment; and then, very placidly—“I wish you would stay with him!” she said. / Winterbourne hesitated a moment. “I would much rather go to Chillon with you.”/“With me?” asked the young lady, with the same placidity. She didn’t rise, blushing, as a young girl at Geneva would have done…” (James 398)

Summary:
In the story “Daisy Miller: A Study” by Henry James, this pretty American girl, Ms. Miller, is talking to Winterbourne about going to Château de Chillon, a castle. She is talking how she can’t go because neither her mother nor her brother want to go. At this point she is telling Winterbourne if he could stay with her brother so she could go to the castle, to which Winterbourne answers that he wants to go with her, not a very decent proposal for a young lady.

Response:

I read this story like a complete study about this young American lady, Ms. Miller. As the title says this story is a study about Daisy Miller, and it that is how I read it, because it seems to me the Winterbourne is doing everything in his power to try to understand this new woman that intrigues him, so he is studying her. In this quote I see how Winterbourne is pushing his luck with Daisy, because as he is thinking, such a proposal to go to the castle would be considered really indecent by any girl from Geneva, but not by Daisy. This is the exact moment where Winterbourne realizes that this pretty young lady is basically a flirt, but it is really confusing to not know what Daisy is thinking, on one side she could be manipulating the situation to get Winterbourne to go to the castle with her, on the other hand, she could just be like any innocent girl who wants to visit a castle and would be enchanted to have some company, rather to go alone.

However, the tone she uses while talking seems like she is truly flirting with Winterbourne. She is talking “placidly” with him, she is not nervous or worried to think that what she is doing is wrong, and she is perfectly fine with it. She might not be nervous or she might not show it, but the fact that Winterbourne a very well known gentleman doesn’t notice this means that she is in perfect control of the situation. But then again, since there is no an Omniscient narrator, I cannot know for sure that this is the situation. Henry James is putting us in the situation where we can broadly speculate of what is going on in the characters minds, and we need to get our own conclusions. Still, is really intriguing to not know exactly what Ms. Miller is thinking, because we can draw totally wrong conclusions according to our different perspectives and values.

Journal 29: The Yellow Wall-Paper

Quote:
“I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try. Besides I wouldn’t do it. Of course not. I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued” (Perkins 818)


Summary:
This is almost the end of the story in The Yellow Wall-Paper, the main character is spending the last day in the mental institution. She has locked herself in the room and she is almost done ripping off all the yellow wall paper.

Response:

This is where I started to think that the main character is actually really crazy herself. Before, I had tried to understand why she wanted to free the woman behind the bars, why she was going delusional about the pattern in the wall paper. But to this point, I see her concepts of what is acceptable and what is not are kind of twisted. Before, thinking about jumping from the window, she had been ripping off the yellow wall-paper, and she had been seeing the creeping woman out of the room and behind the wall-paper. But here, she says that even if she could jump out of the window, she wouldn’t do it, because doing that would be “improper and might be misconstrued”. That means that everything she has done before is proper, but jumping down the window would be misunderstood by people, which means they might really think she is crazy.

Even if she locked herself in her room, even if she sees these creeping women, and she creeps herself, all this is not improper for her, but jumping off the window would be really bad. Nevertheless, leaving aside this fact, I also think that by jumping out of the window she is thinking about freeing herself, because even though she is already out of the wall-paper, she is still in the room, behind the bars. Therefore, she is also thinking about committing suicide to escape from everything, or maybe she just wants to get out of there. The problem is she is also scared of the creeping women outside the window, she is basically trapped in the room, and I think this is why she is going crazy. Being trapped in the room shows how useless her efforts to be free are. And she doesn’t have the strength nor is she able to do a desperate act.

Journal 28: I am glad my case is not serious!

Quote:

“John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious. I am glad my case is not serious! But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Perkins 810)

Summary:
This quote is one of the main character’s thoughts about her illness when she is resting looking through the window of her room. She is explaining why John, her husband, is not with her all the time, and how she really feels about her illness, which is basically neurasthenia.

Response:

Here again, the figure of the husband appears, but this time it is an absent husband, who believes his wife is not sick, however, she is still in the mental institution, or holiday house. At this point the caring John has gone back to his normal life, where he is a physician and he is helping his patients who have serious cases. But why John would leave her alone and go back to his normal life? Basically, he is trying to hide his wife from society, since she is not sick, but she might cause trouble for him and his job.

It is really interesting how the main character talks about her illness, she says “I am glad my case is not serious!”. She puts this phrase as if she was glad her husband didn’t spend time with her, and she was happy she is alone. But also, it could be a sarcastic comment about what her husband thinks of her, she could be saying “how can my case not be serious?”. It is like she is declaring that she truly is sick but her husband doesn’t see it. Plus, it could also mean that she is glad her case is not serious so she doesn’t have to trouble her husband too much. All these possibilities could put together to understand the main character. This woman, who is supposedly sick, is been told that she is not sick, when she truly is sick, and she is taking pills for this sickness. Plus, she is starting to understand that her husband can’t help her, because he doesn’t understand; thus, she is alone with an illness that nobody but her understands.

Journal 27: Loving and caring husband

Quote:

“He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he tales all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” (Perkins 809)

Summary:
This quote from The Yellow Wall-Paper of Charlotte Perkins Gilman is at the beginning of the story, when the main character arrives to the resting house, which is a mental institution, and she is describing how “well” her husband takes care of her.

Response:

This is the beginning of the story and from the beginning I got the right idea about the husband. He might seem as an overprotecting husband who doesn’t want to leave her alone for the fear of what she might do or because he’s worried about her. But I think he is more worried about things she might do that would cause a bad impression to other people, hence, hurt his reputation, this is why he brought her to the mental institution. But of course she doesn’t know about it, she thinks they are taking a holiday, but the reason her husband is making her take pills every hour, and doesn’t let her “stir without special direction” shows that he wants to have total control over her.

