Journal for Dickinson (pt.1-E.C.)

Francesca Cricchio
Journal for Dickinson
English 48B
March, 2011

“Rowing in Eden-
Ah- the Sea!
Might I but moor- tonight-
In thee!” (Lines 9-12, pg. 82, poem 269)

“Dickinson's poetry reflects her loneliness and the speakers of her poems generally live in a state of want, but her poems are also marked by the intimate recollection of inspirational moments which are decidedly life-giving and suggest the possibility of happiness.” (Bio of Dickinson from Poets.org)

Pages 74-84 consist of quick poems written by the great Emily Dickinson. They are all short lines with meticulously placed punctuation, and randomly capitalized words. The poems themes range anywhere from religion to love, to death, confinement, and nature (and its abstractness). Her literary composition is unique in itself, and the language within her work leaves plenty up to the imagination.

I really enjoyed reading Dickinson’s work because of the way it was arranged. The poems are extremely short, and usually that makes them hard to understand, but Dickinson uses such great language that the poetry leaves enough for the reader to come up with a range of different interpretations. Her vagueness is an advantage because there is no real concrete idea in any of her poems. Yes, some most definitely revolve around love or religion. But what exactly is Dickinson saying about love or religion? ...The answer is...there is no answer! And that is what makes her so amazing. Every day a anew theory can be hypothesized about any of her hundreds of poems. And every day something new can arise from just a few lines!

Journal for Muir (Tahoe- E.C.)

Francesca Cricchio
Journal for Muir
English 48
March, 2011

“So here’s what reading John Muir for the first time had taught me: that you can start over again. Repeatedly. Season after season, year after year. Even decade after decade.” (145)

“As a wilderness explorer, he is renowned for his exciting adventures in California's Sierra Nevada, among Alaska's glaciers, and world wide travels in search of nature's beauty. As a writer, he taught the people of his time and ours the importance of experiencing and protecting our natural heritage. His writings contributed greatly to the creation of Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, and Grand Canyon National Parks.” (Bio of Muir from Sierra Club. org)

The Chapter “John Muir” from Tahoe Beneath the Surface talks about John Muir, a man who fell madly in love with Tahoe. His love for Tahoe, and nature itself, was evident in his literature, and when Tahoe faced destruction, Muir himself felt emotional breakdowns as described in Tahoe- “Muir’s normally voluminous daily journal entries shrank to the size of a few broken, spare, brittle sentences” (149). This lack of passion came as a result of the destruction of flatland across Tahoe. The chapter discusses his tireless effort to preserve Tahoe’s natural environment, and the overall achievements in Muir’s lifetime.

After reading this chapter I understood how Muir could be know for his regional writing. It is clear how much he loved Tahoe, and this love is evident in his work. “This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round Earth rolls” (145). This everlasting sunrise and sunset and eternalness with nature is a direct transference to Muir’s everlasting passion for Tahoe and nature. When you read his work, you can feel his emotional pull to the land. Such a strong influence, Tahoe became the core of Muir, and thanks to his valiant efforts, we have national parks that have survived capitalism to this very day.

Journal for Kingston (Tahoe- E.C.)

Francesca Cricchio
Journal for Kingston- Tahoe
English 48
March,2011

“Describing the process of setting explosive charges on sheer granite face, Kingston writes of ‘cliffs, sheer drops under impossible overhangs’ where the men ‘lowered one another down in wicker baskets made stronger by the lucky words they had painted on four sides.’”(229)

"China Men is a voyage itself, to China and back. It will come to be regarded as one of the classic American works on the experience of immigration...a work of enormous power, feeling and understanding." (Regarding China Men by Los Angeles Herald Examiner).

The chapter “Maxine Hong Kingston” from Tahoe Beneath the Surface tells the tale of chinese influence in the creation of the railroads of the West. Much of the chapter is dedicated to describing the civil injustices chinese immigrants faced by whites. In Kingston’s story, China Men, the dangerous construction of the rail roads is described (with much help from her grandfathers real-life stories). Each day was a gamble with life and death. The immigrants hung from cliffs, ran from tumbling boulders, and lit massive pieces of dynamite.

