Week 4

Editha

     After reading  Editha by William Dean Howells I couldn’t help but think how sad it was.  He never sounded like he was liking the thought of war but Editha made it sound like if he didn’t go she would not be around for him.   She wrote him that nasty letter  giving all his stuff back. She had such a view that war was glorious and fun.  I have never found war to be glorious at all.  I have never thought of young men going away from their loved ones to fight anything to be happy about.  Many don’t get to come back at all and if they do they are so traumatized they don’t ever lead a normal life again.  I can see why Mrs. Gearson was so mean to Editha.  Her husband had been in a previous war and came back with one arm.  I am sure he told her many stories of the real side of war and that is why they raised George to not be so willing to go and fight.  Here comes Editha to show up at her home, I would be furious as Mrs. Gearson.  Editha still has her long life ahead of her.  Poor George is dead and his mother has lost her son forever.  I would have liked to see Editha sign up to go and fight a war.  I bet she would have changed her mind real fast. Although I appreciate our freedom and all of the soldiers have died for us, I just am so scared of my own kids growing up and wanting to go.  I am thankful they are still young but with the current war just going on and on and young men dying all the time.  It just breaks my heart when I see a story of another soldier dying.  I don’t think we ever see the real side of what really goes on while fighting a war. 

Tennessee’s Partner

     I was a little confused reading Tennessee’s Partner by Bret Harte.  This story is taking place in a bar called Sandy Bar in 1854.  It seems everyone there gives the customers nicknames to go by.  I am not sure what Tennessee did to be called Tennessee but it had to have something to do with a previous happening.  After reading the whole short story I see a story about true friendship.  Here we have friends Tennessee and Tennesee’s partner.  They have been friends for many years. Even after Tennessee running off with Tennesse’s partner’s wife, he still welcomed to his home with a handshake as he was glad to see him.   He has helped his friend many times when he was drunk and unable to get home.  As Tennessee is on trial for robbery Tennessee’s partner attempts to offer his life savings of  $1700. Something only a true friend would do.  Maybe he really just didn’t want to live his own life alone.  In the end he is the only one to show up for Tennessee’s body and gives him a proper burial on his land.   Throughout the story you see a lot of  silly humor that just would never make sense.  The trial alone doesn’t sound very real.  Here you have a  person just show up and start trying to bribe the judge in front of everyone.  He slaps down all his money not worrying about what is right and wrong.  Also when they are about to hang Tennessee. Instead of a dreary funeral you hear words like birds singing, flowers blooming, sun shinning just like it’s a cheery day. It seems in the end Tennessee’s partner may have died of a broken heart.  He missed his friend terrible and by the time the rainy season came he had taken to his bed and passed away.  I also liked this story because I am from a town near San Francisco so when I hear that and Stockton I can almost picture Tennessee traveling back and forth.

An Occurrence at owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge turned out to be a pretty good story written by Ambrose Bierce.  In section one we get the beginning of the story. Peyton Farquhar is about to be hung.  He is surrounded by soldiers on a railroad bridge overlooking a river. His hands are tied behind his back and a rope around his neck. I’m sure this is just a few moments in time but it goes on forever with such great detail that it seems like hours could have passed by.  I think this part would represent his fear of the unknown.  He is thinking of his wife and kids he must leave behind.

             In section two we learn who Peyton Farquhar really is.  We learned about his life as a well to do planter and how he came to the position of being hung.  This is the shortest section of the story.   Peyton Farquhar is trying to stop the troops from expanding on by burning the bridge they would cross.  He had heard the troops many times will burn innocent families homes and wanted to prevent that from happening to his home.  I guess he is caught while attempting this and that is why the troops are hanging him. 

            Section three was by far the longest and is the point that the soldiers let him fall which again takes merely seconds in real life.  But as he falls it seems like an eternity.  He is envisioning what he wishes to happen.  He wants the rope to break in which he will splash into the water and make his great escape. He is able to get off the ropes tying his hands, he doges bullets being shot, a vortex from shooting cannons shoot him out of the water into the forest which he runs and runs to make it home.  He finally arrives there after running non stop to see his beautiful wife waiting for him. At the moment he was waiting for to embrace his wife he thinks he is shot in the neck but really it was just the rope breaking his neck and him dying. 

Free Joe and the Rest of the World and How Mr. Rabbit was too Sharp for Mr. Fox

     After reading Free Joe and the Rest of the World you can see the typical stereotypes.  You have Free Joe who was the free slave.  Being free is something he probably always dreamed of.  He is finally a free man but is still not happy.  He doesn’t have his wife to be free with because she is still a slave.  Even though she is not free she is able to meet him under the poplar tree. They go about this way for awhile until her master finds out and she is shipped off to far for him to ever reach her.  While he waits for her he hears slaves singing away happy as can be.  He insists he hears her singing loudly above everyone else.  I think the stereotypes suggest that the grass is always greener on the other side. You always want what you can’t have.  I think he would have been happier a slave along side his wife than living alone all that time.  It’s such a sad time for me to read about.  I think of all those people who were treated so horrible for years and years. 

     The story How Mr. Rabbit was too sharp for Mr. Fox was hard for me to read. The dialect is awful.  From what I get from the story you have Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox. Brer rabbit has been taunting Brer Fox for some time.  Brer Fox finally has Brer Rabbit exactly where he wants him, it the tar baby.  Brer Rabbit welcomes him to do whatever he wants but please don’t throw him in the Brier patch.  Since he has requested this so many times Brer Fox thinks this is a great way to get him back.  So he tries and Brer Rabbit gets away. Brer Rabbit has outsmarted Brer Fox again.   I think this is a great tale using animals and reverse psychology.  He is really expressing what he really wants Brer Fox to do but disguising it as what he is begging him not. Brer Fox isn’t very smart in falling for this trick and gets what he deserves. No Brer Rabbit barbecue for him.