At this point she seems like a very gullible and submissive person, she talks with so calmly that is almost sarcastic. I feel her tone of voice and the words she uses show her mental state, she totally under the spell of her husband, she thinks all he does for her is for love and with no other motive. But if I imagine Charlotte Perkins saying that I would think, they are nothing more than a joke. She is mocking the love the husband has for the main character, and she is using this sarcastic language to show how submissive and how passive a woman can sound under the total control of a husband.

It is really interesting how she says that she feels “ungrateful not to value it more”, which means she is not valuing her husband’s care because she is still sick even with all the care her husband gives her. In other words, she shouldn’t be sick because the husband takes care of her. This means the wife should be like a little child with no mind of her own and be fine as long as the husband is there to take care of her.
I think Charlotte has made a clear point with this words, about the role men and women play in a marriage.

Journal 26: The awakening's end

Quote:
“‘Good-by—because, I love you.’ He did not know; he did not understand… She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father’s voice and her sister Margaret’s” (Chopin 625).

Summary:
This is the end of The Awakening, when Edna goes back to Grand Isle and ends up swimming in the ocean at night. Finally, she never stops swimming and finally she loses or her strength and dies.

Response:

This ending is really interesting, because first she starts talking about Robert and how he said good-by to her, because he loved her. She is blaming him for not understanding her, for not being capable of understanding that Edna was free already, that she could do what she wanted, that they could be happy together. But of course, she was wrong; she didn’t understand that her relationship with Robert wasn’t going to end in a good way. It was an illusion that she could finally break the chains that tied her to the conventional world and be free. Deep down in her soul she knew this, which is why she wanted to keep on swimming, maybe at first she wanted to prove she could keep on swimming and not surrender to death, but that wasn’t possible. Perhaps her wings, or arms weren’t strong enough, and she wasn’t strong enough to go back to the harsh reality.

Also, it is interesting that her final sight is not those of freedom, but of her family. She is regressing in time, to her childhood, where once she had doubted her faith. This is probably the final meaning of her death, she finally discovered that she was once again the child who could think freely and take care of herself. She was back to the time where she didn’t know the harsh reality, where promises are broken and she can’t be happy. All this ends up killing her, but before dying, it’s like she doesn’t fear death anymore, because the terror that appeared before her the first time she swam far away, finally sank away, and she finally awoke by dying.

Journal 25: Chopin's wings

Quote:
“‘The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is sad to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth’” (Chopin 599)

Summary:
This are the exact words of Mademoiselle Reisz to Edna, when they where talking about Edna wanting to be an artist. Edna is telling this to Arobin when she is back at her house. She thinks these words are “queer”.

Response:

Mademoiselle Reisz’s words tell Edna that she needs to be ready and strong to overcome all the obstacles she will encounter if she really wants to become an artist. But this “artist” is not only about Edna’s desire to become a painter, it is about Edna as a whole and about all the awakenings she is having. Mademoiselle is telling her that discovering herself as and individual and trying to be independent in her time, will be a harsh task if not impossible. Also, she is telling her that people who usually want to be free and will often surrender and go back to the beginning, which is why if Edna has resolve enough to start her journey, she will need strong wings.

I think these words actually became true at the beginning, when Edna tries to swim far away in the ocean, but once she is overreaching her own strength, she get scared of death, and she goes back. Mademoiselle’s words reflect exactly how Edna felt when she came back from the water that day she learned how to swim. But in this case is not the ocean, it’s the sky, both are infinite and threatening, both symbolize freedom, and both can lead to death if you can’t fly or you can’t swim.

Chopin’s symbolism is really great, plus, the message she sends with these words, is the confrontation with a harsh reality that everyone knows, because humans want to believe they can overcome their problems and they can succeed, but that is not true, at least not if you don’t have the strength enough.

Journal 24: Chopin's gender roles

Quote:
“’There were a good many.’ replied Edna, who was eating her soup with evident satisfaction. “I found them when I got home; I was out”/ “Out!” exclaimed her husband, with something like genuine consternation in his voice…” (Chopin 574)

Summary:
This quote from The Awakening of Kate Chopin, takes place after Edna returns to the city. During dinner she tells her husband that she went out when she was supposed to stay at home and attend guest, like every other Tuesday.

Response:

I think the use of language in this passage is really symbolic to understand the subtle meaning of this conversation between Edna and her husband. In the first place, I noticed that Edna is not called Mrs. Pontellier anymore, which means something has changed. Chopin calls her by her first name to show the change in Edna, since now she is aware of her individuality and she is no longer just Mr. Pontellier’s wife.

Also, Edna eats her soup with evident satisfaction, even though the soup is not good according to her husband. It is like she is enjoying the moment, she enjoying the fact that she didn’t stayed home on a Tuesday, when she is supposed to stay and attend guest. She is enjoying that her husband is surprised and “concerned” about that. In other words, she is satisfied with her act of rebellion, because it paid off like she expected to.

On the other hand, he husband reaction is “something like genuine consternation”, which means he is concerned not because of Edna being out all day, but because she was out and the guest where important people, who might think she was rude, and by means he was rude too. He is more concerned about his own relations with the guests than with Edna’s happiness, he needs her to stay at home and be like a nice lady or doll to all the guests that come by. Basically, she is one extra tool to maintain good relationships with his business partners.

Therefore, I think this passage is very important to understand one of Edna’s awakenings, here she is rebelling to her husband, and tastes the ground to her independence, she is no longer a puppet or a doll he can control.

Journal 23: Jewett's The White Heron

Quote:
“The murmur of the pine’s green branches is in her ears, she remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron’s secret and give its life away” (Jewett 528)

Summary:
At the end of “The White Heron”, when Sylvia comes back from the forest, she doesn’t tell the stranger about the discovery she made, she chooses to remain silent and let him go, because she doesn’t want him to kill the white heron.

