"The New Colossus"

Charles So

English 48B

March 24, 2011

Journal for Lazarus

Author Quote:

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... Send these, the homeless, tempest-tots to me," (520)

Internet Quote:
"Bartholdi's gigantic effigy was originally intended as a monument to the principles of international republicanism, but 'The New Colossus' reinvented the statue's purpose, turning Liberty into a welcoming mother, a symbol of hope to the outcasts and downtrodden of the world" (Paul Auster Wikipedia)

Summary:

There is a deep contrast between the ancient statue of the sun god, Helios, that watched over the ancient harbors of the greek islands with our own "lady liberty." Lazarus in an elegant tone expresses the extreme and enormous stature and beauty of the gift presented by France. The poem represents the statue as a symbol of hope and freedom for all the millions of immigrant coming to the U.S. through Ellis Island. The quote I chose from the poem, is sort of a national slogan for our immigration policy and openness towards humanity, the quote expresses America as a new beginning for the mistreated and exiled.

Personal Opinion:
As i read more about Emma Lazarus i was very interested in her deep interest in Zionism, i was very much surprised that a Jewish- American born citizen, was one of the forerunners in  leading the advocacy of Zionism which led to the creation of Israel. I felt that her work was very much influenced by her Jewish background and that her poem's reflected the pride in her culture and ancestry that she had because of her upper class upbringing as a well accepted and respected Jewish family. By reading more about Emma Lazarus's family, i felt that the Jewish community in the early development of New York culture was very important and influential.

"Life Among The Piutes"

Charles So

English 48B

March 20, 2011

Journal for Winnemucca

Author Quote:

"When I think of my past life, and the bitter trials I have endured, i can scarcely believe I live, and yet I do; and, with the help of Him who notes the sparrow's fall, I mean to fight for my down-trodden race while life lasts." (503)

Internet Quote:

"Sarah was a person of two worlds. 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." (Wikipedia)

Summary:

This quote comes from the very first chapter and it is somewhat of a precursor to all of the trials and tribulations Winnemucca and her people go through. There is great truth to Winnemucca's words, as she lived a hectic life, battling to save her people, by oration and writing. From the stories of her grandfather trying to welcome the white people and their denial of him, to the the cruel way in which the President forced her people move to the Yakima Reservation during the winter the portions i read describes the gentle nature of her people being overtaken by the evils of an empire in which she tries to convey that message to the reader.

Personal Opinion:
I was very intrigued by the folklore about the brothers and sisters of different skin tones being separated due to their hate for each other, i thought it was a very creative. But along with that story came my bias; that many of Winnemucca's writing integrated a Native folkloric way of presenting occurrence's, which makes me feel as if she is telling the story only the way she wants people to see it. Winnemucca's accounts are very much fixed in a way where she is trying to gather the sympathy of the reader for her people but this intentional way of getting sympathy makes her accounts and occurrences very much exaggerated.  

"The Walking Woman"

Charles So

English 48b

March 18, 2011

Journal for Austin

Author Quote:

"To work and to love and to bear children. That sounds easy enough. But the way we live establishes so many things of much more importance." (892)

Internet Quote:

 "Acknowledged during her lifetime as an important American nature-writer in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, as a leading feminist theorist, and as an expert on Native American cultures, but largely forgotten after her death in 1934, Mary Austin has received renewed interest over the past few decades due to a unique literary blending of feminism, environmental ethics, social critique, and interpretations and adaptations of Native American, Hispanic-American, and Euro-American mythological traditions." (Literary Encyclopedia : Mary Austin by Mark T. Hoyer U.C. Davis)

Summary:
Mary Hunter Austin with one of her last paragraphs generalizes and defines the three things in which life is worth living for, which are explained by the Walking Woman. After elaborating on her journey to make her way to meet the Walking Woman, Austin finally meets the Walking Woman and she is treated with a delightful story that explained the Walking Woman's ideas, "three things which if you had known you could cut out all the rest, and they were good any way you got them, but best if, as in her case, they were related to and grew each one out of the others" (890). With Austin's quote she gives a sincere remark to the philosophy of the Walking Woman at the same time infers to the lifestyle of the Walking Woman as not being agreeable to her own.

