dale12’s Blog

     The Franklin Jones poem in Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters was interesting because Franklin says that he was making a flying machine, but he had not finished it yet before he died. I feel that this means that if he had made the machine that would have meant that he would be able to fly phisically as well as mentally. When I say that I mean that in making such a machine, his mind would take him places that would help the whole world.

“I could have finished my flying machine, and become rich and famous,” (38).

     But he did not finish his flying machine which meant that he was still on the ground, which kind of points to how he did not get anywhere in life. He was but a dreamer and he had no way of being anything else without his machine. Just like how his tombstone looked like a chicken (where chickens cannot fly) when it was supposed to be a dove (who can fly in case one did not know that). It shows that Franklin’s machine was doomed because he would never be successful, as much as he tried.

Hence it is fitting the workman who tried to chisel a dove for me made it look more like a chicken,” (38).

     In the Griffy the Cooper poem in Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters the Cooper talks about tubs being the Cooper that he is, but he uses tubs as a metaphor where the tub is like your life and he remarks about how it is very hard to look over your own tub to see the whole picture or all of life. This was one of the best relations I have ever seen before. It is so true too.

“You think your eye sweeps about a wide horizon, perhaps, In truth you are only looking around the interior of your tub. You cannot lift yourself to its rim and see the outer world of things, and at the same time see yourself. You are submerged in the tub of yourself–” (31).

     I was fascinated the Masters could take someone who knew a lot about tubs and make him the wisest person that I have seen so far in this book. He relates your tub to life and shows how people are unable to see the whole world and they are unable to understand what life really is. They can only grasp the things that are in their tub. If you think about how small a tub is compared to the world, the Cooper is showing how little we know about life. So many people say that they know about life, but the Cooper puts it in a perfect way. He shows in his relation that it is no wonder that most think that they know a lot about life because all they see is their life, and they know everything about their little life. If they only knew that there is more just beyond the rim of their tub…

     In reading the poem titled Doc Hill in Spoon River Anthologyby Edgar Lee Masters it is interesting to see that the only reason that the doctor went out to help so many people was because he would rather not see his own family. His wife can not stand him and his son is a bad person in his opinion. I wonder why his wife hates him so much. Her story is not in the book, but I would have like to have seen the reason why she would hate him so much that he would rather be around poor sick people. Doc Hill does seem to have a pure soul because instead of filling an empty heart by having an affair or something of the sort, which some men in this book probably did resort to, he gets his love from the sick people that he helps. The only reason that I could think of as to why his wife hates him is because he would rather spend his time curing people. Maybe it started off where he was not spending enough time at home, and then it grew to where there was not much of a home to return to. That would explain why the son turned out so badly.

“My wife hated me, my son went to the dogs,” (15).

     Something else that caught my attention was towards the end of the poem when the doctor talks about how when he died there were so many people on the lawn grieving over him because he had helped them all. He mentioned that besides these people coming on the day of the funeral, there was someone off to the side who did not have a poem for themselves so that is the only place they are mentioned.

“When I saw Em Stanton behind the oak tree at the grave hiding herself, and her grief!” (15).

I really was interested to see who this person was, but when I looked ahead I was upset to see that Em Stanton was not anywhere to be found. When he said that she was hiding herself behind the tree and she was also hiding the fact that she was sad about his death I almost felt like she was a hidden lover that he had on the side. I was surprised to see it just randomly show up there, so only thing that I thought it might be was the fact that she was having an affair even though he seemed to be a very pure individual while he helped the sick. Then again, that was his excuse to get out of the house.

     It was very interesting to meet Tea Cakes in the book finally because it brought a new theme to the book. That theme is trust. When Janie decides to leave her old life and move with Tea Cakes to get married. He is twelve years younger and does not have a penny to his name. Janie has plenty of money that was left to her by Joe. She decides to trust Tea Cake because she feels that he is not marrying her just to take her money. A test of this happened when Tea Cakes discovered the two hundred dollars that Janie had hidden just in case. Tea Cakes took it and spent most of it, but he did come back, which shows that with all of the money that he thinks that she has is gone, he still comes back. This shows the love that he has for her and only her; not the money.

“Janie, Ah wanted tuh, mighty much, but Ah was skeered. Too skeered Ah might lose yuh,” (124).

     Tea Cakes is showing her that he can be trusted. He loves her and Janie brought up a good point when she claimed that the rest of the guys that she could have been with were all jealous and wishing they could have the money that she does just as much, if not more than Tea Cake. Every body likes money, but it seems that Tea Cakes love her more than he loves money.

