Post #7: Edith Wharton and Men

In certain aspects I had found Edith Wharton's Summer to be surprising, while at the same time not so much. I had found it daring of Wharton to choose to write about such a scandalous topic as marriage out of wedlock. Yet at the same time it was profound in the ways that she had shown Charity's mental and emotional transitions. Not only had she later found salvation, but her views on life had changed. When she was first with Harney, Charity had a very romantic view on life. However her pregnancy and the choices she made had changed that.

Another aspect that I had found interesting was the theme of indecisive men throughout Wharton's stories. In Summer, we find that Harney is actually engaged while he is seeing Charity. Subconsciously Harney's intentions were to never marry Charity. But throughout the novel, especially in her eyes, he had made it appear that he was thinking about it, yet he would constantly change his mind. Wharton's character Waythorn, from "The Other Two," is also an indecisive man. At first he is completely against the idea of meeting or interacting with his wife's ex-husbands. But when he does meet them he cannot decide if she was wronged in her marriage, or if they were actually fine men.

Post #6: Edith Wharton and Women

In my reading of Edith Wharton's "The Other Two," I found myself laughing at the character of Waythorn. Personally, I had found it interesting that he stated that he"discounted" Alice's previous husbands (831). But then I also remembered the setting of the story, the unfamiliarity and discomfort with divorce. And reading further, finding that Waythorn was a Wall Street man, it only seemed acceptable that he explained and saw his wife's situation in the terms of a business. It was almost expected that he would not be involved with her ex-husbands and their circles.

I had also found the character of Alice to be rather interesting. At the beginning, in Waythorn almost seems to put her on a pedastool. "Her composure was restful to him; it acted as ballast to his somewhat unstable sensibilities ... her very step would prognosticate recovery" (831). Here Waythorn acknowledges the great composure which Alice holds. Yet one can see later in the story that she does this only when Waythorn is present, almost in an act to control the setting in which her husband sees her. I try not to go against my own sex, but when reading about Alice, I could immediately sense that there was something off about her. Waythorn had simply assumed that both of her divorces were enacted due to the acts of her husbands. I was happy to see that his opinion had also later changed. "Shamefacedly, in direct ways, he had been finding out about Haskett; and all that he had learned was favorable ... His next days were thus haunted, and he determined to try to lay the ghosts by conjuring them up in his wife's presence" (839). Waythorn begins to realize that his mere assumptions may not have been correct. In doing so, he decided to give Haskett the benefit of the doubt, finding it acceptable that he had done whatever possible to be near his daughter, and insisting that Waythorn help in persuading Alice on manners concerning the child. It was as if she had done whatever possible to ensure that she was in the right, that her current husband hold her in that regard.

Post #5: Jack London and Naturalism

This having been my first read of anything Jack London, I was quite surprised that I enjoyed the short stories. Similar to many, I had assumed that his stories would read like journal entries from a lost hiker, counting the days of survival. However, I found his connections to the environment, nature as a whole, and social order, to be quite enthralling.

"Law of Life," London's first published story, seemed quite original. In the story London describes the character's tribe as purely naturalistic, they have a process in which their elderly will die, and it is according to the cycle of life. The story is told from the old man's perspective. But what I found most interesting was not his need to survive, but rather his acceptance of the cycle itself. This is also an example of the racial/cultural expression of the tribe, detailing one of their oldest and most honored traditions. However, when hearing that this was in fact London's first published story, I was initially confused. I had simply assumed that the story "Mauki" was the first to be published. That story describes a Caribbean native and his constant struggle to escape from slavery. In my eyes it had seemed to be the first because of the number of repetitions and shifts, as well as the overall choppiness. However, what one must remember is that this may also just be a portrayal of the main character, and his constant struggling tug of war between escaping and being thrown back into the slave world.

Post #4: Charles Chesnutt and Plantation Tradition

Plantation tradition had stemmed from local color and regionalism. However, it's meaning is not understood from the name alone. The myth that most people think of as true plantation tradition, is an idealized, well-ordered agrarian world, where all people held the same values. But true plantation tradition looks back at the times before the civil war, when slavery and issues of race were in reality a traditional societal norm. One such author who writes upon plantation tradition is Charles Chesnutt.

One aspect that Chesnutt had always made sure to express, was the notion of a connection between the slaves and the land which they worked on. "As he became more and more absorbed in the narrative, his eyes assumed a dreamy expression, and he seemed to lose sight of his auditors, and to be living over and over again in monologue his life on the old plantation" (pg 691). Here, in the story "Goofered Grapevine," Chesnutt describes a scene in which most in the nineteenth century were familiar with. He shows the slaves nostalgically looking back at their time on the plantation, working in the fields to songs, the traditional view of slavery. The character of Henry is another great example in which Chesnutt draws a connection between slave and land. Henry was the land, and when he died, when his life was destroyed, as was the plantation.