Davis vs. Poe

Rebecca Harding Davis and Edgar Allen Poe both have stories full of darkness. They both use imagery that is depressing but beautiful. The beginning of Davis's Life in the Iron-Mills exemplifies that quite clearly, where she says:

"The idiosyncrasy of this town is smoke. It rolls sullenly in slow folds from the great chimneys of the iron-foundries, and settles down in black, slimy pools on the muddy streets. Smoke on the wharves, smoke on the dingy boats, on the yellow river,--clinging in a coating of greasy soot to the house-front, the two faded poplars, the faces of the passers-by. The long train of mules, dragging masses of pig-iron through the narrow street, have a foul vapor hanging to their reeking sides. Here, inside, is a little broken figure of an angel pointing upward from the mantel-shelf; but even its wings are covered with smoke, clotted and black. Smoke everywhere! A dirty canary chirps desolately in a cage beside me. Its dream of green fields and sunshine is a very old dream,--almost worn out, I think."

Other than the simple fact that the two authors both use the image of birds (Poe with the Raven) to symbolize darkness, they both write beautifully, for the eye. The beginnning of Poe's The Fall of The House of Usher is as follows:

"During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was -- but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible."

Their styles both hold a huge sense of doom and gloom. However, in Poe's stories, they usually end with death and destruction, some sort of tragedy that could not be amended in the least. At the end of Davis's story, we get a glimmer of hope. One person got out. We get the idea that if each person helps at least one person, real things can change, and good can happen. Though there is death and destruction in her story, one can pick out the optimism if they only open their eyes to it. Poe's tales are a bit more far-fetched, and offer no light. Davis is our light in the midst of tragic stories.

Bartleby the Scrivener

 

Bartleby the Scrivener, a story by Herman Melville, is my favorite story we've read in class. I think it really speaks volumes to the human existence, to what we all actually are. Bartleby is a character that we all see, even if we don't pay attention to him. His famous one liner is "I would prefer not to." We all have likes and dislikes, we all have things we'd prefer to do, and prefer not to do, and Bartleby is the one who doesn't filter these preferences out. He speaks them.

Every day, we go about our lives doing things we don't want to, either because we don't think we have the right to refuse, because we're scared, or because we don't realize we have choices. Bartleby makes the choices. However, in his preferring not to participate, we also see him reach the downfall and end of his life.

Perhaps this really shines a light on life as a whole. We have to do things we don't want to do, in order to survive. We have to follow other people's orders, and always have someone else to answer to. If we only follow our own desires, then we will ultimately fail. People need people, which is also apparent in that Bartleby spends his whole life alone. He has no family, no friends, and his only relationship lies in his boss telling him to work, which obviously goes nowhere. By isolating himself, Bartleby is only hurting himself. He needs to be able to talk to someone, to work for someone, to share ideas from someone, to learn from someone, and to love someone. We all do. I almost think Bartleby stems from the human fear of being alone. To an extent, everyone has to be afraid of winding up alone. Bartleby's loneliness goes one step further-- it kills him.

The narrator himself is an incredibly important character. To me, he symbolizes our lack of power. He wants to make Bartleby work, because that is his job. He has all sorts of feelings towards Bartleby-- from "overpowering stinging melancholy" to repulsion. There was a quote that is very important to the narrator's feelings towards Bartleby, which goes as follows: "So true it is, and so terrible, too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart." After not being able to help Bartleby, he grows tired of Bartleby's misery. After not being able to win a battle, we grow sick of it. The narrator even invites Bartleby to his home, but to no avail. We could say that he should have tried harder, he should have drug Bartleby somewhere, got him help, but really it was not his responsibility. He tried, but Bartleby would not let himself be helped. The narrator was powerless, even though he went through a range of emotions and wants for Bartleby. In the end, he sees his employee die, and is only left with the reflection of it-- "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!"

