Letters from the Earth

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
February 27, 2009
Journal #16 Mark Twain

QUOTE:
“We have witnessed a wonderful thing; as to that, we are necessarily agreed. As to the value of it – if it had any – that is a matter which does not personally concern us” (307).

SUMMARY:
In From Letters from the Earth, Mark Twain wrote a short but ironic story about a brief introduction to God, angels, the Heaven in contrast to people’s vague ideas and vain yearnings for them. The storyline has a great emphasis on the speaking, thinking and acting of Satan, one of the Archangels who happened to stand beside God but was later sent to the Earth for banishment. The above quote showed Satan’s character and attitude towards God in the first place. While the other two archangels were too timid to start commenting on God’s behavior, Satan was the first to break the silence and brought up a heated discussion. He commented boldly on the impracticability and lack of democracy of their existence and discussion. Later in the story, he was reported of his hidden sarcasm and criticism for God by some spies.

RESPONSE:

According to the description of this book in Wikipedia, it is said that “the essays were written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters.” In the book, he ironically challenged the intention and morals of God, and he dispelled the unnecessary and ridiculous stereotypes possessed by the religious believers. Twain especially emphasized how God dominated people’s fate and what people’s false hope and expectation were. By ridiculing both ends of the religion, the holy figures and the worshippers, Twain wanted to convey a deep message about the irreversible dead-end of religion.

The most intelligent part of the book is in whom Twain positioned himself. Twain cleverly outlined Satan as a traitor of Heaven who was also amused by the insanity of human beings. Twain was the Satan, who distinctively separated himself from both parties. He made Satan an ex-archangel who was sent to the earth for banishment, symbolizing his own past belief in God. To God and the believers, he was the so-called “devil” who disobeyed God’s demand and tempting the angels and readers to agree with him by writing letters. He separated himself from the human beings beings because he also claimed a charge against their naivety and false hope. He did not belong to the mortal mode of thinking either.

Throughout the story, Twain gradually revealed Satan’s thoughtful and positive characters, which acted as a further destruction to the religious belief that Satan was an ultimate bastard. For example, while all angels acted cowardly, Satan was the one who “gathered his courage together – of which he had a very good supply” (307). This implied an extraordinary character of Satan that even could not be ensemble by other angels. Satan, by breaking the silence, also implies his ability in leadership and innovative approach to the corrupted religion. In the very quote I cited at the beginning, we can see angels were “necessarily agreed” with God’s decision, which showed an inhuman, dictatorial and undemocratic political environment adopted by God. Satan, among all, was the only one who had the courage to challenge the authority and expressed bold thoughts. Ironically, Satan was “ordered into banishment” just due to his sarcasm. By presenting the fearless and straightness of Satan, his situation reflected the lack of logic behind God’s decision.

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
February 25, 2009
Journal #15 Mark Twain

QUOTE:
“It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English Literature in Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and Wilkie Collins, to deliver opinions on Cooper’s literature without having read some of it. It would have been much more decorous to keep silent and let persons talk who have read Cooper” (295).

SUMMARY:
In the opening of Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences, Mark first quoted many renowned critics’ opinion on James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pathfinder and The Deerslayer. Some mentioned that Cooper’s works represent some of the greatest art in romantic fictions and Cooper himself also ensembles the requirements as a great inventor or woodsman who creates characters. Twain, after all the quotes and reviews, instantly remarks the objective or thesis of his whole essay, which is to counter argue the professionals who commented before they had read the book, and to address the fatal problems and violations of literary art of Cooper’s works as a serious reader, or as someone who simply had done the reading. Twain regarded Cooper a unrealistic and careless observer of nature and writer.

RESPONSE:

In some times of Mark Twain’s life, “he became an extremely outspoken critic not only of other authors, but also of other critics,” and we can simply observe his argumentative and critical writing in this essay (Wikipedia). However, I think that what made him great in humor, criticism and sarcasm is the right shift of tones in his arguments. In this particular essay, Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offense, we can see how Twain first adopted a gentle, submissive and mild tone in stating his view points. Through this, Twain wished to assure the reader that he was still self-possessed, objective and mannered in his critical thoughts.

In the quote above, Twain used phrases like “seems to me,” and “it would have been” to show demonstrate his openness and objectivity in his view. He did not insist his viewpoint was the ultimate truth because he wanted the readers to have a feeling that he was willing to accept others’ opinions on this. Yet, Twain still had to show his stance at the beginning of the essay, so he gently rebuked his oppositions. Instead of saying how insane, defective, implausible and fallacious their points were, he mildly addressed that their opinions were “far from right.” After achieving the nonaggression ambiance, twain wittily presented the fact that these professionals delivered their opinions “without having read some of it,” and left to the readers to conclude whether their opinions were worthwhile reading. At last, he again mildly said that it would be “better” for those ignorant and hypocrite critics to “keep silent,” which conveyed a strong message to those professionals not to write fake. He finally noted that it would also be better to “let persons talk who have read Cooper.” Since Twain was going to prove how detail he had read Cooper’s work, this sentences hinted and implied that readers would know Twain himself was the most suitable person and only speaker who had the right to talk. By challenging the credibility of the others, he himself gained much credibility and authority to be the sole critic of Cooper’s work.

The Other Two

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
February 20, 2009
Journal #14 Edith Wharton

QUOTE:
“Waythorn was an idealist. He always refused to recognize unpleasant contingencies till he found out himself confronted with them, and then he saw them followed by a spectral train of consequence” (839).

