#21 Emily Dickinson - Poems I

Bila Lee
English 48B
March 19, 2009
Journal #21 Emily Dickinson I

Quote
“I felt a funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading – treading – till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through - … (Dickinson 84).

Summary
It is excerpted from poem No. 340 found in “The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (1999).” Unlike our previous assigned poet, Walt Whitman, Dickinson is more like a traditional poet in the sense that her poems are rather short in length, have a focusing theme and retain some poetry features like rhymes and structure. It is observed that Dickinson often pessimistically expresses her sadness and desperate in her poems – like in No. 340 she uses dictions such as “funeral” and “Mourners” which implies her thought of death – yet since none of her poems has a proper title, thus it is difficult for critics to literarily analyze them in depth.

Responses
Emily Dickinson had suffered a period of emotional crisis. As shown in Answers.com, “Between 1858 and 1866 Dickinson wrote more than 1100 poems, full of aphorisms, paradoxes, off rhymes, and eccentric grammar. Few are more than 16 lines long, composed in meters based on English hymnology. The major subjects are love and separation, death, nature, and God - but especially love” (Answers). It is believed that this emotional crisis changes both the social life and literary life of Emily Dickinson. On one hand, she shuts herself in her bedroom for many years and does not expose to the reality, and hence her perspectives are narrow and subjectively negative; on the other hand, as already suggested in my outside source, the themes of her poems surround love and separation, so I further believe her prolonged depressed is driven by a failure in romantic relationship.

It is significant to note that her best friend Susan Gilbert married to her brother Austin in 1856, just two years before her literary turning point. Some scholars argue the sudden psychological change of Emily Dickinson is due to the marriage between her best friend and her brother, in which Emily is literally a homosexual who is hurt of losing her love. In fact, Dickinson expresses her depression, sadness and hatred in most of her poems, and most dictions she uses are extremely negative like “pain” in No. 225, “lost” in No. 39 and the entire poem I pick for this journal serves to express her grief. In the first stanza, she tells “I felt like a Funeral, in my Brain” (Dickinson 84) which implies she is not motivated to live, to socialize and to expose herself to the external world – she just wants to passively terminate her brain activity from thinking too much – we can obviously realize her miserable life from her word choices.

In fact, most artists express their emotional fluctuations in their artwork. Painters may paint some abstract pictures when they feel blue; musicians may compose plain songs to express their sadness or compose some energetic songs when they feel great; photographers may take dark pictures to express their pessimist. And for poets, take Emily Dickinson as an example, we can address her darkness and emotional crisis from her poems, and honestly I feel sorrow for her when I read her poems 150 years after her work.

#20 Walt Whitman - Song of Myself

Bila Lee
English 48B
March 13, 2009
Journal #20 Song of Myself

Quote
“I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,

The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,

The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue …” (Whitman 44).

Summary
It is excerpted from section 21 of “Song of Myself.” The poem does not have a specific subject but it diversely touches various issues – some may interpret the poem as how Walt Whitman interacts with the Nature whereas some may interpret it as how Whitman expresses his sexuality. I believe that both interpretations are correct to some extents because free verse, as displayed in this very poem, is Whitman’s literary signature, and I can observe separated connection in between each section. As suggested by its title, “Song of Myself,” I preferably think the poetry is indeed a personal diary of Walt Whitman that he used it to jot down his feelings – and, interestingly, the selected quote reflects how he considers himself as a poet and how he expresses his internal emotions.

Responses
The title of the poem is known as “Song of Myself,” in which I think it intentionally serves as a tribute to the poet himself. Yet, as stated in Spark Note and footnote in our text, it is found that the title has been changed from “Poem of Walt Whitman, an American” in the first edition to “Walt Whitman” and eventually to “Song of Myself” in the final edition. Spark Note critically believes the shift “suggests something of what Whitman was about in this piece” that he “melts from a specific individual to an abstract myself” (Spark Note). Not only does the title bring confusion to the poem but its first sentence, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself,/ And what I assume you shall assume,/ …” (Whitman 30) also confuses me – is Whitman speaking for himself or speaking for everyone? Nevertheless, I think he only speaks for himself when I read the quoted line.

