Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal on Twain/Tahoe

Author Quote: “Sam Clement’s literary reputation was once again in shambles, and he literally fled Nevada in moral fear. What went wrong? What self-destructive demons had seized him?” (Lankford 133).

Internet Quote: “We published a rumor, the other day, that the moneys collected at the Carson Fancy Dress Ball were to be diverted from the Sanitary Fund and sent forward to aid a "miscegenation" or some other sort of Society in the East. We also stated that the rumor was a hoax. And it was - we were perfectly right. However, four ladies are offended. We cannot quarrel with ladies - the very thought of such a thing is repulsive; neither can we consent to offend them even unwittingly - without being sorry for the misfortune, and seeking their forgiveness, which is a kindness we hope they will not refuse. We intended no harm, as they would understand easily enough if they knew the history of this offense of ours, but we must suppress that history, since it would rather be amusing than otherwise, and the amusement would be at our expense. We have no love for that kind of amusement - and the same trait be longs to human nature generally. One lady complained that we should at least have answered the note they sent us. It is true. There is small excuse for our neglect of a common politeness like that, yet we venture to apologize for it, and will still hope for pardon, just the same. We have noticed one thing in this whole business - and also in many an instance which has gone before it - and that is, that we resemble the majority of our species in the respect that we are very apt to get entirely in the wrong, even when there is no seeming necessity for it; but to offset this vice, we claim one of the virtues of our species, which is that we are ready to repair such wrongs when we discover them” (reprinted in Mark Twain of the Enterprise, (Univ. of California Press, 1957), pp. 197-98).

Summary: When the Civil War stopped river traffic and ruined his career as a riverboat pilot, Sam Clements moved to Carson City with his brother, and then to Tahoe with his friend John Kinney. He enjoys one of the most wonderful periods of his life floating around in a canoe on Lake Tahoe. They decide to stake a timber claim and seek their fortune in the logging industry. After accidentally burning the trees to the ground, he moved on to any job he can get, including writing for the local paper. After meeting Artemis Ward and continuing in his rollicking bad boy bachelor behavior culminating in “accidentally” releasing a scandalous article on “miscegenation.” If not already in enough trouble, he then challenging the editor of the Union to a duel. Escaping that alive, he sneaks out of town and moves to San Francisco. The question remains, was he a closet Confederate or just a bad boy who recklessly fails to consider the consequences of what he says.


Response: I think Sam Clements was the Robert Downy Jr. of his time. He was brilliant but also reckless and self destructive. When his alter ego Mark Twain got out, it sometimes caused him trouble, but later in life he learned to control it and it might have been the muse that helped him write. As he got older, he got better at controlling his impulses but retained the ability to criticize some of society’s most sacred ideas such as wealth, slavery, religion and war. I think like most artists, he had a dark side. He was able to see the bigger meanings and contradictions in many things that other people did not bother to think about. He saw the hypocrisy of man and through his writing and lectures found a way to satirize man’s follies without getting into trouble. Fortunately for us, he managed to channel this energy into writing that we can still enjoy today.

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Letters from Earth



Author Quote: “There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory. The invention of hell measured by our Christianity of today, bad as it is, hypocritical as it is, empty and hollow as it is, neither the deity nor his son is a Christian, nor qualified for that moderately high place. Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled.”


Internet Quote: "I believe that Mark Twain had a clearer vision of life, that he came nearer to its elementals and was less deceived by its false appearances, than any other American who has ever presumed to manufacture generalizations, not excepting Emerson. I believe that he was the true father of our national literature, the first genuinely American artist of the royal blood." -- H.L. Mencken


Summary: In "Letters from the Earth" Twain writes humorous letters from Satan to St. Gabriel and an accounting of prayers by Abnew Scofield from The Recording Angel. Written in 1909, they were not published until 1961. Twain believed they would never be published, due to the scandalous nature would be a felony. Twain's daughter would not approve of publishing them, so they had to be published after her death.

