Friday, March 28, 2008

Crane -- Jewett -- Chopin

Jacqueline Procter
Journal 30
March 28, 2008
Crane – Jewett -- Chopin

Quote - Crane: "Crane developed his powers as an observer of psychological and social reality." (954)

" Jewett: "In these works the careful documentary record of landscape, people, and dialect is described with understanding and sympathy." (520)

Chopin: What she said of Maupassant she might have said of herself: "Here was a man who had escaped from tradition and authority, who had entered into himself and looked out upon life through his own being and with his own eyes; and who in a direct and simple way, told us what he saw.” (529)

Summary: Their common core vision is their ability to speak the truth about the circumstances, of the people, of the times in which they lived.

Response: All three authors came from middle class backgrounds or at least they enjoy the privileges that the common woman/man doesn't have access to. In Crane's, Maggie Girl of the Street, he writes about the disenfranchised during industrialization and the poverty which ensues in urban cities -- He specifically sheds light on the unfortunate circumstances of a girl without the means to support herself and the fact that she is forced into prostitution as there is no other option for her. Jewett's, The White Heron, is also about industrialization and the consequences of a mass exodus from the family farms to urban areas. In this story, Sylvia and her grandmother are barely making ends meet and Sylvia is tempted to reveal the location of the heron, in order to make ten dollars, which would help buy food. In the end she doesn't profit at the Heron's expense and chooses nature instead of her own monetary gain. Sylvia had options, Maggie didn’t -- It appears there are actually more options/freedom in the country as opposed to life in an urban ghetto. If you have a cow, a few chickens and can plant a garden you don’t really need much money in order to survive, but in the city, daily survival is a struggle.
Chopin writes about the limitations of women, specifically women from middle class backgrounds, and technically her writing is classified as “Realism” because it focuses on the middle class and the realities of being a woman in that period, as opposed to Crane’s, Maggie A girl of the Streets, which is technically “Naturalism” because he is exposing the “extreme poverty,” which is actually a “reality” for those who live in the ghetto.
I like Howell’s definition best: “Realism is nothing
more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material”

Friday, March 21, 2008

To build a fire

Jacqueline Procter
Journal # 29
March 21, 2008
Frank Norris

Quote:
"Well, he was bound to freeze anyway, and he might as well take it decently. With this newfound peace of mind came the first glimmerings of drowsiness. A good idea, he thought, to sleep off to death. It was like taking an anesthetic. Freezing was not so bad as people thought. There were lots worse ways to die.

Summary:
A peaceful calm overtakes the man as he realizes his impending death is fast approaching

Response:
In classic naturalistic fashion the man was doomed to perish. From the very beginning of the story I had feeling that the man would not survive, but at the same time I held out hope that he would make it. I can’t imagine putting myself in that situation of such extreme danger, but apparently the payoff was worth it if gold was found. Thousands -- approximately 100,000 men headed out to the Klondike. The problem is that by the time everyone flocked to the area the claims were already staked out. The people who made money on this endeavor were the merchants of food, clothing, and climbing gear – western outfitters.

In the end the man was at peace regarding his inevitable demise, and as the warmth of freezing to death takes over, he decides to take a nap. He didn't reflect on his life as most people would in this situation. His only thought was that the old timer was right about traveling with a partner. The fire, stands between his life or imminent death -- a buddy may have frozen along with him if they were both traveling along the frozen creek bed -- not a good idea; although, a more seasoned mountaineer, one more familiar with the terrain, would have known a safer route to the camp. I thought that maybe in his greed to find gold he chose to travel alone, but he was trying to reach a camp full of other men, so maybe he just wasn't that intelligent to begin with. The story mentions his "mind empty of thoughts," I guess that is the clue that he isn't too bright, but in extreme cold I've read that thinking is impaired (actually I know that at high altitude it is impaired) The bottom line is that he should have listened to the sage advice of the old timer, and he realized his mistake too late, but perhaps this book helped save hundreds of lives during this period, as Dr. Scott mentioned that everyone carried it with them, in their quest to find riches.

