Reading "The Saturday Evening Post"

I read the July 4, 1885 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. I thought this publication was interesting. It gave me some fantastic insight on what was popular in the 1880s. The issue was composed of several short stories, poems, brief articles, humorous articles, and advertisements.

One of the first articles in this issue was called "Are You Ready." It was a short passage about men seeking work. The article emphasized the difference between readiness and willingness to work. Readiness is the most desirable quality in an employee because it means they're not only willing to work, but prepared and able to work. I thought this was an interesting.

I liked the feature called "Bric-a-Brac." It contained short advertisements and stories that were funny. The first part advertised "paper bed-clothing" that was made of "No. 1 manilla." The ad claimed that the bed set was both "warm" and withstands wrinkling because it can be easily ironed. Another part of this feature told a story of a woman whose potential husband would only marry her if she could give him 50 pounds. So, she went to London and sold her hair for $300. Then, she returned to him and "bought a husband."

"Bric-a-Brac" also had a short feature that explained the following math trick:
Take the day of the month on which you were born and multiply it by two. Then add 7 to it. Multiply that by 50 and then add your current age. Subtract 365 from that number and multiply this result by 100. Add the number of the month (1 for January, 2 for February, etc.) and then add 1500 to get the final result. When you do this, the first or first two figures will represent the day of your birth, the next two will be your current age, and the last 2 will be the month. I tried it out and it worked, so that was pretty cool.

I thought it was strange that several of the short stories don't include an author's name. Most of them simply say "written by the author of "Blank," "Blankity," and "Blankity blank." Also, the short stories are almost always a continuation of a story from a previous issue and they tend to end with "To be continued." I can just imagine people anticipating their next issue of The Saturday Evening Post so that they can find out what happens next in the story.

One of the articles I thought was particularly representative of the time was "Should Young Ladies Decline?" This article was about what type of behavior is acceptable for young women in the late 19th century. The article started out with some trivial things that ladies should decline, such as "an excess of peanuts," too much chewing gum, "too many plates of ice cream," and the deceptive use of "artificial beautifiers" (makeup). These points address ladies' appearances through diet and fashion. Then the article moved to social behavior, such as accepting invitations to an invite from more than one escort (a big no-no even today) and engaging in gossip about other women. This was an interesting look at what types of behavior were ideal for women in the 19th century.

The last article was about the latest fashion trends. I thought it was strange that this didn't include any type of graphics. There were no sketches of clothing or anything. The entire article was just descriptions of big fashion trends. In today's fashion magazine, images are the priority and the text is typically light. The writers refer to certain outfits as "pretty little costumes" and "deliciously cool costumes." The use of the word "costume" was kind of neat. I think that saying "costume" emphasizes the fact that you're dressing to look a certain way and be fashionable rather than dressing out of necessity.

I liked this issue, but I wish it had been more visual. Today, we're such visual learners and to be truly engaged, we need visual components to hold our interest. Magazines just seem strange without pictures of any kind.

Kate Chopin, "Desiree's Baby"

I remember reading Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" when I was in high school. For a creative writing assignment, I wrote an extended version of the ending but I can't remember what I added to it. Anyways, from that experience, I know a little bit about the topics Chopin likes to write about.

I thought "Desiree's Baby" was quite sad. It was published in 1893, so the memory of slavery would still be fresh and racism would be prevalent. Armand decided that because the baby was black, Desiree must have  had African ancestry. He decided to end their marriage because of this; I thought that was an awful decision. I can't imagine one's race being more important than all other aspects of oneself. Desiree's husband punishes her for something she has no control over (and something that might not be true).

It was ironic that Armand discovers that his mother was black; this opens up the possibility that it is Armand who is black and that Desiree is actually white. I think that Armand's parents should have taught him more about his mother's ancestry. If they had revealed this family secret to him earlier, he would not have immediately come to the conclusion that Desiree was black and had deceived him. However, Armand was raised to believe he was white and so he blames Desiree for the child being black.

I also started thinking about Armand's relationship with the slaves. He seems to be a strict master. Now that he has discovered his ancestry, he will probably have some issues stemming from his role as a master. I wonder if he would have even owned slaves had he known his ancestry. This, again, makes me think that Armand's parents should have been honest with him. I'm sure they thought they were doing the right thing by passing him as white and making him believe he was white, but that secret ends up wrecking his life.

