Sissy

Sissy, by Kellog, is a story about a young boy who has the characteristics and personality traits of a girl. I believe that Sissy, or William Shipherd, would not have grown up that way if it wasn’t for the fact that he was raised only by his mother and was not allowed to play with other boys. His mother ever “kept him in girls clothes till he was turned five…” (Kellog 545). Sissy did not have any male influences in his life and this is why he turned out so feminine. While reading this story I could not help but think about little Lord Fauntleroy. Although, Lord Fauntleroy might not have been considered girlie back in his time, today we can see that his features and his personality were pretty feminine. I noticed that he too only had a maternal influence for most of his life, and although he did play with other boys, he looked a lot like a girl.

Another similarity between Sissy and Fauntleroy was the fact that when given the chance both boys wanted to help out another person. Little Lord Fauntleroy helped all the people who were down on their luck as soon as he got some money. Sissy washes Margie the minute he sees her because he can not stand seeing someone so pretty look so dirty. Then after finding out where Margie lived and seeing that “it’s so miserable there” and “They cant half take care of Margie” he begged his mother to adopt her and give her a better life (Kellog 562). He tells his mother that he “believes that’s what God made [him] for- to take care of Margie” (Kellog 562). Most boys, if they got the chance, whether by money or because they had a giving mother, would not bother with making other people happy. They would demand things like toys and candy!

Another similarity between these two stories is the female author. Both stories were written by women and although we would like to think that men and women are capable of the same things, I do not thing a man would have wanted to write these stories let alone could have written them. I think a boy like sissy or like little Lord Fauntleroy, with all their girlish qualities, would be more accepted by women than by any men. I am not even sure if men would want to read a story about a boy who is called “sissy” and a “girl boy” (Kellog 545).

Gilman and Chopin

When reading The Yellow Wallpaper non of my habits changed, because I read that story in high school so I already knew what it was going to be about. I can guarantee that if I didn’t already know the story that I would have had to slow down or maybe even read it twice. It is confusing when the main character says ‘[she] peeled off all the paper [she] could reach standing on the floor…” and then somehow she is not the women peeling wall paper she is now wondering “if they all came out of that wall paper as [she] did…” implying that she was the women in the wall paper the whole time (Gilman 515). In class we went back and read the text more clearly and picked out evidence that she was dead the whole time. For a first time reader these clues were hard to pick up, and I remember reading this for the first time and being astonished when my teacher made so much meaning out of it. It is because of this that when I set out to read Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin, I decided to go about it differently. I read it once really slow, and still by the time I got to the end I was shocked! I don’t think there was any evidence that Armand Aubingy’s “mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin 521). It threw me off when I read the last paragraph for the first time so I had to read it more than once before I realized what it was saying. All in all, I don’t think all short stories have hidden meaning, and if they do then it is definitely not easy to pick it out. I think some of them are just good stories written to surprise you. I also don’t think it makes a difference how you read a short story but rather how many times you read it. The first time I read Gilman’s story, I don’t care how slow I read it, it did not make any sense! It is the second and third time you go back and read these stories that you can pick up on the clues to the ending. For example, in Desiree’s Baby Madame Valmonde exclaims “This is not the baby!” when she sees him for the first time in awhile (Chopin 518). She even “walked with it over to the window that was lightest” to look at the child. Now I can see these hints that the child was mixed but I do not think there were any hints that it was Armand who had African American heritage.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Frances Hodgson Burnett being a women seems to make more sense when it comes to the story of little Lord Fauntleroy. This is the first time we have read a story about a little boy written by a woman and I think this may explain Little Lord Fauntleroy’s appearance and attitude. The author describes her character as “so beautiful to look at” and “he had so sweet a temper and [was] always so charming that he was a pleasure to every one” (page 444). I don’t think these qualities were important to men or boys back in the nineteenth century. Only a woman would prize these qualities and wish for her own son or even husband to act this way. Ceddie was such a nice fellow that “there was not a person in the neighborhood of the quiet street where he lived- even to the grocery man at the corner, who was considered the crossest creature alive- who was not pleased to see him” (page 445). To me this whole story, besides the death of the father, is what every woman would want. A nice little house, a perfect child, and a handsome husband, who conveniently was the heir to a large fortune.