This chapter was extremely hard to read because the civil injustice towards the Chines of the time was appalling. The “economic blackmail” (227) was unjust. The little money they earned slaving away on the railroads was almost taken back immediately due to unfair taxing, making it almost impossible to escape poverty. On a daily basis they had to worry about whether or not they were going to live! The didn’t even get to experience the sweet emotions of life because they were so consumed with the fear of not making through a day of work. And why did they deserve this torment? All they wanted to do was provide for their family. Or life out the American dream. But they were taken advantage of...and the very men who preached this dream. The most heart wrenching part of the chapter was when I read about the backfire of “The Heathen Chinee”. Bret Harte, who wanted to stop brutality against chinese immigrants, got the wrong response when he wrote this poem. His attempt was to use sarcasm by depicting a false stereotype of the “common chinese man”, but instead American readers took his poem literally, and the stereotype of a man with long braided hair and swindling characteristics became the mascot for Chinese culture. His effort failed tremendously and set Chines immigrants back even further.

:(

Journal for Cahan (E.C.)

Francesca Cricchio
Journal for Cahan
English 48B
March, 2011

“Flora pictured a clean-shaven, high-hatted, spectacled gentleman jumping out of a buggy, and the image became a fixture in her mind” (765).

“As a journalist and fiction writer, Abraham Cahan explored the social, cultural, and spiritual tensions of the Eastern European Jewish immigrant experience in New York. His sensitive treatment of the dual identities of Jewishness and Americanism, and of issues of accommodation and acculturation, made him an influential spokesperson for his community.” (Bio of Cahan from American passages).

The Imported Bridegroom is a story of a Jewish family living in New York city. Flora, is a dreamer who stands out from the rest of society because of her fixation on sophistication and hopefulness that she will marry a doctor and become a member of upper-class society. Flora’s father, Asriel, values religion and tradition. He travels to his homeland to find a husband for Flora, and comes back with Shaya. Flora is still adamant on marrying a doctor and rejects Shaya. Shaya then engulfs himself in American intellect, and that is when Flora becomes interested. By this point Asriel has developed a disdain for Shaya because of his rejection of native tradition, and constant reading of controversial books. This is enough to make Asriel ban Flora from marrying Shaya, but the two elope anyway. Afterwards, Flora realizes that Shaya’s new Americanized intellect is far beyond her own, and she feels left behind.

I found this story to be very funny because it seems that neither of the main characters can get what they want! Flora spent her days dreaming of a perfect man who could provide for her a lifestyle of the pristine. She is unsatisfied with Shaya in the beginning because he is not sophisticated enough. When she finally does have an attraction towards him, she is quickly disappointed when she realizes that her new husband is intellectually advanced in comparison to her. Asriel is also unsatisfied when his daughter first shoots down his very expensive bridegroom, and only marries him after Asriel tells her not to! (lol) It seemed to be a lose, lose situation that was full of irony from chapter to chapter. This un-satisfaction can be a symbol for a larger theme, which is, Americanization and its negative consequences.

Journal for W. E. B. Du Bois (E.C.)

Francesca Cricchio
Journal for Du Bois
English 48B
March, 2011

“Freedom, too, the long-sought, we still seek,- the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, the freedom to love and aspire. Work, culture, liberty,- all these we need, not singly but together, not sucessively, but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving for that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of human brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race” (900).

“Although Du Bois had originally believed that social science could provide the knowledge to solve the race problem, he gradually came to the conclusion that in a climate of virulent racism, expressed in such evils as lynching, peonage, disfranchisement, Jim Crow segregation laws, and race riots, social change could be accomplished only through agitation and protest. In this view, he clashed with the most influential black leader of the period, Booker T. Washington, who, preaching a philosophy of accommodation, urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and elevate themselves through hard work and economic gain, thus winning the respect of the whites.” (Biography of Du Bois from Biography.com).

This is a piece of African American literature that addresses the problem of the “color line” (894) Du Bois also talks about “double-consciousness” which is “looking at ones self through the eyes of others”. This theory became an important term when relating to race in America. In Du Bois’ text, he argues against Booker T. Washington’s approach to race relations. Du Bois thinks that Washington is too accepting of segregation between races and argues that the focus should be on equality, the right to vote, and education of youth. Du Bois’ proposal of race advancement differs from Washington’s preachings because it strives for more than material success. He preaches ideals that concentrate on African American equality with the rest of the world.

What Du Bois hypothesized was inspiring because it was beyond the ideals of the time. Many African American advocates back then were focusing on gaining any right, but Du Bois was different because “settling” was not in his vocabulary. He was aware of his difference with the rest of society, and he used his individuality to his advantage by becoming a role model for African Americans. He was privileged when he was younger and got a higher education and this knowledge he obtained helped him view that world in a different way. He got to experience life of the elite and instead of staying in that society with no opposition, he preached to the lower-class and fought to give all African Americans the same opportunities he received. His theory was that this could be accomplished by choosing a select amount of individuals who would be educated to the fullest, and then use their education to become liaisons for race relations, as well as equal contributors to society as a whole. I admire his dedication to conquering equal rights, and his willingness to stand out amongst the rest of the world.

