The Scarlet Letter

 

Why did you choose this particular book? Typical reasons might be:

 

1. You like the author.

 

2. You like this type of book (i.e. mystery, western, adventure or romance, etc.).

 

3. Someone recommended the book to you.

 

4. It was on a required reading list.

 

5. You liked the cover.

 

 

 

The reason is simple, that coincidently I have bought the English edition of The Scarlet Letter, so I started reading immediately after the teacher gave us the task. And I was curious about its Chinese translation Hongzi. And I got the explanation in the dictionary:” the letter A in red; Puritans required adulterers to wear it”.

 

 

 

The Scarlet Letter

 

Abstract：

 

The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book,Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

 

 

 

Key word:

 

(character analyses of main characters, the attitude toward love, girls’ value.)

 

Hawthorne, the scarlet letter, sin , puritan

 

 

 

The Scarlet Letter

 

1. 1.     Brief Introduction of Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

Nathaniel Hathorne was born in1804 inthe city ofSalem,Massachusettsto Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials. Nathaniel later added a “w” to make his name “Hawthorne”. He enteredBowdoinCollegein 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1824, and graduated in 1825.Hawthorneanonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. He published several short stories in various periodicals which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. The next year, he became engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at a Custom House and joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community, before marryingPeabodyin 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse inConcord,Massachusetts, later moving toSalem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside inConcord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family toEuropebefore their return to The Wayside in 1860.Hawthornedied on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children.

 

Much ofHawthorne’s writing centers onNew England, many works featuring moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend Franklin Pierce.

 

1. 2.     Plot

 

The story starts during the summer of 1642, nearBoston,Massachusetts, in a Puritan village. A young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms, and on the breast of her gown “a rag of scarlet cloth” that “assumed the shape of a letter.” It is the uppercase letter “A.” The Scarlet Letter “A” represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin—a badge of shame—for all to see. A man, who is elderly and a stranger to the town, enters the crowd and asks another onlooker what’s happening. The second man responds by explaining that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester’s husband, who is much older than she, and whose real name is unknown, has sent her ahead toAmericawhilst settling affairs inEurope. However, her husband does not arrive inBostonand the consensus is that he has been lost at sea. It is apparent that, while waiting for her husband, Hester has had an affair, leading to the birth of her daughter. She will not reveal her lover’s identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her subsequent public shaming, is the punishment for her sin and secrecy. On this day, Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her child’s father.

 

The elderly onlooker is Hester’s missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He reveals his true identity to Hester and medicates her daughter. They have a frank discussion where Chillingworth states that it was foolish and wrong for a cold, old intellectual like him to marry a young lively woman like Hester. He expressly states that he thinks that they have wronged each other and that he is even with her — her lover is a completely different matter. Hester refuses to divulge the name of her lover and Chillingworth does not press her stating that he will find out anyway. He does elicit a promise from her to keep his true identity as Hester’s husband secret, though. He settles inBostonto practice medicine there. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and her daughter,Pearl, grows into a willful, impish child, and is said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hester’s love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts ofBoston. Community officials attempt to takePearlaway from Hester, but with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers something undescribed to the reader, supposedly an “A” burned into Dimmesdale’s chest, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.

 

Dimmesdale’s psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester’s charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, whenPearlis about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to the deathbed of John Winthrop when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester andPearljoin him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refusesPearl’s request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red “A” in the night sky. It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean Angel, as a prominent figure in the community had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning adultery. Hester can see that the minister’s condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale’s self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. She suggests that she may reveal his true identity to Dimmesdale.

 

As Hester walks through the forest, she is unable to feel the sunshine.Pearl, on the other hand, basks in it. They coincide with Dimmesdale, also on a stroll through the woods. Hester informs him of the true identity of Chillingworth. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live withPearlas a family. They will take a ship sailing fromBostonin four days. Both feel a sense of release, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. The sun immediately breaks through the clouds and trees to illuminate her release and joy.Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckonsPearlto come to her, butPearlwill not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress.Pearlthen goes to her mother. Dimmesdale givesPearla kiss on the forehead, whichPearlimmediately tries to wash off in the brook, because he again refuses to make known publicly their relationship. However, he clearly feels a release from the pretense of his former life, and the laws and sins he has lived with.

 

The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday put on in honor of an election and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester andPearlstanding before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark supposedly seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead just afterPearlkisses him.

 

Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester andPearlleaveBoston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resumes her charitable work. She receives occasional letters fromPearl, who was rumored to have married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own.Pearlalso inherits all of Chillingworth’s money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of liberation in her and the townspeople, especially the women, who had finally begun to forgive Hester of her tragic indiscretion. When Hester dies, she is buried in “a new grave near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King’s Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both.” The tombstone was decorated with a letter “A”, for Hester and Dimmesdale.

 

 

 

1. 3.     Major Theme:

 

Sin: The experience of Hester and Dimmesdale recalls the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge of what it means to be immortal. For Hester, the scarlet letter functioned as “her passport into regions where other women dared not tread”, leading her to “speculate” about her society and herself more “boldly” than anyone else in New England.

 

As for Dimmesdale, the “cheating minister” of his sin gives him “sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his chest vibrate in unison with theirs.” His eloquent and powerful sermons derive from this sense of empathy. The narrative of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is quite in keeping with the oldest and most fully authorized principles in Christian thought. His “Fall” is a descent from apparent grace to his own damnation; he appears to begin in purity but he ends in corruption. The subtlety is that the minister’s belief is his own cheating, convincing himself at every stage of his spiritual pilgrimage that he is saved.

 

The rosebush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it—as later the beautifully embroidered scarlet A will be–is held out in part as an invitation to find “some sweet moral blossom” in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that “the deep heart of nature” (perhaps God) may look more kind on the errant Hester and her child than her Puritan neighbors do. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.

 

Chillingworth’s misshapen body reflects (or symbolizes) the anger in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses, similar to the way Dimmesdale’s illness reveals his inner turmoil. The outward man reflects the condition of the heart; an observation thought to be inspired by the deterioration of Edgar Allan Poe, whomHawthorne”much admired”.

 

AlthoughPearlis a complex character, her primary function within the novel is as a symbol.Pearlherself is the embodiment of the scarlet letter, and Hester rightly clothes her in a beautiful dress of scarlet, embroidered with gold thread, just like the scarlet letter upon Hester’s bosom. Parallels can be drawn betweenPearland the character Beatrice in Rappaccini’s Daughter. Beatrice is nourished upon poisonous plants, until she herself becomes poisonous.Pearl, in the mysterious prenatal world, imbibes the poison of her parents’ guilt.

 

In this novel, author created different characters with different sins. He wanted to show us that everyone just like these characters is sinner. In the perspective of religion(Puritanism here), everyone is sinner and only god can redeem us. And the author Hawthorne himself, as a puritan，he was identified with this. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne dug deep into the unregenerate human nature, and he made these characters be redeemed in different ways after they truly confessed.

 

4.Comments:

 

This is a short novel to read and re-read. The theme of this story is sin and redemption. The scarlet letter symbolizes a lot : 1, Hester’s A means shame, punishment and warning to others , but later it stood for “able” as the result of Hester’s care and help to the others . 2, The scarlet letter caved on Dimmesdale’s breast symbolizes the sin secretly concealed in his heart. The scaffold is a symbol of puritan justice, enforcement of the laws and also the revelation of the truth.

 

This novel is truly one of literature’s greatest triumphs, its characters and themes reverberating in our collective consciousness more than 150 years after its initial publication. Few novels inspire as much contemplation and feeling on the part of the reader. Hester Prynne, American fiction’s first and foremost female heroine continues to haunt this world, inspiring a never-ending stream of scholarly debate. Even in our less puritanical age, some doubtless see her as a villainously great temptress, but to me she is a remarkably brave hero indeed. Her sin is known to all, and she never runs away from it, bearing the scarlet letter on her bosom bravely for all to see; she realizes the true measure of that sin, fretting constantly over the effects it will have on young Pearl, remaining steadfast in her beliefs while at the same time envisioning a new society where women and men can exist on more equal terms, free of the stultifying harsh punishments meted out on even the most repentant of souls by Puritanism. She shows her noble spirit by refusing to name her partner in sin and goes so far as to allow the ruthless Roger Chillingworth to torment the man she loves deeply enough to protect him for all time. LittlePearlis somewhat of an enigma, truly manifesting traits of both the imp and the little angel; her questions about the letter her mother wears and the minister who continually holds his hand against his heart reflect an insight that amazes this reader. Chillingworth is a thoroughly black-hearted man; I can certainly understand the blow he sustained as a result of Hester’s sin, but his actions and thirst for prolonged revenge on the so-called perpetrator of the wrong he suffered can only be described as roguish and unpalatable.

 

Of course, the most complex character in the novel (and literature as a whole) is the good minister Arthur Dimmsdale. One is compelled to both like him and despise him. He is basically a good man and an unquestionably fine soldier in the army of the Lord, winning many souls to God with his impassioned sermons. He is more aware than anyone else of his sinful nature, and he punishes himself quite brutally in private in a useless attempt to make up for the public ignominy he lacks the moral courage to call upon himself with a public profession of his deed. Dimmsdale is a coward and a hypocrite. At one critical moment in the latter pages of the novel, he blames Hester for his state of misery, and it is that comment in particular that makes this tragic character a man I can only commiserate with to a limited degree. Even at the penultimate moment of the novel, as he finally bears the mark of his shame and guilt for all his parishioners to see, the very men and women who have viewed him as a saintly man of God rather than the brigand he knows himself to be, he does not openly confess-his words and deeds do make plain the secret of his heart, but it is his lack of a thoroughly bold confession that causes some of his most devoted followers, so Hawthorne tells us, to blindly judge his final act as an illustrative parable on the danger of sin threatening each member of his congregation rather than an admission of guilt and self-condemnation.

 

The American author Nathaniel Hawthorne had an intricate relationship with the tradition of American Puritanism, with which both he and his Puritan ancestors were imbued in character and in belief.Hawthorne’s specific interpretation of the prevailing Original Sin and its redemption has gone beyond Puritan ethics and belongs to the Christian Universal. The artistic truths featured by their stained protagonists, passion description and social redemption in The Scarlet Letter have made great impact on readers, and hence are a warning toll for the reform of the Puritan church practice.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

This novel is all about sins and redemption. InHawthorne’s ideology, everyone has sin concealed in their hearts, which is fully expressed by three characters he created in this novel. His purpose of writing this novel is not to write about adultery, but to explore the psychological effects and moral problems of it. Hester, Chillingworth, Dimmsdale all commited the sin and then were punished. Finally they were all redeemed. They all experienced this process. It revealsHawthorne’s profound understanding and thinking of humanity. Everyone is born with sin. People must pay for their sins, and receive punishments. And at the same time, people must try to purify own heart and be redeemed.

 

BOOK REPORT

PREFACE

I bought The book The Scarlet Letter when I was still a junior middle school student. I forget the reason I chose the book from the bookshop. But at that time, it was really difficult for me to read it. So the result is that I put it aside for several years.

Several month ago, I was so surprised to find it. But a lot of pages have missed. In order to have a complete understanding of both the novel and the author, I decided to buy a new one. Fortunately, I got it soon. Later, I do think it is a novel worth reading and appreciating.

The book really shocks me a lot. The protagonist Hester, she was a really a heroine at that time. This was not because she has done something special to his country or the people, but because in my opinion she was the very embodiment of lofty moral. On the surface, Hester was found the guilty of adultery. The author was really talented. He has expressed his ideas and dissatisfaction to the society by moulding an excellent role in his book. The cruelity of the society, the deception of religion, the hypocrisy of moral, all of them were conveyed vividly in the book. It is really worthy being appreciated.

 

 

ABSTRACT

As we know that The Scarlet Letter is one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s  most famous novels, and it has made him known all around the world. Hester Prynne is the protagonist of this novel. I firmly believe that anyone who have read this novel will be impressed by Hester. She is convicted of adultery by a court of Puritan judges. What’s worse, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her breast because of her sin of adultrey. On the surface, Hester is guilty, for to some extent, she betrays her husband. But this is not what the author really wants to convey.

As far as I am concerned, Hester is a female who is both obedient and rebellious. On the one hand, as a puritan, she wants to get God’s salvation. On the other hand, she is contradictory in her inner heart. She wants to break some of the Puritan doctrines to protect her beloved ones. She is not willing to confess to other’s who is Pearl’s father, even when she is convicted the guilty of adultery. She herself brings Pearl up independently. Yes, she is brave enough to confront all difficulties she meets in life.

 

Key words: guilty, scarlet letter, Puritan thoughts, obedient, rebellious, etc.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( 1804-1864 ) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. He was an American novelist and short story writer. He belongs to the group of the famous anti-transcendentalism.

Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain. He died when the boy was only four years old. He and his two sisters lived in almost complete isolation from their mother. In a few years Hawthorne left Salem and entered Bowdoin College, in Maine. Among his college friends were Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce who became fourteenth President of the United States.

Later, he returned to Salem. For nearly twelve years, he lived in solitude in this idle town. He gathered his material by observing and listening to others. He listened to all the talks that was filled with New England lore, legend, and superstition. He made annual excursions into Vermont and New Hampshire and absorbed hints for many stories on these jaunts. He also read the annals and chronicles of the Puritan world. After a few years, he began pouring them out.

