Realism and Naturalism An Episode of War

We discussed about the Realism and Naturalism during the class. I did not post this, because I still need some time to understand the story, and the Realism and Naturalism.

Naturalism started around 1890 and remains huge in American literature for the next twenty years. Naturalism is an outgrowth of realism. Like realism, it wants to present an almost photographically accurate version of “real” life.

Realism is a literary style originated from the journalism. It tried hard to present the world as it really is. The realists usually use the simple things draw from everyday life to fill their work.

The article “Episode of War”, written by Stephen Crane is a good example of Realism and Naturalism. This short story describes the beliefs and settings in which people seem to be helpless. Through the story, the author indicates that people’s situation is depended on their personal decisions or environment.

The story mainly has three part, Lieutenant got a gunshot, the way to the hospital, and the amputation of his arm.

At the first part of the story, the Lieutenant got a gunshot on his arm.I consider it as a expression of Naturalism since he could not do anything to stop that and he was affected only by the environment.

The Realism is apparent during the second part of the story. On the way to the hospital, the author describes what he saw. Although the Lieutenant could have a higher position, he still had to experience the pain from the wound.

Also, at the end of the story, the choice of the Lieutenant is a truly example of Realism. He could choose if he listen to the doctor or not. However, he did not have a chance, and that resulted in the amputation of his arm.

In my opinion. the naturalism is more related to environment while the realism is related to other people. Because I think the naturalists consider the whole thing, the whole nature, affect more than the single one individual (realism).

Daisy Miller

We talked about Daisy Miller in the class, and here are the two questions we need to answer during the weekend.

1. Describe Daisy Miller.

Daisy Miller is a young and wealthy girl from New York, America. She travels around Europe with her mother and her young brother. In this book, she shows some really interesting traits. On one hand, she is active, independent, and not shy or timid to speak to strangers. On the other hand, she does not have any talent in social conversation. She is shallow and ignorant. She likes to attract others’ attention, and she is tiresome sometimes and. Her characters make her an atypical person, and it is difficult for her to fit the society at that time. However, in my opinion, she might just be a normal person at present, and more easily to fit into the modern society.

2. Why is Daisy Miller looked down on by the European family?

The Winterbourne family is the typical upper class family in Europe. I believe they really care about the behavior of a woman. In their opinion, a good woman should be polite, decorous and have social grace or conversational talent. However, Daisy Miller is definitely not a good example. She is shallow and ignorant. She even thinks Winterbourne might know an Englishwoman she met on the train because they both live in Europe. Additional, the cultural difference between the Miller’s family and Winterbourne’s family is huge. Although they both rich and share some similarities, the enormous distinction still make them disapprove to each other. Therefore, the cultural background, the behavior and the thought of Daisy Miller are the major reasons that why European family look down on her.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story by Ambrose Bierce. It talks about a confederate sympathizer called Peyton Fahrquhar who was condemned to death by hanging upon the owl creek bridge. However, in his dream he jumped from the broken board into the river, escaped from the several soldiers, and finally met his family and plantation. But all of that sudden, he died. He had never escaped, and he just imaged this occurrence. When I saw the movie in the class, although I knew it was his dream, it was so vivid that I could not believe this. Also, the ending was really horrifying. As we enjoyed the happiness of the new life and the reunion of him and his family, he just died at the moment when his wife held his neck in his beautiful dream.

Though the book, I was surprised at the impressive language on the description of the view. I think we could perceive the mood of a person though the view. In the book, the author described a wonderful scene after Fahrquhar got away from the soldiers with guns or even cannon. I believe in Fahrquhar’s dream, he was quite pleased. However, at the beginning of the story, when Fahrquhar was imposed to get on the bridge, the whole frame was dark, and the mood of Fahrquhar was depressive.

Last thing I want to mention is that no matter how bad people are, they still have something worth pursuing. In the book, even though Fahrquhar was a supporter of the south confederate, the planter and slave owner who should be eliminated, he still had a wife or children that he loved. Though the dream, we could notice that he had a strong desire of freedom.