Though Whitman states in the very beginning, “Creeds and schools in abeyance,” (Whitman 30) seems like the poetry has nothing related to philosophy, it fails to deceive me who is currently taking an introductory course to Philosophy. Even more precisely, his poetry concerns something really similar to Descartes. In section 20, Whitman mentions “I exist as I am” (Whitman 44) which I immediately think the famous philosophical saying, “I think therefore I am.” In addition, the excerpted quote works similar to Descartes’ renowned study, the Body-Mind question. (Note: we discuss the Body-Mind question in Philosophy4 for half of the quarter!) Some philosophers are monist who think either Body or Soul (Mind) exist, but not both; whereas some philosophers like Descartes are dualist who think Body and Mind can co-exist – and Walt Whitman is a dualist in the sense that he is both a poet of the Body and a poet of the Soul. I guess his expression of the twenty-eight young men and twenty-nine bathers in section 11 is a great example of “poet of the Body,” as he openly illustrates as male sexuality and hence we may think he is a homosexual person; his open-mindedness to accept black people and think Negro are beautiful is a great example of “poet of the Soul,” because he jumps beyond the social norm to express what his soul feels right. In both controversial examples, Walt Whitman demonstrates his out-spoken characteristic, in which I think is the key to his literary success.

#19 Walt Whitman - Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Bila Lee
English 48B
March 12, 2009
Journal #19 Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Quote
“It avails not, time nor space – distance avails not,

I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,

Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt …” (Whitman 22).

Summary
It is excerpted from stanza 3 of the poem, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Walt Whitman, or it should better refer to the anonymous narrator in the poem, travels across time and space to pass his message to us, to our next generation and generations thereafter. As stated in Spark Notes, the poetry “seeks to determine the relationship of human beings to one another across time and space. Whitman wonders what he means to the crowds of strangers he sees every day” (Spark). Set in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the poetry instantly gives me an impression of a fast-paced and crowded community. People, including the narrator who has to travel between two districts by ferry every day, meet many familiar faces but with a lack of interaction; and hence inspires Whitman to compose this excellent poem to speak to some unknown persons.

Responses
Walt Whitman is a significant and influential poet in the sense he promotes free verse. Free verse, according to Wikipedia and our class discussion, refers to poetry without “a strict pattern of rhyming” (Wikipedia) and no regular meter, line length and stanza pattern. Around the same period, Chinese Literature also promotes a new poetry writing style which is very like free verse that poets are freer in composing poems, and it is called the New Culture Movement. In my opinion, speaking to both Chinese and English poetry, it is ambivalent for a Literature beginner (like me!) to appreciate a free verse poem: on one hand, it somehow works like a short story or a free writing which comes with less literary implication from stanza to stanza; on the other hand, it does not provide a focusing central idea for me to follow and, honestly, Spark Note helps me a lot in digesting this assigned reading.

Whitman explores the relationship between persons across time and space, thus everyone is possibly his target audience despite the fact that everything changes a lot. Last winter break, I travelled to the East Coast with my friends and I had been to Brooklyn and Manhattan, and I did also take a sightseeing water taxi in New York City (whoops, I forgot the name of that place) and another one in Boston. Refreshing the remarkable trip after reading “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” I gain a fresh insight when I was looking “on the river and the sky.” In our lifetime, we come across with various people, is it a random accident or a designated fate? Does it mean anything when I met the tour guide in the East Coast, I meet my friends here at Foothill College or I meet some strangers in McDonald’s? “In the day among crowds of people sometimes they came upon me” (Whitman 23), I guess a couple persons in the crowd may either positively or negatively influence us in a certain way – for instance, I am inspired when I meet some polite and educated people and I feel bad when I deal with some impolite and disgusting people. Though I have got no acquaintance with these strangers, I believe our interactions mean something to my life. As of myself, I was accepted by Foothill College and De Anza College two years ago and I finally chose Foothill – I know my host family, my instructors and my friends here, and hence I got a sweet memory of travelling to the East Coast; yet who knows what would happen to me if I chose De Anza College at that time? So I decide to enjoy and celebrate what I possess now, and play “the same old role, the role that is what we make it, as great as we like.” Seize the day!