In the previous text featuring little boys, they were all described as rough and tough independent characters. Qualities that a man might prize more than a women, especially at this time. The whole country was starting over and so to be successful men believed you had to either be a very hard worker or very good at convincing people to work hard for you!

Another interesting thing about this text, not related to the author, was the fact that there was a boot black named Dick! In class, professor Irvin mentioned that all these authors read one another’s writing and this is pretty obvious in Little Lord Fauntleroy. Ceddie even says that Dick gets mad because his partner cheats and “it would make you mad…if you were blacking boots as hard as you could, and being quite square all the time, and your partner wasn’t square at all” (page 485). In Ragged Dick, Dick also expresses how much he hates cheating and how he works hard for honest money. This most certainly has to be the same character!

Tom Sawyer

Mark Twain makes it a point for us to realize that kids, not unlike adults, are constantly “showing off”. No matter how high or low you may be in society people are always trying to one up each other. Tom has been trying to win over Amy for months by “all sorts of absurd boyish ways…[such as] dangerous gymnastic performances” (pg 419).
I think this shows how Tom, and probably many of the other boys this age, can not easily express there feelings so the have to resort to “showing off” physically. When you think about this its almost like animals! Most of the times animals show off physically to attract a mate and out due other males in there society. Keeping this in mind, later in the text Twain describes a scene with many different kinds of people “showing off”. For example, the librarian ‘showed off’ running hither and thither with his arms full of books and making a deal of the splutter and fuss…the young lady teachers ‘showed off’ bending sweetly over pupils that were lately being boxed…the young gentlemen teachers ‘showed off’ with small scoldings and other little displays of authority…” (pg 434). The adults were showing off in much the same way that Tom did in the school yard trying to impress the little girl. This bridges the gap between adulthood and childhood. Twain makes us see that not only kids act this way, adults do to every day and probably unconsciously.

Also Twain steps out of the text at one point and tells us that “ in order to make a man or boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain” (pg 414-415). This creates an interesting point that can still be applied to life today. People are constantly working towards something better and bigger that they can not attain. Our world is so materialistic that we don’t realize we are always going to want more, more, more. Once we actually get what we were working for it is never as great as we thought it would be and it gets quickly replaced with another material that we work towards and it is a never ending cycle. On the other hand people who realize this use it to exploit and make a profit from others. For example, when Tom pretends to be having so much fun painting that fence he ends up getting a bunch of kids to do it for him and he doesn’t have to work at all!

Ragged Dick

Ragged Dick made me believe that, while litter girls were brought up to be quite and well trained in order to be successful in finding a husband, boys were expected to think of themselves first and become financially independent as soon as possible. It seems like since Dick has no parental figure the text suggests that boys to do not need a strict upbringing to turn out “good” while in all the other stories the young girls needed adults to raise them and show them how to act. This can be seen when Dick is talking to Johnny and they make the statement that Mr. Nolan had an “inflamed temper…[and] Johnny’s life was in danger” (pg 349). Parents are never seen as very good in this story.

Also, one main difference between boys and girls in literature that I think we can conclude is that boys will be allowed to make mistakes and sort of learn things on their own instead of being brought up in a strict home. Maybe because people want little boys to have fun while they can because much of their later lives will be spent working and supporting their wives and families? For example even though Dick was “always wide-awake and ready for business, [and] he earned enough to have supported him comfortably and respectably” (pg 340). In spite of how he could live, Dick chooses to live in the moment and spend his money on night life and gambling and things that will make him happy at this moment.

Another difference is that from the very beginning of the story we meet Dick’s friend. When we are introduced to Johnny we can see that Johnny refers to Dick as “his more fortunate friend” (pg 344). In most of the other books we read none of the little girls had friends or even people of their own age to hang around. They spent most of their time with adults. Later when Dick meets Frank, they become friends on their journey about the city. I don’t think if any of the female characters would have been introduced to another girl they would have embraced the friendships quite so readily.