Response: As an atheist I have a low opinion of religions and think the problems they cause do not outweigh the benefits, so naturally, I enjoyed reading Twain's not too subtle attack on the institution. I found it interesting that this was not published until after his death, although I can certainly imagine it would have caused quite a scandal at the time. I wonder if Twain’s concern was for his own reputation or for that of his daughter, because he does not seem to be afraid to stir up a controversy. I'm surprised it doesn't cause a scandal now because I think the country is becoming very religious again. I suppose Twain would not be pleased if he knew how little progress we have made in the past 100 years. We are still struggling with racism, and religion; two issues he probably thought would be resolved by now. His letters from Satan describe Christian heaven as being all the things sensible people hate and none of the things we like, as if it’s a place designed by a mad man. Why on earth would anyone want to go there? His accounting of Petitions by Abner Scofield point out the many contradictions in prayers, especially between what is prayed publicly and what Abner really wants, and also how as his wealth increased, he became less Christian. I imagine Twain had a lot of fun writing this.

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Twain

Author Quote: “After all this long journey, and after all we’d done for them scoundrels, here was it all come to nothing, everything all busted up and ruined, because they could have the heart to serve Jim such a trick as that, and make him a slave again all his life, and amongst strangers, too, for forty dirty dollars.”


Internet Quote: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called "Huckleberry Finn." all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." -- Ernest Hemingway

Summary: In chapter 35 of “Huckleberry Finn,” Huck and Jim fallen in with scam artists who go from town to town trying to swindle the locals. They sell Jim for $40 and Huck, first considers writing to Miss Watson telling her where she can find Jim. Then has second thoughts, considering that it wouldn’t be a very good outcome for either he or Jim. Instead he decides to go try to get Jim back.

“Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” is Twain’s humorous criticism of The Deerslayer.


Response: “Huckleberry Finn” was published 20 years after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery. It’s hard to imagine people being bought and sold like cattle. Mark Twain was a strong supporter of the abolition of slavery.

In “Fenimor” Twain goes through The Deerslayer listing all of Cooper’s numerous literary offenses, claiming there he has scored “114 offenses against literary art out of a possible 115” (norton 295). The Deerslayer was published with Twain was 6 years old and he wrote the criticism when he was 50. Clearly something rubbed him the wrong way to get him to write in such detail about this book. Maybe he was tired of being compared to Cooper?

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Wharton

Author Quote: “listening for her step with a tender sense of all it symbolized, with some old trail of verse about the garlanded nuptial doorposts floating through his enjoyment of the pleasant room and the good dinner just beyond it” (Norton 830).

Internet Quote: “Many of Wharton's novels are characterized by a subtle use of dramatic irony. Having grown up in upper-class pre-World War I society, Wharton became one of its most astute critics.”


Summary: Waythorn’s honeymoon with his wife is interrupted because her 12 year old daughter from her first marriage has typhoid. The girl is transferred to Waythorn’s house, for convenience, but this also means they need to allow her father access to visit. Additionally, because his business partner has gout, he is also dealing with Mrs. Waythorn’s second husband. So poor old Waythorn is inconvenienced by having to deal with Mrs. Waythorn’s past.


Response: Interestingly, in the first paragraphs of the story, Waythorn is “listening for her step with a tender sense of all it symbolized, with some old trail of verse about the garlanded nuptial doorposts floating through his enjoyment of the pleasant room and the good dinner just beyond it” (Norton 830). When I googled “garlanded nuptial doorposts” I found a link to Lysistrata, which is a story about how the women of Athens and Sparta withheld sex from their husbands in order to force them to stop fighting. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but it gets me wondering from the start exactly what is Edith Wharton getting at here? I think she may be talking about the fact that women in that day did not have many options and had to tie their fates to a man. Mrs. Waythorn is on her third husband in this story, each time, marring to get herself and daughter into better financial circumstances. I think she is saying women were forced to use sex to secure their survival is the only option available to women, unless, like Wharton, they are born into money.