For a time in the 1830s, Hawthorne edited a magazine in Boston, and afterward, he worked at the customs office. Then he lived for a few months in 1841 at Brook Farm, one of the famous New England experiments in communal living, where some of the region’s most remarkable, if somewhat impractical, people gathered. Hawthorne was essentially of a solitary nature, and group life was not for him, but the experience provided a material for his later novel The Blithedale Romance (1852). In 1841 he married Sophia Peabody, of a prominent Salem family. For some three years Hawthorne and Sophia lived in the house called the Old Manse, in Concord. It was there that he wrote the splendid stories in the volume called Mosses from an Old Manse (1846).

He was Surveyor of the Port of Salem for three years, until a change od administration liberated him to write The Scarlet Letter. When his college Franklin became President, he appointed Hawthorne to a consular position in Liverpool. Hawthorne eventually went on to Rome, where he found the inspiration for his novel The Marble Faun (1860).

Much of Hawthorne’s works center on New England. Many writings feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspitation. His fiction works are considered part of Romantic movement. His themes often concentrate on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity.

 

 

PLOT SUMMARY

The story tells us a story of the protagonist called Hester. To some extent it is a story of tragedy because of the final fate of the main characters in the story.

On a summer morning in Boston, Massachusetts Colony, a group of people gathered outside the jail in Prison Lane. Later, the woman with a scarlet letter wearing on her breast and her child in her arms appeared. She was the very protagonist Hester Prynne. She was convicted of the guilty of adultery by a court of stern Puritan judges. When she appeared, it was whispered in the gathering that she had been spared the penalty of death or branding only through the intercession of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, into whose church she had brought her scandalous sin.

Hester was the daughter of an ancient house of decayed fortune. When she was young, her father married her to husband who had great repue as a scholar. Two years before, her husband sent his wife to Massachusetts Colony. Hester, a young, attractive widow, had quietly in Boston until the time of her disgrace.

The ministers of the town asked her to name the man who with herself was equally guilty. Her pastor, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale exhorted her. Still Hester refused to name the father of her child, and she led back to the prison after her period of public shamed had ended.

Roger Chillingworth was the stranger who appeared all of a sudden from the forest while Hester stood on the scaffold that morning, and she knew him as her husband, the scholar Prynne. He also wanted to know the name of the child’s father. But Hester refused, either. He told Hester that he would stayed in Boston to practice medicine and he sweared that he would devoted himself to discovering the man. He wanted to revenge the man that had dishonoured him.

After Hester’s imprisonment was over, she lived with her child, Pearl, in a small house far away. She still worn the scarlet letter on her breast.

Several years later, Pearl had grown up to become a capricous child. At the moment then, there was a movement among the strict church members to take the child away from her. But Dimmesdale saved the situation by a persuasive speech. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale lived in the same house. Consequently, the physician gradually came to know Dimmesdale’s innermost feelings. Slowly, Chillingworth became sure that Dimmesdale was Pearl’s father. And he wanted very much to take his revenge against Dimmesdale.

One night, Dimmesdale went to the pillory where Hester had stood. Hester and Pearl were also there. At that time, Dimmesdale acknowledged that he was the father of Pearl. Everything was witnessed and heard by Chillingworth. And Hester was so astonishe by Dimmesdale’s behavior. All that she wanted to do now was to plead with Chillingworth to be merciful to his victim. But Chillingworth was a cruel man and he wouldn’t give up his revenge.

Hester and Dimmesdale had no chioce but took the chioce to leave the colony together in secret four days later to take passage in a ship then in the harbor and return to the Old World. They were to leave after the Election Sermon.

On the Election Sermon day morning, the captain informed Hester that Roger Chillingworth would go with him. Hester turned away and went with Pearl to listen to Dimmesdale’s sermon. But Dimmesdale admitted his guilt to the watching people. Then, because of the tiredness both mentally and physically out of his endurance, Dimmesdale died in the platform suddenly.

Chillingworth, no longer able to wreak his vengeance on Dimmesdale, died within the year. People finally forgave Hester’s guilt because of her diligence and kindness. But on the other hand, her beautiful years had also been exausted in the process of waiting. Fortunately, Pearl grew up healthily and later married to a noble family, achiving a happy ending of her life.

 

 

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

There are four major characters in the novel The Scarlet Letter. They are Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth and Pearl. Hester is the leading role in the novel. Throught the book, we can find that she is a woman of independence mind and she is very brave. Although she has accepted the punishment assigned her under the control of the Puritan doctrines, she still behaves strong. Dimmesdale is a man torn by a guilty conscience, but he has no enough courage to confess his fault. Chillingworth gradually destroys himself under his inner thoughts of taking revenge towards Hester and Dimmesdale. Pearl is an implish, innocent and unearthly girl.

Hester

 

 

 

 

Hester is the protagonist in the story. She is a woman described as young, beautiful and elegant. She is the daughter of an ancient house of decayed fortune. Although she comes from a impoverished family, we can define her as a really lady because of her pride behaviors presentsin her later life. For example, from the beginning scene until when she dies, she always wears the scarlet A.

We know that when she was young, she was sent to marry her husband, who had great reputation as a scholar. Later we gradually come to know that he is the very Roger Chillingworth. Later, Hester was sent to Massachusetts by her husband, where she came across Arthur Dimmesdale and had a child called Pearl – a pretty little girl.

Hester is an extrordinary brave woman, as far as I am concerned. She never surrenders to her fate easily. When she was charged with guilty of adultery by a court of stern Puritan judges and was forced to wear a scarlet letter on her breast, she still refused to tell others who is her child’s father. Thus in her inner mind, she wants to combat with the Puritan doctrines which confine people to a narrow wide of their lives. But at that time, the Puritan thoughts had a dominant influence on people. Although Pearl’s father Arthur Dimmesdale stands in front of her, she never changes her mind and keeps the secret. She is a eligible mother. She brings up Pearl a beautiful girl and tries her best to support their life.

She encourages Arthur Dimmesdale that they go together to another place in order to protect him from Chillingworth’s revenge after all the secrets are revealed. Though they did not succeed.

To some extent, she is a contradictory character. The author sets her to show his dissatisfaction with the Puritan doctrines and government, which is vividly presents in the character of “Hester”.

 

Dimmesdale

 

 

 

He is an eloquent minister, a devoted servant of God. There is no doubt that he is passionate in his religion and effective in the pulpit. But on the other hand, he dares not confess his guilty in public, leaving Hester alone to undertake all the punishment. From the private point of view, he is somehow a gloomy and selfish man, for he hasn’t took the responsibility for Hester and Pearl which he ought to.

When Hester tells him Chillingworth is her husband, he is not brave to face tha fact and sinks down on the ground, throwing his burden on Hester. He never thinks of what kind of pain and torment Hester has put up with.

Dimmesdale’s sin is a concealed one, which is different from Hester’s. The sin exsit in his inner heart and causes him increasing torment of conscience. But we know in the novel, Dimmesdale eventually confess to the public his guilty. But in order to gather the courage to do so, he has injured both mentally physically, which is totally  out of his endurance, Dimmesdale died in the platform suddenly. Maybe that is the price for him.

I just wonder why Dimmesdale could conceal his sin for such a long time? Even when he is able to confess it, he has reached the end of his life? In my opinion, it is the Puritan doctrines that causes him to escape from his responsibilities. Dimmesdale is such a reverent servant of God that there is no doubt that he can continue to do God’s work as a minister if he just keeps silent. But on the other hand, he wants to have the affection with Hester in public. While, he dares not. Thus, we can find that he is a really a contradictory character. Although Dimmesdale a devoted servant of God and an Evangelist, he cannot make himself totally transcended. Lust and impulse never disappear in his inner heart. They even become stronger after years of asceticism. When he is on the way to the town after the date with Hester, his behavior of impulse at the moment of seeing a girl really makes me confused. But what he does is to pretend to avoid seeing her and goes away. Actually, he can walk to her and say “hello” to her. But his highly developed asceticism stops him.

As a matter of fact, Dimmesdale suffers from torment of both social morality and his inner heart love. He has no choice but to bear all these sufferings. Another aspect is that he has no way to release and what he can do is to enter his ending door in his prison of torment.

 

 

 

Chillingworth

 

 

 

 

Just as I mentioned in the beginning, Chillingworth gradually destroys himself under his inner thoughts of taking revenge towards Hester and Dimmesdale.

When Chillingworth first appears, he is hideous, partly because of his strange mixture of “civilized and savage costume”. But the problem is that even when he is better dressed, he is far from attractive. He is a thin and small man. He is Hester’s husband, but we can learn from the novel that he just cannot get the love from Hester. The marriage between them totally arranged by the parents. Two years after he sents Hester to Boston, Massachusetts Colony, he learns that Hester has betrayed her. At that moment, his love to Hester changes into strong hate. In spite of the condemnation of morality and conscience, he takes revenge on Hester and Dimmesdale, which results in the distort of his personality.

At the begining, Chillingworth is considered as a scholar with plenty of knowledge. He wants very much Hester’s love. But when his hope brokes, the lust of taking revenge absolutely controls him. What he has in his mind is that he would do everything he can to torment his wife who betrays his, as well as her lover. Even at that time, his soul happiness comes from their sufferings.

When Hester begs the old physician to be merciful to Dimmesdale’s victim. But Chillingworth is inexorable; he will not forge his revenge on the man who has wronged him. Yes, he is determined to do so.

However, from another point of view, what Chillingworth wants do is just protect his marriage. To some extent, we can say that his wife betrays him. But the more important is that he just don’t know what is the correct method. In the conclusion part, when Hawhorne speaks of Chillingworth’s withering up and shriveling away, he makes it plain that the old physician’s fate is the most horrible of the three, because his sin is the blackest. As far as I am concerned, Chillingworth is a tragic character. He wants to revenge on his wife and lover who betrays him, at the meantime, he himself torments a lot in the process both mentally and physically. Finally, being no longer able to wreak his vengeance on Dimmesdale, he died within a year after Chillingworth died.

 

 

Pearl

 

 

 

 

Pearl is Hester’s daughter. She fuctions mainly as a symbol. She is quite young during most of the events of the story. We get can the conclusion from the fac that when Dimmesdale dies, she is only seven years old. Pearl owns a rich and luxuriant beauty. And we learn further that she has a perfect shape; she is vigor and has a natural dexterity.

She is intelligent, imaginative, determined and obstinate. And Pearl makes people constantly aware of her mother’s scarlet letterof the society that produces it. From an early age, she fixates on the emblem. Pearl’s innocent, or perhaps intuitive, comments about the letter raise crucial questions about its meaning. Similarily, she inquires about the relationship between the people around her, of whom the most important is her relationship between Dimmesdale. Once her father’s identity is revealed, Pearl is no longer needed in this symbolic capacity. At Dimmesdale’s death, she becomes fully “human”, leaving behind her otherworldliness and her preternatural vision.

 

 

CONCLUSION

To be honest, I think the novel would be very boring to read at the first sight of it. While, later I gradually come to know that the story is really worthy to be read and appreciated.

After reading the novel, I have formed an impression of the main characters in the novel. The four characters are so vividly portrayed, Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth and Pearl that the impression of them are still in my mind now. I want to say that Hawthorne is really good at characterization.

I am convinced that lots of people would be very curious about the content of the novel when see the title “ The Scarlet Letter”. We are familiar with the novels which are usually named after the name of a person who is the leading role in the story, or a palce where the story takes place for most of the time. But “ The Scarlet Letter” serves as the name of the novel. And at the beginning of the novel, we know what “the scarlet letter” means. It is the symbol of Hester’s guilty. And it is also “the scarlet letter” that connects the four principal characters in the novel. “The scarlet letter” has a great effect on their lives.

Despite the title, it is obviously not a story about adultery, or even really about sin. It tells more about men’s soul than about their actions. The best way to appreciate the characters and their fuctions in the novel is to study their relationship to the central sin and the manner in which that sin lays bare their souls. From another point of view, the novel is the expression of the author to convey his discontent to the society. The deception of religion and the hypocrisy of moral are all the contents of his story. Through describing the life of the four characters of his story, what he wants to convey has vividly presented behind the story. Hester has to wear the “the scarlet letter” all the time because of her “adultery”. She is a strong and brave woman, she always refuses to tell the public who is Pearl’s father, though Dimmesdale stands close to him.

Probably I haven’t had a full understanding of the novel. But what I have grasped is the general idea the author wants to convey. There are still some details of the story that I cannot understand very well. Later during my life of futher study, it is quite necessary for me to read the novel once again, maybe more times.

The Demise of American Dream

 

Why did you choose this particular book? Typical reasons might be:

 

1. You like the author.

 

2. You like this type of book (i.e. mystery, western, adventure or romance, etc.).

 

3. Someone recommended the book to you.

 

4. It was on a required reading list.

 

5. You liked the cover.

 

 

 

 

 

The Great Gatsby is a standard text in high school and university courses on American literature in countries around the world, ranked second in the Modern Library’s lists of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century, “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James, because Fitzgerald depicted the extolled grandest and most boisterous, reckless and merry-making scene” commented by T．S．Elliot. All these enchanting achievements and compliments increasingly drive me to The Great Gatsby, so much so that I directly rule out any other option.

 

For another, I’m obsessed with American dream which is deeply rooted in American history. For over centuries, American dream has changed gradually in accordance with the varying backdrops. Earlier, I’ve dabbled into An American Tragedy, Sister Carrie, etc., aware of the phenomenon of so-called demise of American dream. I desire to go deeper about how American dreams are doomed and how life is predetermined.

