Pudd'nhead Wilson

What I have noticed with Pudd'nhead Wilson was the contrast between nature versus nurture, but also the effect this had on black versus white. From our discussion in class today, I do believe that Mark Twain had these contrasts to show the hypocrisy in the power of whites over blacks.

When Tom and Chambers were babies, the only thing that made it so people could tell one was white and the other was black was what they were wearing. Then, when Roxy changes them they are raised by people that were either higher or lower than the other. No one could tell that the babies had been switched and they didn’t act any different. They were seen as the role that they were in. For me, this showed that nurture is superior to nature. Fake Tom was raised white and by his aunt and uncle who gave him everything he wanted and he turned out bad. But Fake Chambers was raised by Roxy and ended up fine (he wasn’t too big of a character though). The nurturing aspect of their lives took over. Fake Tom saw himself as superior and acted as such. He didn’t feel a moment of his “blackness”, until he was told he was 1/32 black. When Fake Tom found out, he somehow felt it in him all of a sudden—like it was a disease. This shows the theme identity. He all of a sudden felt like he lost his identity and was so confused about who he was that he could only identify as black because from the way the town has brought him up has made him see the one drop rule as crucial. Crucial to Roxy’s existence and now crucial to his. He lost his identity. Mark Twain, I believe, is showing how ridiculous it is that someone who is only a part black can all of a sudden see himself as so low when a second before he felt superior.

This hypocrisy with race and seeing themselves as above or below someone relates back to the dog joke. Pudd’nhead Wilson says that he wish he owned half the dog so he could kill it. We talked in class how this relates to the idea that we can’t have a nation that is split up between free and constrained and slaves and master. We can’t survive with a society that see’s some as below or someone as above…it doesn’t work. If Fake Tom hadn’t had that confusion with his identity or if he hadn’t cared about whether he was black or white or both than he wouldn’t have lost his form of self and started killing people. He was shot in one part of him and the rest died along with him.

Blog 7

After our lesson on Tuesday, I now understand why my brain was so scattered when I was drawing my vision of Kubla Khan. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was high on Opium when he wrote it. His poem wasn't something he was trying to explain, but something created by the figment of his imagination. When I was drawing my vision of what Coleridge was explaining, I kept getting caught up on where different things would be and if it made sense--because it constantly wasn't making sense. I'd start by drawing the trees, the garden, and the clouds...then realize that wasn't the main purpose of the piece. So I ended up starting over. But when I started over I found that I started working on the fountain and the dark rocks and the rest of my drawing wasn't going to make sense. I started focusing on the garden because I viewed it as Alice in Wonderland when she is in the garden at home thinking and reading. But then that section of the poem shifted so fast that I started looking for what else stood out because I realized that wasn't what Coleridge wanted us to focus on. That wasn't the mystical part of his poem. I ended up focusing on something that stood out to me--the ice. Every time I hear or read the poem, the line "A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!" (Coleridge, 36).  This part seemed the most beautiful and just picturing the place, that's where I wanted to visit. I wanted to visit  a cave made out of ice where I could see the sun beating down and have a fountain near by that I pictured as warm...even though we were surrounded by ice.
With Coleridge's poem I think because it was so creative and so fictitious, it allows its readers to go to a place they can only dream about and have always wanted to go. This was shown with all of us picking different poems to draw. Even in the small class, no ones drawings were the same. We all had a part of the poem stand out to us. I think it was probably the place we most want to visit and would be our place of escape. That is why the words stand out to us--its a place we've either been or where we want to go.