Journal for Gilman (E.C.)

Francesca Cricchio
Journal for Gilman
English 48B

“By the moonlight- the moon shines in all night when there is a moon-I wouldn’t know that it is the same paper. At night, in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars!” (815).

“Through her Utopian fiction, Gilman described the kind of world she envisioned for women. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892), although not Utopian, she depicts the escape of a women from the pressures of seemingly a seemingly unwanted marriage and consequent marriage into a new self housed in the wallpaper of her bedroom.” (From Webster.edu)



The Yellow Wallpaper is a compilation of journal entries written by a woman who is forced to rest and avoid any physical labor after being diagnosed with “nervous depression”. The narrators overbearing husband forces her to lay in bed upstairs all day, and the narrator quickly becomes bored and secretly turns to writing in her journal. Much of her entries consist of descriptions of the home and her attempt to get better. At first, she feels like the rest is really helping her, but then she begins a rapid descent into insanity when she becomes enamored with the surrounding yellow wallpaper which she describes with such spite and disgust. The wallpaper is a catalyst that flings her into her eventual breakdown.

This story was very much about woman of the time, and their lack of individualism due to marriage. Most women on the 19th century spent their life dedicated to their husband or children, this left no time for themselves. In the narrators case, she was controlled by her husband, and her every move was monitored by him. When she falls “ill”, he is the one who calls the best doctor to cure her. When the doctor prescribes “bed rest” as medication, John (husband) forces her to lie down all day and makes sure his sister and other household staff watch over her. John’s condescending nature makes the narrator feel like a child. His attitude only worsens the situation because he is always making decisions for her and without her opinion. The narrator is left to lay there and not think. The simplicity of such a task is what leads to her eventual breakdown, and the wallpaper is a huge reflection of her captivity within her marriage. The narrator sees a woman behind bars who cannot get out. This imagery is almost a literal representation of the her own inability to escape the grip of her controlling husband.

Journal for Bierce (E.C.)

Francesca Cricchio
Journal for Bierce (extra credit)
English 48B
March 17,2011

“Objects were represented by their colors only; circular horizontal streaks of color-that was all he saw. He has been caught in a vortex and was being whirled on with a velocity of advance and gyration that made him giddy and sick” (page 365).

“The human limitations . . . that lead the reader to misread "Owl Creek Bridge" are the same as those that lead Farquhar to believe the rope has broken or that, more abstractly, lead him to Owl Creek Bridge in the first place.” (Quote by Cathy N. Davidson on Ambrose Bierce’s official website).

An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge is a narrative that explains every detail of the mind of Farquhar. He is being executed when suddenly the noose of his rope breaks and he falls into the rushing river below. He dodges the bullets of the soldiers shooting from the bridge and runs through the woods all the way back home to his wife. As she comes to the front of the house to greet him, he awakens (or rather the reader is awakened) to the sad reality that his escape was not real. It was merely an imagination that took place in the few split seconds from when he was hanged to when he dies (and is seen as hanging from a noose below Owl Creek Bridge).

The most notable theme of this short story is the blurred line between illusion and reality. Bierce pulls the audience in because of his use of such descriptive language. When Farquhar falls into the water, Bierce describes the light above the characters eyes so meticulously that the reader cannot help but believe him! “He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light” (363). Bierce pulls us in so close because he reveals the most inner emotions of Farquhar in a way the makes the reader feel like they are experiencing it all as well! In the process we fail to notice the small details that prove it’s all an illusion. For instance, the first time I read the story I didn’t notice any of the small things, but after reading the story again (and knowing the fatal ending), my eyes focused on the words that highlighted the notion that it was all a fantasy. “Objects were represented by their color only” (365) writes Bierce. At first I just thought that maybe Farquhar was not completely awake after swimming through rushing rapids and dodging bullets, but then I realized that the “objects” that were represented by “color only” were in fact pigments of Farquhar’s imagination. It was all a made up escape hatched by the few seconds of strong emotion before his death!
This was actually one of my favorite stories of the quarter because it honestly made me feel like I was right there with the protagonist. I could feel everything that Bierce was writing, and when the verdict was delivered in the abrupt, short closing lines, I too felt like I had been yanked from my seat and strung from a rope. My mind was tricked as much as Farquhar was at Owl Creek Bridge.