 

Armed with the above two missions, I commence journeying in The Great Gatsby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Demise of American Dream

 

[Abstract] Compared to the entire glorious civilization, the American capitalist society in the 1920s was extremely ruthless, hypocritical and deformed. The Great Gatsby, the finest novel written by the renowned American writer, Fitzgerald, is a vivid example in point to repudiate and satirize that very Jazz Age. Gatsby, born humble, kept dreaming throughout his life. In the pursuit of his dream of fortune and dream of love, he paid a disastrous price, pathetically cut off in the flower of youth at the hands of the upper class.

 

By analyzing 5 major characters and Gatsby’s two dreams, this essay will try to convey that Gatsby is the victim of that corrupted capitalist society and his tragedy mirrors the demise of American dream.

 

 [Key words] Fitzgerald, Gatsby, character, the demise of American dream

 

Brief Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald 

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), an American author of novels and short stories, is widely judged to be a member of the “Lost Generation” and one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. In his vivid and graceful works, he revealed the stridency of an age (Jazz Age) of glittering innocence, portrayed the hollowness of the American worship of riches and the unending American dream of love, splendor, and fulfilled desires.

 

Born into a fairly well-to-do family in St. Paul, Miniesota, in 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald attended but never graduated form PrincetonUniversity. Here he mingled with monied classes from the eastern seaboard who so obsessed him for the rest of his life. In 1917, he was drafted to serve in World War I. He spent much of his time writing and rewriting his first novel, This Side of Paradise, which published in 1920, became an immediate commercial success. A week later, he married the beautiful Zelda Sayre, an embodiment of romantic notions of Southern Belle.

 

Together they embarked on a rich life of endless parties. Dividing their time betweenAmericaand fashionable resorts inEurope, the Fitzgeralds became as famous for their lifestyle as for the novels he wrote. He once said, “Sometimes I don’t know whether Zelda and I are real or whether we are characters in one of my novels”.

 

Yet somehow he managed to continue writing and published his second novel The Beautiful and Damned in 1922 and The Vegetable (From Postman to President) in 1923. His masterpiece The Great Gatsby, came out in 1925, was met with excellent reviews, with T. S. Eliot being among the first to comment on the book, calling it “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James”. It was also at this time that Fitzgerald wrote many of his short stories (Tales of the Jazz Age in 1922) which helped to pay for his extravagant lifestyle.

 

The bubble burst in the 1930s when Zelda became increasingly troubled by mental illness. Tender is the Night (1934) which showed the pain he felt was not well received in America. For the final three years of his life, he turned to script-writing in Hollywood when he wrote the autobiographical essays collected posthumously in The Crack-Up and his unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon. On December 21, 1940, he died at the age forty-four.

 

1. 1.     Setting

 

The Great Gatsby chronicles an era that Fitzgerald himself dubbed the “Jazz Age”. It refers to a period of time after World War I, beginning with the Roaring Twenties and ending in the 1930s with the beginning of the Great Depression.

 

After the misery of World War I and the flu epidemic, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the “roaring” 1920s as the economy soared. Individuals were so exuberant to be alive that hedonism started to prevail and creep towards every corner. Just as Fitzgerald once put it, “All the gods have been dead, all the wars finished, and all the values about humanity has been completely shaken”. The Age witnessed unrestrained materialism, appalling selfishness and lack of morality, scented with corruption.

 

At the same time, it was also a period of Probation that banned the sale and manufacture of alcoholic drinks. Mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, it made millionaires out of bootleggers and led to an increase in organized crime. Gatsby is the example in point.

 

3. Plot^[1]

 

Young Nick Carraway, the First-person narrator, decided to forsake the hardware business of his family in Middle West in order to “learn the bond business” inNew York City. In 1922, he rented a low-cost cottage located in West Egg onLong Island. Across the bay was East Egg, inhabited by the “old aristocracy”, including Tom Buchanan and Daisy (his second cousin). At a dinner party at the house of Tom Buchanan, he renewed his acquaintance with Tom, his wife, Daisy and met an attractive female golfer, a friend of Daisy’s, Jordan Baker form whom he leaned Tom’s infidelity.

 

One day Tom took Nick to call on his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George Wilson, an owner of a second-rate auto repair shop. Nick accompanied Tom and Myrtle to theirManhattanlove-nest. Nick didn’t leave the party thrown by the couple until Tom broke Myrtle’s nose for only speaking Daisy’s name.

 

After receiving an invitation from Gatsby, his wealthy and mysterious neighbor with no lack of contradictory rumor, Nick attended the lavish party given by Gatsby. For the first time, Nick met Gatsby, young and personal. An odd yet close friendship between Nick and Gatsby begins.

 

Nick became increasingly confused when Gatsby disclosed a seemingly far-fetched version of his upbringing and introduced an underworld figure Meyer Wolfsheim to him. It’s Jordan Baker that eventually revealed to Nick that Gatsby was holding these parties in hope that Daisy, his former love who deserted poor and unknown Gatsby for rich and influential Tom, would visit by chance. Nick promised to arrange an “accidental” meeting between Daisy and Gatsby. The reunion was initially awkward but Gatsby and Daisy began a love affair, so did Nick and Jordan.

 

At the Plaza Hotel inNew York, Tom accused Gatsby of trying to steal his wife and also of being dishonest as a criminal bootlegger. Gatsby defended himself and urged Daisy to say she never loved Tom. During their argument, Daisy sided with both men by turns.

 

On the ride back to the suburbs, Daisy insisted on driving home along with Gatsby in his yellow car, followed by Tom, Nick and Jordan. All of a sudden, Myrtle ran outside of the garage as Gatsby’s roadster approached (believing it to be Tom), only to be hit and killed by the car while Daisy and Gatsby speeded away. LaterTom,Jordanand Nick noticed the car accident. Tom ledWilsoninto a private place and preemptively convincedWilsonthat the yellow car was not his but Gatsby’s because they switched cars earlier in the day and that Myrtle was having an affair with Gatsby.

 

By this point, Nick has abandoned his role as an outsider observing Gatsby’s life and instead become his close friend. When Nick found out about the truth of the accident, he advised Gatsby to run away for a week but the latter refused for his illusion of Daisy’s love. Having tracked the owner of the roadster through Tom,Wilsonmurdered Gatsby before committing suicide while Tom was packing for an escape trip with Daisy.

 

Despite the best of Nick’s efforts to make Gatsby’s funeral respectable, still few people only three attended it. After severing connections withJordanand a brief run-in with Tom, Nick returned permanently to theMidwest, reflecting on Gatsby’s desire to recapture the past.

 

4. Character Analyses ^[2]

 

Without characters, there would be no plot and, hence, no story. Hence, the character development is the key element in a novel’s creation, and character analysis is crucial to understanding the novel. Therefore, major characters will be elaborately analyzed.

 

Nick Carraway (a bond salesman from the Midwest, a World War I veteran, and a resident of West Egg): He is not only a narrator but an outsider and a witness, bearing close relationships with many characters, Gatsby’s next-door neighbor, Daisy’s cousin and Jordon’s lover. Nick represents the lower classes of the society who also strives for the American dream. Initially he is obsessed with the legendarily glamorous parties at Gatsby’s Long Island mansion and attracted to the wealthy New York where life pace is fast. Gradually by witnessing hypocrisy, indifference, selfishness and greediness, especially shown in the death of Myrtle Wilson, the arrangement of a small funeral for Gatsby, he finds out that in the process of self-fulfillment, the once civilized and rational East has become a spiritual wasteland, a quality of distortion. It’s best exemplified throughout the book by Nick’s romantic affair with Jordan Baker, firstly attracted by her vivacity and sophistication, increasingly repelled by her dishonesty and her lack of consideration for other people, eventually severing connections with her peacefully and returns to wholesomely.

 

He is the only three-dimensional character, an aspiration for mental maturity, as well as an embodiment of traditional virtues.

 

Jay Gatsby (originally James Gatz): Originally from North Dakota, Jay Gatsby, a typical upstart after the World War I, is a sensitive young man who idolizes wealth and luxury. He falls in love with a charming lady from a decent family, Daisy, who later marries to the affluent Tom for material security. He convinces himself that the change of Daisy gets bogged down to his meager economic condition. As a result, he spares no efforts to accumulate his wealth by hook or crook and then throws extraordinary parties every week in an attempt to draw Daisy’s attention. He has ordered his whole life around the desire to be reunited with Daisy whom he shuns every shortcoming of and idolizes a great deal. He never dwells on that his American dream has been distorted and turns out to be unworthy. Although he can tell Daisy, “Her voice is full of money”, he blindly lingers in the illusion and protects Daisy at the risk of losing anything, including his life. Consequently, his steadfast loyalty to love contributes to the demise of himself and his dreams.

 

Just as Nick tells him, “They’re [Daisy,Tom,Jordan] a rotten crowd. You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together”, Jay Gatsby is one of the best among characters in the novel despite his role of a criminal bootlegger.

 

Daisy Buchanan née Fay（Nick’s second cousin, once removed; and the wife of Tom Buchanan）：As a representative lady of the upper class, she is undeniably attractive but severely shallow, self-centered and selfish. Although she once does love Gatsby since she even “packed her bag one winter night to go toNew York and said good-by to a soldier who was gone overseas”, dominated by her vanity and sophistication she eventually deserted Gatsby and married Tom, a young man from an aristocratic family who promises her a wealthy lifestyle. However, partly due to her husband’s constant infidelity, the material and sensual desire still fails to help her impoverished mind. Later mainly mesmerized by Gatsby’s affluence, she is willing to become his secret lover soon. When Tom reveals the illegal origin of Gatsby’s wealth, she beats a retreat from by saying “I never loved Tom” with perceptible reluctance to “I did love him once- but I loved you too”. She just couldn’t lose the comfortable and luxury life with Tom though this life is boring but gives her a feeling of safety.

 

Her irresponsibility and hypocrisy is completely manifested at the end of the story. When she drives over Myrtle, she doesn’t even stop and conspires with Tom to make Gatsby take the fall. Then she and Tom moves away, leaving no address but Gatsby’s demise of his dream and himself.

 

Doubtlessly, Daisy is the utmost idealized quintessence in Gatsby’s blind eyes and an epitome of hedonism which only centers on money first and materialism.

 

Tom Buchanan (a millionaire on East Egg and Daisy’s husband): He is the prototype of those who squanders their money accumulated by their ancestors and constantly flaunts wealth to parade his superiority. He delights in the affairs with Myrtle but forbids his wife’s unfaithful behavior. He is thoroughly aware of Daisy’s nature and makes full use of it. He confronts Gatsby’s illegality to Daisy, thus wins a definite victory. But he doesn’t stop. His conspiration with Daisy puts Gatsby on the track of demise.

 

He represents the typical ethic in the early 20^th century inAmerica, display of fortune without restraint, irresponsibility to the family, addiction to spree, total possesion of women, and diabolicalness.

 

Just as Fitzgerald described, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mass they had made…”

 

Jordan Baker (Daisy’s long-time friend, Nick’s lover): She is selfish, irresponsible, dishonest and shares the same value on money with Tom and Daisy. She even cheats in the golf playoff, intolerant of being disadvantaged. Due to her severely peccable personality, she is deserted by sensible Nick.

 

Her role is more of another narrator who completes Nick’s part but also provides responding information from various perspectives, facilitating the development of the fiction. 

 

5. Comments^[3]

 

The “American dream” has been deeply rooted in America. Firstly, it referred to Puritan’s yearning for religious freedom, later, evolved into the pursuit of happiness, especially success during the process of pioneering the New Worldand The West. With the progress of industrialization and gradual emergence of metropolitans, the “American dream” was specialized into the only aspiration of money. It’s also in this era that the American society witnessed its moral corruption. The Great Gatsby is a vivid example of disillusionment of the “American dream” after the First World War. Gatsby has been dreaming through his whole life. He’d rather die in his dreams than wake up and come back to reality.

 

Dream of fortune: When the World War II broke up，Gatsby was dispatched to the Europe frontline. Five years later, he returned in glory, only to find Daisy married to Tom for the sake of money. However, hope never eluded him for he held steadfastly that Daisy sooner or later, would reunite with him as long as he granted her a luxurious life. Consequently, he amassed money through illegal ways such as bootlegging alcohol and gambling to become an upstart overnight.

 

Making a great fortune is one of Gatsby’s American dreams, shown since as a young boy, “he had a lot of brain power” in his head and “always had some resolves like this or something”. What obsessed him a great deal with Daisy firstly lied in Daisy’s grand mansion, white limo and well-to-do life. Fully convinced that wealth maintained youth, mystery and even Daisy’s love, he made all-out efforts to pretend to be descent, showed off imported shirts to Daisy and threw legendarily glamorous parties. But they failed to win Daisy back, for the power of money was limited. Pathetic enough was that he didn’t realize no matter how much money he possessed, he was destined to be an outsider, an inferior upstart in the view of the aristocracy.

 

Dream of love: For Gatsby, Daisy was the green light that shone his prospect. Innocent enough, he fancied Daisy’s heart was as beautiful as her appearance and she stuck to love as he did. Therefore, he blamed himself for Daisy’s marriage to Tom and dreamed to buy back her love. Dominated by his weave of the dream, he successfully persuaded himself that his dream had already come true by the reunion with Daisy.

 

In his heart, the upper class meant paradise, encompassing all the beauty and colorfulness. So was Daisy, the angle of his genuine happiness, the incarnation of idealized dream. He shunned all her disadvantages so much so that his illusion surpassed her and everything. On the contrary, Daisy was merely shallow, irresponsible and selfish. She flirted with Gatsby out of boredom and thrill. Poor Gatsby! He didn’t figured out that “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mass they had made…” When Gatsby “first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, he had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He didn’t know that his dream was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.”