"To the Person Sitting in Darkness" and "The War Prayer" discussion

"To the Person Sitting in Darkness" is an essay written by American humorist Mark Twain. He was an outspoken critic of American involvement in the Philippines and China, the foremost anti-imperialist literary figure, and the vice president of Anti-imperialism League of New York.

In this article, he taunted the people whom he considers to be immoral. In his opinion, the extension of the blessing of civilization was just a pretext for making money. The more industrialized nations actually did not bring the real civilization to the behindhand people, but the misery instead.

“The war prayer” is also an article written by this great author and humorist. It is a scathing indictment of the war by describing the scene at a church in an unnamed city before the war. It particularly satirized the blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war.

At the end of the story is pessimistic. Because of the second part of the prayer for victory, the prayer for the suffering and destruction of their enemies, the God’s messenger (Aged stranger) was ignored. As we know, the coin always has two sides, so does the war. People in that time period were crazy, and pretty motivated by the fervor of patriotism and religion. They only cared about the victory of their own country, but not the happiness or the destruction of the enemies’ country.

In my opinion, I believe keeping the universal peace is absolutely the willing for all the people around the world, and opposing against the imperialism is a significant process in humanity. I really want to live in a world without war, terror, discrimination, poverty, etc…..

Emily Dickinson

Wild Nights! Wild Nights!

Were I with thee,

Wild Nights should be

Our luxury!

Futile the winds

To a heart in port, --

Done with the compass,

Done with the chart!

Rowing in Eden!

Ah! the sea!

Might I but moor

To-night in Thee!

I am going to talk about the poem “Wild Nights, Wild Nights” by Emily Dickinson. Actually I did not get the real idea in the class. But after I read several times and combined it with her thought, life, and experience, the inner connotation became clearly.

We all know that Dickinson neither got married nor had any children during her whole life, even she stayed in her parents’ house for most of the time. However, she would not be a lonely poet without any passion. Therefore, the “Wild Nights” here can be interpreted as “passion”, “love” or the “desire of the sexual life”. “Our luxury” in the first stanza seems to refer to the emotion between the two lovers. Although this poem contains no narrative plot, it still showed Dickinson’s strong yearning for reunion with a lover.

Love was one of the most important themes of Dickinson’s work. Another theme of her poems was death. She wrote about 1700 poems during her whole life, and one thirds of them are related to the death. Her view of death was quite different and with more deeply implications compared to others. She believed that the death was the beginning of life, and life was endless to her. Also, it was this thought that reflected her as a Transcendentalist.

Rappaccini's Daughter Class Discussion

By the reading and discussion of Rappaccini’s Daughter in today’s class, I noticed that the scientist, Rappaccini, is so cold and scientific that he even uses his daughter for the experiment. Since Rappaccini is an enlightenment man in the book, Hawthorne expressed her view of enlightenment though this character. The writer of the book, Hawthorne, is a Transcendentalist, which the most important thing to him is heart. Form the book, apparently, Hawthorne did not agree with the pure enlightenment thinking, which lost sanctity of the human heart.

Background of the book:

The book was written in mid 19th century, which the industrialization took place. Most of the people enjoyed the benefit from the development of science and technology, but there were still some people suffering from the environmental pollution or the working pressure brought by the revolution.

In my opinion, Rappaccini is actually not a bad guy. However, he is just too scientific in his nature. Some people thought the main theme is Corruption as Hawthorne contrasts the different corruption to make clear this truth: that the more heinous form of corruption is the first kind, which lodges in the human heart and intellect. But though my point of view, the main theme is love. Although Rappaccini corrupts the body of Beatrice, her soul remains pristine. She even treats the highly poisonous plants nicely. She falls in love with Giovanni, a college student. Thus it is the genuine love that sets no conditions or makes no demands.