My Life had stood-- a Loaded Gun--

Emily Dickinson's poem, 754, is one that could be interpreted many different ways. We will never know exactly which way she intended for it to be. But even the simple question of whether a man or a woman is speaking these words dramatically changes the poem. Some have speculated that it is about a relationship. Some have speculated that it is entirely literal, just about hunting. Some have speculated that it is about a sort of split personality. There are so many variations that it could be, depending on gender, how many people, and Dickinson's astounding use of metaphor. However, I interpret the poem as being about suicide.

"My Life had stood-- a Loaded Gun--
In Corners--till a Day
The Owner passed--identified--
And carried Me away--"

Here, it could be interpreted as the feelings a suicidal individual would have about their life. They always feel like they're right on the edge, skating on thin ice as whether to live or die. The gun is loaded, they have the mindset to do it, they're just waiting for the right set-off to press the trigger. The line about the gun standing in corners could refer to the loneliness many suicidal people feel. The corners symbolize not really being in a room, not really being a part of what's going on every day. The narrator may just be standing on the outside edge of society, watching everything, but not taking part. They stay on the outside, a wallflower, not participating, but seeing and anticipating pulling the trigger.

"And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow--
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through--"

This set of lines is also hugely important. I looked up the definition for Vesuvian, though we also talked about the word in relation to volcanoes. I read definitions that included:

• A slow-burning match formerly used for lighting cigars; a fusee.
• Marked by sudden or violent outbursts: a vesuvian temper.
• an early type of match that was difficult to extinguish. 

The term also fits the theme of suicide quite well. When someone is suicidal, they often feel like a volcano, ready to erupt at any moment. The people around them might tiptoe around on eggshells, waiting for them to "erupt", but never knowing when it will happen. The definition saying "marked by sudden or violent outbursts" also shines a light on this passage. Many times people only talk about their tendencies, or "erupt" with their emotions in outbursts. But, the suicidal thought is one that is difficult to extinguish, and it does offer some sort of pleasure to someone dealing with those thoughts.

"To foe of His--I'm deadly foe--

None stir the second time--

On whom I lay a Yellow Eye--

Or an emphatic Thumb--

Though I than He--may longer live

He longer must--than I--

For I have but the power to kill,

Without--the power to die--"

The narrator is a deadly foe of his or her own self, because they have the power to take their own life, and the mindset to do it. The emphatic thumb could be the hand on the trigger, so close to ending it, but still waiting. They have the power to kill themselves, they have the power to isolate themselves in corners from the world and the people around them. They have that power to kill themselves figuratively, just disallow themselves to participate in every day life and activities, but maybe they don't see themselves being powerful enough, brave enough, even, to really do the deed. Maybe they see what a vast thing life is, and as much as they want to end it, they cannot seem to really pull the trigger with that emphatic thumb. And still, even if the narrator was to kill his or her own self, the poem would not be dead. The poem would still exist. Suicide would not be dead. It would still exist and be an issue for a number of different people. The narrator, and every human, has the power to kill a number of things, but no one has the power to completely extinguish everything they have ever touched, made an impact on, or every thought they've ever had, because we all live by the way we interact with the world, and other people.

 

Overall, I loved this poem. I loved that it can be related to so many things. Emily Dickinson truly has a way with words, and I'm sure she left some of her work open to interpretation, because it is by relating to things that people enjoy them more and get more out of them. The only thing I didn't like was that some of the verses had a sort of rhyme scheme and some didn't. It was distracting to me, because I expected the second phrase to rhyme, like the first, and it did not. Only the first and last were rhyming, which may have been on purpose, but I think its better to have all or none rhyming. That being said, Dickinson has a true power with her poetry.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass is, without a doubt, one of the most influential and most well-known slave writers. This makes sense, as his way with words is powerful, his language is educated but understood, and he knows how important his story is to tell. Like Harriet Jacobs and Olaudah Equiano, he went through many things, and saw many horrors, but he tells the details of his life in an interesting and detailed way.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are alike in that they both lost parents at a young age. However, Jacobs got to live with her mother and father before her mother's death when Jacobs was six years old, and Douglass, from the start didn't even know his age. He says "I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I walked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old." Douglass had no idea who his father was. From the start, they were not only slaves, but also incredibly alone, which only adds to the hopelessness of their ordeals.