Personal Opinion:
The meaning of this story is very confusing as i feel that Austin wants the reader to respect and idealize the Walking Woman and her lifestyle as it went against all preconceived notions of the nature of a woman. The Walking Woman to me is a representation of the confused feminist not really knowing what to do with her dominant free spirit, which refuses the lifestyle given at the time for women. Austin with her writing shows her understanding and appreciation for the Walking Women and conveys the message of the Walking Woman through the text. The remarks at the end i feel is very important because Austin disagrees with the road in which the Walking Woman chose to live her free spirited life. Austin is trying to explain that a women choosing to live life for herself and no one else is okay but the way the Walking Woman is doing it is not quite right.

Beyond the story, Austin through her tale of the Walking Woman gives an image of California as a  free spirited, untamed, but beautiful land. I really enjoyed how the Warm Springs (silicon valley) sounds and feels so rough and swampy back in those days.  

Emily Dickinson

Charles So

English 48B

March 16, 2011

Journal for Dickinson

Author Quote:

                         [435]

Much Madness is divinest Sense -

To a discerning Eye -

Much Sense - the starkest Madness -

'Tis the Majority

In this, as all, prevail -

Assent - and you are sane -

Demur - you're straightway dangerous -

And handled with a Chain -

           

  [1624]

Apparently with no surprise

To any happy Flower

The Frost beheads it at it's play -

In accidental power -

The blonde Assassin passes on -

The Sun proceeds unmoved

To measure off another day
For an Approving God -

Summary/Personal Opinion:

I'm sure everyone has heard the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," i bring this up because in the poem numbered [435], there is this same sense of message that beauty or conventional wisdom/sense is all on the individual and it shouldn't be restricted through the perception or adhere to the majority. Demur means to disagree or object so i felt that [435] was a strong message of individuality and uniqueness from societies conventional constrictions. In poem [1624] i sensed a sunrise or sunset and the descriptions stood out to me. The use of "blonde Assassin," is incredible, I have never heard anyone call the sun an assassin and the term sounds as if it just came fresh out of a Graphic Comic Novel, its just edgy and has a hard line feel to it and i just don't feel like it belongs in her time, and now i can understand why she wasn't accepted or understood in her time.

"Walt Whitman's America"

Charles So

English 48B

March 11, 2011

Journal for Whitman Biography

Author Quote:

"When fused by Whitman with the literary pun on "leaves" (meaning the pages of a book), the scientific reference reflected his dream that the book, like grass leaves, would sprout in all regions and nourish its readers." (241)

Internet Quote:

"Whitman had a messianic vision of himself as the quintessential democratic poet who could cure the many ills of his materialistic, politically fractured society. Having absorbed America, he expected America to absorb him and be mended in the process." ( X Preface Walt Whitman's America by David S. Reynolds)

Summary:

During an incredible resurgence in American religion, a time in which it may be called the Second Great Awakening, several new denominations and sects were created such as Mormonism and other forms of millennial ism groups. Strongly influenced by such movements "particularly  to the interrelated movements of spiritualism, Swedenborgianism, and Harmonialism, Whitman professes these new ideas through Leaves of Grass.

Personal Opinion:
Walt Whitman through his poetry was a man who used writing as a voice. Through his writing he professed his ideas on war, politics, sexuality, race, physical states, and spiritual states. By becoming somewhat of a mystic type of person, i feel that Whitman became a spokesman/writer for the people with a non-conformist attitudes and for the people who want a better society. With his graceful way of introducing his ideas and beliefs there is a sense of Utopia in his message for the world.

"Song of Myself"

Charles So

English 48B

March 10, 2011

Journal for Whitman

Author Quote:

"There is that in me I do not know what it is but i know it is in me." (73)

"It is not chaos or death it is form, union, plan  it is eternal life it is Happiness" (73)

Internet Quote:

"Whitman’s grand poem is, in its way, an American epic. Beginning in medias res—in the middle of the poet’s life—it loosely follows a quest pattern. “Missing me one place search another,” he tells his reader, “I stop somewhere waiting for you.” In its catalogues of American life and its constant search for the boundaries of the self “Song of Myself” has much in common with classical epic." (Sparknotes search Walt Whitman)

Summary:

In "Song of Myself," Whitman beautifully explains his own experiences in life and travel. The quote i chose comes near the end and most of the pages at the end are very similar as Whitman tries to explain his own nature and beliefs.  