 

Gatsby’s dream of love and his dream of fortune are closely connected to each other. His dream of love was based on his dream of fortune. How came that Gatsby would fall in love with Daisy if she was penniless? On the other hand, his dream of fortune served as an indispensible means to realize his dream of love, therefore he plunged himself to restlessly collecting money by hook or crook. The irreconcilable conflict between his way to purse love and his ideal for love determined the eventual disillusion of his dreams and even the demise of himself.

 

Gatsby’s is the victim who paid so high a price for his American Dream. Upon death, he still didn’t understand his American dream which once depended on individual efforts had been already gone with the wind in that rotten Jazz Age. He wasn’t aware that what he pursued so hard couldn’t be realized for the lack of pragmatic and realistic conditions.

 

Conclusion:

 

Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby is really worth mulling over. It not only contributes to being a paragon of the Great American Novel, but also witnesses the total decline of American society at Jazz Age. In conclusion, the Great Gatsby achieves an undeniable glory whether in literature field or in the conveying of the demise of American dream.

 

Personality Leads to Tragedy

Why did you choose this particular book?

    I choose this particular book “The Age of Innocence” for the following reasons:

First, the author Edith Wharton is considered as one of the most successful novelists in American literature. And it purports that she and Jane Austin both belong to prominent novelists of social manners, for her, the accurate depiction of the New York society is the most impressive. I want to read a book of female writer.

Second, the book The Age of Innocence is one of the most representative books of Edith Wharton. It wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature for her, which made her become the first woman to win this prize. And the story has been filmed well.

Third, I have read some introductions of the book, it involves love and family. I think at my age, it is necessary for me to gain some knowledge in these aspects. I believe I will benefit from the book.

Fourth, occasionally, I borrowed this book from the library and it was among the book lists which our professor gave us. So I began to read this particular book The Age of Innocence.

 

 

 

 

 

Personality Leads to Tragedy

Abstract：

With New York society as background, Edith Wharton’s famous work The Age of Innocence centers on the upper class’s daily life, love and marriage, especially the relations between Newland Archer, Ellen Olenska and May Welland. Through a deep and vivid depiction in the novel, human beings’ confusion, bewilderment and perplexity when facing their own chaotic sensibilities is thought-provoking. The love triangle, the departure of Newland Archer and Ellen are tragedies that mainly leaded to by Newland Archer’s weakness in personality as well as the society.

Key word:

Character, love, personality, tragedy

 

 

1. Brief Introduction of Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton ( January 24, 1862- August 11, 1937 ), was born in New York City. In 1885, at her age of 23, she married Edward Robbins Wharton, who was 12 years older than her. They shared the love of travel but had little in common intellectually. She traveled a lot especially in France. In the series of articles Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort she described those trips. In 1908, the mental state of her husband was incurable and they divorced in 1913. Then she had an affair with a journalist who was an intellectual partner of her. During the World War I, Wharton spared no efforts in charity for refugees, and in 1916, she was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Besides, Wharton was a supporter of French imperialism. Having grown up in upper-class, she became one of the critics and her novels were featured by the use of dramatic irony and social manners especially the depiction of New York society. Wharton acquainted with many other famous figures of her times, including Henry James and Theodore Roosevelt. She had a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social psychological insight with combining her insider’s view of America’s privileged classes. And she died of a stroke in France.

Edith Wharton was an American novelist, short story writer and designer. She finished The Age of Innocence in 1920 in Provence, which won the 1912 Pulitzer Prize for literature, giving her the honor of being the first woman to win the award. She wrote novels like The Touchstone ( 1900 ), The Valley of Decision ( 1902 ), Sanctuary (1903), The House of Mirth (1905), Madame de Treymes, The Fruit of the Tree (1907), Ethan Frome (1911), The Reef (1912), The Marne (1918), The Glimpses of Moon (1922) and so on; in addition to novels, she at least had 85 short stories. Her short stories collections like The Greater Inclination (1899), Souls Belated (1899), The Descent of Man and Other Stories (1903), Tales of Men and Ghosts (1910) and so on; she also wrote poetry as Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verse (1909) and Twelve Poems (1926) and non-fictions like The Decoration of Houses (1897), Italian Vilas and Their Gardens (1904), France, from Dunkerque to Belfort (1915) and so on.^[1]

 

2. Plot

Regarding the New York as background, The Age of Innocence centers on a upper class couple’s impending marriage and also a story of love triangle. Newland Archer, who belongs to upper class and whose life is patterned by the social custom, is happily taking part in a marriage to a pretty girl May Welland. May Welland is purported to be a perfect wife and mother who complys with all the social custom. However, when Countess Ellen Olenska appears, Newland begins to doubt whether his choice of marrying May is right or not. Countess Ellen Olenska, who is May’s cousin, has been living in Europe and has returned to New York after separating herself from a bad marriage scandalously. Firstly, Newland helps Ellen as a support to May’s family because Ellen’s decision to divorce is a social crisis for the other members in her family. However, with Newland’s love for Ellen growing, he starts to confuse about the values on which he was raised and he struggles to balance social commitment to May with love for Ellen. Even after his marriage with May, he still wants to have Ellen to be his lover. When Newland decides to tell May that he will leave her for Ellen, but May’s pregnancy stops him and meanwhile Ellen returns to Europe because May has told her of her pregnancy earlier, in spite of not being sure of it. Feeling in a trap, Newland decides to surrender his love for the sake of his children and remain in a loveless marriage to May instead of following Ellen. Twenty-six years later, after May’s death, surprisingly Newland finds that May knew his love to Ellen. And he has an opportunity to meet Ellen again. But he declines and walks away because he realizes that the only place for their love is in his memory.^[2]

 

3. Character Analysis

In order to make a better analysis of the tragedy of love triangle and the departure of Newland Archer and Ellen that leaded to mainly by the weakness in personality of Newland as well as the society, I have first to analyze the main protagonists one by one.

Newland Archer: belongs to upper class. Living with his mother and sister in a graceful house in New York City, he is a handsome, popular and successful lawyer. His life has been shaped by social custom and conventions since his childhood. At the very first, he is satisfied to expect a traditional marriage. But it changes when Ellen appears. When he falls in love with Ellen, he begins to confuse about the values of his society. He struggles between social commitment and true love. At last, due to his weakness in personality and the restraints of the society, he finds the only place for his true love is in his memories and he surrenders himself into a loveless marriage with May.

May Welland: first Newland Archer’s wife-to-be, then wife. She is raised to be perfect wife and mother who complys with all social custom and conventions perfectly. Mostly, she is the shallow, uninterested and uninteresting young woman that the New York society requires. Even after marriage, she suspects Newland and Ellen, she still pretends happiness before public and holds the illusion of perfect marriage. And her unhappiness stimulates her manipulative nature to tell Ellen of her pregnancy before certainty which makes Ellen’s long leaving. However, compassion still lays in May. She has always known Newland’s love for Ellen until her death.

Ellen Olenska: she is May’s cousin and Mrs. Manson Mingott’s granddaughter. She married a Polish Count who is cruel, abusive and has an affair with others. So Ellen wants to get divorce and returns to New York City. She is a free spirit and helps Newland to see beyond narrow New York society. But her affair is a crisis to the society and she is disreputable and suffers a lot. When she falls in love with Newland, she feels in trap. Her conscience and responsibility to family complicate her love for Newland. Finally she leaves America to refuse Newland to follow her after she learns May’s pregnancy and so allow May and Newland to start a new life.

New York City society: a society of powerful and wealthy families. Following and imposing a strict, rigid code of social conventions and behaviour, they can not bear any one who break their rules. And such a society regards inappropriate for a woman parted from her husband, so Ellen is disreputable. The judgment in New York City can not be clear any more. ^[3]

 

4. Comment:

The plots of the novel The Age of Innocence are relatively simple. The story regarded New York City which Edith Wharton did best in depicting as the background. As a person who strongly hated the false ethics and values of upper class society, Newland Archer, the reluctant vindicator of those was doomed to be a tragic character, especially in his love and marriage.

At the very beginning, when reading the book, I had the idea that Newland Archer had a great personality because he chose the way of sacrificing himself to maintain the public order of New York City. However, after finishing reading and pondering this over, I began to realize that sacrificing for a hypocritical and snobbish society was not the original intention of Newland Archer. On the contrary, he was no more than a failure who fell into a contradiction between commitment and love and just could not find proper way to turn out right from the dream. Newland Archer had a very deep insight of the hypocrisy, provinciality, ignorance and conservatism of the upper class society in New York City. He regarded it as a small and slippery pyramid, and on the bottom of the pyramid were a group of creditable but noteless and decent families. These families lifted their status up and pushed their fortune by intermarriage with the dominant families. Taking these rich but inconspicuous families as the pinnacle of the pyramid, then a ruling circle which was massy, firm, close and packed was gradually taking into shape. So called social custom, etiquette and taboo were all laid down according to the standards of those families of the pyramid pinnacle. In order to maintain the stability of the pyramid, those families in  ruling circle were united as one and concentrated their attentions and efforts on strictly and rigidly boycotting any intruder out of the pyramid. They never allowed even one action to exist that was bucking the code and the standard. What’s more, they looked down upon writers, artists and even those who was full of imagination and seemed to exceed their conventions. As a consequence, under their control New York City had been in a state of culture hungriness. Newland Archer seemed to be among the pinnacle of the pyramid but also an outsider of the pyramid. He had a relatively higher cultural cultivation and he could hardly bear the life in the pyramid which was stuffy, tasteless and ignorant. He had read some books about anthropology, which would make him think about social relations in a new way. Always, he was just like a natural historian or an anthropologist observing the New York City society with cold composure. Tragically, the more objectively he observed the society, the more strongly he felt the sense of alienation. Even, he thought the traditions of engagement and marriage laid down by the society as well as so called civilized behaviours in civilized life were just paralleled with the barbarous rites of primitive tribes. Because they all stemmed from the blind worship for a certain rite. ” In reality, they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs. “^[4] That was what Newland Archer recognized.

Then the arrival of Ellen Olenska brought the new promise land for Newland Archer. Ellen was bold, untrammelled, unconventional and beautiful. In comparison to May Welland, she was also mature, confident and glamorous. So Newland Archer soon fell in love with her fanatically but he was not willing to speak out his true feeling at first. With the dispassionate appearance, Newland Archer was going through a torment of inner suffering and grief. Actually, whether love or hatred Newland Archer never took action in reality or put into practice. He strongly hated all kinds of rules and punishments of the upper class society, however, all the time he behaved in a most cautious orderly way for fear that he violated the rule unconsciously. One the one hand, he showed sympathy to Ellen in his innermost heart and decided to fight against all his family members and even the whole society. Besides, he was in support of Ellen to get divorce with her libertine husband. On the other hand, however, when he was sent to deal with this affair as the identity of a lawyer, he violated his own willingness and stated the decisive talks to Ellen which pulled he himself and Ellen into the deep abyss of pain. He said to Ellen that on such occasion, the individual must always sacrifice for the interest of the collective. People must adhere to all the conventions firmly in order to maintain the unity of a family in order to protect their children. Newland Archer was quite clear about what the so-called interests of the collective was, but he was not willing to sacrifice himself heart and soul. It was his fear that Ellen would be condemned by society that made him to act out his hypocritical statement. After he persuaded Ellen to give up the intention of getting divorce, he persuaded May to bring the wedding day forward, but at the same time he expressed his love for Ellen at all hazards. Unfortunately, at that time Ellen had already deeply accepted his opinion of self-sacrifice. So she mentioned she had learned a good knowledge from him that people utterly detested those who exchange happiness with disloyalty, cruelty and absence of nerves. And Ellen told Newland Archer that she could love him only by giving him up. In the meantime May sent a telegram to tell Newland Archer that she agreed to bring the wedding day forward. So from here, it was not so much to say that the strict social custom constrained Newland Archer to make decision as to say that his innermost fear of these conventions and custom make him lose the chance of being together with Ellen. That is, the weakness of Newland’s personality mainly led to his tragedy in love. 

Newland Archer was not at all lofty to restrain his selfishness and be strict with himself, but only to reflect his personalities of indecision, cowardice and flabbiness. After his marriage, Newland Archer did not take the responsibility of family and marriage, instead, he began to pursue the happiness of love from dream and fantasy which he could not attain in reality, although from the surface he was a faithful, dutiful and responsible husband. However, there existed a secret world that only belonged to Ellen and him. He set up a palace in his heart and put the most secret thoughts and desires there. Even sometimes he considered that his spiritual world with Ellen was more real than his life in reality. Once he sit in his wife’s cart with Ellen shoulder to shoulder, he told Ellen that for him, this was the only thing to be reality. But when Ellen questioned him whether he wanted her to be his mistress, Newland Archer like a drowned mouse answered stutteringly, ” I want… Somehow, I want to get away with you… And…and find a world where words like that don’t exist！”^[5] Newland Archer seemed that he wanted to elope and run away with Ellen, which was totally paradoxical with his precious thought. Once when one of his friend, a low status correspondent said to expatriate himself, Newland Archer disapproved and did not concern about the idea. He thought that expatriating was just like a gentleman casting away his mother country. Actually, a man indeed could not at random run away from the culture that moulded him. Besides, just as Ellen put it, a man who departed from his national culture was like an exile. If a person even could not adapt to his own national culture, how could he adapt well to another culture, so it is doomed for him to feel more lonely in another cultural circumstance. Newland Archer’s personality of indecision forced him tragically to have no chance to choose another social and cultural circumstance that was in harmony with his life. In the novel, it was proven that he should have chosen another life way that was more suitable except for an exile because some people really had a different life way and relatively closer to reality. For example, artists of New York City apparently were not disturbed by the rules and punishments which dominated New York City society. They did not have the wish or desire to blend with the society’s structure. Maybe among the characters Edith Wharton praised most was the archaeologist Emerson. Although he also got married with the daughter of the prominent family, he and his wife conformed to no convention pattern. They annually regarded the form of holding garden party as complying with their social obligations. In the rest of time they all worked in the activities they were indeed interested in. He had the courage to break with the tradition, but he still lived a full and substantial life. From this perspective, for those who wanted to live a Bohemian life, there still exists room for one to be flexible and take action. 