Response:

This ending was maybe unexpected to most readers, but I think it’s the perfect ending to the story. The way Jewett describes the strong connection between Sylvia and nature, especially with the white Heron, is amazing.

I think the Heron and the golden sky symbolize freedom for Sylvia, a freedom she could not reach, but after the perilous journey she went through to get to the top of the tree, she did taste some of it, and it was greater than the little “crush” she had for the stranger. Tasting this freedom made her understand that she couldn’t take away the life of a bird, which was able to enjoy this freedom all its life. Plus, it is very contradicting how after seen the greater world from the top of the tree, she decides not to tell the hunter about the bird, because if she had, she would probably be able to reach this bigger world, to be part of it. I think she didn’t do this because she likes to see the world, she was an observer, but she didn’t want to be part of it.

She is the bird, and she wants to keep the sight of this new world all to herself, make it her secret, so when she says “she cannot tell the heron’s secret”, she is doing it to protect the heron’s life, but also to protect herself. Telling the secret would give her own life away, because it could have been the start of a change, caused by this stranger. Furthermore, Sylvia has a deep connection to nature, and all the pain and beauty that hides in it makes here remain loyal to it, refusing the woman heart’s that had feelings for the stranger.

Journal 22: Jewett

Quote:
“…Mrs. Tilley gave amazed attention to all this, but Sylvia still watched the toad, not divining, as she might have done at some calmer time, that the creature wished to get to its hole under the door-step, and was much hindered by the unusual spectators at that hour of the evening” (Jewett 525)

Summary:

From the story “The White Heron”, this happens when the stranger is describing the white heron and he is proposing to give ten dollar to whoever tells him where it is. Sylvia doesn’t want to look like she knows about the bird and, then suddenly she starts staring at the toad who was trying to escape from the sight of the spectators.

Response:

I found this passage quite interesting, because I can compare the toad to Sylvia and also to nature. Jewett describes the toad as this little weak animal who, startled by these three people talking, it wants to escape and hide from them. But Sylvia who is very connected to nature, doesn’t notice this, instead she just stares at the little toad with no further analysis of the situation. in few words, the toad is trying to get to its refuge under the door-step but since the stranger and Mrs. Tilley are sitting there, he can not pass through.

The toad is like Sylvia, both have been trapped in a situation where the stranger is involve, and in both cases, the stranger is causing a difficulty, for both the toad and Sylvia. Sylvia is paralyzed because of the stranger persistent desire of finding the white Heron, which she knows about; but she can’t say anything, because saying something at that time would mean she had to be involved with this stranger, who as the same words says, was a stranger to her and to the world around her. Even if afterwards, she is going to be fascinated by this stranger and she’s going to struggle with herself, right now, he is just an obstacle and unusual spectator in her life, just like it is to the toad.

Now, this toad has been startled because he cannot go back to his refuge, and the stranger is the obstacle, however, Sylvia doesn’t realize, she cannot connect to the situation the toad is going through because she herself has to deal with not letting the stranger know she knows about the bird. Both animal and girl are in a struggle and this is shown by Jewett, she is making this subtle comparison that contains such a huge reality about the emotions going through Sylvia at that moment.

Journal 21: Feeling reality

Quote:
“…the dinning had naturally ended by making him perfectly indifferent. He had never considered it his affair that a soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers, nor had it appeared to him as a matter for sorrow. It was less to him than the breaking of a pencil’s point” (Crane, 1012)

Summary:
This is the correspondent’s thoughts about a poem he read when he was in school. He starts thinking how he didn’t understand or didn’t care about the meaning of this soldier dying. However, he starts to understand how important and real that poem was.

Response:

Crane’s irony is reflected in this quote. In this case, the correspondent remembers a poem where a dying soldier is regretting not being able to see his homeland once more. By the time the correspondent read this poem, it had no meaning to him; he was indifferent to the soldier’s pain, because it didn’t matter to him. He couldn’t find the meaning of a poem that didn’t relate to him and that wasn’t his own situation. This is also part of our self-centered world. Crane is trying to tell us that reality is only about “us” and not about what happens to others. However, reality strikes once you are about to die and you realize that the world doesn’t revolve around you.

This quote leads the correspondent to a realization about himself, after saying that he didn’t understand this story, now he can truly understand the soldier’s feelings, because he is experiencing the same situation, and he cannot escape from it. Furthermore, this shows how this correspondent finally steps out of his own space to understand other’s situation, but this only happens when he know he might die, and he has the time to think about his life.

What I found more ironic is that even a dying soldier wouldn’t cause the minimum sorrow to him, however, now that he is the same situation he is falling in despair and he is feeling sorrow for himself, because he doesn’t want to die. I guess Crane wants to show us that we are self-centered after all, and the only way to connect with other people’s pain is to feel it ourselves.

Journal 20: Dying better than being alone

Quote:
“Presently it seemed that even the captain dozed, and the correspondent thought that he was the one man afloat on all the oceans. The wind had a voice as it came over the waves, and it was sadder than the end” (Crane, 1010)

Summary:
From the reading “The Open Boat” by Crane, these are the correspondent’s thoughts after the night comes and he is the one in charge of rowing the boat. He starts thinking that he is alone, even though his other three companions are next to him sleeping.

Response:

Again, Crane is portraying human nature, where people are afraid to be alone. In this case, the correspondent feels that even if his friends are all sleeping together in this tiny boat, he is alone. He fears this loneliness, he fears it more than death, because he doesn’t want to be sad, and being alone is sad, and sadness is like death. This is made clear by the last line where he says the wind that that came through the waves, was sadder than the end, with which he is referring to death.