Personal Opinion:

I'm not sure what to call "Song of Myself," since it is so long i don't want to call it poetry because poetry is suppose to be short and sweet, as i have known it to be. There is definitely a great deal of appreciation for the human body and sensuality, Whitman for me speaks in a existential manner, because for me his writing is transcending the conventional understanding of life and self being. For example Whitman obviously knows his own greatness "It is time to explain myself let us stand up," (67) here he celebrates himself, whether or not other people understand or acknowledge him, Whitman knows his craft is something special and that he himself is ascending while others are on a steady flow.

"Crossing"

Charles So

English 48B

March 7, 2011

Journal for Whitman

Author Quote:
"Burn high your fires, foundry chimneys! cast black shadows at nightfall!

     cast red and yellow light over the tops of the houses!

Appearances, now or henceforth, indicate what you are,

You necessary film, continue to envelop the soul." (25)

Internet Quote:

"A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism , incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse." (Wikipedia seach Walt Whitman)

 Summary:

From the beginning to the end, Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" constantly invokes the past with the present, Whitman's idea that others have seen and fifty years from now will still be seeing, the islands of New York City, expresses the realization that others have also shared his range of emotional and spiritual experience throughout time. From there he explores and expresses his devotion for the individual, he demands growth and rejects limitation due to so called "appearances."

Personal Opinion:

As i started to read "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," i was very hesitate, because at first the poem felt less like poetry and more like an existential pondering. However as i read deeper into the poem and felt the coexistence of past and present in the harbor, i automatically related it to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who all came through the same way and probably felt a great deal of the same way. Throughout the poem I couldn't really tell exactly the feelings or state of mind this poem was suppose to put you in. Although the poem is great at invoking a certain state of mind and mood, i personally thought the poem was very hard to keep up with, it kind of went here and there.    

"Unveiling Kate Chopin/Subverting the French Androcentric Influence"

Charles So

English 48B

March 3, 2011

Journal for Writings on Chopin

Author Quote:

"Unveiling Kate Chopin uncovers the inner life of a courageous woman who, a century ago, was a solitary soul, a tough and resilient character who had opinions and who dared and defied." (Intro. Unveiling)

Author Quote:

"Chopin's uniqueness as a woman writer, at its best, speaks out well beyond the French influence and it is a voice which is strikingly female. The French male form and style she adopts from Maupassant are adapted to suit her own purpose, to explore a position unique to woman. She exerts literary individuality and originality and, ultimately, speaks in a truly feminist voice."

"The male protagonists central to his stories are "...bitter about women and love, and are suffused by a general misanthropy and more specific misogyny" (Taylor p.160). His perspective is clearly androcentric and it is precisely this male vision of the world that Chopin writes against, shifting women from object to subject. She explores and articulates what she saw in life for women, and in doing so, subverts the very male French tradition from within which she herself writes, feminist-ising rather than simply feminising the model of male form and style.( para. 5 Subverting)

Summary:

In Unveiling Kate Chopin the first few pages gives a intriguing detailed history of Chopin's family history. In the first chapter there is great emphasis on Chopin's complex childhood including the arrangement of her parents. In the essay "Kate Chopin as Feminist" the entire writing brought new incite to Chopin's creative background and inspiration (Mauspassant), and how through her own evolution she restructured Maupassant's style and perspective to uniquely fit into her own feminist approach

.