In order to become a man who could live freely in a foppish world, Newland Archer must at first learn to choose and accept the most valuable thing in his national culture and give up the rest. However, he was lack of this kind of ability or he was just unwilling to make decision. He was an idealist who succumbed to vulgar demand. On the one hand, he wanted to get the ideal romance with Ellen. On the other hand, he was unwilling to fight against the system which constrained such kind of love and romance. What’s more, he wanted to get the extramarital love but at the same time he wanted to carry out his duty and responsibility of being a husband with loyalty. Except for the Utopia, there was no social system that could satisfy his two strongly conflicted desires at the same time especially in such a New York City society. Newland Archer’s personality of swaying between gain and loss, and the contradictory psychology of cowardice and hesitation were destined to make him let the blossom of life slip and tragedy was there only to be left. .

This novel through depicting the psychological development of Newland Archer, one of the themes that the conflict between individual requirement and social etiquette finally leaded to individual tragedy was seen clearly. The contradictory psychology of Newland Archer was also a plight of a common person. Each of us has two kinds of consciences: the first kind of conscience is totally consistent with our community, so it can not represent ourselves, instead, it stands for the society which restrains our life and behaviours. The other kind of conscience thoroughly stands for our innermost self, so it is personal and the very one makes us to be the individual. Any one in any society will have the case that two consciences occur at the same time. How to deal with the two consciences and two self relations well is the key to reach one’s happiness. Thus the individual should cultivate the abilities of judgment, selection and reconciliation. Besides, the individual should deal properly with the relation of self-control and aggressive pursuit, the relation between when to hold fast and when to let go. If we think for ourselves, the desire for self behaviour will be stronger and stronger, so it is not easy for us to comply with others’ thoughts and behaviours. Moreover, once these two kinds of thoughts and behaviours combine and begin to function, then our personality and individuality will disappear. Because we are not ourselves any more, we are only part of the life of the collective. The psychological development of Newland Archer just went through the process of transferring from the first kind of extreme to the second kind of extreme. Due to his unwillingness or inability of cohering with the two conflicts, he went through the process that was from at first hope for getting everything to at last losing everything. Therefore, Newland Archer’s tragedy was mainly individual, it was principally his personality of hesitation, mutability, cowardice and flabbiness that leads to his tragedy in love and marriage.^[6]

 

5. Conclusion:

    In conclusion, there is a pity for Newland, Ellen and May, for their tragedy of love. To some extent, there is on doubt that they are all victims of their society which has a strict and rigid code of social custom and convention. But mostly the tragedy results in the protagonists’ personality especially the indecision and cowardice of Newland Archer. I firmly believe that if Newland is decisive and bold enough, he is bound to be with Ellen. So from this, I realize that it is of importance to cultivate a good personality and quality, I should strive for it on and on. Besides, I begin to consider the balance between passion and duty in marriage. All in all, finishing reading The Age of Innocence, it enlightens me with many ideas on personality, marriage, love and duty, thus it really worth reading.

Appreciate The Adventures of Huckle

Why did you choose this particular book? Typical reasons might be:

 

1.     “All modern American literature comes from on book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn….There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

—Ernest Hemingway

 

1.     The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book by Mark Twain, considered as one of the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written in the vernacular, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in the first person by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective).

The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. Satirizing a Southern antebellum society that had ceased to exist about twenty years before the work was published, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.

 

1.     Because of his delicate familiarity with children’s psychology and his thorough understanding of Americans and American society, Mark Twain profoundly and vividly depicts the adventurous story of Huck and Jim and reveals his own views towards the civilized society. This point appeals me to read this novel.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Abstract：

First published in Englandin December 1884 and in the United Statesin February 1885, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of Mark Twain’s masterpieces and considered as one of the Great American Novels. The novel depicts the adventurous story of a white child Huckleberry Finn and a black slave Jim’s escape toMississippi to pursue a free life. Through poring over the novel from children’s perspective, this book report tries to reveal the novel’s themes and the author’s views towards human civilization.

 

Key word:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, children’s perspective, book report

 

1. Brief Introduction of Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called “the Great American Novel.”

Twain grew up inHannibal,Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He apprenticed with a printer. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion’s newspaper. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on theMississippi River, before heading west to join Orion. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which became very popular and brought nationwide attention. His travelogues were also well-received. Twain had found his calling.

He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

However, he lacked financial acumen. Though he made a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he squandered it on various ventures, in particular the Paige Compositor, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. With the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers, however, he eventually overcame his financial troubles. Twain worked hard to ensure that all of his creditors were paid in full, even though his bankruptcy had relieved him of the legal responsibility.

Born during a visit by Halley’s Comet, he died on its return. He was lauded as the “greatest American humorist of his age,” and William Faulkner called Twain “the father of American literature.”

 

2. Plot

Used to living a free and undisciplined life, Huck can’t stand his new life in his adopted mother Douglas’ home, where he has to wear decent clothes everyday and learn endless rules and regulations, which afflict him a lot. One day, Huck’s drunken father comes back after disappearing for over one year. He forces Huck to live with him in a hut among a remote forest. No longer need to learn the decent manners, Huck is fairly contented with life in the forest, fishing and hunting freely. However, he couldn’t stand that his father often beats him when drunken and keeps asking Huck to hand out his share of unexpected fortune, which he got with Tom Sawyer. Therefore, Huck takes the chance that his father goes to the town to sell the wood, makes a false spot that he’s drowned, steal his father’s raft and escapes toJacksonIsland.

JacksonIslandis a deserted one. However, Huck unexpectedly encounters Jim, an escaped black slave. Later, Huck learns that Jim escaped because he got the news that his mater wanted to sell him again, and that in order to get rid of the slavery fate, Jim escaped to the island. Even though Huck knows it’s against the law to help an escaped slave, they become good friends as they have similar experiences. Realizing that the island is not safe enough, they set about leaving for another state and float along theMississippion raft. To avoid the search, they hide among the forests in the daytime and goes out only at night. Finally, overcoming a cornucopia of setbacks, they get to a wide river gulf where they think a safe place. To their disappointment, after consulting the people on the river bank, they find they are matter-of-factly heading for the opposite direction and nearer to the centre of their state. Frustrated, they can do nothing but let it be. For them, only the wideMississippiand their small raft are their free paradise.

One dawn, they meet two people dispelled by a crowd. Compassionated, Huck and Jim adopt them. After a short time, they find out the two people are liars who later take charge of the raft and sell Jim. Knowing he can’t win over them, Huck secretly leaves the raft for Filps Farm to save Jim. In the farm, Mrs. Filps takes Huck for his nephew Tom. Huck finds out that the man who buys Jim is just Tom’s uncle and the household is waiting for Tom’s visit. Smart enough, Huck takes the chance to play the role of Tom in the farm and prevents Tom’s coming. However, Tom loves adventures and he demands to play the role of Tom’s younger brother Xide. Several days later, they work out an adventurous plan to save Jim. They spread the news that Jim is going to escape, and the whole staff in the farm goes out to hunt for Jim. As they carry the real guns and pistols, Huck and Tom are scared to death and try to escape. In a panic, Tom got a shot and experiences what real adventure is. Only after Jim is taken back does Tom reveal the truth that Jim’s master has announced Jim a free man. At the end of the story, Mrs. Phelps wants to adopt Huck who declined, however. Huck has made up his mind to live a free life where the Indians inhabit.

 

3. Character Analysis

The main protagonists in this fiction are white teen Huck and black slave Jim. The former escaped from a restraint and hush adopted family to pursue free and undisciplined life, while the latter escaped from his master’s house to get rid of his slavery fate. During their adventures, they develop a deep and unbreakable friendship.

Huck is the central character of the fiction and an upright and rebellious child image in American literary history. At the beginning of the story, he is active and restless. Influenced by racial discrimination of that time, he looks down upon Jim, mocks him, and once even wants to reveal him to the court. However, as they encounter many setbacks and frustrations together, and survive from a narrow escape, Huck develops a deep friendship with Jim and determines to help him attain freedom. The story depicts a lot of Huck’s psychological activities. For instance, there is a scene where Huck wants to reveal Jim to the court. He writes a letter and says “Well, so, go hell.” He then tears the letter immediately. Just as the author once said, “The wholesome soul (democratic idealism) has a conflict with malformed ideology (racial discrimination) and the malformed ideology is wiped out.” Huck’s change of views towards Jim and his actions to help Jim to attain freedom vividly imply the author’s view about racial discrimination—Now that racism could not even deceive a child into believing it, it’s inexorable that the slavery system will break down, that the white and the black should struggle together to foster a new democratic and free world.

Jim is a loyal and capable black people. His doomed destiny as a slave that can be sold randomly is the reflection of the pathetic life of black slaves. Different from Uncle Tom in Uncle Tom’s Cabin who is obedient to his sufferings, Jim takes measures to escape from the his master. Under that context, his actions can be considered as brave enough. Besides Jim are full of sympathy and sacrifice spirit. When they are floating along theMississippi, he takes care of Huck and tries his best to keep this white child from fear and danger. When Tom gets a shot, he puts his safety aside and helps the doctors to save him in the farm dangerous for him. Through depicting these kind-hearted and noble behaviors, the author tries to convey that the blacks are no worse than the white in personality, and that they surpass the white in many aspects, thus negating the theories of racial discrimination utterly. The creation of such an image is to state the requisiteness and urgency of abolishing slavery.

 

4. Comment:

This book reveals the author’s views towards civilized adult world through children’s perspective—Now that racism could not even deceive a child into believing it, it’s inexorable that the slavery system will break down, that the white and the black should struggle together to foster a new democratic and free world..

In children’s perspective, the adult world represents the civilized world. They understand the adult world from their unique point of view. They try to spare feeble efforts to express something, to change something, which are mere silent protest and leads to their despair. Children will inevitably pass their childhood and turn adults who suppress their own children. It is a vicious cycle attributed to human civilization.

At the beginning of the story, although Huck escapes from the civilized education, he still couldn’t keep himself far away from the adult world, which is filled with his drunken father’s screaming, scolding and beating. He knows he couldn’t stand directly against the adults, so he takes a silent step like most other children—after careful planning, he makes up a false scene that he’s dead and leaves the hut. Huck wants to rescue Jim to realize his dream of individual heroism. Jim is an innocent black slave different from the civilized world, a member of a class negated by the so-called civilized white world. The salvation reflects Huck’s revolt against the so-called civilized adult world. At the end of the story, Huck returns to the “civilized” world, but he’s aspiring to live in the west where he thinks he could be free from the rules and manners of the adult world. However, this idealized west doesn’t really exist and it resembles the “despair” that even the dreaming place of a child is “civilized” by the adult.

After reading the whole book, it’s obvious that Huck is a special literary image different from any other literary images—He has some unique features that can’t be explained through adults’ eyes, namely, his virginity. At first, Huck uses his fairy-tale point of view to look at the world, only to find that there is a huge gap between the reality and fairy tale. When he thinks about the world childishly, he finds out the reality is so chaotic and perplexing. As a consequence, he gradually begins to shun the reality and his adventures turn into escape. He tends to reject the so-called civilization of the adult world and aspire for the undeveloped nature. He once even tries to change the dark and chaotic world through his resistance. However, under immense pressure of the adult world, this kind of resistance will collapse, be assimilated or be swallowed.

1)      The voice in the fairy tale

What firstly accompanies children is the voice in the fairy tale, which is truthful

and good-natured. Then, the children are assimilated by adult world, the fairy tale being assimilated into the reality. Huck is no exception. He admires the nature and considers the sound in the forest the most natural. He feels the safest and most comfortable to sleep surrounded by the sound of the nature. “Put on my previous rugged clothes and hide into the big barrel I used to store candies, contented and free.” This is the sound he likes subconsciously. This is the voice in the fairy tale. This is the voice of realness and naturalness.

2)      The voice of the inner heart

Then, what follows the sound in the fairy tale is the voice of the inner heart. This

voice reflects the attitudes and aspiration the children have towards the society. At first, Huck is the son of a drunkard and is often scolded and beaten by his father. He likes sleeping in the forest and eats the food thrown by others, not as normal as other people living in the same society. Then the widow adopts him. Although he begins to accept some ways of normal life, he manages with all these with efforts and feels afflicted to some extent. When he couldn’t stand his new life anymore, he slides off, puts on his ragged clothes and goes back to live in the big barrel. Huck loves the nature and adventures. After he has made up a false scene that he’s dead and heads for his freedom, he meets the black slave Jim. According to the law, not revealing the escaped black slave is considered guilty. However after several mental conflicts and the later accompaniment, Huck realized that Jim is kind-hearted and friendly, and they develop a deep friendship. During their adventures, Huck learns more about the dirtiness, hypocrisy and guilt of the upper class and he becomes more mature. Matter-of-factly, Huck’s adventures are subconscious exploration, guided by the inner heart, to pursue freedom, nature and keep away from the chains and shackles of the so-called civilization.

3)      The trial to make a voice

After the inner voice has accumulated to a certain sum, it’s likely to be released.