Douglass and Jacobs also differ in their views of their slave mistresses. Jacobs despised her master's jealous wife. She speaks of her as follows:

"I had entered my sixteenth year, and every day it became more apparent that my presence was intolerable to Mrs. Flint. Angry words frequently passed between her and her husband... In her angry moods, no terms were too vile for her to bestow upon me."

Jacobs writes again, later:

"She was not a very refined woman, and had not much control over her passions. I was an object of her jealousy, and consequently, of her hatred; and I knew I could not expect kindness or confidence from her under the circumstances in which I was placed."

Douglass, on the other hand, felt the exact opposite way about his slave mistress. She instructed him, and commanded that no one else instruct him. He spoke kindly of her, saying:

"My mistress was, as I have said, a kind and tender-hearted woman; and in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I first went to live with her, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another. In entering upon the duties of a slave holder, she did not seem to perceive that I sustained to her the relation of a mere chattel, and that for her to treat me as a human being was not only wrong, but dangerously so."

However, slavery even took its toll on Douglass's mistress, turning her "lamb-like disposition" to one of "tiger-like fierceness". She became more demanding in her lessons and more violent towards Douglass. This goes to show how horrible slavery really was. The act of owning and completely commanding over another life turns people vicious, and puts everyone involved through experiences that entirely change who they really are. No one, the owners or the slaves, seems really happy, and this is crucial to realize. Everyone in every slave story has some sort of negative emotion to express, whether it be jealousy, hopelessness, viciousness, sadness, grief, or fierceness. Douglass says at one point, "I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed." That is huge, that though everything that had happened to him, and everything he had seen, he still had that glimmer of hope. That hope is what makes him so important, to me.

Another way that he differs from Jacobs is in the fact that Jacobs's master never beat her. She was afraid of him, and he did abuse her emotionally, but he did not strike her. She says that she wondered why, but she assumed it was "better policy to be forbearing".

Douglass, however, was physically hurt. He says:

"He ordered me to take off my clothes. I made him no answer, but stood with my clothes on. He repeated his order. I still made him no answer, nor did I move to strip myself. Upon this he rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore off my clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time after. This whipping was the first of a number just like it."

Both writers, Douglass and Jacobs, are crucial to teaching us about slavery. Jacobs tells us about being a woman. Douglass tells us about being a man. Jacobs tells us about a mistress who is jealous and hateful. Douglass tells us about a mistress who is originally kind and gentle. Jacobs tells us about emotional abuse. Douglass tells us about physical abuse. All of these aspects make up the numerous different terrible things endured by slaves, and they are so important for us to realize. Slaves were not all handled in the same ways, and were not all treated as poorly as others. However, they all lived a life outside of their own control, and were not treated as the strong human beings that they were.

If I had to choose an author, I'd choose Jacobs because I loved her emotional appeal, and I loved that she tells the women's side. That being said, I fully understand why Douglass is so important and well-known, as he depicts his story with honor, grace, and courage.

Harriet Jacobs: More powerful author than Equiano

Harriet Jacobs

Olaudah Equiano and Harriet Jacobs were both very influential African American writers who told harrowing stories of the harsh realities of slavery. Both writers offer incredible insight into what was once a reality for numerous men and women. However, their first difference is in their gender. While Equiano talks about how slavery was for women, he obviously did not experience it firsthand. We can read from his point of view, and understand how horrible it must have been for female slaves, but this issue is really central to Jacobs. She describes the suffering a woman slave goes through, with a different, but related, set of issues to that of a male slave. Dr. Flint first proposed that Jacobs should have sex with him when she was only fifteen years old, as she "was his property and must be subject to his will in all things." While slaves were largely regarded as property by their owners, it is different for the case of women once you factor in rape, and children. Jacobs talks about these women's secrets in the following passage:

"The secrets of slavery are concealed like those of the Inquisition. My master was, to my knowledge, the father of eleven slaves. But did the mothers dare to tell who was the father of their children? Did the other slaves dare to allude to it, except in whispers among themselves? No, indeed! They knew too well the terrible consequences."