Personal Opinion:
The biography said that Chopin didn't mention much about her childhood, this might be because it was not a pleasant upbringing for her and she probably rather not talk about it. In Jane Le Marquand's essay she makes clear points on how the works of Maupassant was strongly noticeable in Chopin's early works such as in "Her Letters," but through Chopin's own uniqueness, she altered the style in which she gathered from Maupassant and gave it more of a feminist angle. According to Wikipedia Henri Rene Guy De Maupassant was one of the fathers of short stories and according to the essay from Marquand many of Maupassant's stories depicted women as nothing more than possessions and objects for man, from this, i wonder if his distinction is another example of the patriarchal power of man that awards a writer that lowers women in its generalization.

 

"The Awakening"

Charles So

English 48B

March 2, 2011
Journal for Chopin

Author Quote:
"In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world with and about her... How few of us ever emerge from such beginnings! How many souls perish in its tumult!" (544)

Internet Quote:
"the plot centers around Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century South. It is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism." (Wikipedia search The Awakening)

Summary:

Edna Pontellier the wife of Leonce Pontellier and a young mother of two is going through an "awakening" her riveting revelation is the core of the entire story. Edna is characterized as the customary southern girl that got married off and became entrapped in that role for her lifetime. Then through complex situations, beginning at the Grand Isle she becomes emotionally and mentally freed, she begins to desire and feel emotions in her that becomes more individualistic and self fulfilling. She then with her new found state of mind begins to assert, approach and act in a very different way a in which she feels great but has no sense of it.

Personal Opinion:

Though the story had a definitive regional and cultural aspect to it it really didn't distract from the main plot of story from being the main attraction. The Creole slang, vernacular, scenic background, and attitude makes story more robust and vivid and created more texture to the plot compared to writings that i read like Edith Wharton's "The Other Two" which i thought is similiar because the topic is about social norms and discourses. Chopins romanticism towards that region and the Creole people is very attractive but along with its all to real message on women's suffrage the romanticism strikingly mixes feminist realism.

It was awfully sad that Edna felt that the way she felt, for her to just swim off to her death, that felt like a punch in the gut for hope, but realistically that was probably the only ending possible that would allow the book to be published as its ideas were very post modern.  

"Samuel Clemens"

Charles So

English 48B

Feb. 24 2011

Journal for Lankford

Author Quote:

"With a little help from Tahoe's healing water, Clemen's transformation into Twain was now complete." (139)

Internet Quote:

“Tahoe beneath the Surface” reveals how the lake transformed the lives of conservationists like John Muir, humorists like Mark Twain, and Hollywood icons like Frank Sinatra. It even touches upon some of the darker aspects of American history, including anti-Chinese racism and the Kennedy assassination." (laketahoenews.net)

Summary:
An amazing adventure for Clemens in Tahoe, that became a significant inspiration and motivation. In Tahoe he saw the jaw dropping beauty and was overwhelmed by the power of nature, here he ventured in one of his earlier get rich scheme plans which failed and also with his anti Union ways he almost drew pistols with an arch rival at the time. More importantly at the waters of Tahoe is where Clemens like Huck Finn in the Mississippi changed forever through his experiences.

Personal Opinion:
I just find it curious that i never knew such history existed in Lake Tahoe, all i know about Tahoe is "Keep Tahoe Blue" and New Years Eve (awesome!) over there. However when you start thinking about it Lake Tahoe it does present a variety of qualities that make it such a hotbed for history, its location in the past must of been in a prime spot between California and the Midwest.   

"Letters From The Earth"

Charles So

English 48B

Feb. 23 2011

Journal for Twain

Author Quote:
"When he is at this very very best he is a sort of low grade nickelplated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm. Yet he blandly and in all sincerity calls himself the "noblest work of God." (310)

Internet Quote:

"Twain is able to take the silliness that is present and study it with the common sense that is absent. Not so much an attack as much as a cold dissection" (Summary of Mark Twain's Letter From The Earth by Ryan Werner suite101.com)

Summary:

Here Twain is bluntly mocking human kind and its mentality as the highest forms of life. Throughout the letters Twain accurately dissects the human psyche in regards to religion and gives a haunting perspective of ourselves and our insane ways of behaving.