From What Life Means to Me

Jacqueline Procter
Journal # 28
March 21, 2008
Jack London


Quote:
Summary: I learned further, that brain was likewise a commodity. It too was different from muscle. A brain seller was only at his prime when he was fifty or sixty... and his wares were fetching higher prices than ever. But a laborer ... broken down at forty-five of fifty.

Summary:
Jack London has decided that his work of hard labor is over, as he will now pursue his intellect as a means of making a living – first he needs to educate himself.

Response:
I agree whole-heartedly. The man/woman without an education always gets the shaft. I really don’t know how blue-collar workers are able to perform menial tasks well into old age. I’m thinking housekeepers in the hotel industry, (I did it in Montana and it sucked - not to mention that I incurred an injury that I’m still dealing with – neuroma between 3rd and 4th metacarpal – resulting from fractured metacarpal) road crews and roofers -- having to endue the hot sun and tar. I guess you build up endurance. If you can carry a calf, pretty soon you can carry a cow – my grandmothers saying.

The point is that London’s commentary is still relevant today. Industry will use and abuse the common man/woman – all injuries incurred while on the job are not their problem – workers’ Compensation is a joke.

London was very astute – guess he had time to think when he was arrested for vagrancy. Life is hard and there should be more compensation for labor workers who basically give their life and ruin their health in the pursuit of eking out a meager existence. The man/woman who advances in life is the one with an education.

From what Life Means to Me

Jacqueline Procter
Journal # 27
March 21, 2008
Jack London

Quote:
My environment was crude and rough and raw. I had no outlook, but an uplook rather. My place in society was at the bottom. Here life offered nothing but sordidness and wretchedness, both of the flesh and the spirit; for here flesh and spirit were alike starved and tormented.

Summary:
Jack London knew first hand the hardships people endure living in the ghetto -- he lived the life of a person on the lowest rung of the social and economic ladder.

Response:
London used his experience of living in the trenches of the ghetto, with other disenfranchised people, as a means of effecting social change. He turned his life around and for that he can be greatly admired. It’s not easy to do when you are forced to reside in those conditions of extreme poverty. There is desperation and degradation all around and by all appearances there is no way out -- can’t get any lower unless you were dead and buried – the way up is long and arduous.

He also describes the ghetto as a charnel house (had to look up) where so many people resided – hell on earth -- and society’s refusal to acknowledge their reality. Like Maggie, in Girl of Streets, the wretchedness and sordidness he speaks, is the unfortunate fact that women were forced to sell themselves in order to survive. I really like this story as it gets to the heart of the matter of what life was like for him prior to his epiphany that he should set a new course for his life. I would classify his essay as Naturalistic commentary on the plight of the poor? It is very powerful and should be recommended reading for middle school children, at the very least high school, for its inspirational message.

It took a tremendous amount of moxy to even submit this story to Cosmopolitan magazine as the owner, William Randolph Hearst, held the monopoly on newspapers across the country. I guess it was even more amazing that Hearst actually published the story, as he is one of the “fat cats,” who use and abuse the working class -- Anything for a buck!

Frank Norris -- Short Bio

Jacqueline Procter
Journal # 26
March 21, 2008
Frank Norris

Quote:
During his short career, his powerful works addressed the coming of age of the diverse classes of the modern United States and warned of the growing threat of monopolies and systematic urban poverty.

Summary:
Norris predicted the wide gulf between the very wealthy and the poor urban city dwellers, due to the rising power of a monopolistic society.

