4.1 Joel Chandler Harris

4.1                                             Joel Chandler Harris 

Joel Harris was an author that wrote stories that he had experienced or heard at a young age, from blacks while working on the plantation.  Harris made his stories memorable by presenting their humor and wisdom through his characters. These people he wrote of such as Uncle Remus was an uneducated former slave.  By Harris using people like Remus in his writing, it was more interesting and you couldn’t help but to have empathy for him.  Harris also has some wit about him that he uses in his characters. 

The Story “How Mr. Rabbit was Too Sharpe for Mr. Fox” is a classic.  I remember this story from school. I feel like lots of stories come from this one of trickery.  Just when Mr. Wolf thinks he has the rabbit, he uses what we all have done at one time in our life.  I do this with my grandson, “don’t eat this it’s mine”, when I turn my head it’s gone. That is the trick I use to get them to eat vegetables and food that is good for them.  I saw myself in this story; it was like looking in the mirror.

“Free Joe and the Rest of the World” was a great little story.  Joe is a free slave since his master lost him along with every thing else he owned due to gambling.  Joe seemed happier as a slave than he did being free.  Joe had a wife that he loved very much and every time he could see her you could tell his love was deep.     The only problem was that Joe's wife was lost in that gambling to the judge.  Everything seemed great and Joe could see his wife whenever he wanted, she was well taken care of, until the judge died.  His property including his slaves went to Calderwood.  A man who was mean and spiteful and he carried the name spite.  Joe continued to visit his wife until one day Calderwood said Joe wasn’t allowed there anymore.  Of course he was not going to just stop seeing his wife so they developed a way to see each other.  The old poplar tree Joe would sit and Lucinda would visit him.  I found it sad that people could not just be happy for them, and it came back to Mr. Calderwood.  He just snatched her up and took her six miles away.  Joe wanted to find a way to see Lucinda, but in the end never saw her again.  He waited and waited and was convinced his little dog Dan would bring Lucinda back to him.  He waited until he died under that popular tree, smiling waiting for Lucinda.  He was a man that was faithful and very loyal, no matter whom you were.  I feel like he was a great character he was the one everybody would want to help in anyway.

3.3 Sarah O. Jewett

                                                      Sarah O. Jewett

Sarah Jewett grew up in Maine. As a child she wasn't very healthy but, still made rounds with her farther whom was a doctor.  She enjoyed reading from her father’s library where she then decided to become a writer.  She closely studied the dialect of the native people, and the way the lived their daily lives.  She was fascinated with the hardships the villagers and farmers underwent. Sarah was focused on their character making sure the reader understands the intense hardships they faced.  Sarah captures this in her novels, where she illustrates great empathy for her characters, and the life they live of poverty, loss, and hard work but still yet they have so much joy.  Sarah’s writing only improved as she expanded her knowledge and then became an accredited author.

Sarah Jewett’s novel “A White Heron” is a very touching story about a girl named Sylvia. That came from the city to live with her grandmother, in which she helps with the chores gathering the cows.  Sylvia loves the farm life way better than the city. She never wants to leave the farm.  The story opens with Sylvia searching for the cow Mistress Moolly.  While in the woods she plays the game hide and seek with Moolly until she finds her to take her back to the farm for milking.  Sylvia tries to hurry the cow home when she meets a strange man and is frightened.  The man follows her back home where her grandmother takes him in for the night.  This man was a bird hunter looking for a white heron, that he wants to add to his collection.  The man tells Sylvia he will pay a large sum of money if anyone can show him the nest of the heron.  The next day Sylvia accompanies the man into the woods to look for the birds nest. 

Sylvia has seen the birds flying around and doesn’t want to see them killed.  Sylvia sees the bird but doesn’t share this with the man.  Even though: her grandmother could have used the money. Sylvia loved the farm and all that the country had to offer.  I am surprised that Sylvia as a child didn’t want to show the man the bird being that children love to know they have helped.  But she wanted to save the bird more than she wanted to be a helper.   I really enjoyed this novel it was very relatable for me, being that I grew up on a farm where we had cows.  The air was so clean and crisp and I will never forget reading this story and thinking I could smell the air the way it used to be on the farm.

3.2 Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

                                Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 

Mary freeman lived in a time that was very hard for people, being it was after the civil war where many stores had to close.   Many people began to move to the west but many unmarried women stayed behind.  These women were strong willed and often referred to as “stern old maid” these women became the focus of jokes, poems, songs and cartoons.  Mary’s health wasn’t the best during her younger years and that’s where her love for reading turned into writing.  Mary needed money to help support the family so; she got her start writing children’s poems and short verses.  Her writing later turned into adult fiction. One of her very famous stories is “The English Nun” which I am now going to tell you about.

The setting is a little ole lady sitting by a window sewing.  This lady is Louisa Ellis very dainty and meticulous about her home and how she does things. Well who could blame her after all she was left 14 years by herself waiting on her boyfriend Joe Dagget to get back from Australia to wed. But that didn’t happen and her living by herself, well that can make one very picky about how things should be placed.  Almost every movement she makes has a particular purpose.  Although; Louisa was not wealthier than anyone else, she liked the finer things such as her fine linen, and china that she handles with such care.