Personal Opinion:

I thought this material from Twain was very deep and dark, the contradictory ideas explained by Twain about sexuality in regards to Heaven is very touchy because to me it hits the discreet nature of our society. Twain's view on human misappropriation, due in part to the "bible god" is almost sacrilegious, its no wonder his daughter was cautious about publishing this work. I thought these letters were awesome and incredibly creative, when reading the letters you get this existential feeling about life. 

"Huck Finn"

Charles So

English 48B

Feb. 21 2011

Journal for Twain

Author Quote:

"That's just the way: a person does a low down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace. That was my fix exactly... It made me shiver... It was because my heart warn't  right;  it was because i warn't square' it was because i was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me i was holding on to the biggest one of all." (245-246)

Internet Quote:

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn..." (In Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway)

"Father of American Literature" (William Faulkner)

Summary:

This quote brings the reader inside Huck Finn's conscious. Through the portion of the story i read, Huck is at a moral conflict with the received values of the society in which he lives, he is at a struggle with his own morals and values, he expresses them through his agonizing decision over Jim future.

Personal Opinion:

Mark Twain lived quite a spectacular life, i found that his life can be a story just on its own. I thought the portion of Huck Finn that i read was very intriguing, with its use of southern speech and its viewpoint through a young gritty american is wonderful. I have personally never read any of Mark Twain's novels but i am familiar with many of his works, sadly to spoofs and imitations but they say imitations is the sincerest form of flattery. As for the critique on Cooper by Mark Twain, i didn't quite understand but i found his rules and comments on writing to be very personal and poignant. Twain's view and dissection of Cooper is very witty and insulting i felt, for Twain to just destroy Cooper and just use Cooper as the pitfall of lower level writing is very bold. I wonder if they knew each other?  Overall i can say that along with many others that i have come across in this class, Twain is a writer that i must read and know about more.

"The Other Two"

Charles So

English 48B

Feb. 16 2011

Journal for Wharton

Author Quote:

  "She dropped into her low chair by the tea table, and the two visitors, as if drawn by her smile, advanced to receive the cups she held out. She glanced about for Waythorn,, and he took the third cup with a laugh." (843)

Internet Quote:

“Her careful ordering of detail enabled Mrs. Wharton to attain in many of her shorter works a psychological complexity in characterization which would ordinarily be found only in the novel. In her short stories she usually illuminates, rather than resolves, the refractory situations that she subjects to her scrutiny. The characters and events often suggest intonations of the universal and ranges of significance beyond the literal.” (McDowell, Margaret B. Edith Wharton. Boston, Mass.: Twayne Publishers, 1976.)

Summary:
At the end of the story Waythorn is presented with an odd situation as he sits with "The Two Others". Waythorn’s throughout the story has been thinking about his predictament and contemplating the nature of his situation and Alice, and her former husbands. Through this perspective and observation, Waythorn’s sense of himself is revealed and his changing view of Alice and his marriage.

Personal Opinion:
This quote was in the last scene and its description i thought was intriging, because it left you wondering what their conversation would be like. For me, it just had a weird vibe from the whole ex-husbands drinking tea together, the title comes into play at the last scene also. Throughout the story i thought Waythorn was very odd, his mentality and view on society was very radical, "He knew that society has not yet adapted itself to the consequences of divorce, and that till the adaptation takes place every woman who uses the freedom the law accords her must be her own social justification" at that time i presume this way of thinking for a man was not correct. Therefore, Waythorn and his outlook can be looked as a message from Wharton on the matter of divorce and women's rights.

"Daisy Miller: A Study"

Charles So
English 48B
Feb. 14 2011
Journal for James

Author Quote:

"She paused again for an instant; she was looking at Winterbourne with all her prettiness in her lively eyes and in her light, slightly monotonous smile. "I have always had," she said, "a great deal of gentlemen's society." Poor Winterbourne was amused, perplexed, and decidedly charmed. He had never yet heard a young girl express herself in just this fashion" (396-397)

 Internet Quote:

"Despite changes in times and customs, the forthright if naive Daisy can still cast a spell on today's readers. The touches of humor help offset the pathos of the tale, and the supporting cast is vividly portrayed. While some may feel that James tries to overload a simple story with too many trappings of tragedy, few readers will be unaffected by Daisy's fate." (Wikipedia)

Summary:

This quote from Henry James's "Daisy Miller:" i feel is in a way the thesis of the entire story, as it captures the whole idea of the interaction and meaning between Winterbourne and Miss Miller. Through the quote the reader can get a feel of the intimate attraction Miss Miller can put on a man through her vivacious charisma. Her charisma's affect can be measured by Winterbourne who is at a stupor with Daisy's demeanor. Through this quote you can sense her affects on Winterbourne is very impressionable and lasting.