     Janie seemed to be a bud blossoming in the sunshine. She seemed to be nurtured by some magical source, that gave her a good head on her shoulders and a nice body to go with it too. She seemed like she was really going some where. The reason she even decided to marry Joe was because he represented a change for the better. Where she would be an equal to him. All Joe has done so far is take this blossom and deprive it of water and the magical juices that it thrived on. He dragged her into the dirt and made her cover up her beauty so that only he could enojoy it. Her life is bottled up inside of her just waiting to burst.

She was rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels. Sometimes she stuck out into the future, imagining her life different from what it was. But mostly she lived between her hat and her heels, with her emotional disturbances like shade patterns in the woods – come and gone with the sun, (76).

     Janie needed to be free to be who she was. She was an independent woman and would not settle with being anything less than an equal to her husband. It should be her right to wear her spirit and show it off for all to see. There is nothing wrong with being independent. If you can’t find someone to treat you as an equal, then you are better off alone. Joe was just bringing her down. You can’t live your life being something that you are not, and if you do you are a miserable person. It is like a wild horse who refuses to be tame. If the horse does not want to be used as transportation or a tool, then it will fight to live life independently. Free to roam and enjoy the excitement of life as they please. Even though this horse may not have a home, it is probably one of the happiest horses of all time. It won’t be alone either. Others will look up to the pride and humility that one bears and they will respect you and support you. And if they do not, then they are either just jealous that they can’t be as independent and free as you are or they Have a different spirit about them, that chooses to be tame.

     I finally understand why so many people were against this book when it came out. There are specific things that Hurston says that really insult African Americans. It was reasonable to think that because of the time period when this book was published that there would be some people who were angry about the airing of the dirty laundry, but I did not expect Hurston to say things like this,

“Us colored folks is too envious of one ‘nother. Dat’s how come us don’t git no further than us do. Us talks about de white man keepin’ us down! Shucks! He don’t have tuh. Us keeps our own selves down,” (39).

     This is some powerful stuff that I have honestly never read before. It shows Hurston looking past how white people treated blacks, and all of those race issues, and decided to talk about different African American issues at hand. What she says about African Americans is the same for any other race. People in general have problems that have nothing to do with race. One of the examples in this quote is greed. Everybody wants to be rich and have lots of land, but if you try to take others land and they do the same to you, no one will get anywhere. This new town that Janie and her new husband visit needs to let Joe step up to the plate and guide their town to success, or at least the ability to get on the map. Joe really has this attitude of change around him and he seems to be ready for that leadership role. If Hicks can stop being greedy, and let Joe bring prosperity to the little town then Hicks will see the profits too. We will all benefit from the profits as long as our goal is the same.

     The beginning chapters of Their Eye Were Watching God by Zora Hurston were over all, very well done. I was captivated by Janie’s background. Her grandmother raised her by herself while working as a nanny for a white family. She grew up thinking of herself as an equal to the white children. She was actually at a point where she thought herself to be no different from her white friends,

“So when we looked at de picture and everybody got pointed out there wasn’t nobody left except a real dark little girl with long hair standing by Eleanor. Dat’s where Ah wuz s’posed to be, but Ah couldn’t recognize dat dark chile as me. So Ah ast, ‘where is me? Ah don’t see me.’

     This gives her a huge advantage  in life. She has a better head on her shoulders because she knows white people who are not racist, so she can associate herself with better people than the ones making fun of her at school. One can tell that she is a better person because she grew up not having to look down when a white person passes by.

     I also believe that the way the author wrote the book by giving the African Americans that accent was well thought out. I think that it would have given the book less meaning if the white spoke the same way they did. It shows a little more of the tone that was down in the south. By this different accent one can tell that blacks did not go to school. I think that if all the speech was the same it would have been harder to see the blacks not being able to go to school because they sound like they have had a good background. With the different accent it shows what African Americans were fighting for in this time period, which is equality.

     The Great Gatsby had a sad ending to what is considered to be the most up-beat book we will read during this semester. It was all happy and cheery until Myrtle got run over. It was a terrible accident, yet it caused so many deaths to follow it that it was like dominos. After Myrtle was hit Mr. Wilson finds out whose car it was that hit her and he goes over to Gatsby’s house and shoots him and then commits suicide. These two deaths occur because of one very important figure in this book. He is the one who caused all the trouble in the first place by cheating on Daisey. This person is none other than Tom. When Mr. Wilson comes over to Tom’s house because he saw Tom driving Gatsby’s car, Tom notices the pistol in Mr. Wilson’s hand and tells him who actually owns the car. Mr. Wilson marches right up to Gatsby who is in his pool at his house, and he shoots him. After that it seems that Mr. Wilson thought there was nothing left for him in life and so he shot himself. What is interesting is that Tom does not hesitate to point the finger right at Gatsby imidiatly…

“Tom,” I inquired, “What did you say to Wilson that afternoon?” He stared at me without a word, and I knew I had guessed right about those missing hours. I started to turn away, but he took a step after me and grabbed my arm. “I told him the truth,” he said. “He came to the door while we were getting ready to leave, and when I sent down word that we weren’t in he tried to force his way upstairs. He was crazy enough to kill me if I hadn’t told him who owned the car, (178).