Also, I think the correspondent is scared of being alone; he is worried about having to stand alone by himself, which means there is nothing else that can distract him from looking at himself and finding his true nature. I guess this is also true about human beings, we don’t like silence, and quietness, because it feels like we are death, that there is no one out there to help us, and we have to stand on our own. This is when reality hits us hard, because we realize we are indeed alone and there is nothing we can do about it. In this case, the correspondent wishes there were somebody else with him, because he doesn’t want to confront this reality that seems to accentuate with the silence and the night. Thus, he feels like the only man in the middle of the ocean, and even if he doesn’t want to, he can connect his loneliness to the ocean, to the nature, and he reflect his loneliness to the voice of the wind, which is “sadder than the end’.

Journal 19: Drowning

Quote:
“If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, why in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees? Was I brought here merely to have my nose dragged away as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?" (Crane, 1006)

Summary:
This is the thought of all four men told out loud by Crane. The narrator says that that is what they must be thinking, since once they saw the shore and the possibility of being safe, they had to go back to open sea, because the boat was going to crash.

Response:

This quote is one maximum expression of the self-centered world we live in. In this case, these four men are asking “why?”, a question that will never be fully answered, but there they are these men, asking why do they have to be confronted with death if they tried so hard, like saying “why me?”. This quote shows the despair against the “injustice” of human life, where everyone is going to die sooner or later and the world will go on, without telling you why we died.

Also, this quote is a complain to the gods, to the supernatural being that seems to rule the world and hold everyone’s fate in their hands. It is like is determined who will live and who will die, and men who are clinging to life, refuse to accept this reality. They don’t want to die because they tried really hard to reach shore, they want to rebel against the fate that awaits them, and they want to challenge their reality. At this moment there is a psychological struggle, where these men are trying to fight against their hopeless fate and their own will to survive.

Furthermore, Crane is portraying another human characteristic, which is failure. When men try hard to do something and when they are about to reach this goal, they fail. At this moment, their first complain is against god, because they are not looking at themselves, they blame the gods for their failure, and they don’t realize yet that they need to look at themselves and understand why did they fail. I guess sometimes we want to blame it on someone else, and when is and death situation, all we have left is to cling into faith or into believing there is someone greater than ourselves that will reward us for our efforts, in this case by not letting the crew die.

Journal 18: row a boat

Quote:
“The correspondent wondered ingenuously how in the name of all that was sane could there be people who thought it amusing to row a boat. It was not an amusement; it was a diabolical punishment” (Crane, 1004)

Summary:
This quote for “The Open Boat” of Crane, is the beginning of the agonizing pain the correspondent suffers from rowing the boat. By that point he realizes people must be crazy to find rowing a boat amusing. In this case he sees this activity as the worst punishment in the world.

Response:

This quote talks about physical punishment, it is nothing but realism what Crane is showing with this description of how painful and terrible can it be to row a boat. Even though my first impression was to think of this quote only as a way of the correspondent to complain about how hard it was to row a boat, I have understood something else. I think Crane was trying to express the mental pain and the suffering the correspondent experiences by rowing a boat with no final destination, with not real hope of reaching ashore or being safe.

Rowing a boat is a sport or can be amusing, however, for the correspondent is the worst punishment sent from hell. This punishment reflected physically in his muscles and back, is not other than the representation of the punishment being inflicted in his own spirit. Punishment to his own spirit because he is rowing in the middle of the sea, he cannot reach the shore and he is tired, just too tired that rowing the boat has become a mechanical task, which only hurts him. However, I am sure that if the boat was getting closer to the shore and he had the certainty that they would reach this shore, then he would do his best to keep rowing this boat.

Plus, the moving of the boat is like life itself, Crane is using the Naturalist philosophy to portray life as a constant movement that is painful but if you stop then you will die. This is exactly what the boat crew is doing, in different ways; they need to keep alive and keep on moving, even though is painful and up to that point hopeless.

Journal 17: A light-house of hope

Quote:

“Meanwhile the light-house had been growing slowly larger. It had now almost assumed color, and appeared like a little gray shadow on the sky” (Crane, 1004)

Summary:
This is the first real sight of the light-house. All the men are focused in this figure that appears as a shadow in the sky. This means they are approaching land, and that makes them hopeful.

Response:

This a very interesting quote, first because of the way Crane describes the light-house, and second because the four men put all their hopes in this “gray shadow” which is a reason to keep rowing the boat and not giving up.
Crane says “a little gray shadow on the sky” which has color, however, in the first sentence of the story, he says “None of the new the color of the sky” (1000). This shows that these men have gained hope, and they are finally looking at the sky, they are finally seen the color of freedom, of hope. Before seeing the shadow of the light house, they only knew the colors of the sea, because knowing the changes in the sea was what kept them alive and they did not care about the sky.

I think the sky represents the freedom and happiness they cannot reach, they ignore the sky because they are focusing in surviving, that is all they want, but once they see this light-house, hope fills them and makes them wonder what the sky is like. They wonder about the colors of the sky, and this means that they have become aware that freedom and happiness can be reached, because they can be safe by putting their hopes in reaching this light-house. However, this freedom and hope is only a grey shadow, it has “almost assumed color” but is not something real yet. There is something restraining them from being totally hopeful, and that is reality.

I think this quote shows human nature, and Crane is portraying one characteristic of people, which is that we are all too focused in our own lives and our own tasks. People do not want to hope for something unless they can see a clear result in front of their eyes. They do not want to believe in god or in a greater being if it is not shown in front of them, and I think that is was this Light-house symbolizes.

Journal 16: The freedom by Du Bois

Quote:
“The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defense,-else what shall save us from a second slavery? Freedom too, the long sought, we still seek,-the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, the freedom to love and aspire” (Du Bois, 900)

Summary:
This quote from The Souls of Black Folk is Du bois message about what black people need to do in order to be free and be a strong group in society that expresses its opinion and takes part in important decisions, such as voting.

