The Yellow Wall-paper

Talk about some creepy wallpaper man. This was the first time I read this story and I found myself reading faster and faster towards the end. The end was really excited and I just wanted to know what she was going to do. Obviously she is insane and she tells herself she is just sick. But I never thought wallpapers could be that creepy and troublesome to a person. Just the way she talked about the memories of the wallpaper with the boys tearing it up and the color just had a dark tone to it. Also the fact that she would only look at it at night usually was quite weird. This mansion that John brings her to sounds like quite the house. I bet at one time this house was great looking. They have great views and seem to have plenty of rooms. But I found it strange that they chose the nursery for the bedroom. This girl just brings something to the table that is not right. I never thought a nursery could be so dark and ominous but this one is. Doctor John seems like a good guy and the she takes a liking to him. In the story though it seems like he is not doing one thing to try to cure her. He kind of just lies there and observes her and tells her to get some rest. He is a positive doctor that doesn’t want to see his patient in distress.  

But the main element that is driving this girl insane is this yellow wallpaper she says, “ It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide-plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard contradictions” (Gilman 1685). Now that’s a mind boggler right there. But this end of the quote referring to plunging off and committing suicide could be foreshadowing what she was thinking about jumping out the windows with her unheard contradictions regarding the paper. This author uses great imagery when talking about this mysterious yellow wallpaper. 

Desiree's Baby & The Wife of His Youth

In the story Desiree’s Baby I was pretty disturbed how the husband acted towards Desiree and the baby. I kind of was happy when Armand found that letter and knew his true origins of his family. He is the true definition of a hypocrite. But his wife Desiree still wished good things on Armand and still cares for his well-being she says, “night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his who adored him, belongs to the race this is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin 1619). Armand wasn’t always such a brutal man to his slaves. He only turned violent when he accused Desiree being an African American. He didn’t use to be like this and most people even would call him a good man. When they the two just met Armand didn’t care about her origins by his mother did. “Monsieur Valmonde grew practical and wanted things well considered that is, the girl’s obscure origin. Armand looked into her eyes and did not care” (Chopin 1616).

You see kind of a shift in Armand as person kind of like Monsieur Valmonde. She did warn Armand about Desiree in her defense bit it is terrible how heartless Armand acted to his bride and child. Desiree loved Armand so much and seemed to be the happiest bride in the world. I haven’t heard to brides say, “When he frowned she trembled, but loved him. When he smiled, she asked no greater blessing of God” (Chopin 1617). Desiree seems to be the most loveable wife Armand could ask for but once he sees the baby is different then him he takes a turn for the worst. This story is kind of the opposite of the Wife of his youth because Mr. Ryder acts as a man and tells the truth to all of his friends and neighbors. He doesn’t coward to tell what he is he seems proud to acknowledge this slave for what she is: his wife. Mr. Ryder is a good honest man who does have power in this community the Blue Veins; which I really didn’t know too much about. These are two stories have two different ending and meaning but they all revolve around one central theme: slavery. 

Roaring Camp

The settlement Roaring Camp sounds like a wild place to live in. I would think it would be fun to live there. When Harte writes about how the gamblers gamble all basally anything and all seem to drink freely almost every day. The character of Stumpy is the main character in this story. I found the name of Stumpy to be pretty ironic with him being a short squatty guy. But the whole story is based on a vile creature named Cherokee Sal.  At firs I thought Sal was 100% a man but the Indian ended up being a women. She didn’t have such a good reputation in the camp. When she died there was a formal meeting to determine what would happen to her baby. No one wanted this baby due to the fact Cherokee Sal was such a renegade. There were numerous ideas to decide what to do with his baby. They even suggested sending the baby away to another camp named Red Dog. The only reason they didn’t was because they thought the baby would be traded away. But this baby was something different.