     In a life or death situation, it is human nature to point the finger at the other person. It is no wonder that as soon as the pistol is pointing at Tom, he points right to Gatsby. It is human nature to blaim someone else to save yourself. Gatsby ended up taking the blaim just like he wanted to. But I really feel that Tom should have come up with something to get Mr. Wilson off track, or he could have at least called Gatsby and told him to run for his life. Mr. Wilson was after all on foot. I can understand though why he would not care very much. Gatsby did in fact love his wife, and they were a thing in the past. So I guess Tom was bound to stab Gatsby in the back.

     During chapter seven of The Great Gatsby, everything finally unfolds. All of the secrets come out. It is about time too. So much went on that I am actually a little confused. What I do think that I understand is that Daisey loved both Gatsby and Tom at certain times in her life. Gatsby was loved more than five years ago and Tom was loved when they first met and got married. What is interesting is after all of the skeletons come out, Daisey still sort of picks Tom. That is what is seems like in the end. She seems to love Gatsby, but the relationship that has grown between Tom and her seems to be where she is comfortable and wants to be. It leaves her in normalcy and a life that she has always had…

“I want to wait here till Daisey goes to bed. Good night, old sport.” He put his hands in his coat pockets and turned back eagerly to his scrutiny of the house, as though my presence marred the sacredness of the vigil. So I walked away and left him standing there in the moonlight – watching over nothing, (145).

     This quote really shows Fitzgerald at his finest. He is able to tell the reader which person Daisey picked without telling them strait out. It was beautifully done and it really makes you think, but if you are an intellectual of any sort you can see into what he means. When he says that Gatsby was looking over nothing, it meant that Daisey had made up her mind and chose to stay with Tom in her rich and normal life. Gatsby does not know it yet and he is still worried for Daisy’s safety. Tom would never hurt Daisey because he truly does love her. I refused to believe it up until now, but Tom actually does have a lot of passion towards Daisey he just has a bad way of showing it. Daisey choosing Tom shows human nature in this great book of American literature, and the way it relates is through people not understanding all people. Daisey and Gatsby may love each other, but they do not understand how each other feels and will react to things. This in real life takes time, and that is exactly what Tom and Daisey had. They had time to understand each other and learn their faults and accept them out of understanding. The fact they can sit at a table at the end of all of this confusion and craziness means that they understand each other and will forgive out of love.

     During chapter six of The Great Gatsby Tom finally enters the Gatsby household. Not only does he enter it but he tramples in on a the back of his trusty steedas snotty as ever. Especially because Gatsby’s house is beautiful and what he has probably tops what Tom has. You could just see it coming when Tom accuses Gatsby of getting his money in a very unlawful manner. He probably also feels this way because all of his friends who think they know something about Gatsby have been spreading rumours. What ever may have been the reason, Tom wanted nothing to do with Gatsby, and yet he got himself caught up in one of Gatsby’s parties. I would like to react to this quote which occurs when Tom first comes over to Gatsby’s house for a cigar, and then tries to make a quick escape…

“”well — think ought to be starting home.” “please don’t hurry,” Mr. Gatsby urged them. He had control of himself now, and he wanted to see more of Tom. “Why don’t you–why don’t you stay for supper? I wouldn’t be surprised if some other people dropped in from New York,”" (102).

     This quote demonstrates a idea that many have heard before which is, keep your friends close but, keep your enemies closer. This is exactly what Gatsby is trying to do. He wants to get to know Tom well enough so that he knows a lot about him, or enough to be able to predict what his future moves might be. For instance, if Gatsby were to steel Daisey away, what would Tom do to him? It is a question I am sure he wants answered, and more importantly, how close is he to Daisey? If he is able to invite Tom over and keep a close watch on him, he will understand him more, and all the better. As a plus, he also gets to spend time with Daisey, but not under the best circumstances. He probably also wanted to meet Tom so that he would have an excuse to invite Daisey and him over to one of his parties, so Daisey can see what he does for a party. Tom is still very suspicious though, and he notes that Daisey should have less free time on her hands to go off and meet people like Gatsby. You can definitely tell that he is slightly jealous of Gatsby, and is worried about Daisey finding someone else who is nice to her, and as an added bonus, does what a faithful husband does and not cheat on her.