WEEK 6

Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane had a short life of only 28 years. During this Stephen Crane had a short life of only 28 years. During this time his life went many different directions.  He had hoped to be a soldier but left military prep school to study mining-engineering. He later left that college and played sports for a few years and began his writing career.

I am not a huge fan of poems.  I find that most of them are hard to understand.  I wish writers would leave some type of interpretation behind so we could all know what they were really talking about, not to just interpret them by ourselves.  After reading Crane's ten poems I still feel the same.

I read most of the other classmate’s posts and everyone seems too really like "In The Desert"   I don't really like it at all.  Why is he even thinking to write about someone eating his own heart?  Just weird!  Many of his poems are located out in the open land. I think he may have spent a lot of time outside.  They also seem to talk of war time and I think that is because of the years he was growing up and what he saw around him. I think he initially wanted to be a soldier but got scared and that is why he changed his major.  In the poem " A Man Feared that he might find an assassin" I think that would be a war image.  You picture two soldiers on opposite sides. They are each looking for a victim and if they find him they become his assassin.  Of course the wiser one is who is left alive.

"Black riders came from the sea"  Sounds like maybe war ships attacking. Darker skinned soldiers appearing off a ship.  They are coming with their swords and shields making noise, rushing upon their victims to kill them in sin.

The Open Boat

The “Open Boat” is a  true life story.  Stephen Crane was a reporter for a newspaper.  He had joined a gun-running expedition to Cuba in which the boat he was on sank.  He ended up on a small dingy with 3 other survivors.  Throughout the story he shows great detail in explaining the waves crashing upon the dingy, the look of the horizon in a distance and how the land looks so small and far away . This was really a good story that I could easily picture in my head.  I can see them stranded out at sea just praying to make it back to land.   At one point a huge storm comes.  They see lightening, hear thunder, fight with large waves trying to crash them.  It shows how tiny 4 humans are compared the large sea and the universe.  Who would really miss 4 people in the grand scheme of life? 

At one point they come really close to a lighthouse.  I am not sure why they expect people to come looking for them if no one even knows they are missing.  They didn’t have cell phones or TV’s so it is not like a family member can call and ask how they were doing and they surely were not on the news. 

I really admire their determination to survive. They never gave up!  They were always respectable of the others who needed to sleep and rest.   They kept going and looking until they found land.  I think their saying “ If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven made gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?”  ( pg 789)  This would have really given me hope too.  I was very sad to read the oiler did not survive the ordeal. 

Edith Wharton

“ The Other Two “ written by Edith Wharton was a good story.  It seems sort of odd it is from so long ago.  It would really be normal to read something like this today.  Usually in those days   woman were married once and here is Alice working on her third marriage.  I found that kind of odd.  I think today it is more odd to find someone who is married only once.  I think Edith Wharton wrote about this because she herself was divorced before.

 This story had a lot of the same struggles that families have today in dealing with visiting fathers, ex husbands, and new husbands. I don’t think Alice ever imagined having to deal with her old husbands on a daily basis.  In the story Alice’s daughter   Lily, becomes ill. Her father is really involved in her life as he should be.  He comes to see his sick daughter and Alice’s new husband Mr. Waythorn doesn’t really like the idea of him visiting her in his house.  In the end he realizes he loves his daughter and has every right to see her as anyone else.  I think he admires that he has moved from his good job to be closer to his daughter.  Another ex husband was   Gus Varick.  He had no reason to be involved with Alice anymore.  He came into the picture because of   Mr. Waythorns business. 

In the end we see Mr. Waythorn coming home to what he thinks is an empty house.  First he walks into his office and sees Mr. Varick who unexpectantly shows up for a business meeting.  Then out of nowhere comes Mr. Haskett who wants to discuss Lily with Mrs. Waythorn.  I think he handled the meeting quite well with offering them cigars.  Soon Mrs. Waythorn comes in and is shocked as well.  She manages to pull herself together and greet her ex husbands. How uncomfortable she must have felt standing there with 3 different husbands.  I think the jealousy Mr. Waythorn was having is now gone. He has come to realize that Mrs. Waythorn is the way she is because of the past men in her life. There is a reason they are ex husbands and not husbands still.