SUMMARY:
In Edith Wharton’s story “The Other Two,” Waythorn engaged himself in an intense analysis and contemplation about his wife, Alice, who had two marriage prior to the one now. Despite how controversial Alice’s marital history was, Waythorn at first regarded his wife as an adorable and perfect one. But in the inevitable meetings with her ex-husbands, Waythorn gradually formed a suspicious attitude for Alice. Upon realizing and understanding more about her past marriages, he saw his wife’s adaptability to be artificial and negative. In the above quote, it is the narration that describes how the characteristics of Waythorn had yielded this kind of realization at the end.

RESPONSE:

The above quote definitely embodies certain sarcastic irony. Wharton put the characteristics of Waythorn as an “idealist,” which is an exaggeration, or even the opposite way of what he was originally. As a man who bustled around the cities in high-class society, I very agree with the view that Waythorn saw “his home as his sanctuary” (“Isolation”). It was this attitude that he held encouraged a yearning for idealistic wife and home, and he wished he could eternally see the preserved face of his properties. Although we can see that he pampered Alice kindly, deep in his heart he took it for granted that he was the sole administrator of her. He, in the first place, had regarded Alice to be part of his possessorship and he meant to exercise control over her present self. This is obvious as whenever he came home, he used to ask a few questions to check and reassure his control over his properties.

As Waythorn successively obsessed himself with the idealistic image “produced” by Alice and was satisfactory, he neglected the artificiality and the mechanics of these amazing images. Firstly, he had obliterated Alice’s past and experience as part of her existence. Although he considered Alice as a smart and adaptable woman, he was not willing to attribute her goodness to the result of past marriages and her personal intelligence. In this case, even he noticed people saying the potential problem brought by Alice’s past marriages, his stubborn and eager mind wished to hide the fact to himself. Secondly, he was more willing to accept his own interpretation that his wife had suffered a lot in the past marriages, he was the savior to his wife’s life, and this is why Alice treated him so nice now. Throughout the story, Waythorn gradually discovered Alice’s “inanimate” past coming alive. His perception towards her changed, but he seemed to express an awful disappointment, rather than an acceptance or indifference. In fact, Alice only chose to present her different image and characteristics in front of different people, but Waythorn was too reluctant to take Alice’s past into account.

Works Cited

"Isolation Versus Community in Edith Wharton's "The Other Two" and Robert Frost's "Mending Wall." - Associated Content." Associated Content - associatedcontent.com. 20 Feb. 2009 .

Daisy Miller : A Study

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
February 19, 2009
Journal #13 Henry James

QUOTE:
“He asked himself whether Daisy’s defiance came from the consciousness of innocence or from her being, essentially, a young person of the reckless class” (424).

SUMMARY:
In Henry James’ short story “Daisy Miller : A Study,” Winterbourne was deeply attracted to Daisy Miller upon their first meeting in Vevey and he later even followed her to Rome to visit her. When Winterbourne arrived in Rome, he gradually discovered Daisy Miller’s personality through her intimate interactions with Mr. Giovanelli and her attitude towards the society’s opinion on her. Daisy was considered by many outsiders, like Mrs. Walkers, as inappropriate and reckless girls, who paid not enough attention to the gender roles and characteristics society favored, and consistently challenged and rebelled by indulging her time in anything she wanted, including went on a walk with two gentlemen late at night. Winterbourne genuinely contemplated those scandals and disagreement targeting the girl, and yet his admiration for Daisy still defended her innocence.

RESPONSE:
The story was named “A Study” because the context, though narrated in third-person, still emphasized a great deal on Winterbourne’s thoughts and psychological activities that were engaged in analyzing Daisy Miller’s personality. The author separated his direct interference in Daisy Miller’s true thoughts and intentions, as well as other characters, but the story’s narrations are still very deep and penetrating as Winterbourne’s thoughts are often revealed. From my own analysis and Winterbourne’s psyche described, Daisy Miller obviously possessed a very complicated character. The central focus of the debate is whether she was an innocent American girl, who proactively sought for her interests and boldly acted despite the conventions; or she was vulgar flirt, who was lack of educated and modest mindset in her relationships with men.

This is the same question Winterbourne tried to figure out in the story. Winterbourne, as a man devoted much energy “observing and analyzing” feminine beauty, could simply wish to categorize Daisy into some familiar groups of woman he had known. As described by Sparknotes, “Winterbourne is preoccupied with analyzing Daisy's character.” When he met her in Vevey, the elegance and beauty of Daisy completely dominated the impression for Winterbourne, and therefore he in his own mind drafted the first set of positive opinion towards her. He regarded her as a mannered, self-possessed, humorous young lady who was “singularly honest and fresh” (394). However, from the eyes of his aunt’s Daisy was reckless girl who devoted much energy flirting with every man to sustain her position in the society. She considered her a “dreadful girl” because Daisy ignored all the social conventions and behaved in an indecent manner.

At first, Winterbourne tried to defend Daisy’s innocence, but later when he met Daisy few more times, the complexity of Daisy’s act amazed and challenged him, and he wished he could finally define or prove her personality to himself, his aunt and the society. When he met Daisy in Rome, he found out that this girl was extremely intimate with handsome Giovanelli and people would feel better if she was engaged with him. Winterbourne secretly agreed with many others that Daisy was going too far beyond ordinary social rules and ideals, so he tempted to save her from her fall. However, the traditional European rules did not apply to this very young American lady, as she continued her way down to recklessness without a guilt feeling at all.