The White Heron

I loved the story of A White Heron. At the beginning of the story I was worried what was going to happen to Sylvia because it seemed like they were setting her up to get raped by the stranger. She seemed scared of him and I was worried about her fate. The books progression showed this wasn't the case and was a cute story. For Sylvia she is used to living in the city, but since she has been at her Grandmas in the woods she feels at home and at peace. She has found where she belongs. Everyday is a new adventure for her and the more she's there the more with nature she becomes. This was shown when the stranger comes and is looking for the heron. Although Sylvia has seen the heron before she doesn't tell the stranger. Instead she goes out and looks for the heron; she goes to the tallest tree--a tree she has been admiring for a while--and decides to climb it. Because she had said how she has been admiring it for me showed that everything with nature she finds she is amazed by. She can find no wrong with nature, she can only find wrong with the people that want to control it (The stranger wanting to control and kill the heron). When Sylvia climbs the tree she is in awe by nature. She sees the sails from the ships out at sea, she sees the pink and purple of the far away sky, and she sees the white heron in it's nest. This part reminded me of the movie Pocahontas when Pocahontas sees the sails from the ships that arrived from England and she thought they were "strange clouds". Sylvia saw the world differently and she was loved it. This is similar to Pocahontas because she had never seen the world like that before, the sails and ships were something new for her and she was in awe. Sylvia's connection with nature and how she goes against her grandmother and the stranger to save the heron brings in that similarities the story has to a Fairy Tale. The way it reads is like a Fairy Tale and how the heroin goes against the "law" (grandmother) to save something for me reminds me of a Fairy Tale. That is probably why I loved the story so much... I'm a sucker for a good fairy tale. Especially one that reminds me of Pocahontas.

-Rachel Roloff

Blog 5

One of the things that stood out to me while reading Hard Times were the fairy tale analogy’s that were used to describe Coketown. Coketown was described as a “Fairy Palace” (79). Mrs. Sparsit also “considered herself, in some sort, The Bank Fairy. The townspeople who, in their passing and repassing, saw her there, regarded her as the Bank Dragon keeping watch over all the treasures of the mine” (107). It is interesting how Dickens described Coketown with analogies and imagery that is related to fairy tales because the town was based solely on facts. When Sissy talks about the stories she would read to her father Mr. Gradgrind is not pleased because they are fairy tales. Because he references fairy tales it is almost showing that what is seen, “Facts alone are wanted in life” (7). Shouldn’t be the only thing used. It definitely shows that contrast of facts versus imagination: but Dickens shows with his imagery that he believes that imagination outweighs facts.

Another thing I found interesting was the character James Harthouse. He is the one character that is both facts and imagination. He is the only character that bases his decisions on himself and what he wants, instead of facts or imagination—he is the character in the middle of all of it. He is also the character that I see as the most knowledgeable. When Harthouse first meets Bounderby, Lousia, and Tom he is not fooled by anyone. The entire time he seems to know Bounderby and Tom’s true character. Even though the reason he gets Louisa to turn on Tom for his money problem is not for Louisa’s benefit but for himself, he still sees that Tom is not a good person. Harthouse is the one character throughout the book that seems the most human: his actions follow his own personal benefit. He was also the character that first started calling Tom “the welp”. When Hathouse first meets Louisa and is introduced to her one of the first things he thinks is, “This vicious assumption of honesty in dishonesty—a vice so dangerous, so deadly, and so common—seemed, he observed, a little to impress her in his favour”” (123). When I read this quote, I saw it as saying that Louisa has people in her life that are both honest and dishonest: but neither has had an effect on her and she either doesn’t notice when they are, or she doesn’t care. Harthouse is the one character that sees everyone for who they truly are, when everyone else is in the dark. It’s interesting that of all the characters he is the one that is the one that sees everyone’s true character. I think it is because he is the only one from the outside of both Coketown and the circus: also because he has been known to flit from place to place and he has had more life experience than people who base everything only on facts and also people that base everything only on imagination. Harthouse’s character shows that you need both facts, imagination, and life experience to be successful and maybe the combination of facts and imagination lead to people wanting to find that life experience--like Harhouse.

My blog is a bit scatterbrained, but for the things I talked about, they are things I still struggle with completely grasping. I absolutely loved reading Hard Times. I haven’t read a Charles Dickens novel and it reminded of how much I love his style of writing. His use of repetition and parallel structure is a breath of fresh air.