Twenty-First Century Girl By: Hannah Miller

Remember to separate your whites and your colors before you do everyone’s laundry; Do not wash the delicates in cold water; Remember to clean out the drier fuzz before putting in another load or you’ll set the house on fire; Scrub the dishes before you put them in the dishwasher; Do not just put them in without a good scrubbing; Check all your clothes you are planning to buy for holes and tears before you buy them so you do not waste money; Do not leave the house without your travel sewing kit; Make sure that if you have to fart you do so in the bathroom; Burping is not allowed in public for any reason; Do not sit with your legs open, you are not a man; Chew your food with your mouth closed, always; You should always make sure you use protection during intercourse, you do not want a baby at a young age; If you forget, make sure you know how to get Plan B or contact Planned Parenthood; Do not sleep around, you should not be known as a whore to the public; Taking out the garbage is dirty work, let the men handle that; If you have siblings, you are their twenty-four hour babysitter on call, no excuses-it is your family; Know how to change a diaper; Always do your homework; You need to be well-educated if you want to stand on the same pier as men in this world; Do not dress like a slut, or you will definitely be called one from now on; Other girls are mean, that is a fact-especially at the pubescent age so do not take their criticism personally; Do not be mean to other girls just because they are mean to you and make sure you do not tattle tale on them to teachers, it is looked down upon by your classmates; This is how you cook dinner; Cereal and/or macaroni and cheese do not count as meals; Always eat your fruits and vegetables; The definition of “skinny” is different in everybody’s eyes- do not take what people say too seriously; Make sure to have a healthy diet, your body is constantly changing and needs the nutrition; Always be civil towards people even if you might not like them, especially adults; You can say all you want about them later on in the privacy of your own home or room; Do not sleep around with lots of boys-you will not be able to get rid of the stigma of being a skank if you get caught; Forks go on the left, knives go on the right- make sure you always know how to set a table, it can impress people in the future; Always take showers, brush your teeth, and maintain good hygiene so you will maintain a good image of yourself in other peoples’ eyes; Lastly, and most importantly, always be yourself even if you have a hard time doing so in today’s society

Paule Marshall's Caribbean Heritage

Paule Marshall’s heritage is from the West Indies. The history of the West Indies begins in 1500 BC. A tribe of hunters and gatherers called the Ciponey moved to the islands from South America. They were followed by the Arawak peoples and then the Arawak were then followed by the Caribs in AD 1000. The Caribs used warfare to take over the Arawak. They married the Arawak women and ate the Arawak men as part of their customs. Christopher Columbus reached the islands in 1492. The northern islands, Bahamas and the Greater Antilles, were settled by the Arawak and the southern islands, the Lesser Antilles, were mostly occupied by the Caribs. Columbus landed in the Bahamas and claimed the island for Spain. Columbus believed that he had reached the East Indies, in India, and goes on to call the native people Indians. He then travelled to what is now known as Cuba. He believed that it was really the island of Cipango, which is in Asia. Then, he travelled to Hispaniola. The ship the Santa Maria became shipwrecked there and so Columbus had to make the decision to leave a small group of people there with food and ammunition to last a year and he went back to Spain to deliver all of their news.

By the 16^th century AD, Spain occupied the three main islands of the Caribbean. They were Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Cuba. From there, the Spanish conquistadors went on to conquer much of Mexico and Central America in the 1520’s. Due to the large number of actual islands in the West Indies, Spain could not maintain and control all of them. The English and French began to settle on islands in the outskirts of the three main ones. The British occupied St Kitts in 1623, Barbados in 1627, and Antigua, Nevis, and Montserrat by 1636. The French occupied part of St Kitts in 1627, Dominica in 1632, and Martinique and Guadeloupe in 1635. England went on to capture Jamaica from Spain in 1655. France occupied the western portion of Hispaniola in 1664 which is now known as Haiti. All three of these countries used the natives of the islands as slaves. By the time sugar plantations were established, which needs a lot of people to work them, they had wiped out the native population with harsh slavery and diseases brought over from Europe. They had to resort to importing slaves from Africa. They imported so many slaves that the slave population ended up outnumbering the European population in Haiti. The slaves were then able to carry out a coup-de-tat and virtually kick out the Europeans. Eventually, by the 20^th century, Haiti started to be on its way to becoming a free country.