Personal Opinion:

I honestly feel that Daisy till this day is still in many ways the All American Girl, whatever that is. Her attitude and characteristics seem very much the demeanor of todays youths and young adults. She portrays a women who is disobeying conformity in wreckless abandonment and yet she has full control as she knows in a way what she is doing and how people might percieve her actions. Daisy Miller can be even looked as a message of the everchanging state in the U.S. as Winterbourne an American is very perplexed and confused by Daisy's mentality in which he feels he has lost touch with the societal ways back at home. The angles and perceptions of people given in this writing to me was very stimulating as it portrayed somewhat of a upper class way of thinking. Far more interesting was Daisy as her character was obviously beautiful but her demeanor made her even more pleasing.

"The Open Boat"

Charles So
English 48B
Feb. 8 2011
Journal for Crane

Author Quote:

"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. Now, however, it quaintly came to him as a human, living thing." (1012)

Internet Quote:

"Critics regard the central themes of “The Open Boat” to be man's eternal struggle against nature, the fragility of human existence, the struggle for survival, and the power of community. The story is viewed as an exploration of human behavior under extreme circumstances and the maturation of man from isolated and indifferent to compassionate and an integral part of society. Symbolically, the boat has been perceived as both a microcosm of society and a vehicle of escape, and the experience on the dinghy as a metaphor for the individual journey to self-knowledge." (E-Notes search Stephen Crane / The Open Boat) 

Summary:

"The Open Boat" scrutinizes the correspondent, who has been isolated away from civil society, and plunged deep into survival, God and nature. At first the struggle between mans survival and nature is the most apparent theme in the work. Although the correspondent at first believe the turbulent sea to be a hostile force set against him, he soon comes to believe that nature is instead ambivalent. In the middle of the ordeal the correspondent through the Algiers soldier poem comes upon, in a manner, spiritual awakening. Through his near death he finds a deeper understanding of life.

Personal Opinion:

At the bottom of page 1001 the argument between the cook and the correspondent is great dialogue. The dialogue gave a good feel and sense of who the characters were in the beginning of the story. I personally found the arguing between the smart ass correspondent and know it all cook in the beginning to be hilarious, as you felt the anger of the correspondent who feels disfortuned and the cook who is optimistically jolly. Through the near death experience the correspondent attains a spiritual sort of awakening as he starts to have revelations about his life. As example was the Algiers soldiers poem in which the correspondent finally felt the soldiers death and weakness. Also the deaths of characters that you can favor such as Maggie from "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Billy are critical as their deaths for me gives a grim realistic portrayal of life, for Maggie she was a part of a evergoing cycle for women and Billy to me was the uncertainty of life and death.
 

"Maggie: A Girl of the Streets"

Charles So

English 48B

Feb. 7

Journal for Crane

Author Quote:
"The girl, Maggie, blossomed in a mud puddle, She grew to be a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, a pretty girl."

Internet Quote:

"an unprecedented influx of immigrants contributed to a boom in population, creating bigger cities and a new consumer society. By these developments, progress was linked with poverty, illustrating that the majority of the US population was skeptical about the dependency on the fluctuation of global economy." (Wikipedia Maggie: Girl of the Streets/history context)

 

Summary:  

Maggie is a young girl living in the ghetto tenements of Bowery,  New York.  Her father and mother are both alcoholics, and she and her two brothers suffer a violent and abusive childhood. Her younger brother dies as an infant and her older brother becomes a callous and pugnacious thug as they grow older. Even though she comes from all this disaster, there is some hope for her.