Harte's "The Luck of Roaring Camp"

I liked this story. I could definitely see similarities between Harte's story and the biblical story of Jesus. Although Luck's mother, Cherokee Sal, is presented as what is most likely a prostitute, she is the Mary figure of this story. She is the lone woman in Roaring Camp and she gives birth in "a rude cabin." Details such as the men visiting the baby with gifts are reminiscent of the story of Jesus's birth. Sadly, Cherokee Sal dies and the men in Roaring Camp are left to care for the baby boy.

The positive changes that Luck has on the camp also remind me of Jesus's influence. I am not completely knowledgeable of all the stories in the Bible, but I know the general gist of several stories. Jesus enacted change in his disciples and the places he visited. He taught people a new way of living and opened their eyes to their previous sinful ways.

The baby Luck also serves this purpose for the camp. His birth inspires the men to start cleaning up the camp and improving upon it. The men also start cleaning themselves up physically and mentally. They start wearing clean clothes on a regular basis and washing themselves more frequently so that they can spend time with the baby. They also start changing their language by eliminating most of their cursing. Luck also inspires the men to start seeing beauty in life. Suddenly, they care about beautiful things such as flowers. They have a new sense of wonder for the natural world that they did not possess before. The baby Luck is credited with bringing good fortune to the camp; he's essentially the light of the camp.

The clearest example of baby Luck acting as Jesus in this story comes at the very end. When Kentuck is found dying with the baby, he is conscious long enough to express his thoughts on what is happening. Suddenly, "a smile lit the eyes of the expiring Kentuck" because he recognizes that he is dying and he says that baby Luck is taking him with him. In this final paragraph, Luck guides Kentuck towards death and acts as his savior. I thought this was an interesting way to end the story. What is especially interesting about this ending is that the flood took out what were possibly the three best people in the camp (Stumpy, Kentuck, and Luck). In the Bible, great floods serve as a way to wipe the earth clean. In "The Luck of Roaring Camp," the flood kills the best people in the camp and leaves the rest. While the camp was previously experiencing its best times, it is now destroyed; Luck can not help them anymore.

There are other places in this story in which Harte seems to criticize religion. For example, the christening of Luck is led by a "satirist" and is largely a humorous show until Stumpy protests the treatment of such a momentous affair. Later, the narrator remarks that he "hesitate[s] to record the many other instances of his sagacity, which rest, unfortunately, upon the statements of prejudiced friends." To me, this comment is aimed at the accounts of Jesus's miracles. Harte seems to be saying that we cannot trust whether or not all of those stories are true because they are told by Jesus's disciples. As his disciples, all of these storytellers would be biased in that they want to present Jesus in the best light possible. The narrator in "The Luck of Roaring Camp" refuses to do the same for Luck; he says that the other stories "were not without a tinge of superstition."

I really liked this story because it could be taken at face value as an interesting story about a camp full of men or it could be interpreted as something with a much deeper meaning. Also, I think there are a lot of other meanings and interpretations to this text that have nothing to do with religion. I just thought that the religious aspect of it was interesting.

Twain's "The Diaries of Adam and Eve" and "Journalism in Tennessee"

I read this same piece from "The Diaries of Adam and Eve" for a Satire course a couple years ago; we read it as an example of travesty (something that trivializes its subject by treating it with levity). I like this piece a lot. It satirizes multiple things in society, such as gender stereotypes, fashion, and relationships. The difference in Eve's perspective and Adam's perspective are another aspect that I enjoyed.

I also think it's interesting the way that Twain characterizes Eve as being both a stereotypical female and as being the dominant creature in some aspects. For example, Eve's act of naming everything goes beyond just being a woman and wanting to talk and use language for everything. Naming all of the things in the new world  was supposed to be Adam's job, but Eve takes full control of it. She is inquisitive and admits that she thinks she is more intelligent than Adam. It is also Eve who decides what a man is and what a woman is; establishing gender was supposed to the Creator's job.

The relationship between Adam and Eve is also interesting. It starts with Eve wanting to please Adam. She names things because she wants to take the burden off of Adam. She talks to him in attempts to form a friendship, but he mostly ignores her. She gradually grows on him though. First, she gets into his mind with all of her words and he finds himself using some of the same language (such as "we"). Eventually, he comes to love Eve. As Adam comes to love Eve, Eve becomes more traditionally "female." She describes herself as weak and Adam as strong, although that isn't the impression we first get from her. It's strange that Adam doesn't decide that Eve would be a good companion until after they eat the apples.