Jacobs also uses emotion more than Equiano. Equiano's writings seemed to rely more on descriptions, imagery, and chronological events. He details the events of his journey, and even describes bad things happening to him without evoking much feeling, as follows;

"I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables, and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think, the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced anything of this kind before, and, although not being used to the water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet, nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and besides, the crew used to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water; and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut, for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with myself."

He does use some words of feeling, but not in the sense that Harriet Jacobs does. She opens her work by saying;

"I would ten thousand times rather that my children should be the half-starved paupers of Ireland than to be the most pampered among the slaves of America. I would rather drudge out my life on a cotton plantation, till the grave opened to give me rest, than to live with an unprinciple master and a jealous mistress. The felon's home in a penitentiary is preferable. He may repent, and turn from the error of his ways, and so find peace; but it is not so witha favorite slave. She is not allowed to have any pride of character. It is deemed a crime in her to wish to be virtuous."

Jacobs was never beaten by Mr. or Mrs. Flint, and yet, her story is captivating by the vast comparisons she uses. She would rather her children be half starving and free than be spoiled and pampered among people owned by other people. She would rather work 24/7 than to be treated well by a master. She tells of emotional abuse that equals or is as bad as physical abuse. Sometimes I think that the fear of not knowing how they will punish you, not knowing if maybe they'll hit you this time, not knowing what they'll say or do, is worse than knowing that you will be whipped. Jacobs brings this fear of the unknown to life.

Overall, I liked reading Harriet Jacobs better. I thought her depictions of slavery were beautifully written, and her style was captivating. She told events, but she told her feelings too. She is obviously a very strong, driven woman, and one with a purpose. Her story is very powerfully told, and that power is what I loved most.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe is still considered to be one of today’s greatest writers. Poe, born in 1809, is known as a dark, depressing, and mysterious writer, and he excelled in the art of the short story, primarily horror stories. His words have haunted readers for years, told tales of death and destruction, and inspired people even now. He has been compared to Hawthorne, by their similar use of symbolism, but unlike Hawthorne, Poe taught no moral lessons except for the discipline of beauty. However, in Herman Melville we also see the same sensibility for symbolic expression. That being said, Poe does stand out on his own. Nearly anyone can recall the line “Quoth the raven, nevermore.” Many of us have heard the legend of a heart beating underneath the floor boards. We know the story of a maiden in a tomb by the side of the sea. Edgar Allan Poe is someone who cannot be escaped in literature, as he is such a huge figure. He is known as being dark, misunderstood, and even “demented”. His parents died when he was young, he married his cousin, and he died mysteriously. But, he made an impact. He was struck with poverty, anxiety, and tragedy, and from that, developed the short story, symbolic poetry, and tales that last forever.

In The Fall of the House of Usher, we see the kind of tale we have come to expect with Edgar Allan Poe's writing. The narrator has been invited to his childhood friend, Roderick Usher's house. Roderick tells the narrator that his twin sister, Madeline, has died. The two, believing that she is dead, place her in a tomb. Roderick is overcome with anxiety, and the narrator reads to him, attempting to calm him down and make him feel better. Roderick, however, is convinced that he hears Madeline trying to escape her coffin. As it turns out, the door opens, and Madeline is behind it with blood staining her white robes. Madeline and Roderick both die, and narrator leaves before the mansion is destroyed by a storm.