Thinking beyond gender relations, maybe the author was trying to point out that people will never amount to anything without loads of ambition and a hard working attitude. She also made it a point to show us that although Dick had many bad habits he did not drink. The only person who drinks in the story is again, Johnny’s father who was portrayed as s drunkard and wasteful with his money, among other things. The author could have been hinting that alcohol ruins people, like we discussed in class.

A Whisper In The Dark

After Sybil is sent away it took me awhile to figure out she was in an insane asylum because she does not actually know it right away either and we only get the story from her point of view. The concept of insanity is really creepy when you think about it because if someone says you are crazy all you objections are just considered part of your craziness. Some of Sybil out breaks of anger would usually just be considered a tantrum were looked at as the rantings of a crazy girl. For example when she hears her mothers voice she frantically “beat upon [her] door in a paroxysm of impatience…” (pg 237) She also picks up the habit of pacing back and forth in her room like the stranger above her. She does this so much that the carpet was “worn to shreds by [her] weary march…” (pg 236). Knowing all these things made did not make me trust the narrator any less because I felt like I got to know her so well in the beginning that I knew she was normal and not crazy. It just made me feel really bad for her. I could almost feel her helplessness! Although the mother daughter relationship was approached very differently in this text than in the others we have read I can still tell that both of them cared deeply for one another even in their absence. Sybil even says, when she sees the picture of her mother, that “[she] know[s] so little, and often long[s] for her so much” (pg221). This just shows they have an unseen connection despite the fact that they are not around each other. When Sybil gets the letters from her mom off the dog, the tone in the letter is even full of some amounts of love. Her mother, even not knowing it was her daughter, was full of concern for this young girl and saved her from her suicide. I think that if Sybil had grown up with her mother their relationship would have been a lot like the relationship between Ellen and her mother in the Wide Wide World. Both girls were brought up similarly when it comes to working and winning a man, so I believe they would have shared the same bond with their mothers.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

In Uncle Tom’s Cabin we see most of the theories we created flipped upside down. Although this is the first story we have read about a little boy, it is hard to see very many similarities in this text and the others we have read. One main thing that sticks out however, is a mothers love for her son. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin Eliza risks everything to run away and save her son from being taken by the slave trader. Eliza shows so much affection toward her son. They are running to save his life and she still feels bad for making him walk! We can see this when Eliza says “Poor fellow! He isn’t used to walking, and I’ve hurried him on so” to the woman who offers her food and shelter for the night (pg 247). Also along their journey Eliza gives all the food to her son and takes none for herself. This relationship reminds me a lot of the relationship between Willie, from The Lamplighter, and his mother.

In addition to this, one of the conclusions we drew from reading the Sanchez and MacLeod texts was that touchy issues of the time were often ignored in books. In this book however, the entire story line is filled with one of the most difficult subjects in all of American history. Slavery is what the very story is built on. One thing is clear, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was definitely written to inspire some sort of social change. To help with this social change Stowe put a lot of religion in the text, much like all the other readings we have done. Eliza prays when she is running in the middle of the night to save her child. Mrs. Bird, the senator’s wife, clearly states that “passing a law forbidding people to give meat and drink to those poor colored folks that come along…is something downright cruel and unchristian” (pg 274). Later in the book the senator, who voted to pass this law, decides to break it and help Eliza and Harry seek some shelter. I think for people reading this back in the 19th century the fact that someone as high up as a senator would help a runaway slave would have been shocking and possibly very controversial. The remarks about how “unchristian” slavery is would definitely be a way to change people perceptions of slavery, and while reading this text we almost get to know Eliza and some people can identify with the fear of loosing a child, which would alter peoples minds! When Uncle Tom is on the boat to New Orleans to be sold, a women and her baby are purchased and put on the boat too. Then a man buys the baby, and the mother is forced to part with her child. This parting is enough for the women to through herself overboard that very night. Things like this were heart breaking to read for me so I can only imagine how hard it was for people to read back then!