#18 Kate Chopin - The Awakening (II)

Bila Lee
English 48B
March 6, 2009
Journal #18 The Awakening (II)

Quote:
“'Who gave it to you?’ she laughed.

‘I bought it. I suppose I’m getting reckless; I bought a whole box.’ She was determined not to be personal again and make her comfortable” (Chopin 618).

Summary:
The quote is excerpted from Chapter 37 of the novel, and it is chosen chiefly because it continues the Marxist criticism. It is an interesting conversation between Robert and Edna when they meet each other again, and Edna challenges how Robert gets the cigar. Our group finds that cigar plays a decisive role in the story that it symbolizes a higher class. For instance, in the first half of “The Awakening,” Robert once saves the cigar but not immediately smokes and it is interpreted that he rarely possesses a luxurious cigar; on the contrary, he has a big box of cigar when he returns from Mexico – even Edna does not believe his change in social class. Does Robert literally upgrade into a higher class person? What is the motivator for this change?

Responses:
To a certain extent, I believe Edna and Leonce are two rationales for the explicit change of Robert. As shown in our handout, “Mademoiselle Reisz draws out Edna’s deep appreciation for music and encourages her flirtation with Robert – who, suddenly and nervously, leaves for Mexico” (Toth 210). I attempt to connect his sudden and nervous departure to the Marxist question that Robert leaves because he is ashamed of his social class difference between Leonce Pontellier and him, and consequently Robert does not dare to express his love to Edna, hence he chooses to leave to Mexico. In fact, his change in attitude towards cigar somehow signifies his entering into an upper class because cigar is always considered as a luxury that only wealthy people have the privilege to consume it whereas others, like Robert in the first half, can only smoke cigarette. Alternatively, I also interpret his act as an attempt to resemble Leonce Pontellier, and to directly tell Edna his significant change after the trip to Mexico.

Basically, I would categorize Robert and Edna into the same group – both are young (especially when compared to the successful Leonce) and are ambitious to enter the upper class. In addition to the interesting cigar issue, Robert seems to have more self-confident in flirting with Edna in the second half of the story; likewise, Edna also puts efforts in upgrading herself: she watches horse-racing in the Jockey Club which is often regarded as a superior entertainment; she spends a lot of money on luxurious goods and building the pigeon house…apparently she succeeds, but she finally chooses to commit suicide because she is mentally not prepared to this artificial dual life.

It is always difficult to wear two separate masks to deal with different types of people. In fact, I share a similar experience here at Foothill College - most International students come from an affluent family whereas, honestly, I come from a middle-class one. Last year, I sometimes felt depressed when I was standing foolishly at the bus stop, watching others driving their cars; yet, I could neither ask my mum to buy one for me nor express my jealousy. This Marxist feeling is one of my motivators which encourage me to study harder, such that I could get a great university degree, a rewarding career and finally I am able to buy cars for my parents and myself!

#17 Kate Chopin - The Awakening (I)

Bila Lee
English 48B
March 5, 2009
Journal #17 The Awakening (I)

Quote:
“'I hardly think we need new fixtures, Leonce. Don’t let us get anything new; you are too extravagant. I don’t believe you ever think of saving or putting by.'”
“'The way to become rich is to make money, my dear Edna, not to save it,’ he said” (Chopin 576).

Summary:
The quote is excerpted from a conversation between Edna and her rich husband, and it is picked because I would like to continue the discussion on Marxism. The story is set in Grand Isle, a vacational resort popular with wealth people in New Orleans; Edna and her children are spending their summer holiday there. Edna perhaps comes from a middle class that “her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident,” (Chopin 548) in which she is neither supposed nor expected to marry a Creole. In fact, she meets Robert and enjoys the moment with him in Grand Isle; she almost establishes a romantic relationship with Robert before he leaves to Mexico. Robert is young, far less affluent as the Pontelliers and has a lower social status; yet his emergence makes Edna happier and raises the Marxism question – which social class does Edna literally connect to?