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Takaki

Author Quote: “Condemning abolitionism as ‘Niggerology,’ many Irish immigrants were willing to support the war only to preserve the Union.”

Internet Quote: “Ron Takaki was one of the most preeminent scholars of our nation’s diversity, and considered “the father” of multicultural studies. As an academic, historian, ethnographer and author, his work helped dispel stereotypes of Asian Americans” (http://www.asianweek.com/2009/05/27/remembering-ron-takaki).

Summary: Takaki describes the terrible conditions the Irish fled from in Irland and the conditions they found once reaching America (if they survived the trip, which many did not). He also describes how, once here they found themselves competing with African Americans for low wage labor jobs and how they took on the bigotry on their oppressors.

Response: I knew some of the information about the Irish leaving Ireland after the potato blight and I knew they struggled when they reached America. I’m Scotch-Irish. I’m not sure how many generations ago my family came to America. I do know great grandfather was a farmer, his sons worked in the coalmines, my father worked in a steel mill, and so each generation did a little better financially. Still, no one in my family has a 4-year college degree. If I ever finish, I will be the first. So I can see how the generations struggle from a disadvantaged position and each one tries to make a better life. What I did not know, and was shocked to learn, is how the Irish treated African Americans. Takaki makes a good point about how the Irish, Chinese, and blacks were pitted against each other to fight for jobs and survival. We saw that in all our immigrant stories, how there always seems to be some group to come along to do the job cheaper. It is essentially what our country is built on, even today, where jobs are moved to cheaper and cheaper labor markets to support our standard of living and ability to own cheaper consumer goods.

The article by Katrina Irving seems to be adding another layer to the immigrant story by adding female gender. It’s not only a scary immigrant “other,” but a super scary out-of-control-sex-having-child-bearing-female other who will keep replicating. Like in the movie Alien. Run for your lives!

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Crane











Author Quote: "None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea" (Norton 1000).

Internet Quote: “The disaster was widely reported on the front pages of newspapers across the country. Portrayed favorably and heroically by the press, Crane emerged from the ordeal with his reputation enhanced, if not restored, after the battering he received during the Dora Clark affair” (wikipedia).


Summary: When the SS Commodore is shipwrecked off the coast of Florida, Crane immortalizes the ordeal in his story The Open Boat.” He tells the story of many harrowing hours spent rowing around the rough sea in a dinghy along with the wounded captain, the oiler and the cook. When they finally get close enough to shore, they decide the only alternative is to swim before they are all too weak to make it. Three men survive and the cook drowns.

Response: Because we know the story is true, we know the “correspondent” survives, but it does not seem possible during many points in the story. Unlike the characters in “Maggie” where the characters in a bad situation have the circumstances continue to get worse and worse, these men (or at least three of them) survive. In spite of fears of exposure to the elements, lack of food and water, drowning, sharks, exhaustion and hyperthermia the author survives the shipwreck. The correspondent tells us in colorful detail what it was like to struggle against the sea, how they worked together, and how they eventually reached a calm acceptance of their fate. He “reflected that when one gets properly wearied, drowning must really be a comfortable arrangement, a cessation of hostilities accompanied by a large degree of relief” (Norton 1015). When they finally manage to swim to shore and are rescued he realizes that now they really know the color of the sea. He tells the reader “the wind brought the sound of the great sea’s voice to the men on shore, and tehy felt that they could be interpreters” (Norton 1016).

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Crane






Author Quote: “To him the police were always actuated by malignant impulses and the rest of the world was composed, for the most part, of despicable creatures who were all trying to take advantage of him and with whom, in defense, he was obliged to quarrel on all possible occasions” (Norton 965).

Internet Quote: “Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation” (wikipedia).