The Hidden Hand

The most drastic difference I can see from the theories we previously made and the story of The Hidden Hand is the overwhelming presence of a setting. Much of the beginning of the novel is dedicated to describing the setting which, from out lead responded discussion, we established that it almost becomes its own character in the story. The mansion where Old Hurricane lives is described as “one of the loneliest and wildest of the mountain regions of Virginia…surrounded on three sides by a range of steep, gray rocks, spiked with clumps of dark evergreens, and called…the Devil’s Hoof” (pg 151). Right from the start we get a creepy feeling about the place. Later we learn that it is Halloween, which definitely does not make it feel any less scary at this place! Almost every aspect of the land is named “Devil” something! Old Hurricane does his best to keep out the weather and metaphorically maybe the devil, with “heavy curtains that kept out every draft or air…”(pg 152). The landscape and the house relates to Old Hurricane in that it is a metaphor for his personality. One the outside he is rough, intimidating, and scary, but on the inside he is warm and a little mysterious. Even though in the beginning we only see his rough side we eventually see his softer side, especially when he so readily runs off to New York.

Also after looking at the time line provided by PBS just reiterates the fact that the best novels are not always the novels which were most relatable or accessible. I enjoyed reading the Lamplighter so much I can not believe that it would not be a major American novel. If we would start considering the most popular novels the major novels the reading in High school would go by much easier! I think they chose most of the novels they did because they were the best examples of the political happenings of that time. For example, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is on the list and that book brought about a lot of change in our society and evoked some very serious emotions. Also The Jungle had an impact on industrialization in American. Or maybe it could be that people decided those novels were the best written. In addition to the books that made the list for the time period we are studying, I was surprised to see what books made the list for the more modern times. I try to read most of the best seller books and most of them were not on this list at all! For example, the Harry Potter series swept the nation pretty powerfully! It didn’t make any changes to our society but it is extremely popular, yet it is not on the list.

The Lamplighter

After watching the video of Anna and reading the excerpt from The Lamplighter about Gerty I can see many similarities between the two. Anna strives for balance in her life in much the same way Gerty strives for a way to be useful to True. This is quite the challenge for Gerty since she “never did anything, and don’t know anything…” (pg 115). Still Gerty tries her best to help True out around the house and make toast and tea. We can see how attached she is to the idea of being helpful because on her first encounter with Willie she forgot to make the toast and tea. After seeing that True had done it “tears came into Gerty’s eyes [and] she looked very much disappointed…” (pg 115). She is desperately trying to help True obtain balance in his life, which brings me to Anna. In the video, Anna tells Amy the main way she tries to bring balance into her own life is through yoga. Anna encourages others to try yoga and have balance much the say way Gerty tries to bring this balance in True’s life. Also some of the yoga poses that Anna shows us reminded me so much of Gerty. For example the child pose with her covered is a lot like Gerty covering her face, and the warrior pose made me think of Gerty hitting Nan Grant!

I think if Gerty were featured on this show she would have told everyone that screaming helps to relieve stress, and that if screaming did not help then they should pray to God. Although she does not learn about God until later she does use him to relieve some of her worries and stresses. She turns to God and “pray[s] to Heaven that night for strength to keep her resolve and aid…” (pg 150). She would probably tell people that helping others should be their main priority or at least helping those that you love and the satisfaction of this helps make stresses disappear. When she cleans the room “the pleasure [True] manifested made the day a memorable one in Gerty’s life, one to be marked in her memory as long as she lived, as being the first in which she had known that happiness, perhaps the highest earth affords, of feelings that she had been instrumental in giving joy to another” (pg 109). So as you can see, even though these girls lived 150 years apart from one another some of the things they struggle with are very similar and they both try and help other people, Anna with yoga and Gerty with cleaning. They both have to find ways to cope with stress even though it comes from very different places.

The Wide Wide World

In Warner’s The Wide Wide World, The role of Ellen’s parents clearly demonstrates the guidelines for appropriate parenting of the 19th century. Ellen’s super strong connection with her mother and lack of any sort of connection with her father is very telling of this time period. It was expected back then that women stay home with their children, especially daughters, and teach them how to be a ladies. Mrs. Montgomery is constantly quoting the bible and pressuring Ellen to put all her faith in God and trust in him with everything she has. Also the ritual of making bread shows us the small house keeping things that Ellen has been taught to do. She is meticulous while making tea and toast, and it is these skills which are most important to her. In addition to the things Mrs. Montgomery teaches Ellen, it is evident that their bond is very strong. When Ellen thinks about the fact she must leave her mother she “[flings] her arms round her mother, and hid[es] her face in her lap, giv[ing] way to a violent burst of grief” (Warner pg 23).