Nowadays, the islands of the Caribbean are mainly free nations. They are large tourist attractions due to their location, climate, and sights so that is one of their main sources of income every year. Tourism is hindered in the respect that tourists only see certain parts of the places they are visiting. They visit the built up areas of the islands so they do not experience the whole feel of the islands. There are still slums and most of the citizens suffer from poverty. The heads of the tourism industry shield the tourists from that so that the tourists do not get scared away and they get to keep their business.

Works Cited

"History of the Caribbean (West Indies)". History World. rack=pthc>.

Post-Modernism in White Noise

White Noise is a postmodern novel because it fits several of the characteristics of postmodern literature. According to class notes from November 18^th, 2009, there are many characteristics of postmodernism. One thing is that there are no absolute truths. Postmodernism cannot have any kind of universal truth in the text. The text itself is very fragmented. There are choppy sentences and incomplete thoughts weaved into the book. This leads us into the fact that it is not a linear narrative. The book has many different parts that cover different topics. There can be a loss of communication in the novel and quotation-using conversation can be few and far between. This makes it harder for a reader to follow the series of events and plot. There is no metanarrative in the novel. This means there is no big entity that would define civilization. The final characteristic of postmodern literature that we discussed in class was the rejection of any one narrative.

According to my research, there are many other characteristics that we did not get a chance to cover in class. Irony, black humor, and playfulness are oftentimes incorporated into quotes and plotlines. Often authors used the Pastiche form in their writings. This means they incorporate different aspects of different genres into their writings. Metafiction is also added into the writings. It exploits the amount of fiction in these fictitious works as a way to be somewhat facetious in the way that they write. Poioumena is also an aspect of postmodern writing. It is a way to write about one thing but put a meaning behind it to be equivalent to something entirely different from the initial topic. Historiographic metafiction is also is added into the characteristics of postmodernism. It’s a way to include historic events into the writing. Another issue included in postmodernism works is paranoia. This incorporates the belief that there is something dictating every aspect of life and there is no control over it. The final things incorporated into postmodern literature are maximalism, minimalism, and magical realism.

Don DeLillo’s White Noise incorporates many of these characteristics, if not all of them. The first part is that there is not an absolute truth. Jack Gladney and his wife Babette are too infused with the constant fear of dying that they do not have the brain capacity needed to believe in any higher being. “Is this what it’s like, abrupt, peremptory? Shouldn’t death, I thought, be a swan dive, graceful, white-winged and smooth, leaving the surface undisturbed?”(DeLillo page 18). The narrative is fragmented and non-linear because it is divided into three parts. The first part is Waves and Radiation and is about academic spoof and a crazy family life. The second part is called The Airborne Toxic Event. It is about a chemical spill from a train car that lands on Jack’s neighborhood and his family is evacuated. The third and final part is called Dylarama. It is about a drug that is supposed to be the cure to stop death. As you can see, all three parts have different plotlines and are not linear in any fashion at all.

Works Cited

DeLillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.

Bonca, Cornel. "Don DeLillo's White Noise: The natural language of the species". BNET. June 1996 .

History of Haiti

Haiti is an island located in the Caribbean between Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. The island itself is inhabited by two separate nations, the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti. Christopher Columbus was the first person to “discover” the island during his voyage in 1492. He thought he had reached India when he arrived and began to call the natives Indians. However, the island was already occupied by people who called themselves “Tainos”. The Tainos occupied Cuba, Haiti and Puerto Rico and were originally from South America.

I am going to skip some of the history due to the fact that it is so vast, and there are so many people involved, that I would not be able to incorporate the book in any way. The island of Haiti went through periods of occupations. The first occupation was the Spanish occupation. The Spaniards forced the Tainos into slavery and exploited their gold mines. They even renamed the island Hispaniola, meaning “Little Spain”. When the Spaniards arrived on the island, there were as many as three million to four million Tainos on the island. Most of those Tainos were then killed due to the harsh slavery, planned massacres, and diseases they contracted from the Spaniards. A Spanish priest spoke out against this genocide and convinced the government to import slaves from Africa. The first slaves arrived in Haiti in 1503 from Spain and that ended the enslavement of Tainos. The Spaniards left Hispaniola for more gold and richer lands in South America.