Joe comes to visit Louisa and everything he does seems to adjutants her. Joe seeming very nervous around her turns over her sewing and practically stubbles out the door. With relief that he is gone Louisa fixes her home back to the order it was.  She see’s dirt on the carpet that he has brought in and she gets her broom and brushes the carpet to make sure it is clean and the same way before he had came. As you can see she isn’t in love with Joe anymore.  She has been a lone for so long and now she isn’t the person she once was before he left her to go make his fortune. They seldom ever wrote or kept in touch for the 14 out of 15 years.  But the thought now of her to be married and have to help take care of his mother just wasn’t the life she had once wanted. 

In the end Louisa hears a conversation between Joe and Lily Dyer. They have been seeing each other and she is hurt but free from what she felt was her obligation to marry Joe.  She was no longer in love with him but, was going to marry him because she felt that was what she was supposed to do.  I can relate to this story so well I have been seeing a man for about twenty years. At one time I wanted to get married and he didn’t.  Then the wheels turned he wanted to get married and I didn’t, now it has been so long that neither one of us really cares.  I help him when he is sick or needs me and him the same. I don’t feel that we really have to get married, at one time that was all I wanted. But after all these years I am like Louisa I have my home and when he comes and disturbs something it really upsets me. But not like it once did because I don’t value material things as I did when I was younger.  So, in the end of the story mine and Louisa everyone is happy and they have what they wanted. 

  

3.1 Emily Dickinson

                                        Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is known as one of the greatest poets of her time. It wasn’t till after her death that her best work was released. Emily was born in 1830 and died in 1886, she lived in Amherst Massachusetts.  Emily was born into a very educated family.  Her grandfather was the founder of Amherst College, and Emily’s farther and brother were both lawyers. Her mother along with her sister stayed at home tending to the home.  Emily spent numerous hours a lone writing letters and poetry.  As Emily got older her life mimic a life that was withdrawn from society, but that was far from the truth. Emily’s poems reflected her thoughts of beauty, love, death, nature, and immortality.

Emily developed a relationship with several men that she held as mentors of her work.  Thomas Wentworth Higginson a poet critic was sent Emily’s work to view.  He would critique her work and send it back to her corrected and sometimes criticized. This writing relationship continued for several years.  Only eight of her poems were published in her lifetime. After her death Emily had wrote numerous poems that were found in her room that later was published.  It is a shame that people die and then become well known for their work.  I can’t say that I understand or even relate to some of her poems.  It seems that her work from the garden reflects what she has seen. And the work from her window reflects what she has viewed of the town and events that happened.  One would think the first thing to tell her as a critic would be to title the poems.

I feel that if the poems were titled we could get a better understanding.  I can’t imagine what her life was like day after day sitting in her room writing poems that had so much meaning to her. But we will never know the real meaning.  I see the passion she has from her writing I could relate to number forty-nine.  I understand the poem to be about death and you come to earth poor and leave poor, no matter who you are. 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

                       

In Mark Twain’s” Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” I found myself  being introduced to a whole new era, and not being able to put the book down.  The culture was so different from todays that it was hard for me to imagine slavery, and to the extent people would go to get their slaves back.  I know from history that owning slaves was a representation of wealth.  The reward for Jim was very hurtful and sad.  Huck’s attitudes toward Jim even though; he knew his place on the farm was a slave, brighten up the scene.

 Finn being a curious poor little boy who was always looking for adventure and excitement seemed to get bored easily.  When Finn gets settled into school and gets some structure in his life, an obstacle comes along and changes what little bit of schedule he has.  When the widow tries to put Finn on the proper path, he accepts it for a short time.  As the story proceeds Finn remembers so much about what his father has taught him right and wrong. Huck’s farther drinks heavily, beats him and keeps him locked up.  When Huck finds a way to escape from him he flees to the river where he finds a raft that takes him away from all forms of authority. 

 Whether Mark Twain intended it or not the water represents freedom, life, and death to all.  The water was a means of survival for Huck and Jim, who had also, ran away from Huck’s family to be free.  Huck and Jim teaming up and living off the water wasn’t as easy as it seemed.  Their journey on the river took all kinds of twist and turns, but they always ended up back together.  Jim being a slave is not given much credit for his knowledge however I think Twain intended to give the reader a since of the era that slaves had to adhere and how they longed for freedom. To Huck, Jim was a person that he could trust and felt safe with.

To me this novel summed up everyday life. The twist and turns that Huck found him-self in is like life, forever changing in a blink of an eye.  Just when we think we have it all figured out something changes for the better or worse.  We never know where the river of life will take us.  Huck and Jim’s adventure on the water took them places that they both had just dreamed about. But in the end they both were free.

Dawn's Introduction

Hello, my name is Dawn and I like to read short stories and up to date medical articles.  I think the books that were chosen for this class will be great.  I have taken other classes where I have had to read a book and it wasn't something I would have picked. But in the end the book was good.  So I think these will be fine.