 Everyone in town came to see this baby and give gifts to him. They gave gold, a revolver, and a tobacco box etc. etc. to this child. The baby even bit Kentuck on the finger in which he shouted some bad words at this baby. This baby got all different names because Cherokee Sal didn’t provide a name for this baby. Some names that he got were the kid, Stumpy’s boy, and or Coyote. The name they ended up was Luck: Tommy Luck. The town took this baby end and Roaring Camp’s culture totally changed during this boy’s life. The town grew and the rules changed to fit Luck’s life. Roaring Camp was known around the land as a loud, obnoxious community but they were now not allowed to scream or yell anywhere near Stumpy’s house where Luck lived. As soon as things seem to be going well things take a turn for the worst. At first the streams turned to rivers, the rivers turned to lakes, and gold filled the rivers near Roaring Camp. Luck was thought to have brought this luck to the land. But with this gold in these raging rivers brought a Flood that destroyed all of Roaring Camp. It even killed Knetuck with Luck in his arms. This was not “Lucky” for Roaring Camp. Seems a bit ironic of how the story ended. 

Twain

Mark Twain is considered to be the best author in American history. I think =he is the most famous one and being form the south I enjoyed many of his short stories like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. But these stories we read today I had never heard of. They showed me another side of Twain that I wasn’t aware of. In this story “Journalism in Tennessee” I felt lost at first because I didn’t really know what was going on with all the war references and injuries.  For example, “Then the chief editor went on with his erasure; and interlineations. Just as he finished them a hand grenade came down the stove-pipe, and the explosion shivered the stove into a thousand fragments. However, it did no further damage, except that a vagrant piece knocked a couple of my teeth out” (Twain 1). But rereading the passage picked up that this could be referring to his work getting totally destroyed by his chief editor to sound more spicy and to grab peoples interest.  Another part in the story I thought was interesting is when the Colonel comes in to the editor’s office and he describes their talking as a gunfight. They talked about the crops and politics but Twain tells in another way. He describes it as an old western dual. Both men would be talking/laughing but Twain saw it as a gunfight. I thought that was an interesting way to describe two prominent men talking. Being the new guy in the story he doesn’t know how things work in Tennessee but all he is trying to do is find some piece and quite. One line that for some reason stood out was when the chief editor told the man, “"You'll like this place when you get used to it"(Twain). He kind of explodes after that on the thought of that idea. He talks about the flaws of Tennessee and how he won’t be staying there.

People always talk about how funny Twain and I really had never seen his writing that was funny. But in the diaries piece I really enjoyed how Adam and Eve were writing their own thoughts down. That is an interesting way of thinking about the Genesis story. No one really has done that because the bible puts it such a biblical way you really do not what the two are thinking at the time they are created. Thought it was also funny how Adam at first thought Eve talked to much. I don’t want to get into trouble but I know a lot of girls that talk to much and I can relate to Adam kind of. I have never been with one girl who is the only girl on Earth. But they way she names all the animals and tells Adam I thought was very funny. These two stories show two different side of Twain that I enjoy.  

Dickinson

These poems are dark and ominous. That was quite blunt but when reading this poems I saw the reoccurring theme of death or struggle. Most people see death as an ugly terrible thing but Dickinson describes death in a way I have never heard before. She seems almost obsessed with the death theme. Death is the biggest mystery in the world and that may be why she tries to understand through her poems. When reading her poems I started to notice she would capitalize certain important words for example,

“To gain it, Men have borne

Contempt of Generations

 And Crucifixion, shown”(Dickinson 1212). She does this in all her poems to try to get across the importance of these words. Crucifixion stuck out to me because she continuously as religious themes throughout the poem.

In the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” Dickinson describes death as a carriage service picking and dropping people off. The opening sentence is a great way about how people think about death, “Because I could not stop for Death-He kindly stopped for me” (Dickinson 1214). We all want to death to pass us but we cannot escape it. It will come no matter what and it will wait for you like a carriage taking you away from this earth. This poem I thought was one of Dickinson nice soft poem when describing death but in the poem “ I Heard a Fly Buzz” she tries to connect to the moment right before death. “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died- The Stillness in the Air.” That makes me think of the last moment before death comes and what you hear, see, smell, taste, and feel. Its kind of interesting to think about that 1-second moment and Dickinson does her best to take you there. Overall Emily Dickinson changed the how people viewed death and she will always be remembered as a great American poet.