Haiti was then taken over by France in 1625. The Spaniards that stayed on the island signed the Treaty of Ryswick with France in 1697 giving them the western part of the island. The French developed St Dominigue which turned into the richest colony in the world. They used slaves from Africa to achieve this. Only the landowners and other citizens besides the slaves made any actual profit, so the portion of people benefitting from the richest colony in the world was very slim. Haiti went through a series of revolutions carried out by the slaves, or “Afranchis”. The island of Haiti became a black independent republic on January 1^st, 1804. All of the remaining Frenchmen were executed. At the end of these revolutions, the republic was in serious debt with many countries, including the United States.

The United States was involved with the First World War around the time they occupied Haiti in 1915. The Haitian president Vilbrun Guillaum Sam executed one hundred and sixty-seven political prisoners during that year and the United States used it as an excuse to invade. They used the Monroe Doctrine to shield themselves from political backlash. The occupation lasted from 1915 to 1934. They changed the constitution, allowing foreign nations to own land in the Republic. The Army of Haiti was created to maintain stability while the United States was gone. In 1934, the Army of Haiti’s authority was passed over to the “Garde Nationale” which kept the power while the United States removed themselves from the country.

The government after this point was made up of military powers. In 1991, Jean Bertrand Aristide complied with the people and agreed to apply for the presidency. Seven months after his election, he was overthrown by the military and forced to leave the country. He moved to New York so he could eventually go back to Haiti and go for re-election. Another election happened after Aristide left and his former Prime Minister Rene Preval was elected. On February 7^th, 2001, Aristide was re-elected into the presidency. The country is hopeful that this democratic environment will promote stability and growth.

After analyzing Haiti’s complex history, it’s easy to see why Edwidge Danticat chose a character who was escaping the country, however unwillingly. Sophie first found out she had to leave when her mother sent for her. “I felt it in my heart and took it on Monsieur Augustin’s advice that, once you got there, you would love it so much that you would beg your mother to let you stay. You have heard with your own two ears what everyone has said. We have no right to be sad.”(Danticat page 17).

Works Cited

Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, Eyes, Memory. New York : Soho Press, Inc., 1994.

"Synopsis of Haitian History". Discover: History. .

The Beat Generation Uncovered

The Beat Generation was mostly composed of the authors Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burrough. Allen Ginsberg is known for writing Howl. Jack Kerouac is known for writing “On the Road”. Finally, William S. Burrough is known for writing Naked Lunch. The characteristics of these works included open-form composition, spontaneity, spiritual curiosity, etc… The writers were known for including obscene imagery and words into their writings. Typically, the topics they discussed in their writings were drugs, sexuality, and hostile behavior. Jack Kerouac coined the term “Beat Generation” in 1948 in order to expand the way of writing to outside of his group of friends. He used it to describe and characterize the youth gathering in New York that supported anti-conformity. Allen Ginsberg’s first line of his poem, Howl, states, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”. (Howl page 1). My interpretation of this quote is that he thought of conformity as madness. He didn’t see the point in doing so and following everyone else’s ideas of a “normal” persona.

The members of the Beat Generation originated in Upper Manhattan in the late 1940s and migrated to San Francisco after their group had actually formed. It took them years to actually get published, however. It is known that they formed a strong bond during this time. Each member served as a system of support for the other members of the group. This support system kept them from giving up hope during hard times and they eventually worked through it and got published. The first major event that happened in terms of publicity was Allen Ginsberg’s reading of Howl at the Six Gallery in San Francisco. He read his poetry to a small group of people and it was a way for his work to gain recognition and eventually spread his popularity.

After the first group of the Beat Generation established themselves, there was actually a second wave. The members included Bob Kaufman, Diane DiPrima, Ed Sanders, Anne Waldman, Ray Bremser and Ted Joans. Their works included Golden Sardine, Tales of Beatnik Glory, The Truth, etc… Two of the members, Bob Kaufman and Ted Joans, were jazz poets. These “second wavers” of the Beat Generation as a whole were all huge fans of the first wave of the Beat Generation. They are known to have worked together with some of the members including Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. All together, the second wave of the Beat Generation incorporated more diversity into the overall Generation. There were jazz poets which before this era, was not as popular. There were also women in the second wave. This was different from the first wave because the first wave consisted of middle-aged white men. The women incorporated ideas that might not have been considered before this. They were also incorporated into different films done on the era.

Overall, the Beat Generation was self-sustained. The reception wasn’t always great but after long struggles, the writers got the recognition that they deserved. The legacy included a whole separate wave of writers who aspired to continue the ideas of the first wave. Also, their books and poetry are still used today to give people a unique insight into those times.

