"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.