Summary: The story takes place in the Bowery of New York city. The main character, Maggie lives with her drunken, brutal parents and two brothers. She begins dating Pete, a friend of her older brother Jimmie. He seems like a night in shining armor to her, in his white jacket and his fancy job as a bar tender. He shows her a world she didn’t know existed, which seems like the height of sophistication, due to her lack of worldliness. The neighbors begins to gossip about her relationship, and her brother goes to beat up Pete, although he does wonder, several times, if the girls he dates might also have brothers who object. Pete dumps Maggie, she returns home, but her mother and brother throw her out, and she turns to prostitution to survive. When Jimmie hears that Maggie is dead, his mother goes into a fit of remorse and finally says she “forgives her.”


Response: Crane’s story is written in the Naturalist tradition where a character in the depths of society starts out in bad circumstances that continue to get worse. His writing is very colorful, almost like a painting, and the dialog shows the brutishness in the way the characters talk. Maggie and Jimmie are the products of a bad environment that they can not seem to escape. Jimmie grows up to be a brute like his late father. Maggie turns to prostitution. Mary, their mother laments about how Maggie could have “gone to the bad” after all the good mothering she did, while in reality, she was arguably the worst mother in history. Maggie leaves home and goes with Pete because she sees it as away to escape her dreary apartment and her raging lunatic mother. Jimmie beats up Pete for “ruining” his sister, even though he has “ruined” many women like her himself. The double standard that it sex is acceptable for the males but a huge scandal for the females is a big part of Maggie’s problem. She sees no hope for the future in her dreary factory job, and clings to Pete as a savior, only to find out, he’s not much help either. He quickly dumps her when Nell returns to the scene, “a woman of brilliance and audacity,” who makes Maggie look shabby and pale by comparison. Maggie finds herself in a situation where she can not stay with Pete, can not return home to her family, and can not support herself, and is forced to turn to prostitution. The story points out the hard life of poor people and the few options they have available to them.

Walkabout

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Muir


Author Quote: “This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming , on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls” (Lankford 145).

Internet Quote: “the world will look back to the time we live in and remember the voice of one crying in the wilderness and bless the name of John Muir. . . . He sung the glory of nature like another Psalmist, and, as a true artist, was unashamed of his emotions" (Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine).


Summary: John Muir was born in Scotland in 1838. At age ten, the family moved to Wisconsin. He developed a talent for whittling clocks, which he earned a prize at the state fair, and later a scholarship to the University of Wisconsin where he studied nature writers such as Thoreau and Emerson. He hiked extensively, including walking from San Francisco to Yosemite. At 42, he married and had two daughters then spent the next eight years managing his wife’s family fruit farm. Eventually his wife realized he needed to go back to the mountains, hiking and writing and sent him on a summer vacation to Lake Tahoe. Seeing the devastation of Tahoe due to the lumber industry and seeing that forests could be saved with careful stewardship, convinced him to get involved in conservation. In his fifties, he started the Sierra Club and worked with politicians and land barons to set up National Parks. He hoped to create a Tahoe National Park but that was never accomplished. He did manage to have land set aside as the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve putting the land under federal and state protection.


Response: Because of his special connection to nature, John Muir realized how important it is for people to be able to spend time in the wilderness. Because of his work, we in the Bay Area, have access to some of the best wilderness areas in the world. It’s sad that he did not accomplish all he hoped and it makes me wonder if he might have accomplished more if he had started sooner, but I also admire the fact that he re-invented himself in his fifties instead of taking the traditional path and then slowly going crazy managing a fruit farm. He also had a special wife to realize that he needed to take a “summer vacation” which sounds like it extended for about 20 years. Like the Walking Woman, who seemed to find herself by walking through the desert, John Muir realized the value we get from walking in the woods. Without this insight maybe all our forests would be lost by now and people would never have the chance to experience nature in this profound way.

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton



Author Quote: “It ought to have been said, ‘An act to unsettle land titles, and to upset the rights of the Spanish population of the State of California” (Norton 93).