The relationship between Ellen and her father is nothing like this. Her father is often distant and never at home. This shows us that the role of the father in this time period was simply to provide for the family. He had no stake in raising the children. Things might have been different if the Montgomery’s had a son but I don’t know. Ellen respects her father but I think she is also afraid of him, or at least his power. This is evident when he comes in her room to tell her it is time for her to leave she jumps out of bed and does exactly as he tells her too. And in the morning time she would wait to talk about any plans her and Mrs. Montgomery had until after her father had left the house, so not to bother him with anything.

With all of these instances we can conclude that the father figure in the 19th century was absent most of the time and his chief concern was making sure there was enough money for his family, and maybe disciplining the children. The mother’s role was to raise the children and teach them the things they will need to be socially successful in their later lives.

Constructions of Childhood

Based on MacLeod's "Children's Literature for a New Nation" and Sanchez-Eppler's introduction to Dependent States: The Child's Part in Nineteenth-Century American Culture, five theories for analyzing children‘s literature can be formed. Most children’s literature will contain morals, political statements, little to no setting, simple plotlines, and gender division.

In almost every children’s book we read a lesson is there to be learned. People wrote these books to teach their children how to behave and often these books “offer insight to what Americans wanted of and for their own society” (MacLeod pg 3). All the stories written were there to “provide children with models of virtuous living” (MacLeod pg 4).

Children in literature were also used to make political statements and move the society. They were “attempts to reform, direct, or influence the nation” ( Sanchez pg 7). Books portrayed a “poster child” to show not only kids but adults the direction that America should be moving in. Children were used to evoke certain emotions and make the readers feel a certain way about an issue but in reality the society “consistently fail[ed] to support the daily needs of children…” (Sanchez pg7).

The “authors gave scant attention to the settings in their narratives…” because they were placing emphasis on other things such as morals and such. By not placing a lot of focus on where they story was they were making the story more universal. People could identify with the characters because they could be anywhere, therefore they could be anyone.

Plotlines were made simple so that any child could understand what was going on. It was believed that children “learned much better by example than by precept” so authors filled their stories with predictable example of good triumphing over evil (MacLeod pg 5). The good characters were always rewarded and the bad characters always suffered dire consequences.

And lastly, children’s literature taught most of America some pretty distinct gender divisions. The stories showed us “a mix of behavior and ideals” for specific genders to follow whether it was a child or not (Sanchez pg 15). It taught little girls how to be little girls and little boys how to be little boys. Women and children were portrayed as subservient to the man of the house, and this was the social norm back then.

First Post!

I am Kasey, from Magnolia, TX, which is a little town outside of Houston. I am a freshman by year and sophmore by hours here at TCU and although my major has changed quite a bit, for now I am planning on Political Science! I love to play all sports especially basketball! I came to TCU because I was visiting colleges and just picked this one to go see by chance and the moment I saw it I knew I wanted to go here! If I was chancellor the first thing I would change would be to give us a longer Christmas Break! I got out after all my friends and I had to come back before them! I think a good teacher is someone who makes students feel comfortable in the class room and encourages them to participate. A good student is someone who stays on top of their work and participates in the class room. If I could eat with any three people I think it would have to be Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and Michael Jordan because I love basketball and they are the best of the best in my opinion! Three things about me you should all know are that I can be pretty shy in the begining, I am not a morning person so 9:30 isn't amazing to me, and lastly I really like to read so I hope this course has good material! I took this course because it looked interesting and it was required, and I hope to read some great stories! I read all sorts of books, it just depends how I feel. I text a lot but other than that most of my writing was for school. I was on the yearbook staff so I also had to write short paragraphs for that. I feel like I can write pretty well, I usually get decent grades but there is definitely room for improvment! I hope my blog says that I am a happy active person and I want to work hard in this course! I have read the syllabus and I agree to all the terms and conditions!