"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.