By the end, Adam makes the beautiful comment of, "Wheresoever she was, there was Eden." This remark is quite sentimental and it's a dramatic shift from how Adam originally felt. When I previously studied this piece, I learned that Adam's feelings by the end were mostly an expression of Twain's feelings for his own wife. The "Niagara Falls" references are also included because of something in Twain's life; Twain was asked to include references to the Falls to promote the site as a new Eden.

"Journalism in Tennessee" is a humorous story that also offers some social commentary on the world of journalism. I think that through all of his humor, Twain is saying that journalism is a cut-throat business and that it is often not the objective and factual work that it should be. The first article that the narrator writes is a straight-forward piece. When the editor rewrites it, he turns it into a biased and potentially offensive piece and then gives it to the narrator as an example of what he should be writing. The goals of journalism are completely removed from the editor's version.

All of the violence that occurs at the newspaper is funny, but I think there's a point to it. The narrator keeps becoming the unintended victim of all the violence. When a man tries to shoot the chief editor, he ends up shooting the narrator instead. This happens multiple times through out the piece. The narrator is shot, thrown out a window, and scalped, among other things. I think this implies that the type of subjective, biased journalism that the chief editor wants written is producing unintentional harm to other people.

Dickinson and death

I thought that "I like a look of agony" was rather cynical and a bit morbid. Dickinson claims that agony is the only state that cannot be faked. This highlights a general mistrust of people and suggests that Dickinson is wary of people being fake. The second stanza describes death as the ultimate truth; death happens once and it cannot be faked. 

"This World is not conclusion," although also focused on death, is not as morbid as "I like a look of agony." "This world is not conclusion" focuses on the afterlife aspect of death. The first line clearly states the message of the poem: this world is not conclusion because there is an afterlife. Dickinson goes on to discuss the debate regarding whether or not there is an afterlife; she addresses both scholars and religious people. It's interesting that Dickinson chooses to spend time talking about the debate regarding the afterlife rather than describing what she imagines it would be. The poem could have contained beautiful imagery about the possibility of an afterlife but instead, Dickinson chooses to address the argument over its existence. I think that Dickinson uses this poem as an end to the argument. The only line with a period is the first; it's Dickinson's way of marking the line "this world is not conclusion" as absolute. 

In another morbid poem, "I heard a fly buzz," Dickinson again addresses death. This time, she describes the room in which the narrator of the poem dies. I thought this poem was strange. The narrator describes this eerie stillness in the room, "like the stillness in the air - between the heaves of storm," and the sound of a fly buzzing in the room. Dickinson seems to be imagining what a person would sense in their dying moments. 

I liked "Much Madness is Divinest Sense" the most out of this selection; I found the message the most relevant to myself. Dickinson says that what is often considered madness is usually what makes the most sense because what is commonly considered sane is what the majority thinks is right. She says that if you agree with the majority, you're considered sane but if you dissent, you're considered dangerous and crazy. This holds some truth today. People who are different can be celebrated or stigmatized; it is usually the latter case. Once standards have been set by a society, it can be difficult to change them but our standards of normality do change over time. All it really takes for a standard to change is for the majority's opinion to change. 

Overall, the impression I got from this short selection of poetry is that Dickinson was focused on themes of death. These poems weren't as uplifting as the Whitman poems we read before. 

The Question of "Why?" in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado"

Both of these short stories revolve around a murder. I thought it was interesting how the motives were revealed in each story. The murderer's motives in "The Tell-Tale Heart" are more easily discerned than the murderer's motives in "The Cask of Amontillado."

In "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator tells the reader the explicit motive for murder. The narrator describes the old man's "Evil Eye." It is like "the eye of a vulture," "a pale blue eye, with a film over it" and it makes the narrator's blood run cold. It is this eye that the narrator says causes him to decide to kill the old man. This explicit motive for murder is again made clear by the narrator's process of planning the murder. He enters the old man's room seven days consecutively, but each time, the old man's eyes stay closed; the narrator is unable to commit the murder when the old man's eyes are closed because it is the evil eye that bothers him. 