Responses:
Marxist criticism serves to disclose the existence of social class difference, and consequently a sense of alienation is developed because of the class difference. In her novella, “The Awakening,” Kate Chopin faintly creates different social statuses to each fictional character. For instance, Leonce Pontellier represents the Creoles because he is rich and successful, hence he can marry an attractive woman and rewrite her life; Edna is likely raised in a middle class family as she “lived her own small life all within herself,” (Chopin 544) and she is not fully adapted to becoming rich; last but not least, Robert is young yet possesses the passion to fit himself into a higher social class. As stated in Wikipedia, not only had the literary work challenged the social class difference but it also challenged “moral as well as literary standards” (Wikipedia) in the sense that it violated some social mores. Some critics criticize the novella as if it was encouraging open marriage, which was absolutely unacceptable in the conformist society; and hence the story was restricted for decades.

To a certain extent, Edna finds it easier to get along with Robert because she is not used to a rich living style. She is not the type of mother-woman (Chopin 538) whereas intensive maternal love is a common quality shared by upper class women (as their husbands are usually busy with their business and cannot devote themselves to the children.) Similarly, Robert is not used to the Creoles lifestyle as he saves cigars rather than consume cigars, when Edna is told that “the way to become rich is to make money, not to save it.” Thereby it sounds like Edna is connected to Robert, to the middle class which attempts to get into a higher class.

In reality, some people may explicitly demonstrate their high social status by wearing branded clothing and accessories, driving splendid car, eating luxuriously so on and so forth; they consider these extravagant spending as an investment to enter the upper class. But they usually fail because one’s mind instead of one’s body is the most important component to connect to a social class.

#16 Mark Twain - Letters from the Earth

Bila Lee
English 48B
February 27, 2009
Journal #16 Letters from the Earth

Quote
“He saved out Noah and his family, and arranged to exterminate the rest. He planned an Ark, and Noah built it. Neither of them had ever built an Ark before, nor knew anything about Arks; and so something out of the common was to be expected” (Twain 314).

Summary
Honestly, the above quote is arbitrary excerpted (actually not that arbitrary, but “the Ark” recalls my high school memory which I will further explain in the “Responses” section) because I feel this piece of literary work is hilariously interesting, in which I wish to include at least twenty inspiring quotes in the journal. In short, it requires both bravery and encourages, rather than any talented writing skills, for Mark Twain to publish the “Letters from the Earth.” Twain risks himself from exasperating Christians and challenging the mighty religious doctrine. He employs Satan, and archangels Gabriel and Michael, to demonstrate his disappointment of humans, and hence their creator, the God. Twain discloses how ugly, selfish the nature of human beings is by listing examples aplenty.

Responses
Mark Twain is undoubtedly one of the most influential writers in human history, yet some of his work is incredibly controversial (at least I think both assigned readings are controversial). Suggested in Wikipedia, Mark Twain was facing a hard time when he decided to write “Letters from the Earth” that “he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters” (Wikipedia). So I guess the obstacles he was facing were the rationales for Twain to write this piece of writing.

Prior to making any comment on the compilation of letters, it is better for me to state my religious view and background. I am not a Christian but my life is tightly tied to Christianity. I have attended Christian schools for thirteen years, my ex-girlfriend is a pious Christian and I have been occasionally participating in church functions. In other words, I am flooded with the positive perspectives of Christianity. The quote reminds me one of the sweetest moments in high school when I played in the musical “The Ark” (though I forgot which role I was starring), and yes, everyone tells me that Jesus Christ sacrifices himself for all mankind and so we should resemble his well-doing to love each other. In fact, I am never skeptical to the holy and pure Christian; yet I do really understand some of Mark Twain’s standpoints and truly appreciate his bravery to point out something that not everyone dares to say.