Works Cited

Ginsberg, Allen. Howl. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1959.

Asher, Levi. "The Beat Generation". Literary Kicks. July 25, 1994 .

Janie's Growth to Reach Independence

Janie’s character grows phenomenally over the course of the novel. Before I can go into that, however, I need to explain her family’s background. It will help in the understanding of why certain events happened the way that they did. First of all, Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, was a slave that was impregnated by her master and her mother, Leafy, was the child produced by that event. Leafy ended up being raped by her schoolteacher and that is how Janie was conceived. Leafy then became an alcoholic after she had Janie and ended up leaving home. Nanny was left to care for Janie and because of all that had happened to her family, she was very strict when it came to Janie and boys.

Janie grew up in a big house with Nanny and the family that Nanny worked for. She was always a confident child and did not even realize she was black until she was six years old. The children and she got photographed and she did not recognize herself in the final product. She had to have herself be pointed out in the picture by someone else. “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.’ Everybody laughed …’Dat’s you, Alphabet, don’t you know yo’ ownself?” (Hurston page 9).

The first time Janie was really challenged by Nanny was when Nanny caught Janie kissing Johnny Taylor. Janie was sixteen at the time. “She bolted upright and peered out of the window and saw Johnny Taylor lacerating her Janie with a kiss.” (Hurston page 12). Nanny then arranges for Janie to marry Logan Killicks. Janie did not want to go through with the marriage. Her idea of love was what she had witnessed with the bees under the pear tree. “She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation.”(Hurston page 11). This was all an ideal to her. She believes that marriage is equivalent to the process of bees pollinating a tree. There is an idea of co-dependence. Janie’s marriage to Logan was full of him not really caring about her and just using her as another worker.

Janie didn’t last very long with Logan Killicks. Not too long after marrying him, she ran away to Eatonville with Joe Starks. Starks basically builds the town from the ground up and sets up a general store. Then, the townspeople appoint him mayor. He bans Janie from partaking in basically any form of a social life. She soon realizes that he wants her more as a trophy wife than an actual partner. A turning point in their relationship is when he beats her in front of many of the townspeople just because she gave him a little bit of an attitude. “Joe Starks didn’t know the words for all this, but he knew the feeling. So he struck Janie with all his might and drove her from the store.”(Hurston page 80). Soon after Joe Starks passes away, Janie runs off with a man named Tea Cake.

Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake was the closest she got to love. He even told her, “From now on you’se mah wife and mah woman and everything else in de world Ah needs.”(Hurston page 124). Unfortunately, their happiness did not last long. The Okeechobee Hurricane hits them at their home in the Everglades. They both survive the hurricane but Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while he is saving Janie from drowning. He then develops rabies and in his madness, tries to kill Janie. Janie shoots him in self defense and eventually ends up back in Eatonville to start a life for herself on her own.

Janie arrives in Eatonville in a very different mindset and state of mind than when she left. She is now an independent woman, unattached to any man. She has had much personal growth due to her varied and complex relationships starting with Johnny Taylor and ending with Tea Cake. She is self-assured and she can express her own ideas more clearly now. The story ends with Janie as an independent woman who is financially stable, owns her own land, and is happy overall.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper Collins, 1937.

Connections Between Art and Literature

The Dada, or Dadaism, movement started in Switzerland during World War 1 and climaxed during 1916 to 1922. The three major components of the movement were visual art, literature, and graphic design. There was a lot of focus on anti-war politics. Periodicals such as 391 by the Dadaist Francis Picabia were written in a mostly aggressive tone arguing against the war. The art form of Dadaism was based off of the former popular art form Cubism. Dadaist artists used the techniques that Cubist artists used but incorporated a feeling of life into their work. Cubist artists focused on still life but Dadaist artist included things such as tickets, maps, etc. to show a sense of living and life. In Berlin, the photomontage technique was created. This technique included the use of scissors and glue as opposed to the traditional tools of paint and a paintbrush. It also used actual pictures as its focus. They were generally taken out of newspapers and other forms of public press. Assemblages were also created during this movement. They were three dimensional works of art that were an “assembly” of everyday art that either had meaning or didn’t. The meaning of the art, as always, was created by the artist.