Response:

I think Du bois message is quite different from that of Washington. In his case, Washington said that black men were finally free; however, Du Bois clarifies that black people are still seeking freedom, because their actual condition can’t be called freedom. Du Bois is making a call for all black people to take the charge of their own lives and to fight for their right to vote and be active part of society. At the same time, he wants black people to find their own freedom, not a freedom dependent of white people, where they have to consider themselves thankful of living in a society that offers them something better than the rest of the world, but a freedom that allows them to think and to aspire for more.

At the same time his words are pretty clear, he is saying that black people need to do something about their rights and their freedom in order to avoid a “second slavery”, which means that during his time, black people were still under the control of the white society, which imposed rules and made it hard for them to fit in, because there always had to be a difference between races. Therefore, black people were considered ignorant and were represented as wild creatures in cartoons. Du Bois wants them to fight back and show white people that they are different, and that they have the right to be treated as equals and allowed to think and act by themselves.

Journal 15: The responsability of Freedom

Quote:
“The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take position of them. It was more like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into the world to provide for himself” (Washington, 673)

Summary:

This quote from Up from Slavery, is Washington’s description of what the freed slaves felt once they realized the big responsibility freedom was. He compares the Negroes to little kids that are suddenly introduced to manhood and have to manage to provide for themselves.

Response:

I think this quote is very self explanatory, because when Washington compares Negroes to small kids who had to provide for themselves, he is clearly saying that Negroes had no clue whatsoever of the great responsibility it was to be free. I think it is really interesting to see how this idea of freedom frustrates people the moment they got it. Because, Negroes expected and prayed for freedom more than anything; however, when this longing was over and they were finally free, they suddenly had to confront this question about “what do we do now?” and during that time it was a very important question that needed to be addressed immediately, since after the civil war, Negroes were set free and they were supposed to abandon the plantation or houses where they hade lived their wholes lives.

Also, I think Washington’s example of what being free means is very accurate, especially for his time. I think Negroes were like little kids because they had always depended on their patrons or masters to live, and even though they confronted lots of injustices while working in the fields and living under bad conditions, up to one point they got used to it, and I guess freedom had become like a dream for them. Therefore, once freedom came to them, they did not know what to do with it, which is why some of the old slaves talked to their masters in order to keep their jobs, because that is the only thing they knew how to do, in other words, they did not want to adjust to change after all.

Journal 14: Washington's speech

Quote:
“Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe” (Washington, 671).

Summary:

This quote from the Up from Slavery is what Washington thinks about the Negro population in America. He thinks Negroes living in America are in better position compared to Negroes all over the world. He is not only referring to a social status but he specifies that they are better morally, intellectually, materially and religiously.

Response:


Washington who experienced the last days of slavery and the change between being a slave and being a free person, makes this statement to support the fact that Negroes in America have reached a good level in society and have evolved to be in a more “hopeful condition” which is not only based in moral changes but also in intellectual, material and religion. I think what he is basically saying is that Negroes’ status has changed for good and that white people have helped them to improve themselves, so they can reach this new stronger and hopeful condition. By saying that, he is stating that Negroes are living much better in America than anywhere else in the world; therefore, Negroes should be thankful and appreciate the society they live in.

I guess most black leaders at the time would consider this statement treachery to their cause, because is like Washington is trying to defend the years of slavery and is not blaming white people for all the injustice made to the Negroes during slavery. I think, black leaders would see Washington as a complacent person who wants Negroes to be happy in America forgetting the past and appreciating living in this great society that offers different opportunities to them, in comparison to the rest of the world. I personally think that Washington was doing this to gain confidence and respect from the southern white people who might see him as a threat; therefore, this kind of thankful speech could open the doors to a pacific relationship between Negroes and whites.

Journal 13: Ruiz de Burton

Quote:
“‘I don’t want any cattle. I ain’t no ‘vaquero’ to go ‘busquering’ around and lassoing cattle. I’ll lasso myself; what do I know about whirling a lariat? said Mathews.” (Ruiz de Burton, 98)

Summary:

This is Mathews’ answer after Don Mariano offers to divide his cattle with them in order to have enough money to grow and be able to grow fruits and vineyards, and leave aside the wheat production.

Response:

This is an example of what the Americans think about the Mexicans. Mathew is clearly stating that raising cattle is a low-life activity, which he is not interested in doing because he doesn’t know how to and because he wants to keep his stubbornness about raising wheat. Also, I think Ruiz de Burton shows him as an elitist person, who doesn’t want to get involve with activities which he makes sound kind of wild. Plus, Mathews’ argument for not having cattle is rather childish, because he is belittling the vaquero activity, since he doesn’t know how to do it. So basically, he is just a useless man who can not do anything but complain and sustain fake arguments, relying on the fact that they are Americans and therefore they have to be right.

It is quite interesting though that Don Mariano does not says anything to contradict him, rather, he says that he goes “busquering around” just for fun, and that the caring of the cattle can be done by Indians. Thus, this is like one culture undermining another, first Mathews wants to make Don Mariano seem like a savage; then, Don Mariano is practically passing the ball to the Indians, since he is a man of status enough no to get involved in the direct caring of the cattle.
Therefore, I consider Ruiz de Burton is on the side of the Mexican Culture, and she is showing her own reality, where one thing is clear, it is for granted that the Indians are the lowest group in social status.

Journal 12: Don Mariano's come back

Quote:
“‘Yes, and if our crops fail, we will be in debt to the ears, with a chain around our necks,’ Mathew growled. ‘I thought you said that if it were not for my cattle, your crops would not have failed,’ said Don Mariano, smiling.” (Ruiz de Burton, 96)

Summary:

This is the exchange of words between the settlers and Don Mariano, where Mathew is complaining about Don Mariano giving them money to fence their crops, and if the crops are not successful, they will be in debt with him. To this, Don Mariano points out that he thought the cattle was the only motive why the crops would fail, which is not true.