Internet Quote: Ruiz de Burton's work is considered to be a precursor toChicano literature, giving the perspective of the conquered Mexican population that, despite being granted full rights of citizenship by theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, was a subordinated and marginalized national minority. The Squatter and the Don is Ruiz de Burton's most famous literary piece. It was published anonymously under the pen name "C. Loyal," an abbreviated form of "Ciudadano Leal," or "Loyal Citizen," a conventional method of closing official letters in nineteenth century Mexico. She used this name to symbolize her Mexican loyalties, to provide indeterminacy of her gender, and to criticize the American political system (wikipedia).


Summary: When the Land Act of 1851 is passed, all the private land titles in California become unsettled. In the short story “The Squatter and the Don,” Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton describes a scene where the Don (the Spanish land owner) meets with the “squatters,” (Americans who lay claim to his land) and their negotiations to try to come up with a peaceful agreement where both groups might prosper.

Response: I thought the story was interesting from today’s perspective where most of the US farm land is used to grow corn and soy while cows are sequestered in terrible factory farms. The Don tries to come up with a reasonable agreement with the squatters but they seem determined to fence the land and get rid of his cattle. He makes a good argument that their crops might fail (and later require farm subsidies) and that the land is more suited to raising vineyards, fruits and cattle. The new comers do not take his advice because they are determined to make “San Diego County a grain-producing county” (Norton 96). The Don has a lot of ideas based on his experience living there, although his ideas are long term and require investment of time and money, which he offers to lend them, interest free. He seems to be willing to meet them halfway. The he squatters are suspicious of his offers and fear being in debt to him, so did not seem to be inclined to accept his offer, even if they might make more money in the long run with the Don’s offer. To me this sums up relations between Mexico and America now. America is more inclined to do things to make money and take advantage of the Mexican immigrants. We want their cheap labor but do not want to offer them opportunities like education or citizenship.

Jan McCutcheon
English 48B
Journal for Mary Hunter Austin


Author Quote: “It might very well have been an unsoundness of mind which drove her to the open, sobered and healed at last by the large soundness of nature” (Norton 889).


Internet Quote: “Many of her characters are women coming to terms with lives controlled by men. Mrs. Walker, for example, walks to cure an unnamed illness; She is a woman not unlike Austin, who longed for equitable work, love, and a child” (http://www.onlinenevada.org/mary_hunter_austin).


Summary: “The Walking Woman” is a story about a woman who wanders the San Joaquin Valley of California. There are rumors about her and it’s not clear if she is sane or not, but for the most part, the rumors indicate that she is wise and true. The narrator seems to be walking as much as Mrs. Walker. Their paths cross many times, although they rarely get a chance to speak to one another. No one knows why she walks, and when the narrator finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her, she tells a somewhat cryptic story of work, love and a child.


Response: In our first glimpses of the Walking Woman, Austin tells us that “men respect her;” “that she passed unarmed and unoffended” and “the word she brought about trails and water-holes was as reliable as an Inidan’s”, painting a picture of a strong woman traveling freely in a time and place that many women did not enjoy such freedom (Norton 888 - 889). She mentions that there are contradictions in the rumors regarding Mrs. Walker’s physical appearance (that she had a “twist to her face, some said; a hitch to one shoulder; they averred she limped as she walked”) and also mentions it is unclear if they think Mrs. Walker is sane, “on the mere evidence of her way of life she was cracked; not quite broken, but unserviceable. Yet in her talk there was both wisdom and information” (Norton 889). During and after the conversations, the narrator is trying to understand what is said regarding work, love and children. Is it wisdom or the ramblings of a crazy woman? Austin states “At least one of us is wrong” (Norton 892). Is she saying that doing good honest is work enough to make make love and childbearing worthwhile endeavors? Is it possible to have all three? It’s not entirely clear if she is right or wrong, but “the track of her two feet bore evenly and white” (Norton 893).