It’s a process from exploration to resistance. During their adventures, Huck sees all sorts of so-called civilized life—the floating corpse on theMississippi, the liars, the aristocracies fighting against each other…Compared with the honest, loyal, kind-hearted Jim, he sees more clearly the sins of the white society. Jim cries anxiously for Huck when he thinks Huck is driven away by the floods. He also helps the doctors to save Tom and remains at the farm which is dangerous for him… All his actions are sparking with the good aspect of the human society. Huck’s trial to help Jim to escape and attain freedom is a decision made after pondering the society and a transformation from exploration to resistance. This embodies that Huck tries to make a sound from the inner heart.

4)      The silent resistance

At last, the children’s subconscious evasion, to some extent, is a form of

resistance. Compared with the chaotic and perplexing voice from the adult world, their voice is too weak. Therefore, they subconsciously resist through evasion, silent resistance. In this silent process, the children wish they could walk out of this chaotic adult world and to an undisturbed world of their own where they can make a voice. Under the guidance of the widow, Huck reads the Bible everyday even though he doesn’t know the meaning at all, and he can’t get across why people should go to the heaven. But it doesn’t matter, as long as he could be with his good friend Tom. He feels the new decent clothes are chains and shackles, restraining him. Therefore when his drunkard father forces him to live in an island with him, he can adapt himself quickly to the new living environment and begins loving living in the nature, where he can smoke, fish and don’t need to read and do homework. It reveals his evasion of the adult world, civilized education.

 

Conclusion:

Through children’s perspective, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn profoundly and vividly narrates the adventurous story of Huck and Jim, and reveals the author’s views towards racial discrimination—Now that racism could not even deceive a child into believing it, it’s inexorable that the slavery system will break down, that the white and the black should struggle together to foster a new democratic and free world. The adult world is usually too perplexed for children to join in. What the adults need to do is to set a good modal for the children and create a equal and harmonious world.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Typical reasons I choose this particular book might be because:

I like Mark Twain very much; he is very humorous and talented.

Abstract：

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was written in 1876 by Mark Twain (1835-1910), or Samuel Clements, a famous American author in the early 19th century. The character Tom Sawyer is a clever but mischievous and adventurous boy. The story tells the childhood stories of Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn: racing bugs, fighting in the schoolyard, getting lost in a cave, and playing pirates on theMississippi River

 

Key word: Mark Twain, adventures, Moral and Social Maturation, Society’s Hypocrisy, Freedom through Social Exclusion, Superstition in an Uncertain World

 

Brief Introduction of Mark Twain

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens inFlorida,Missouri, in 1835, and grew up in nearby Hannibal, a smallMississippi Rivertown.Hannibalwould become the model forSt. Petersburg, the fictionalized setting of Twain’s two most popular novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The young Clemens grew up in a prosperous family—his father owned a grocery store as well as a number of slaves—but he was sent out to work at the age of twelve after his father’s death. As a young man, he traveled frequently, working as a printer’s typesetter and as a steamboat pilot. In this latter profession he gained familiarity with the river life that would furnish much material for his writing. He also gained his pen name, Mark Twain, which is a measure of depth in steamboat navigation. Twain enlisted in the Confederate militia in 1861, early in the Civil War, but he soon left to pursue a career in writing and journalism inNevadaandSan Francisco. His articles and stories became immensely popular in the decades.

 

 

 2. Plot

   An imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however, when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first two disciples were David and Goliath.

Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get “engaged” to him. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been “engaged” before—to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a “cure” for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native-American “half-breed” Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested, and Tom’s anxiety and guilt begin to grow.

Tom, Huck, and Tom’s friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. While frolicking around and enjoying their newfound freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of all their friends.

Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky’s favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a book that she has ripped. Soon Muff Potter’s trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window.

Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house. After venturing upstairs they hear a noise below. Peering through holes in the floor, they see Injun Joe enter the house disguised as a deaf and mute Spaniard. He and his companion, an unkempt man, plan to bury some stolen treasure of their own. From their hiding spot, Tom and Huck wriggle with delight at the prospect of digging it up. By an amazing coincidence, Injun Joe and his partner find a buried box of gold themselves. When they see Tom and Huck’s tools, they become suspicious that someone is sharing their hiding place and carry the gold off instead of reburying it.

Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal’s Cave with Becky and their classmates. That same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows and overhears their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident ofSt. Petersburg. By running to fetch help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an anonymous hero.

Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following morning. The men of the town begin to search for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out of food and candles and begin to weaken. The horror of the situation increases when Tom, looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout. Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky’s father, Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves to death.

A week later, Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom’s robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees.

 

 

 

3. Character Analysis

 (I choose the main character and others who impresses me most)

Tom Sawyer

When the novel begins, Tom is a mischievous child who envies Huck Finn’s lazy lifestyle and freedom. As Tom’s adventures proceed, however, critical moments show Tom moving away from his childhood concerns and making mature, responsible decisions. These moments include Tom’s testimony at Muff Potter’s trial, his saving of Becky from punishment, and his heroic navigation out of the cave. By the end of the novel, Tom is coaxing Huck into staying at the Widow Douglas’s, urging his friend to accept tight collars, Sunday school, and good table manners. He is no longer a disobedient character undermining the adult order, but a defender of respectability and responsibility. In the end, growing up for Tom means embracing social custom and sacrificing the freedoms of childhood.

Yet Tom’s development isn’t totally coherent. The novel jumps back and forth among several narrative strands: Tom’s general misbehavior, which climaxes in theJackson’sIslandadventure; his courtship of Becky, which culminates in his acceptance of blame for the book that she rips; and his struggle with Injun Joe, which ends with Tom and Huck’s discovery of the treasure. Because of the picaresque, or episodic, nature of the plot, Tom’s character can seem inconsistent, as it varies depending upon his situation. Tom is a paradoxical figure in some respects—for example, he has no determinate age. Sometimes Tom shows the naïveté of a smaller child, with his interest in make-believe and superstitions. On the other hand, Tom’s romantic interest in Becky and his fascination with Huck’s smoking and drinking seem more the concerns of an adolescent.

Huckleberry Finn

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain created a character who exemplifies freedom within, and from, American society. Huck lives on the margins of society because, as the son of the town drunk, he is pretty much an orphan. He sleeps where he pleases, provided that nobody chases him off, and he eats when he pleases, provided that he can find a morsel. No one requires him to attend school or church, bathe, or dress respectably. It is understandable, if not expected, that Huck smokes and swears. Years of having to fend for himself have invested Huck with a solid common sense and a practical competence that complement Tom’s dreamy idealism and fantastical approach to reality (Tom creates worlds for himself that are based on those in stories he has read). But Huck does have two traits in common with Tom: a zest for adventure and a belief in superstition.

Through Huck, Twain weighs the costs and benefits of living in a society against those of living independently of society. For most of the novel, adult society disapproves of Huck, but because Twain renders Huck such a likable boy, the adults’ disapproval of Huck generally alienates us from them and not from Huck himself. After Huck saves the Widow Douglas and gets rich, the scale tips in the direction of living in society. But Huck, unlike Tom, isn’t convinced that the exchange of freedom for stability is worth it. He has little use for the money he has found and is quite devoted to his rough, independent lifestyle. When the novel ends, Huck, like Tom, is still a work in progress, and we aren’t sure whether the Widow Douglas’s attempts to civilize him will succeed (Twain reserves the conclusion of Huck’s story for his later novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).

Injun Joe

Injun Joe is Tom Sawyer’s villain. His actions are motivated, from beginning to end, by unadulterated malevolence. When Injun Joe explains his motivation for revenge against Dr. Robinson and later against the Widow Douglas, we see that his personal history involves others mistreating and excluding him. Yet the disproportion between the wrongs Injun Joe has suffered—at least as he enumerates them—and the level of vengeance he hopes to exact is so extreme that we aren’t tempted to excuse his behavior. In contrast, Muff Potter’s misdeeds are inconsequential compared to the punishment he stands to receive. One might also compare Injun Joe to Sid: both are motivated by malice, which they paper over with a convincing performance of innocence.

Though his appearance changes when he disguises himself as a deaf and mute Spaniard, Injun Joe undergoes no real character development over the course of the novel. He never seems to repent for his crimes or change his spiteful outlook. His reappearances in different parts of the novel help to provide a thread of continuity, as they bring the murder-case plot, the treasure-hunt plot, and the adventures-in-the-cave plots together into a single narrative. Injun Joe’s presence also adds suspense to the novel, because we have very little sense of whether Tom and Huck’s constant fear that Injun Joe will hurt them has any basis in reality.

 

Aunt Polly 

Tom’s aunt and guardian. Aunt Polly is a simple, kindhearted woman who struggles to balance her love for her nephew with her duty to discipline him. She generally fails in her attempts to keep Tom under control because, although she worries about Tom’s safety, she seems to fear constraining him too much. Above all, Aunt Polly wants to be appreciated and loved.

4. Comment:

 Moral and Social Maturation

When the novel opens, Tom is engaged in and often the organizer of childhood pranks and make-believe games. As the novel progresses, these initially consequence-free childish games take on more and more gravity. Tom leads himself, Joe Harper, Huck, and, in the cave, Becky Thatcher into increasingly dangerous situations. He also finds himself in predicaments in which he must put his concern for others above his concern for himself, such as when he takes Becky’s punishment and when he testifies at Injun Joe’s trial. As Tom begins to take initiative to help others instead of himself, he shows his increasing maturity, competence, and moral integrity.

Tom’s adventures toJackson’sIslandand McDougal’s Cave take him away from society. These symbolic removals help to prepare him to return to the village with a new, more adult outlook on his relationship to the community. Though early on Tom looks up to Huck as much older and wiser, by the end of the novel, Tom’s maturity has surpassed Huck’s. Tom’s personal growth is evident in his insistence, in the face of Huck’s desire to flee all social constraints, that Huck stay with the Widow Douglas and become civilized.

Society’s Hypocrisy

Twain complicates Tom’s position on the border between childhood and adulthood by ridiculing and criticizing the values and practices of the adult world toward which Tom is heading. Twain’s harshest satire exposes the hypocrisy—and often the essential childishness—of social institutions such as school, church, and the law, as well as public opinion. He also mocks individuals, although when doing so he tends to be less biting and focuses on flaws of character that we understand to be universal.

Twain shows that social authority does not always operate on wise, sound, or consistent principles and that institution fall prey to the same kinds of mistakes that individuals do. In his depiction of families, he shows parental authority and constraint balanced by parental love and indulgence. Though she attempts to restrain and punish Tom, Aunt Polly always relents because of her love for her nephew. As the novel proceeds, a similar tendency toward indulgence becomes apparent within the broader community as well. The community shows its indulgence when Tom’s dangerous adventures provoke an outpouring of concern: the community is perfectly ready to forgive Tom’s wrongs if it can be sure of his safety. Twain ridicules the ability of this collective tendency toward generosity and forgiveness to go overboard when he describes the town’s sentimental forgiveness of the villainous Injun Joe after his death.

Freedom through Social Exclusion

St. Petersburgis an insular community in which outsiders are easily identified. The most notable local outsiders include Huck Finn, who fends for himself outside of any family structure because his father is a drunkard; Muff Potter, also a drunk; and Injun Joe, a malevolent half-breed. Despite the community’s clear separation of outsiders from insiders, however, it seems to have a strong impulse toward inclusiveness. The community tolerates the drunkenness of a harmless rascal like Muff Potter, and Huck is more or less protected even though he exists on the fringes of society. Tom too is an orphan who has been taken in by Aunt Polly out of love and filial responsibility. Injun Joe is the only resident ofSt. Petersburgwho is completely excluded from the community. Only after Injun Joe’s death are the townspeople able to transform him, through their manipulation of his memory, into a tolerable part ofSt. Petersburgsociety.

Superstition in an Uncertain World

Twain first explores superstition in the graveyard, where Tom and Huck go to try out a magical cure for warts. From this point forward, superstition becomes an important element in all of the boys’ decision-making. The convenient aspect of Tom and Huck’s superstitious beliefs is that there are so many of them, and they are so freely interpretable; Tom and Huck can pick and choose whichever belief suits their needs at the time. In this regard, Twain suggests, superstition bears a resemblance to religion—at least as the populace ofSt. Petersburgpractices it.

The humorousness of the boys’ obsession with witches, ghosts, and graveyards papers over, to some extent, the real horror of the circumstances to which the boys are exposed: grave digging, murder, starvation, and attempted mutilation. The relative ease with which they assimilate these ghastly events into their childish world is perhaps one of the least realistic aspects of the novel. (If the novel were written today, we might expect to read about the psychic damage these extreme childhood experiences have done to these boys.) The boys negotiate all this horror because they exist in a world suspended somewhere between reality and make-believe. Their fear of death is real and pervasive, for example, but we also have the sense that they do not really understand death and all of its ramifications.

5 Conclusions

I believe that one of the factors that makes a piece of literature or even a movie a masterpiece is how well the reader can relate to the story. This is definitely a book everyone can relate to.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a literary masterpiece, written in 1876 by the famous author Mark Twain. Tom Sawyer is a mischievous young boy who lives in the small town on the Mississippi River calledSt. Petersburg. The story line is simple, the book reads like a biography or a memoir of a summer in Tom Sawyer’s life.