Implicitly, the narrator's motive for murder appears to be his insanity. The narrator's constant claim that he is not mad comes across as a bit of a "thou doth protest too much" situation. The more adamantly the narrator struggles to prove he is not mad, the more mad he seems. Even the explicit logic behind the murder points to the narrator's insanity; committing murder because the appearance of someone's eye disturbs you is an insane reason to commit murder! The narrator's perceived "over acuteness of the senses" is also a sign of his insanity. He claims to hear "all things in the heaven and in the earth" and "many things in hell," but no one else is able to hear all of these minute sounds. The narrator seems to be imagining these sounds. 

Through explicit and implicit details, the reader can easily discern the motive behind murder in "The Tell-Tale Heart," but it is much more difficult to understand the motive for murder in "The Cask of Amontillado." In "The Cask of Amontillado," the reader is introduced to two characters: the narrator Montresor and his friend Fortunato. In the first few lines of the story, Montresor explains that he has suffered "thousands of injuries of Fortunato" and he was able to dismiss all of these, but now Fortunato has insulted him. Although the reader is given this vague explanation as to why Montresor must kill Fortunato, Montresor never explains how Fortunato insulted him. 

The reader is made to understand that Montresor's motive for murder is revenge, but is never told what exactly Montresor is avenging. To justify the murder, Fortunato is made to look like a fool and Montresor emphasizes his need for revenge. Fortunato is first described as wearing "motley;" the narrator further explains that Fortunato "had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress" and he is wearing a jester's hat. He is wearing a fool's costume for the entirety of the story. He is also excessively drunk when he is first introduced to the reader. Despite already being drunk, Fortunato continues to accept more alcohol as he follows Montresor into the catacombs. These details shape the reader's impression of Fortunato as a fool.

Montresor's need for revenge is presented in the first paragraph of the story, but the reader is reminded of it in other places throughout the text as well. Fortunato asks Montresor what his family's motto is and Montresor replies with, "Nemo me impune lacessit." This motto translates to "No one attacks me with impunity." This suggests that a core value for Montresor is revenge; no wrong committed against him will go unpunished. In the opening to the story, Montresor explains that he feels insulted by Fortunato and this insult cannot go unpunished. It is clear that Montresor does not forgive easily, but the reader is never told how serious the insult was. 

I think it is easier to understand the murderer's logic in "The Tell-Tale Heart" because insanity needs no reason; the reader doesn't expect an insane person to act reasonably. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the murderer seems sane so it is difficult to understand his motive for murder, especially because he only gives us a vague explanation of being wronged.

Apess: What is love?

Apess, in his strong argument against racial prejudice, asks his audience, "What is love or its effects?" He uses a long list of biblical quotes to remind his reader that the Christian faith preaches love and that those important lessons are not being acted out across the country. He argues that if people are to follow Jesus's example, they must love each other without prejudice. He contrasts biblical definitions of love with the reality of white Christians' actions in order to highlight the hypocrisy of white Christians during his time, but also throughout history. In preparing for our presentation, Sarah May and I discussed this question together. We plan to ask it during our presentation as well, because it's a question that deserves attention.

Love is a concept that has the potential to fix a lot of problems in the world. Love's effects are wide-reaching. Love inspires trust and respect. Love fosters acceptance. It prompts us to see the best in people and gives us the desire to help them in their worst. Love can be painful when those that we love disappoint us, but it generally produces good things.  If we all shared a sense of love for one another, we would be inclined to do a lot more good in the world. To treat others with love would be the best way for society to function.

I know that this post sounds entirely too optimistic and unrealistic, but try to imagine a world in which we all loved each other. We would be compelled to act kindly and with the utmost respect for others. I imagine that we would act fairly towards others. For example, rather than trying to make deals that most benefit ourselves, we would make deals that are mutually and equally beneficial. We would not try to hurt each other or act with complete disregard. Human rights would be equal around the world because we would honestly believe that every human being deserves to be treated in the best possible way. We would want to achieve things in cooperation with one another, rather than attempting to always prove one side to be right and the other side to be wrong. Society would be full of people who would be inclined to improve the world.

I think that Apess's use of the Bible is strong in this text because he focuses on texts about love and because it is a text that his audience would recognize as being authoritative  These appeals to religion would have been particularly relevant for people in America in the 1800s; his audience would have most likely been familiar with several of these verses and several would have been Christians. However, I think even some one who is not Christian could find these quotes relevant. These quotes are appealing because they present the best side of humanity-- one that is full of compassion and deep friendship. If we were all to evaluate our actions, we could probably find plenty of actions that were not committed with love in mind. If we were to consciously choose to act with love in all future endeavors, we could become our best possible selves.