Daisy Miller -- Henry James

Questions:

1. Describe Daisy MIller (character description)

2. Why is Daisy Miller looked down on by the European family?

1.Daisy Miller can be considered to be the protagonist of the story. Compare to other European girls, Daisy has a really different personality. She is not shy and always willing to speak up her mind. She refuses to obey the old ideas of "being a woman." She enjoys having others around her but still being as her own. However, Henry James uses her story to discuss the relationship between Europeans and Americans believing of each other.  

2. Daisy Miller is looked down by other European family due to her different behavior. Winterbourne and his family represent the typical upper class in Europe while Daisy's represents the American family. Although they are both rich, they disagree with each other. Winterbourne once said that he does not realize how much America has changed after he meets Daisy. I guess it is Daisy's unique manners that caused her into troubles. However, I think that she is just the person who live like us in the modern world now.

Mark Twain - To The Person Sitting In The Darkness

        This is a pretty fascinating essay! Mark Twain used satire to portray the dark side of the imperialism in the nineteenth century. He is criticizing Imperialism not only America, but also other countries. However, he refers those "sitting in the darkness" as human beings that were considered to be uncivilized, such as China and Africa. Only those with white skin are the "civilized" once, and it is their duty to educate the others. I like the way how Twain wrote it with satire. It makes the situation look even more clearly. 

Ambrose Bierce - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

        Ambrose Bierce is a famous writer in the last quater of nineteenth century. His short stories are held among the best of the 19th century, mostly about the terrible things he had seen in the war. He fought in the American Civil War and had a lot of negative impact on him. 
        In his story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Bierce addressed that the wars are horrible and terrified to both the South and the North. As a northerner, he tended to write the story in the southerner's point of view. His way of telling the story makes it fascinating the the public. 
        I was totally shocked at the end of the story. Never had I ever thought about he will end the story in this extraordinary. Moreover, I enjoyed the movie that was produced. The background music totally make it hard for me to catch up my breath, especially when he was trying the run away from the Union soldiers.
       When we look back now, most of us think that the Union was right and the Confederation was not. However, this story awaken me that on the both sides of the battle/ war, there are all human beings, perhaps in this case, Americans. So, were the northern Union action totally appropriate? Maybe not.....

Emily Dickinson

I felt so familiar when I head this name. We learned about her last year!! [Wild Nights- Wild Nights!]
Our group worked really hard together to fill out the biography about Emily Dickinson. I found most of her poems depressing. From what I learned in class, I think that she is not willing to publish her poems and plays sort of a negative role. However, her poems contains less lines and most of the time without titiles. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality. It was not until her death, did most of her poems were published by her younger sister.

Emily Dickinson

Rappachini's daughter discussion

      I don't really think that this story is as exciting as Scarlet Letter. I was really eager to find out the mystery about the girl, but I am kind of disappointed about the ending. I thought Hawthorne would explain more than just show the death of the girl. However, I do enjoy the way Hawthorne always being mysterious, and leave it for our imagination. (I thought about the movie -- Inception)

      I found it interesting about the appearance of the Professor. He randomly appears in Giovanni's room and already knows what is going on with his student and even gives him the  strange liquid. Perhaps he knows about Rappachini and his daughter?