Tom Sawyer seems to be the precursor of and the template for misfit kids such as Dennis the Menace, Malcolm in the Middle, and Calvin andHobbs. What makes this story great is that Tom Sawyer represents everything that is great about childhood. The book is filled with Tom’s adventures playing pirates and war with his friend Joe Harper. Tom has a trusted friend, Huck Finn, who few of the adults approve of. The book is filled with ideas of how the world works, such as how pirates and robbers work, that are so innocent, and they could only come from a child. It is a story filled with action, adventure, ingenious ideas, love, and schoolyard politics. The whole story is seemingly a complication of what people did or wish they did during their childhood.

The book is a little difficult to read at first. Personally, it takes me a little while to get used to the 19th century dialect in the book. Other than referring to persons of African descent in derogatory terms (which I’m sure uses terms even young children already know), the book would be an enjoyable read for people of all ages. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to feel young again, if just for a few hundred pages.

Concerned with Tom’s personal growth and quest for identity, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer incorporates several different genres. It resembles a bildungsroman, a novel that follows the development of a hero from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. The novel also resembles novels of the picaresque genre, in that Tom moves from one adventurous episode to another. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer also fits the genres of satire, frontier literature, folk narrative, and comedy.

Revolt or Surrender

Summary

Uncle Tom, a slave on theShelbyplantation, is loved by his owners, their son, and every slave on the property. He lives contentedly with his wife and children in their own cabin until Mr. Shelby, deeply in debt to a slave trader named Haley, agrees to sell Tom and Harry, the child of his wife’s servant Eliza. Tom is devastated but vows that he will not run away, as he believes that to do so would plunge his master so far into debt that he would be forced to sell every slave.

 

Just before Tom is taken away, Mrs. Shelby promises him that she will buy him back as soon as she can gather the funds. Tom is sold to Haley, who eventually sells him to a kindly master named Mr. St. Clare.

 

  Eliza, however, cannot bear to part with her son and escapes the night before he is to be taken from her. She escapes successfully and makes her way to a Quaker village, with a family that harbors slaves. There, she is reunited with her husband George, who lived on a neighboring plantation and has also escaped to flee his master’s cruelty. The couple and their son spend a night with the Quaker family before returning to the Underground Railroad.

 

Tom befriends his new master and especially his young daughter Eva, who shares Tom’s deep religious faith and devotion. Eva abhors cruelty and eventually is so overcome with grief over slavery that when she becomes ill, she accepts her impending death peacefully and tells her family and their servants that she is happy knowing that she is going to heaven, where such cruelty does not exist. St. Clare begins to confront the realization that he believes slavery is evil, and he promises Tom that he will fill out forms guaranteeing his freedom in the event of St. Clare’s death.

 

Shortly after Eva dies, her father dies tragically in an accident, and Tom’s fate is left entirely in the hands of Marie, St. Clare’s selfish and unsympathetic wife. Marie decides to move back to her parents’ estate and to sell all the slaves, despite Miss Ophelia’s exhortation that Marie should fulfill St. Clare’s promise to give Tom his freedom. Marie refuses, and just before he is sold, he writes a letter to theShelbys(with the help of Mr. Legree) telling them his plight and asking for their help. The letter goes unanswered, and Tom ends up in the hands of Simon Legree, an evil and bitter plantation owner whose philosophy is to work his slaves hard and replace them when they inevitably die just a few years later.

 

On Legree’s plantation, Tom meets two fellow slaves, Emmeline and Cassy. Emmeline is a young mulatto woman sold to Legree at the same time as Tom, and she attempts to befriend the embittered Cassy, who has suffered at the hands of Legree for several years. Cassy has seen her children sold and is so destitute that Tom’s pleas that she put her faith and trust in God fall on deaf ears. Legree soon comes to hate Tom after Tom refuses to beat and discipline the other slaves. Legree had planned to turn Tom into a brutal overseer, and when he realizes that Tom will not participate in cruelty, he becomes enraged and takes out his wrath on Tom. Tom becomes discouraged until he has a vision of heaven one night as he is drifting off to sleep. The vision reinvigorates him, and he decides it is his mission to suffer for the other slaves. He regularly fills their cotton baskets at the expense of his own, gives them his food and water, and reads the Bible to them.

 

Tom’s acts of kindness enrage Legree, and when Emmeline and Cassy escape, he demands that Tom tell him everything he knows. Tom admits that he knew of their plans to escape and is aware of their whereabouts, but he refuses to disclose where they are. Legree beats Tom so severely that after a few days, he dies.

 

Cassy and Emmeline eventually escape, and they happen to wind up on the same northern-bound ferry as George Shelby, who is rooming next to a woman named Madame de Thoux. Through conversation, it is discovered that Eliza Harris is Cassy’s daughter, and George Harris is Madame de Thoux’s brother. Cassy and Madame de Thoux journey together toCanada, where they are reunited with their family. Madame de Thoux reveals that her husband has left her a large inheritance, and they all move toFrancetogether, where George is educated. The family then relocates toAfrica, and Cassy’s long-lost son, who has been traced, joins them. Topsy moves with Miss Ophelia to New England, then moves toAfricato work as a missionary. George Shelby gives all the servants on theShelbyfarm their freedom, and tells them to be Christians and to think of Tom.

 

Brief introduction of the writer

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), American writer and philanthropist, best-known for the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851-52). The book was quickly translated into 37 languages and it sold in five years over half a million copies in theUnited States.

 

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811, inLitchfield,Connecticut, and brought up with puritanical strictness. She had one sister and six brothers. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a controversial Calvinist preacher. Stowe’s mother died when she was four. When she was eleven years old, she entered the seminary atHartford,Connecticut, kept by her elder sister. Four years later she was employed as assistant teacher.

 

In 1834 Stowe began her literary career when she won a prize contest of the Western Monthly Magazine, and soon she was a regular contributor of stories and essays. Her first book, The Mayflower, appeared in 1843.

 

In 1836 Stowe married Calvin E. Stowe, a professor at her father’s theological seminary. The early years of their marriage were marked by poverty. Over the next 14 years Stowe had 7 children. In 1850 Calvin Stowe was offered a professorship at Bowdoin, and they moved toBrunswick,Maine. In Cincinnati Stowe had come in contact with fugitive slaves. She learned about life in the South from her own visits there and saw how cruel slavery was. These experiences led Stowe to compose her famous novel, which was first published in the anti-slavery newspaper The National Era and later in book form.

 

Stowe started to publish her writings in The Atlantic Monthly and later in the Independent and in Christian Union. In 1853, 1856, and 1859 Stowe made journeys toEuropeand became friends with George Eliot, Elisabeth Barrett Browning, and Lady Byron. However, British public opinion turned against her when she charged Lord Byron with incestuous relations with his half-sister in Lady Byron Vindicated (1870).

 

Attacks on the veracity of her portrayal of the South led Stowe to publish The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1853), in which she presented her source material. A second anti-slavery novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856), told the story of a dramatic attempt at slave rebellion. Stowe’s later works did not gain the same popularity as Uncle Tom’s Cabin . She published novels, studies of social life, essays, and a small volume of religious poems. Pearl of Orr’s Island (1862), Old-Town Folks (1869) and her last novel Poganuc People (1878) were partly based on her husband’s childhood reminiscences and are among the first examples of local color writing inNew England.

 

Stowe’s mental faculties failed in 1888, two years after the death of her husband. She died on July 1,1896 inHartford,Connecticut.

 

 

 

Main characters of the story

The main characters in this story are Uncle Tom, Eliza and George Harris.

Uncle Tom is a pious, trustworthy, slave. He never wrongs anyone and always obeys his master. A very spiritual person, Uncle Tom tries his best to obey the Bible and to do what is right. Eliza is a beautiful slave owned by George Shelby, Sr., the same person who initially owns Tom. Eliza has a son, Harry. Eliza’s husband, George Harris, lives on a nearby plantation. George is a brilliant man, and invented a machine that was used in the factory he works in. His owner became jealous and demoted George from his factory job to doing hard labor on the plantation. Setting: These stories takes place throughout the states ofKentuckyandMississippiin the year1891 inthe Plantations and fields and workshops are were the slaves work mostly in sunny and good working conditions.

Chapters 1-5 because hisKentuckyplantation was overwhelmed by debt, George Shelby, Sr. makes plans to trade some slaves to a slave dealer named Haley in exchange for debts being canceled. The dealer selects Uncle Tom as payment for the debt. While the two are discussing the possible transaction, Eliza’s son, Harry, comes rushing into the room. Haley decides he wants to take Harry also, butShelbyrefuses to part with the child. Eliza, overhearing part of the conversation, is frightened and confides her fears to her husband, George Harris. The fact that George’s owner is mistreating him, combined with a possible sale of his son persuades George to begin planning to run away. After inferring from an overheard conversation between Mrs. Shelby and Mr. Shelby that they are indeed going to sell Harry and Uncle Tom, Eliza warns Tom and she runs away.

Chapters 6-15 Eliza is able to cross theOhio Riverand get to a safe place before Haley’s two hired slave-catchers can catch up with her. Although he was warned, Uncle Tom stays on the plantation, leaving it up to God to protect him. At the same time, George Harris begins his escape. Disguised as a Spaniard, George takes his time finding a route on the Underground Railroad. He just happens to go to the same place where Eliza and Harry are being hidden. The family is finally united at a Quaker Settlement. Uncle Tom, meanwhile, is on a boat en route toNew Orleans. After gallantly saving the life of young Eva St. Clare, he is rewarded by being bought by her father, Augustine. Augustine is married to a selfish woman who claims to be sick and takes no interest in her daughter. So it is on his return trip fromMainewhere he has picked up his cousin Ophelia who will care for Eva that Augustine buys Tom.

Chapters 16-30 Unused to Southern customs and slavery, Ophelia tries to bring order to the St. Claire plantation, but the pampered slaves do not cooperate. Eva, who has always been frail, was dying and asks her father to free his slaves. After her death, Augustine was making plans to free the slaves when he was killed while breaking up a fight. Mrs. St. Clare had no intentions of freeing any slaves and had Uncle Tom sold at an auction to a brutal plantation owner named Simon Legree.

Chapters 31-40 For weeks, Uncle Tom tries in vain to please his new master. Legree has enough of Tom’s good heartedness after Tom was ordered to beat another female slave and refused. For this show of abstinence, Tom was beaten until he fainted. A slave woman named Cassy helps treat Tom’s wounds and afterwards went to Legree’s apartment to torment him. Legree is superstitious and believes that Cassy would cast an evil spell on him, and as a result, he was afraid of her. Haunting by the guilty secrets, Legree drinks until he falls asleep. Soon, Cassy along with another slave, Emmeline, run away from the plantation. Convinced that Tom knows something about it, Legree again has him beat until he can’t speak or stand.

Chapters 41-45 Two days later, George Shelby, Jr. arrives at Legree’s plantation to buy Tom back, but it is too late. Uncle Tom is dying, and at his death, Shelby Jr. determines to free all his slaves. He then helps Cassy and Emmeline escape. Later, on a river boat headed north, they meet Madame de Thoux whom they find out is George Harris’ sister. Upon discussing this, they also discover that Cassy is Eliza’s mother. The two women go toCanadawhere Eliza, George and Harry had settled. Finally, the family is united. Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped to turn the tide of public opinion against slavery in the 19th century. After View: This controversial novel was initially written to question slavery and to convince people of its wrongness. It was the first book that brought the problem of Negro slavery inAmericato the attention of the world. It became not only a bestseller, but a social documentary of the lives of slaves. While living inOhiojust across the river from slave holdingKentucky, Harriet Beecher Stowe had a first hand view of terrified runaway slaves and cruel bounty hunters. After moving back toNew England, she decided to write a book about what she had seen. At one point she said, My heart was bursting with the anguish excited by the cruelty and injustice our nation was showing to the slave, and praying God to let me do a little and cause my cry for them to be heard.1 Mrs. Stowe’s cry was heard very loudly in her book that criticized slavery and counted slavery as a national sin. She hoped her novel would bring slavery to a quick and peaceful end, however it only increased northern hostility towards the South.

 

 

Straight matter

My first reaction to this book is that it was based much more on religion than I had imagined it to be. As I expected, Stowe’s main purpose of the book was to nakedly expose the institution of slavery toAmericaand the rest of the world with the hopes that something would be done about it. To achieve this purpose, she showed us individual instances of slavery in a country that prided itself on its Christianity and its laws protecting freedom. She showed us how absurd slavery is “beneath the shadow of American laws and the shadow of the cross of Christ.”

 

I was also surprised at the various kinds of relationships between whites and blacks of the South. We learn that not all whites were bad and not all blacks were good, but that there were quite a mixture of characters and relationships. That was strength of the book. It’s not a melodrama, but shows an evil institution which allows both good and evil and all those in between to exist under it, and how this institution affects the individuals. Legree’s plantation, for instance, corrupted anyone who came there. But the reader understands that it is the system that allows this which is the root of the problem, and that, by the way is a North/South problem, not just a Southern problem. She specifically calls on the North at the end of the book to ask them if they can live with the institution of slavery in their country and still call themselves Christians, a wise move.

 

One of the most memorable characters was, of course, Eva. Stowe was able to give her a true, simple, child’s voice which spoke unadulterated truth about the relations and happenings around her:

 

“Poor old Prue’s child was all that she had,–and yet she had to hear it crying, and she couldn’t help it! Papa, these poor creatures love their children as much as you do me. O! do something for them! There’s poor Mammy loves her children have seen her cry when she talked about them. And Tom loves his children; and it’s dreadful, papa, that such things are happening, all the time!”

 

You can’t help but say, “Oh, my god, she’s right you know!” Eva’s is a powerful voice in this book. But Eva’s Jesus-like gathering of the slaves before she died was a bit much in its reference to Jesus. How old was Eva?  Are these the words of a little kid?