Response:

This conversation between the Mathew and Don Mariano is very interesting, because on one side we can see the tension between these two groups of people, who are involved in diplomatic discussions but underneath they are just sending subtle message to undermine each other. On the other hand I see how the Americans are in the end blaming the failure of the crops on Don Mariano’s cattle; however, the true reason is the lack of rain, but they will not say that because they want to find the justification for having killed the cattle and for having crops that did not really grow as expected.

I think Ruiz de Burton wanted to show this tense and ironic situation by letting us know at the end that the Americans were the ones wrong, because if they had been completely sure that their crops were going to succeed they would not have doubt in accepting Don Mariano’s proposal. Plus, the American’s position is very clear in these conversation, they always want to be in control and do not depend on others, specially the Mexicans who had just been defeated in the Mexican American war. It is ironic, because the Americans are wrong, they know that what Don Mariano is proposing is fair and possible; nevertheless, they prefer to stay stubborn and not admit that the true problem with their crops is the lack of rain.

Finally, I think Don Mariano’s come back shows that he is aware of what the Americans are thinking, so he plays the fool nice man’s role there, but he knows that he is right and the Americans are wrong, which I find quite comical, because they are the real fools in the story.

Journal 11: About the president

Quote:

“I have never seen a president in my life and I want to know whether he is made of wood or rock, for I cannot for once think that he can be a human being. No human being would do such a thing as that,-send people across a fearful mountain in midwinter” (Winnemucca, 510).

Summary:
These are Winnemucca words after she finds out that the president has commanded the soldiers to translate her people to the Yakima Preservation.

Response:

Again, here I think Winnemucca is making the statement that white people are merely savages who do not care about other but themselves. In this case, she talks about the president and his nonsense commands. In this case the command of taking the Indians to the Yakima Preservation in the middle of the winter, will not only jeopardize the Indian lives, but also the soldiers’. Thus, she dehumanizes the president, which for her would come to be the worst enemy, because up to that point she had been doing the best to protect her people. She is also saying that the president of the new world, is nothing but a tyrant and no better than a “beast”, which is a very strong statement even if she is telling a story. Definitely, she knew how to use words to her convenience, because she was able to achieve different feelings with her story, and at the same time, she was talking her mind about the president.

Also, I would say that her words show the president’s true objective in transporting the Indians at this time. He is deliberately suggesting that it does not matter whether these Indians live or die, because either way, he wants to get rid of them. This is all implied in Winnemucca’s words which clearly show what her people were going through during a time of oppression, when the Indians, who had lived long enough in peace, were threatened by a new powerful culture, which simply saw them as savages, who had no right to be called “people”.

Journal 10: true savages

Quote:
“They [Indians] gave them such as they had to eat. They did not hold out their hands and say: “You can’t have anything to eat unless you pay me.” No,-no such word was used by us savages at that time” (Winnemucca, 504)

Summary:

This extract from Chapter I of Life Among the Piutes, is Sarah Winnemucca comparison between her people and the white people that settled in America. She is basically saying that whites would ask for money before helping others, while her people would help white people freely.

Response:

In this extract Winnemucca is clearly comparing both races, and she is basically saying that her people are better in what are common sense and human values. She is basically exposing her truth and she is sort of reproaching the fact that white people’s values were so twisted, even though the Indians were the ones considered savages.
I find a clear irony in what she is saying because, she is using a narrative technique that would make people think Indians were really good “people”, which was one of her objectives. Plus, she is using the word “savages”, a word that would be common to be used by white people, and she uses it to her own convenience. She is basically saying “you whites are the real savages”, thus, she is giving these indirect messages that show she had an immense courage while standing in front of people who were mostly white; however, I think these messages passed somehow unnoticed by people who were not really paying attention to her when she was doing her speech.
Furthermore, I do think this message passed unnoticed because, any white men who is paying attention to her speech would have reacted to this statement and would have done something to her, since after all she was only an Indian. Therefore, she is getting away with insulting white men, a thing I think would be very reasonable for her to do, while trying to convince her “audience” that Indians were kind and civilized.

Journal 9: Huckleberry Finn

Quote:

"Because it ain't in the books so-that's why. Now Ben Rogers, do you want to do things regular, or don't you?-that's the idea. Don't you reckon that the poeple that made the books knows what's the correct thing to do?" (Twain 114)

Summary:

This quote is from the Chapter two of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Here, Tom Sawyer is trying to explain his friends what the books say about "ransom[ing]" people, which he does not really understand, but when Ben Rogers tries to complain and wants to know what exactly that means, Tom says that whatever that means they have to do it according to waht the book says, because the books are correct.

Response:

I think this quote is Mark Twain’s mockery of “the books” which represent the laws and things kids are thought during his time. These books about piracy and wild stories about murders are what Tom Sawyer reads and he tries to come up with some kind of interpretation, which he does not fully understand. However, he does not want to go against what the books say because the books know what is to be done. In other words, Twain is saying that the way society works in this time is that everything must be followed according to what it’s thought, meaning that there is no room for personal interpretations or individual opinions.
Plus, when Tom threatens Ben saying “do you want to go against the books”, he is practically making a statement about how strict was the teaching and the laws during that time. Basically, this question is enough to make Ben be quiet and follow the Tom’s command. I consider this quite interesting, because Twain was able to make a strong statement about what he thinks about teaching and he put it in the words of some kid, who were just fantasizing about some game. At the same time, I really like the irony of his words, because Tom doesn’t know what the books are talking about and what are the true meanings of the words, however, he follows it. This would mean, that people are mainly being brainwashed by the law and by the “books” teaching, and they will just accept any teaching, even if they do not really understand or do not really agree with it.