The Surrealist movement began in the early nineteen twenties. It developed after World War 1 as a result of it and Dadaism. The main location in the Surrealist movement was in Paris, France. Surrealist artists created and developed the technique of automatic drawing. It was a way of expressing their subconscious through art. In order to make an automatic drawing, the artist allows his or her hand to move randomly and spontaneously across the work surface. Opening your mind in this way allows it to be released from regular control and patterns which is why some believe it opens up and gives insight into your psyche. It’s also used by mediums and people who practice psychic skills. Many artists in the Surrealist movement started out in Dadaism. Writers from the Dadaist movement also joined the Surrealist movement. Those writers included Tristan Tzara, an avant- garde poet.

The modernist movement in American literature was based in Europe between nineteen hundred and the late nineteen twenties. Some famous authors involved in the modernist movement were Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, F Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Frost, and Ernest Hemingway. Those are only a few of the dozens of authors who made the modernist movement what it was. Some characteristics of Modernism included an international aspect, gaps or fissures in the writing, the avant-garde philosophy or “Make it new”, fragmentation in the writing, no truths, and the use of quotidian or “the everyday”. It was usually written in the aftermath of a big historical event. Many modernist pieces, such as Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, focus on the effects of World War one on the human population. Some focused on the effects on the general population but others, like Hemingway, focused on the effects on the soldiers and the “Lost Generation”.

A big aspect of all three of these movements is the way they are centered on World War one. The Dadaism movement was during it. The Surrealism movement and the modernist movement were focused on the aftermath. It shows how something such as a world war can unite people in unexpected and unfamiliar ways. Generally, artists and authors stayed in a certain area to create art or writings. However, during these movements, they all came together and travelled around the world to be one with the movements. There were of course certain artists or writers that drew everyone to them but the fact is that most writings or paintings were done in specific areas of the world by people of all different backgrounds and cultures.

Works Cited:
- Class Notes September 21st, 2009
- "Dada Movement". http://www.arthistoryguide.com/Dada.aspx.
- "Art History: Surrealism: (1924 - 1955)". http://wwar.com/masters/movements/surrealism.html.
- "Modernist Literature". http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Modernist_literature.

O Pioneers! Still relevant in the Twentieth Century?

O Pioneers! is a classic book about the immigration of the 1800s and the quest to make a name for oneself. This included owning land, earning a living, and eventually becoming rich. It involves the Bergson’s family’s hard times and how they make things work out eventually for themselves. It also has a much deeper meaning in relation to those times and even the twentieth century. There are many aspects of the twentieth century involved with this nineteenth century book but I, like most other women writing about it, am going to focus on the feminist point of view and discuss the character of Alexandra Burgess.

At a young age, Alexandra had a mind for learning and knew the land she lived and worked on better than her younger brothers. Her father did something quite unheard of when he was sick. He told his sons that it would in fact be his only daughter, Alexandra, who would continue as the head of management for the farm. He urged them to listen to her and do as she says because she had a way of knowing, through research, what was indeed right for the farm. “Boys, I want you to keep the land together and to be guided by your sister.””Alexandra is the oldest, and she knows my wishes. She will do the best she can. If she makes mistakes, she will not make so many as I have made.”(O Pioneers! Page 16). At that current time in history, it was still a male dominated society and women hardly ever were given work outside of cleaning the house, cooking food for the family, planting gardens, and sometimes working the fields.