Many of Edgar Allan Poe's stories revolve around themes like these, death, mystery, curses, and hauntings. This one is no different. The suspense builds as the story goes on, and we hear his vast vocabulary, with words crafted specifically for vivid descrptions and imagery. We feel the anxious tremblings of a man losing his mind. When Poe writes about a storm, we feel the storm. Poe is the first author we've studied that really delves into gothic literature to this extreme.

We see examples of his brilliant imagery in even the first paragraph of the story:

"During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher."

Another example, on page 874, is:

"A cadaverousness of complexion; and eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral energy, hair of a more than web-like softness and tenuity; -- these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten."

Olaudah Equiano

 

Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was very involved in the British movement for abolition of the slave trade. Enslaved at age 11 in Nigeria, he lost his sister was was haunted for all of his life by his fears of what had happened to her, and his inability to save her. However, he did purchase his own freedom, and worked as an author, merchant, and explorer in South America, the Caribbean, the Artic, the American colonies, and finally, the United Kingdom, where he settled by 1792. He then married an English woman, Susan Cullen, and fathered two daughters. He is said to have died 5 years later, in 1797. He is famous for his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, which depicts the horrors of slavery (also called Gustavus Vassa the African). It also influenced the enactment of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Although he did not live to see the abolition of slavery in Britain or in the United States, his work as a writer and as a speaker added to the fight which eventually would lead to emancipation in both countries in the next century.

Equiano, in his autobiography, uses a lot of description, and really lays out the whole situation for the reader, but he doesn't include as much of his emotion. He just details his day to day journeys and horrors, as we see on page 396, where he describes being sold. "On a signal given (as the beat of a drum), the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined and make choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamor with which this is attended and the eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers serve not a little to increase the apprehension of terrified Africans, who may well be supposed to consider them as the ministers of that destruction to which they think themselves devoted. In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see each other again." This is obviously a huge event, and it has to be very traumatizing, but rather than express his own feelings towards being sold, he tells it simply as it is, with the only descriptions being used to describe everyone in his place. His almost detachment from what he's feeling at some points makes the depiction of the agony of the slaves even stronger. It is not about one man, but about a people.

However, he does use a lot of descriptive words and very vivid imagery. We can see this on page 393, where he talks about looking around on the ship. "When I looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace of copper boiling and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionlesson the deck and fainted." He uses words like loathsome, despair, abandoned, unmercifully, cruelty, and horror to tell his stories. He paints a picture of everything he sees and perhaps it is because of his vast descriptions that his book about slavery was among the first to really get people's attention, and bring attention to the need for change.

The Federalist Papers

        The Federalist Papers- are a series of 85 articles or essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. They rose from the need to convince doubtful voters of the essential wisdom of the Constitution. Most of the essays were published in newspapers at the rate of three or four a week between October 27^th, 1787 and April 2^nd, 1788. 77 of the essays were published in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788.

 

The writings by the men of The Federalist Papers and Thomas Jefferson are obviously very similar in that they are all focusing on one goal: bettering the country and its unity and liberties. I found Alexander Hamilton easiest to read of each individual, but the Declaration easiest of each work. Hamilton, however, speaks in very legalistic terms, which sometimes gets flat and dull. Madison uses much more vivid imagery, like on pg. 411, when he says "Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires." 


I found it interesting that like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison was a slaveholder, and his slaves worked cultivating his tobacco crops, among other crops as well. However, also like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton’s views on slavery seem sometimes more grey than black and white. Though he did oppose slavery, and did not own slaves, he did have huge beliefs in property rights, and cared about what would promote American interests. John Jay, the third writer of The Federalist Papers, strongly opposed slavery. As the governor of New York State, he attempted to end slavery in 1777 and in 1785, but both attempts failed. His third attempt finally succeeded. He signed the 1799 Act, a gradual emancipation act, into law, and this act eventually brought about the emancipation of all slaves in New York.


Jefferson believed in laissez-faire, saying "a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement." Hamilton, being more democratic, said "the vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government."