Journal 8: Prayer for Victory

Quote:
“You heard these words: “Grant us the victory. O Lord our God!” That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words” (Twain 323)

Summary:
From the story “The War Prayer” by Mark Twain, these words are said by the stranger who entered the church in the middle of the “long” prayer. He is referring to the fact that the prayer people are making to God has two sides, and both sides are included in praying for victory.

Response:
In this story, I find the irony of war, because while people in one side are praying for victory, they want to ignore the means it will take to achieve this victory. Plus, on the other side, the “enemy” army will also be praying for victory. So I believe both sides use God to their convenience. War was a human creation; still, people rely on God whenever there is not other hope left. However, what does God has to do with people wanting to kill each other? It is pretty clear that people will create an image of God that best fits them, before realizing that they are the ones responsible for their own actions.
I think this is part of Twain’s message with this story, because, he claims that people are praying for victory and are not considering the fact that this victory will bring disgrace, suffering and unhappiness to everyone, especially to the enemy. Moreover, this quote unravels one characteristic of human nature, since we not always think about the consequences of our acts and sometimes hide behind ideas that will help us feel good about ourselves. Furthermore, the people represented in the story are self-centered, they feel they should be the ones winning victory and they should be the ones protected, but who is to say who is right? I consider this story a very clear criticism to war and not to religion, it is a criticism to people for praying nonsense to a God that has nothing to do with war. Nevertheless, it is normal to do that if they are scared, but either way, the stranger tries to show them the truth about war, and people consider him crazy. In other words, they want to remain ignorant to the truth, because they cannot accept it.

Journal 7: Mad or making some sense?

Quote:

MAD, adj.
Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. (Bierce)

Summary:
This is another definition from Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary. He is basically saying anyone who behaves different from what society has established as correct and acceptable, will be considered crazy.

Response:
This is another definition that really caught my attention while reading the dictionary. I think this definition is mocking society itself and sends to an extreme what is considered mad. Bierce’s was focusing in the fact that anyone who tries to go against society’s rules and what is considered correct, will be judged, considered a stranger and probably separated from society in order to not interfere with the acceptable way of living.
I really like this definition because it reminded me of a novel I have read many times and that has always interested me, which is The Stranger by Albert Camus. The story is about a main character Meursault, who lives up to his own rules and does not share the common thoughts about love, marriage, happiness, god or what is considered a good life. For him it is all about the moment and what he enjoys doing, he does not worry about the consequences and even killed a man “because of the sun”. This man was judged and sentenced to death not for killing a man but for being different, which was condemned in his society. Therefore, he was considered a threat to the normal course of living, and he had to be eliminated.
I really consider there is a big relation between what Bierce describes as mad and what happened to Meursault. I do think that most of the time, people have a need to follow what is considered rightful by society, and there is only few of them who decide to live their own lives, even if they end up judged by society. However, it is really hard to fight against what everyone else thinks, which makes some people become “like everyone else”.

Journal 6: Bierce's Occurrence

Quote:

“At the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of match less grace and dignity… Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bride”(Bierce 366)

Summary:

This quote is the ending of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and here we can see the end of the dream Peyton had before dying. He imagined he was able to escape from death and go back home to his wife, when in reality he died hanged from the bridge.

Response:

When I read the story, I really enjoyed how the storyline developed. I did believe for a moment that Peyton was able to escape death and that he was back with his wife. However, I had the feeling things could not develop so smoothly and that there had to be something else happening, which is why I really liked the ending.
With this quote I want to show the huge difference between reality and the delusion Peyton had before dying. This story is a clear example of the brute reality that happens in war, which is that there is not always a happy ending and there is not always a hero that can be proud of his actions. I believe the hero was a fool, because in this case, Peyton believed he was doing something great to defeat the enemy, while at the end he was considered the assassin and was the one who died.
I was really impressed of how Bierce pieced together the two realities and was able to trick the reader into believe that Peyton survived. Also, he is mocking people’s hopes of believing that a miracle could occur. Furthermore, when I read the title of the story I started thinking about Bierce’s word choice. I think the word Occurrence has a lot to do with was will happen in the story, because this word which means event, incident, and so on; at first sight would mean the event of Peyton being killed. Yet, occurrence also means something unexpected, which could be that Peyton was able to escape. But in the end the Occurrence is basically make us believe that he escaped in order to shock us when he really died. Therefore, Bierce is mocking the reader from the beginning of the story, and of course, a reader who is not completely paying attention to certain details and hints will fall for it.

journal 5: Bierce's devil's dictionary

Quote:
FUTURE, n.
That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured. (Bierce)

Summary:

This definition from Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary, is basically saying that the future will never come, because we will always live in the present and, will always refer to the future as a time when everything will go accordingly to a plan, which will never succeed.

Response:

When we read some of the definitions of this Devil’s Dictionary in class, I was really captured by Bierce’s ability to find a pessimist side to most words. As I read some definitions in the dictionary I came across the definition of future, and I understood a little bit of how Bierce probably got inspired to write this book.
I think he got this definition from a general look to what everyone thinks the future will bring. I have often heard people say, and I have also said it myself, something like “In the future I want to study this” or “I will go here and I will do what I really like”. However, while we live in the present and keep dreaming about what is going to happen in the future, we forget that how we are living right now is our immediate future. I think, his definition of future was very influenced by this general characteristic that people have, but he also added his personal experience. Since he had a very bad ending to his marriage and both of his sons died, he realized that the hopes he had for the future never came true. Therefore, he gives us this definition, like a slap in the face, telling us to wake up because basically our dreams will never come true, which is why the future will never come. I do not agree with this definition, nevertheless, I was fascinated by the irony in his writing, because he is really mocking people’s feelings and dreams by talking about friendship that will never be true and happiness that will never exist.

Journal 4: Harte's luck

Quote:

"Dying!" he repeated; “He’s a-taking me with him. Tell the boys I’ve got The Luck with me now” (Hart 332)

Summary:

This extract from The Luck of the Roaring Camp, are the final words from Kentuck, a strong and important man in the mining camp who dies protecting the baby after the flood. With these words Kentuck is not regretting that he is dying or that the baby is dead too, instead, he feels very fortunate of being the one dying with the baby.