As Alexandra grew older throughout the book, she took on more and more conflicting ideas with
the current society. She housed an elder man, Ivar, who was thought to be crazy. She even stood up for him to her brothers Oscar and Lou when they suggested she send him to a psychiatric hospital. Women were not supposed to have many single men, or men in general for that matter, living in their homes at once. It complicated the fact even more so due to the fact that Alexandra was still a single woman. She did not get married because the love of her life, Carl, was forced to move away when his family’s farm could no longer survive during the harder years. She managed and ran the farm by herself. The accounting books were even done by her which was rare for a woman to do because it was usually the man’s job to handle the money. “While Emil and Carl were amusing themselves at the fair, Alexandra was home, busy with her account books, which had been neglected of late.”(O Pioneers! Page 84). This quote leads me to my next point which is that older woman were not generally getting married. Alexandra’s long time friend and romantic interest, Carl, comes back and it causes a commotion among her family when they realize that they are beginning to fall in love. Alexandra had been considering that marriage was the logical next step and Oscar and Lou began to pick up on that. They claimed that he was after her money and would not allow it. “Alexandra! Can’t you see he’s just a tramp and he’s after your money? He wants to be taken care of, he does.”(O Pioneers! Page 85). When Alexandra questions why she should not share and give her money to Carl, it makes them even more furious. “Didn’t all the land come out of the homestead? It was bought with money borrowed on the homestead, and Oscar and me worked ourselves to the bone paying interest on it.” (O Pioneers! Page 85). To me, it seemed like they had been greedy since they were introduced in the novel with their children at a family dinner. The fact that they had been the ones that worked the farm is true. However, one can also argue that the farm would never have prospered without Alexandra’s intuitiveness and skill with the land management. She took on new ideas such as keeping the hogs clean so they wouldn’t get sick as well as planting alfalfa which later began to have a larger profit margin. The fact that she did all of this and the brothers weren’t acknowledging it shows not only that they were greedy and wanted the land for their children, but also that they didn’t agree with a woman having so much control and power over the land. Women of her age were supposed to be cleaning the house and working in the kitchen while raising a family. Due to her wealthy status, Alexandra was able to hire other people to do those things and she was left to continue expanding and making her farm better. The fact that she wasn’t married wasn’t about to slow her down. Generally, as women grew older, they stayed with their son’s or daughter’s new families and did the same types of general housework. Lou’s wife’s mother was one example of that in the novel. She was constantly told to keep a neat appearance and to not act out of line. She basically had no free will. I think that this character was introduced to show a contrast of what Alexandra’s life could have been as a woman.

The way she portrayed Alexandra shows Willa Cather’s mindset as she was writing the pieces of this novel. The novel was published in 1913, which was a few years before most women’s rights even existed. Alexandra was written as a strong, independent woman in the generally male-dominated society of the West. She is indeed what most women of the 20th Century aspired to be socially and economically. Women of the 20th century didn’t want to be controlled by the men in their life. They wanted to be able to climb the social ladders with their own name. They wanted to make a living of equal standards to a man doing the same work. Throughout the 20th century, the women’s movement grew and those rights were given along with things such as the right to vote in 1920 when it was ratified by Congress. Gender inequalities still exist today, but we have come a long way since the 20th century and the 19th century-based world of O Pioneers!.

Works Cited:
-Cather, Willa. O Pioneers!. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2003 (originally 1913).
-Barber, E. Susan. "One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview". National American Woman Suffrage Association. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawstime.html.

The Life of Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was born as Edith Newbold Jones on January 24th, 1862 in New York City and died on August 11th, 1937. At the young age of four, Edith and her family travelled around Europe for five years in Italy, Spain, Germany, and France. When she returned to New York for her private tutoring, she avidly studied German and French. Then, in 1879, her family returned to Europe for three more years, mostly in France. When Edith returned to the United States again, she married Edward Robbins Wharton and they honeymooned in Europe as well as travelling there extensively during their marriage. As you can see, Europe was a major part of her life at a young age and continued to be throughout her years. She wrote many poems while she lived in France and made them into a book of poems called Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verses. She also published her novel Ethan Frome whole she was there.
At the start of World War one, Wharton lived in North Africa. However, she soon moved to Europe yet again but this time to help refugees in France and Belgium. She did a lot of philanthropic work during this time. She helped raise money in a fund for the refugees. She also started some hostels to house them and schools to educate them. For her feminist roles, she helped women support themselves and find ways of making money and getting hired for jobs. Wharton’s friend, Walter Van Rensselaer Berry, a famous American lawyer and diplomat also joined her cause. (He was also friends with other writers such as Henry James and Marcel Proust.) They travelled together to different battlefields and under-staffed hospitals to help tend to the sick and wounded. These experiences led to her personal essays and diary Fighting France, published in 1915, and The Marne, published in 1918. Both essays included personal events and accounts from Edith Wharton’s endeavors in France and Belgium and incorporated things she learned and saw from the whole ordeal. As a result of her philanthropic efforts, she was awarded the French Legion of Honour in 1916 with the title of Chevalier, knight. This award is and was usually given to French citizens, both men and women, and is not often given to foreigners. It symbolizes “eminent merit” in military or civil life. During World War one, it was more common for non-natives to receive this honor. Many of the allied countries fought battles and war on French territory/soil and they awarded them mostly to soldiers who did so. However, the highest mark/rank they could achieve was Chevalier because the higher ranks have always been, and still are, reserved only for French nationals/citizens.