Twain tactically employs Satan to address his central idea. On one hand, it displays his imaginative and skillful writing techniques; on the other hand, it helps neutralizing the tension between himself and Christians, as he might argue Satan holds the contradictory values. Anyhow, I especially like he mocks humans’ immorality – the interesting ideas really encourage and motivate me to think deeper, and perhaps have to think beyond any religious beliefs. Sometimes I am tired to discuss discrimination in my assignment, but nearly all of my classes required critical thinking touch this issue because unfairness is undeniably real in our society. Not only does discrimination reflect unfairness but natural disasters, income gap between developed and developing countries, or simply personal traits also are signs of unfairness. Today it is frustrating to compare my returns to yours, and perhaps tomorrow it is heartbreaking for you to compare your situation to mine. Is this fate or the God’s intention? If it is the God’s intention, Mark Twain is somehow justified to conclude the God does not treat everyone equally.

#15 Mark Twain - Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences

Bila Lee
English 48B
February 26, 2009
Journal #15 Mark Twain

Quote
“If Cooper had been an observer, his inventive faculty would have worked better, not more interestingly, but more rationally, more plausibly. Cooper’s proudest creations in the way of ‘situations’ suffer noticeably from the absence of the observer’s protecting gift. Cooper’s eye was splendidly inaccurate. Cooper seldom saw anything correctly. He saw nearly all things as through a glass eye” (Twain 297).

Summary
As its title, “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” has already suggested, its writer Mark Twain relentlessly criticizes James Fenimore Cooper and denies his contribution in Literature. Twain picks “The Pathfinder” and “The Deerslayer,” in which both literary works are regarded as Cooper’s famous masterpiece, to illustrate how Cooper violates eighteen literary rules and “has scored 114 offences against literary art out of a possible 115” (Twain 295). With an eye to the given statistics, as well as the comments and examples provided by the legendary Mark Twain, it has every strong reason to believe Fenimore Cooper is the most horrible writer ever. Yet, is it the truth?

Responses
Wow. I always suppose we should show our greatest respect to others, even though we think either that person is bizarre or his work is ridiculous, or both. Wow, I could never imagine a literary writer criticizes another writer in such a relentless manner. It does really broaden my horizons to a very large extent. Yet, it is subjective to judge and evaluate others’ work, like some think Fenimore Cooper is brilliant whereas Mark Twain thinks in an opposite way; similarly, some may agree Twain’s criticism and think his analysis helps the contemporary Literature world; while some may disagree with Twain’s perspectives.

I conducted a research via answers.com, and I found an extremely accurate point to the issue:

“Hilarious though Twain's essay is, it is valid only within its own narrow and sometimes misapplied criteria. Whether Twain is attacking Cooper's diction or Hawkeye's tracking feats, his strategy is to charge Cooper with one small inaccuracy, reconstruct the surrounding narrative or sentence around it, and then produce the whole as evidence that Cooper's kind of English would prevent anyone from seeing reality” (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Indians/critic.html)

Diction is perhaps the soul of all literary work. However, the preference of using one particular vocabulary over another may reflect an embedded meaning that only the author knows. In our text page 302, Mark Twain proposes a list of “approximate word” (Twain 302) and how they should be replaced by Twain’s perfect words. Honestly, I did not read those words one by one because it would not help unless comparing to the original text (and I was too lazy to google the Deerslayer…) I assume Mark Twain’s revision is better, but I think some modern English majors may also be able to challenge his dictions. In addition, his another evident to demonstrate Cooper’s literary offence goes, “as nobody had missed it yet, the ‘also’ was not necessary” (Twain 300). In his own work, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ch. XXXI,” I can easily find he commits some careless mistake as well. But, of course, those mechanical mistakes like “says I” (Twain 245) are intended to match the content; yet, I think “also” in Cooper’s work is also not a big deal.

Recently, I am having a cold war with my best friend because I made a negative comment on her essay (well, actually not that negative, I just said “it seems the last one is better and I see room of improvement for this one.”) She gets mad at me, of course plus some personal reasons, and both of us are upset about it. The incident gives me a valuable lesson that we should respect others and their effort made in each work, and hence I think Mark Twain is over-reacted in this particular case.