Response:

I believe these words show how important the baby was to the camp. One of the reasons is that Kentuck does not care that he is dying or that the baby is dead, he is just happy to be able to die with him. I think Kentuck did a noble act by trying to save the baby, even giving up his life. This is also related at how Harte wants to show us that, even though the men in the camp were all rough and did not really know how to be good men; they found in the baby something to believe in, something worth dying for. However, Kentuck’s words hide a tone of selfishness, in a way I felt he was proud of being the one staying with the baby at the end, like the baby was sort of a prize for him, or maybe it was his last hope of feeling good with himself once they told him he was dying.
Plus, Kentuck’s words hide Harte’s irony about luck, because, what does luck have to do with dying? I strongly believe that this message would pass unnoticed by people who want to believe in happy endings, and in the noble acts at the end of the story, where a man gives up his life to protect a baby. However, Harte, in this sentimental scene finds the right way to put the irony about luck. At first I did not notice this fact, but after reading the ending a couple of times, I saw the smooth way in which Harte included a little of irony in such a sad ending.

Journal 1: Dickinson's view of the truth: as simple as lightning

Quote:

“The Truth must dazzle gradually/ Or every man be blind” (Dickinson 91)

Summary:

These lines from the poem 1263 of Emily Dickinson states how true should be told to men. It should be told slowly and in a discrete way or else men won’t understand it and will deny it.

Response:

This poem has a consistent rhyme and when I read it, it had this sarcastic tone which I believe was Dickinson purpose because maybe, she wanted to point out people’s inability to see the truth. When the poem starts she is proposing the reader to tell the truth indirectly or else it will not be accepted or it will cause revolt among people.
She compares how truth affects men with how lightning can affect children. By making a simile between these to facts she is saying that as lightning scares children, truth scares men, and the only way they can be calmed is with kind words or by telling the truth slowly and in a discrete way. She uses nature to show that even though truth is something that scares people, it is also a simple reality that is in front of our eyes like nature. However, sometimes people decide to stay away from it, because it can be as sudden and scary as lightning.
Therefore, these two lines caught my attention because they sum up what Dickinson explains in her poem, which is that if truth is told straight forward, men will be scared and will refuse to believe it. Nevertheless, if truth is told gradually, it will be hard to accept first, but there will be ways to calm men and make them believe it. This aproach to truth will be easier than to tell them the whole truth and expect them to accept it without questions. In my opinion truth will always be subjective to certain point, since everyone sees their own truth and they will change it, accept it or refuse it according to their beliefs.

Journal 2: Dickinson's poetry

Quote:

“Futile - the winds - / To a Heart in port - / Done with the Compass - / Done with the Chart!” (Dickinson 82).

Summary:
This is the second stanza in poem 269 of Emily Dickinson. I believe she is saying that nothing can interfere or pull her apart from the path she has decided to follow now that she has found it.

Response:
The first time I read this poem, I thought it was more like a passionate description of a sexual encounter between her and her lover. However, after reviewing the different interpretations I now believe this poem is about Dickinson the artist. I consider this poem to be a very passionate description of her and her art, because I feel she found herself within her poems. Finally this poem is sort of a revelation for her, like saying “I have discovered who I am as an artist and there is nothing that can make me change”.
This stanza is the end of the longing she announces in the first stanza. She longs for the “wild nights”, but in this stanza, she convincingly realizes that she has to look no more. She is no longer a slave of society’s critics and defined gender roles. Now, she can refuge in her art and her poetry to be herself. I believe she was struggling with herself because she was maybe sick of how society defined women roles, and how she was expected to depend on men and leave aside her own interests.
Therefore, she uses the word “futile”, to declare that anything “the winds” do to separate her from port will be useless now that she knows what she wants. Plus, since this longing is over, now that she has discovered her true self, she feels she is in the heaven, which means she now has found sort of a peaceful refuge where she can stay, which is her poetry.

Journal 3: Whitman's command: "You shall.."

Quote:

“You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through
the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books” (Whitman 31).

Summary:
This quote is from the section 2 of the poem “Song of Myself”. I believe in these two lines, Whitman is proposing the reader the alternative of becoming the center of his own world. Also, I believe the “you” refers to the reader as well as to Whitman himself, since he is making a statement about what he believes should be the way of living for everyone.

Response:

When I first read section 2 of the poem, I noticed a change of tone in Whitman’s lines. First he starts talking about himself and his relation with the world. However, when I read these two lines, which are almost at the end, I felt that he was taking a god like pose, since “you shall” reminded me of the 10 commandments. I believe these two lines are Whitman’s perception of a better world, where continuity is broken, and we no longer need to follow the steps of the old laws and the old books.
I believe he is stating his position about the criticisms he received for his sexual writing and his free verse style, among other things. Therefore, he shows how the world should really be. He wants the readers to open their eyes to a new world where concepts can be changed and where everyone can choose their own path to follow.
Plus, I find his descriptions really interesting, because by saying “you shall no longer take things at second or third hand” he is practically saying “find what you want and do not wait for it or expect to get it from others, get it yourself and do not let anyone get in the way”. That is a very self centered perspective, but it is really showing human nature, because we are self-centered. Furthermore, I interpret “the eyes of the death” as the concepts or ideas of people who are no longer important and that even though might be powerful during their time, generation will change and they will be forgotten. It is as brilliant as when he says “the spectres in books”.

Therefore, I believe he is clearly saying, find yourself and do not let laws and society dictate what you must or mustn't do. It is like an announcement for people to dare to change, which is why I consider the “you” refers to himself as well as to the reader. First because he started a change, consequently, he felt in authority enough to command people to do the same.