Personal Opinion:

For Stephen Crane's young age his writing had deep intricacies of life, Crane's subjection of his characters around its environment is cunning and daring. The characters in "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" are very in depth, with the story being short the characters have delightfully imperative scenes where you get a good idea of who they are. Cranes artful dialect of the local area was very hard to translate at times but i found it to be daring as it captured the essence of the people in a closer way as you got to understand them as you expressed yourself as them. The issues of urban poverty, race, sex, and class is all well depicted in Crane's environment and he brings it to a boil with his unorthodox but realistic ending.

"The Squatter and the Don"

Charles So
English 48B

Feb. 1 2011

Journal for Ruiz De Burton

Author Quote:

"Thus the government washes its hands clean, liberally providing plenty of tribunals, plenty of crooked turnings through which to scourge the wretched land owners.  Don Mariano had been for some years under the lash of the maternal government, whom he had found a cruel stepmother, indeed." (93)

Internet Quote:

 "Ruiz de Burton's work is considered to be a precursor to Chicano literature, giving the perspective of the conquered Mexican population that, despite being granted full rights of citizenship by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, was a subordinated and marginalized national minority." (Wikipedia search Maria Ruiz De Burton)

Summary:

I thought this quote perfectly stated the anguish and anger of the Californios over the atrocities they faced in keeping and protecting their land, even though they are citizens. The Don's offer for the crooked gentlemen is a great deal, in which everyone greatly benefits, however it is at first disregarded because of the dishonorable gentlemens stubborness and greed. Only after the Don shares his secrets and experience of the land then do the  greedy gentlemen finally accept his deal. 

Personal Opinion:
These laws must of been harsh and very cruel towards the Mexicans because the deals the Don makes to keep some of his land and his cattle are incredible. Ruiz De Burton writes about the Californio's population as capable, cultured, intelligent people who were "unjustly deterritorialized, and becoming economically robbed, liguistically oppressed, and politically marginalized." The story of  "The Squatter and The Don" is a great piece of writing that depicts the Californio's families lossing land due to squatters and litigation. I think the lost of land by Mexicans in California is still till this day very downplayed and the portions of the novel i read gives great insight and perspective of the Californio's people.

"In the Land of the Free"

Charles So
English 48B
Jan. 23 2011
Journal for Sui Sin Far

Author Quote:
"You do not know man what it is to miss the feel of the little fingers and the little toes and the soft round limbs of your little one. Even in the darkness his darling eyes used to shine up to mine, and often have I fallen into slumber with his pretty babble at my ear. And now, I see him not; I touch him not; I hear him not. My baby, my little fat one!" (882)

Internet Quote:

"the first Chinese woman writer in North America, expressed both her feelings as a Eurasian and her keen desire to explain what kind of people Chinese Americans were.¹ Among early Chinese immigrant authors, she was virtually the only one who was engaged in writing imaginative literature rather than social-anthropological works." (Literature Resource Center The Voice of a Eurasian:, by Xiao Huang Yin)

Summary:

Still attempting to cope with the loss of her only child, Lae Choo is very frustrated and vents out at her husband who asks if she had gotten any sleep. Her reaction is very emotional as she tries to express to her husband about her discontent and her emotional loss of her child. She becomes very maternal as she talks about her child. She talks about her son as if he was a part of her, like he was still in her womb, when she talks about the loss of her child she expresses it as the end of the world.

Personal Opinion:

In Sui Sin Far's "In the Land of the Free," she conveys the Chinese as a race of positive and enduring people, who work hard and overcome the adversities which are handed to them. From the beginning Sui Sin Far portrays the mother and son as faithful immigrants coming to America to enjoy the freedoms. From the confrontation between Hom Hing and the U.S. customs, you get the sense that the Chinese people are law abiding even through unjust actions. Throughout the story Sui Sin Far goes into the lives and mentality of Chinese immigrants, she captures their emotions and attitudes through the heart wrenching story and throughout the story she drops little pictures and ideas of Chinese culture; celebration of a baby's first month, description of food; rice steaming in the bowl. She also gives stark insight about the attitudes of Chinese people towards White people, it seems that Chinese people don't really trust Whites.