Response:
How tragic that such a brilliant man had to die too soon. Although I don’t think his story Fantaisie Printaniere is humorous, there can be a sliver of humor in the absurdities of certain situations – I guess the human psyche tends to look for humor in these situations that may be too difficult to deal with, but mostly these situations are just pathetic – like in this story – domestic violence. Like Twain, he was clever in presenting a social concern in a humorous fashion. I suppose there was a lot of domestic abuse that men perpetrated against women on a regular basis, it was common, and he speaks about the struggles of daily existence for the common woman/man.
Most people living in poverty don’t have a formal education so his audience was not geared toward these people but those of the moneyed class in an attempt to shed light on the poor’s situation.

In a very short time, after his death, his dire predictions regarding this extreme poverty of the lower class, and the huge rift between classes would reach gigantic proportions with the market crash, and the ensuing depression across the country. I will never forget those now famous pictures I saw in 5th or 6th grade social studies of all those poor people living in the region known as the dust bowl, (I think the photographer is Dorthea Lange) and the look of desperation on their faces. Very moving photographs!

Since being educated about the plight of Native Americans I wonder how this event affected them, although they were already living in barren land, as most of the reservations aren’t lush verdant oases. The Cherokee specifically weren’t acclimated to this desert like landscape. How did Native Americans protect themselves during all those dust storms? Which of course, was due to the white man's raping and not replenishing the earth.

Fantaisie Printaniere

Jacqueline Procter
Journal # 25
March21, 2008
Frank Norris

Quote:
“Heretofore it had been the men who were enemies and their wives who were friends. Now the two men are fast friends, while the two women maintain a perpetual feud.”

Summary:
The women who were friends get into an altercation arguing over whose husband is tougher and meaner – friendship dissolves.

Response:
It was rather tragic that the women didn’t have each other to support and be supported – They defended their scumbag husbands and lost each other’s only friend -- and their husbands still beat them. I was rather disappointed that the fantasy didn’t turn out to be where the women conspired to end their misery – like maybe have the men kill each other in a fight to the death. I would have enjoyed that.

While reading this I was thinking which of the two men it would be better to be married to. I would think that the woman who got beat only when her husband was sober would get fewer beatings than the woman whose husband beat her when he was drunk. It’s hard to keep a drunk sober.

This story speaks about the working class struggles of the Irish as well as the racial stereotypes of the Irish loving their booze and brawling. Norris does a terrific job in describing the setting of a squalid neighborhood – What a dismal, depressing, existence.

Although this story isn’t very empowering for the women I think that it should be made into a modern day play. It would be very difficult to watch but the message to women enduring abuse would be powerful. Women don’t have to put up with that crap. It’s funny how this story coincides with the Women’s History Month Clothes Line Project – documenting the abuse women here on campus have encountered in one form or another.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Impressions of An Indian Childhood

Jacqueline Procter
Journal # 24
March 14, 2008
Zitkala Sa

Quote:
“I find it hard to count that white man a teacher who tortured an ambitious Indian youth by frequently reminding the brave changeling that he was nothing but a “government pauper.”

Summary:
Too many teachers in Zitkala’s experience have been verbally abusive to Native American children that she is unable to count.

Response:
The bottom line is that children need their parents to advocate on their behalf. When native American children were placed in these “institutions of learning” that basic right was taken away from them. Multitudes of children, who came from a proud race, were adversely affected by the degradation they endured in boarding school. Generally speaking, if a teacher isn’t passionate about their job then they shouldn’t be allowed to teach, especially young impressionable children. From all accounts, the education system was rampant with “these “teachers” who perpetuated abuses, against Native American children, as their only concern was collecting a paycheck. These teachers committed crimes against the souls of Native American children with their verbal and physical abuse. In doing so, their self-worth/spirit has been damaged and the consequences have had serious repercussions on their race since -- along with the other atrocities perpetrated against them!

In addition to the verbal and physical abuse, Native American children also endured sexual abuse, of which the short clip of the film we watched in class brings to light. The film was very powerful as it was difficult to watch and not be emotionally affected. My heart ached for the elderly man, as the abuses he endured were so fresh in his memory. Some things are not easily forgotten.