As I did my research on Edith Wharton’s life, it made me see that her heart always belonged in Europe, France especially. She did a lot of her work while she lived there and always seemed to go back for long periods of time before she finally sold her property in the United States and moved to France full time. She devoted her time, energy, and ultimately her life to her new home and showed her gratitude and love for it when she helped the soldiers and women there during World War one. Her life stories and personal experiences are also very correlated and connected to her work that she accomplished. It shows clearly how strongly she felt for each piece of work she wrote.





Works Cited:
-"Edith Wharton". http://www.online-literature.com/wharton/
-"Roman Fever: Introduction" http://www.enotes.com/roman-fever
-"Edith Wharton's World: Portraits of People and Places". http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/wharton/whar3.htm.

Comparing and Contrasting Romanticism and Realism in The Scarlet Letter

During class, we came up with a list of terms and ideas that define romanticism as well as a second list for realism. According to our class notes, romanticism has an exotic locale for a setting. In The Scarlet Letter, the small community surrounded by wilderness is classified as the exotic locale. Romanticism also has a supernatural component. There is witchcraft, mention of the Devil, and angels in The Scarlet Letter. The use of archaic language is also a part of romanticism. In The Scarlet Letter, words such as “ye”, “thus”, “thou”, etc. were used throughout the book which gave it a slight Shakespearean feel during the dialogues. There is also a lot of symbolism in romanticism. In The Scarlet Letter, the letter “A”, the rosebush, and the supernatural were all symbols along with many others. The letter "A" shows up in places such as page 40 of the novel which is an introduction to Hester Prynne herself. The rosebush is the first real symbol introduced and gives a contrast of the prison and the outside world. There was still beauty in the world while Hester spent her time in prison (page 36). One character of the book, Mistress Hibbins, was thought to be a witch which introduced the supernatural aspect into the novel. She was mentioned sporatically throughout the whole plot. Another supernatural occurence was the way that the scarlet letter was "flaming" on Hester Prynne's breast (page 55). There was a heavy emphasis on plot rather than character development in The Scarlet Letter, which is another idea from romanticism. Most of the dialogue and descriptions in the book were focused on getting to the next big event that was going to take place. There was some development but it was scattered throughout instead of being focused on specifically throughout. There is always a moral or didactic purpose in romanticism. The moral of The Scarlet Letter, in my opinion, was that you shouldn’t commit sin because sin has a devastating effect on all of those involved. Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Pearl were all affected in different ways. Hester Prynne was the one that took all of the blame for the adultery her and Reverend Dimmesdale committed. Reverend Dimmesdale had to live with the guilt and other emotions he felt because of the fact that Hester Prynne wouldn’t name him as her fellow adulterer. In the end, it ate him up inside, he physically branded himself, and died from the relief of finally exposing himself as the father of Pearl in the end. Pearl grew up as the “elf child” and was publically shunned from a young age. She had a sincere and honest way of looking at the world because of all that happened to her. Finally, in romanticism, there is a clear hero and a clear villain. In The Scarlet Letter, the villain was Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband. "That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart" (Page 100). Hester clames that Chillingworth's sin of leaving her with no confirmation of coming back is worse than the sin she committed. He comes right at the time that Hester is being publically humiliated when she got out of jail. Then, he harasses her and tries to get her to tell him the name of Pearl’s father for most of the novel. Hester Prynne is the clear hero of the novel. She keeps the identity of Pearl’s father secret the whole time even though she was harassed and verbally abused to try and make her reveal him.

Realism is basically the exact opposite of romanticism. It can be classified as being everything after Walt Whitman. In realism, there is often a dialect, a language that reflects the way that people truly speak. The heroes in realism are flawed. The morality is often very subjective. There is use of quotitian which is “the everyday”. There is no exotic locale whatsoever. For example, in one of Whitman’s poems, he just describes a normal beach and uses words like “scum”. In realism, there is also hardly ever a moral. The character development in realism is more important than plot development. The characters are also realistic. There is no supernatural component to realistic works. Using these comparisons, we can see that The Scarlet Letter is clearly a work of American romanticism.

Works Cited:

-Class Notes including discussions as well as the chart of themes and symbols

-Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. , 2005.

-"Important Quotations from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne". http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/41967.aspx