Whitman

When you read these poems you notice the vocabulary that Whitman uses. In each of the poems he use such great description of what he is describing. But some of the words I haven’t even seen before. I even had to look up a few like the word dalliance, which means a waste of time in frivolous action or in dawdling. This poem in particular has such fiery words and portrays such passion in just a few sentences. For example, “ The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel, four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling” (Whitman 1067) That’s only one of the sentences that I picked out. He makes these situations come to life with such imagery you become enthralled in what he is describing.           

 I mean I am not one for science and or lectures but in the poem “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer” I felt something different; I wasn’t bored. The first two sentences I was a bit skeptical when I saw the words proofs, figures, charts, and diagrams. I thought o wow here comes another poem trying to make school fun or funny. But this poem is jus the opposite. I connected with Whitman when he said “How soon Unaccountable I became tired and sick” I feel that almost every math or science class I have ever taking. I imagine Whitman just daydreaming in this professor’s class just ignoring basically everything the teacher is saying. Thinking to himself how stupid this guy is. Whitman even goes to his own set of stars to get away from this lecture.

Whitman writes about all sorts of different subjects from wildlife, education, and the geography. He truly did answer the call from Emerson. Whitman is the first of his kind in American poetry he was the first of his kind. His poetry is a different than any other poet I have ever seen. These short right to the point poems are a unique blend that Whitman perfected. Emerson would be proud of Walt Whitman work.

           

Tell Tale Heart & Cask of Amontillado

Edgar Allen Poe is probably the most famous dark writer in American history. I fell like I have studied his works or almost every year at this time: Halloween. His stories are filled with such descriptive terror it makes you tremble at what was going through his head. He also thinks of these realistic demented situations that you could relate too. These situations are the ones we fear the most like getting buried alive, trying to get away with murder, murdering a friend, and or trying to escape a pendulum.

            The Tale-Tale heart is probably the Poe’s most recognized piece of work. Everyone knows of the beating heart that the man cannot stand. The funny thing is that the young man doesn’t despise the old man just his blue eye. “ I loved the old man. He had never wronged me, He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! -yes, it was this!” (Poe 702). We do not know exactly what relationship the old man and the younger man have together but all we know is that they live together maybe possibly work together. As I said in the opening paragraph Poe uses such descriptive to words to gain your trust and kind of right the wrong that is about to take place. “ He had the eye of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it”(Poe 703). I do not know about that the rest of you but that eye sounds like the worst looking eye of all time.  When he decides to take the old mans life he has to see that eye to perform the act. As he waits in the old man’s chamber he startles the old man and we have all been there in the middle of the night and we hear a sound. The old man tries to play it off like it was from the wind, a mouse, and or a cricket. That is one of my biggest fears not knowing what’s lying in the dark shadows at 4 am.  Eventually he does the does the deed and dismembers the old man and stuffs him under the floorboards. This was his friend, his mentor, and maybe even a relative. After he puts the floorboards he starts to hear the pounding of the old man’s heart, which leads him to go crazy and tell the police where he had hid the old man’s body.

            The ironies in the Cask of Amontillado stick out in my mind quite distinctly. The fact that the victims name is Fortunato, which sounds similar to the word fortunate, is an irony by itself. This guy is anywhere near fortunate. This story is a revenge story it says in the opening line. But reading this story it sounds more like a jealousy issue that the Montresor has with Fortunato. In both stories Poe try to gives explanation for the murder plots trying to make you feel sympathy for the murderer. When he tricks Fortunato to come to his house with no servants or anyone to be seen you know the plan is in effect. He then takes him underground where they continue to walk for several minutes. To Fortunato’s credit he was drunk and I bet did not take in account his surrounding like the bones and old members of the Montresor family on the walls. Finally at the end of the tunnel he chains him up and closes the wall in with bricks. Even with one brick to go Fortunato tries one last ditch effort to escape thinking that this was all of a joke trying to persuade him to let him out. “Ha! ha! ha! --he! he! he! --a very good joke, indeed --an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo --he! he! he! --over our wine --he! he! he!" (Poe online). This last ditch effort would do no good for Fortunato.