 

“I sent for you all, my dear friends,” said Eva, “because I love you. I love you all; and I have something to say to you, which I want you always to remember . . . . I am going to leave you. In a few more weeks, you will see me no more–“

 

The character Eva seemed to be an innocent child telling her family and the world about how she saw slavery which exposed a lot of its evils. But when she turned into a mini Jesus and preached to the slaves before her death as Jesus had preached the disciples before his death, I felt the author had given to too great of a “jump into maturity ” to be believable, unless the short life of Eva was really supposed to be a real miracle occurrences. Eva was powerful enough as a real character that looks at slavery from innocent eyes. Her transfiguration into a holy person at the end took some of her punch away.

 

As a Jesus-character, Tom transcends the book as a Christian hero. An interesting study would be a comparison of Tom and Jesus. One direct parallel, for instance, is the direct temptation that Legree put upon Tom to break him and make him give up his religion for Legree’s “church.” It parallels to the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the desert.

 

An important question asked throughout the book was “If we emancipate, are we willing to educate?” In her essay at the end, Stowe chides those white Americans who feel they are doing the slaves a favor by sending them back to Africa so that they can live in the supposedly free country ofLiberia. She directly asks the reader, “Would you be willing to take a slave into your Christian home and educate him?” This question went right into every household in the North.

 

A short introduction at the beginning of my book asked the question whether or not it was “good literary style” for Stowe to talk directly to the reader in the book. I don’t think Stowe was trying to create literary work of art other than would serve her purpose of communicating to the reader what exactly slavery was inAmericaat that time. She wrote the book so that she could talk directly to the reader. It may not be good literary style but it reminds the reader that “this books for you.”

 

If you want to look at this book in terms of an interesting piece of literature outside its social and political context, I don’t think you have much to look at. The story itself is not interesting (the escape plan of Cassy was the high point), it’s packed with religious dogma at every turn (borders on Puritan literature), and you don’t see hardly any character development except perhaps for Augustine, but he is so wish washy that his conversion right before his death doesn’t give you any insights into his character or human nature. This book is simply expository: it uncovers the institution of slavery. This is what makes the book riveting to read.

 

Stowe seems to have seen quite a number of individual incidents of slavery for her to be able to write powerful and moving scenes like this one in which the slave George gives Mr. Wilson, a former humane owner, the view of slavery in America from the slave’s point of view. This speech by George was the most powerful in the book:

 

“See here, now, Mr. Wilson,” said George, coming up and sitting himself determinately down in front of him; “look at me, now. Don’t I sit before you, every way, just as much a man as you are? Look at my face,–look at my body,” and the young man drew himself up proudly; “why am I not a man, as much as anybody? Well, Mr. Wilson, hear what I can tell you. I had a father–one of yourKentuckygentlemen–who didn’t think enough of me to keep me from being sold with his dogs and horses, to satisfy the estate, when he died. I saw my mother put up at sheriff’s sale, with her seven children. They were sold before her eyes, one by one, all to different masters; and I was the youngest. She came and kneeled down before old Mas’r, and begged him to buy her with me, that she might have at least one child with her; and he kicked her away with his heavy boot. I saw him do it; and the last that I heard was her moans and screams, when I was tied to his horse’s neck, to be carried off to his place.”

“Well, then?”

“My master traded with one of the men, and bought my oldest sister. She was a pious, good girl,–a member of theBaptistChurch,–and as handsome as my poor mother had been. She was well brought up, and had good manners. At first, I was glad she was bought, for I had one friend near me. I was soon sorry for it. Sir, I have stood at the door and heard her whipped, when it seemed as if every blow cut into my naked heart, and I couldn’t do anything to help her; and she was whipped, sir, for wanting to live a decent Christian life, such as your laws give no slave girl a right to live; and at last I saw her chained with a trader’s gang, to be sent to market in Orleans,–sent there for nothing else but that,–and that’s the last I know of her. Well, I grew up,–long years and years,–no father, no mother, no sister, not a living soul that cared for me more than a dog; nothing but whipping, scolding, starving. Why, sir, I’ve been so hungry that I have been glad to take the bones they threw to their dogs; and yet, when I was a little follow, and laid awake whole nights and cried, it wasn’t the hunger, it wasn’t the whipping, I cried for. No, sir; it was for my mother and my sisters.–It was because I hadn’t a friend to love me on earth. I never knew what peace or comfort was. I never had a kind word spoken to me till I came to work in your factory. Mr. Wilson, you treated me well; you encouraged me to do well, and to learn to read and write, and to try to make something of myself; and God knows how grateful I am for it. Then, sir, I found my wife; you’ve seen her,–you know how beautiful she is. When I found she loved me, when I married her, I scarcely could believe I was alive, I was so happy; and, sir, she is as good as she is beautiful. But now what? Why, it now comes my master, takes me right away from my work, and my friends, and all I like, and grinds me down into the very dirt! Why? Because, he says, I forgot who I was; he says, to teach me that I am only a nigger! After all, and last of all, he comes between me and my wife, and says I shall give her up, and live with another woman. And all this laws give him power to do, in spite of God or man. Mr. Wilson, look at it! There isn’t one of all these things, that have broken the hearts of my mother and my sister, and my wife and me, but your laws allow, and give every man power to do inKentucky, and none can say to him, nay! Do you call these the laws of my country? Sir, I haven’t any country, any more than I have any father. But I’m going to have one. I don’t want anything of your country, except to be let alone,–to go peaceably out of it; and when I get toCanada, where the laws will own me and protect me, that shall be my country, and its laws I will obey. But if any man tries to stop me, let him take care, for I am desperate. I’ll fight for my liberty to the last breath I breathe. You say your fathers did it; if it was right for them, it is right for me!”

 

Powerful! The realization that the slaves are in a country which just recently declared itself “free from oppression” makes the system utterly absurd and contradictory.

 

With the voice of Augustine, Stowe tells us what slavery is really:

 

This cursed business, accursed of God and man, what is it? Strip it of all its ornament, run it down to the root and nucleus of the whole, and what is it? Why, because my brother Quashy is ignorant and weak, and I am intelligent and strong,–because I know how, and can do it,–therefore, I may steal all he has, keep it, and give him only such and so much as suits my fancy. Whatever is too hard, to dirty, to disagreeable, for me, I may set Quashy to doing. Because I don’t like work, Quashy shall work. Because the sun burns me, Quashy shall stay in the sun. Quashy shall earn the money, and I will spend it. Quashy shall lie down in every puddle, that I may walk over dry-shod. Quashy shall do my will and not his, all the days of his mortal life, and have such chance of getting to heaven, at last as I find convenient. This I take to be about what slavery is. I defy anybody on earth to read our slave-cod, as it stands in our lawny-books, and make anything else of it. Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse!

 

In painting theUnited Statesas the land of freedom or God’s country, you cannot forget about slavery. What was it doing in the land of freedom? What was it doing in a country that prided itself in its application to the teachings of the Bible? Slavery’s social and political ramifications reach us even today. It is inAmerica’s history and its roots. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a must read for Americans so that we do not forget.

Inevitability of Gatsby’s Tragedy

Inevitability of Gatsby’s Tragedy

Abstract：

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzerald mainly describes Gatsby’s tragedy through Nick’s eyes. He presents how Gatsby struggled for his dreams of wealth, status and love, and finally his dreams changed into the foam with his death. His tragedy was closely related with his illusion of Daisy, his fatal characters and the ruthless and degenerate social reality. With these factor, Gatsby was destined to be isolated helpless and to fail in all.

Key word:

Gatsby, American Dream, tragedy, inevitability

Inevitability of Gatsby’s Tragedy

1. 1.     Brief Introduction of Author

F. Scott Fitzerald, whose full name is Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, is an American writer of novels and short stories. His works are regarded as the typical writings of Jazz age, a term he use to express himself. He is also widely regarded as one of the most outstanding American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the “Lost Generation” of the 1920s. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and his most famous, The Great Gatsby. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon was published posthumously. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with despair and age. Novels such as The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night were made into films, and in 1958 his life from 1937–1940 was dramatized in Beloved Infidel.

The Great Gatsby is one of the greatest literary works of this period and one of the classics in American literature, which reveals the moral emptiness and hypocrisy under the prosperity of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald uses his pen to reveal the life and the ideas of people after the First World War and introduces one kind of valuable spirit. The American dream of happiness and individualism has fallen into the mere pursuit of wealth. Fitzgerald presents the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, skillfully choosing a first-person narrator, Nick Carraway’s perspective.

2. Plot Summary

The story begins with Nick Carraway’s narration. In 1922, Nick was bore of the life of midwest, so he rented a house in West Egg, Long Island Sound, and began to learn the bond business in New York. And beside his house, there is Gatby’s mansion. Across the bay, there is East Egg, where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live. Daisy is Nick’s cousin. Nick is a man of fortune and also very ruthless and bigoted. Daisy is beautiful and melancholy, and once fell in love with Gatsby.

Jay Gatesby was born in a poor family. While he served in U.S. Army, he fell in love with Daisy. But later, he went overseas to take part in the World War First. Then, Daisy got married with a rich man, Tom Buchanan. But Tom had a mistress in New York. So Daisy was not happy in this marriage.

And now, Jay Gatsby appeared before her again. And what’s more, he was still a bachelor. He bought a big villa which was opposite to Daisy’s house. He became a upstar by illegal transactions and held a lot of gaudy parties. And all of these, he just wanted to call Daisy’s attention and rebuild their love. Nick was invited to Gatsby’s party. When he saw him, he thought “he came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor”.

As expected, Gatsby asked Nick to arrange an appointment for him and Daisy. When Gatsby met Daisy again, he was so excited and perplexed. Daisy’s expression showed that he could save their love and go back to the past. They immersed in this feeling, and totally forget Nick’s existence. However, in Nick’s mind, Daisy was no longer as Gatsby’s dream. However, Gatsby lost in Daisy’s excited voice.

Soon, Tom and Daisy came to Gatsby’s party. Gatsby introduced the guests, New York’s ladies, famous stars and directors to them. After that, Daisy went to Gatsby’s house very often. Soon, Nick and Gatsby came to visit Daisy，and Tom was very averse to him. Later,they went to New York. Tom blamed Gatsby for that he had caused the family quarrel and smeared like a trooper for his selling alcohol without permission to make money. And Gatsby wanted Daisy to tell the truth that she had never loved Tom, who she loved was Gatsby. However, it turned out not a truth. Actually, Daisy did love Tom. It was that moment that Gatsby’s dream broke.

So agitated, Daisy caused a car accident when she was driving Gatsby’s car, which led Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson, to death. After the accident, they just ran away from it.

George Wilson, Myrtle Wilson’s husband found that the car, which caused the accident was just parked before Gatsby’s villa. With the thought that Gatsby killed his wife, he sneaked into Gatsby’s villa, killed Gatsby, who was swimming at that time, with a gun, then killed himself. After the murder,Nick made a phone call to Daisy. However, Daisy had already travelled to Europe with her husband. And on the funeral, few of the so-called friends came, except Tom and his old father. Daisy did not call back, nor sent any wreath.

Gatsby had paid so much for his unachievable dream, even was led to the death. After his death, Nick found that Tom may instigate Wilson to kill Gatsby. Disgusted with Tom and Daisy,, he felt the world was so fickleness that he moved back to his hometown, the Midwest.

1. 3.     Main Character Analysis

Jay Gatsby: The main character of the novel, young and mysterious. He was born James Gatz in a poor family, but later became a millionaire by doing illegal business. While serving in the U.S. Army, he fell in love with Daisy Fay, but she married another rich man after Gatsby went overseas. After Gatsby returned, he pursued his dream—-to earn a lot of of money and reclaim Daisy. But at the end, his dream was totally broken and he died with nothing.

Nick Carraway: The narrator of the novel, honest, tolerant. He is a young man from Minnesota. He was educated at Yale and fighted in World War I, and then goes to New York City to learn the bond business. He is Daisy’s cousin and becomes entwined with her life and Gatsby’s. The Great Gatsby is told entirely through Nick’s eyes, his thoughts shape and color the story.

Daisy Fay Buchanan: Beautiful young woman, who is Nick’s cousin, the ideal women of Gatsby and married wealthy Tom Buchanan. She is shallow, immature, cynical, and behaves superficially. Although unhappy in her marriage and her privileged lifestyle, she is unwilling to give up either.

Tom Buchanan: Daisy’s wealthy husband, who comes from a socially solid old family. He is arrogant, hypocritical, boorish and bigoted. His has the social attitudes of racism and sexism. He had no moral qualms about his own affair with Myrtle. But he was very angry when he began to suspect Daisy and Gatsby.

Jordan Baker: A competitive golfer and a friend of Daisy’s. She represents one of the “new women” of the 1920s—self-centered, cynical, and a little bit boyish.

Myrtle Wilson: Tom Buchanan’s mistress,  from the lower-class. She is envious of Daisy. She possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a way to improve her situation. Unfortunately, Tom did not love him at all.

George Wilson: Myrtle’s husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop over which he and his wife live in an apartment. George loves Myrtle very much. He shares similarity with Gatsby because they both are dreamers and are destroyed by their love for women who love Tom.

1. 4.     Gatsby’s Dreams

Gatsby’s dreams are the epitomes of American Dream. The American Dream developed in the nineteenth century, whose original essence is that no matter who you are, where you are from, you can make your dreams come true if you work hard to live a new, free and better life. This is so –called American Dream. It’s the idea that the American way of life offers the equal possibility of unlimited economic, social, etc. One can always work their way up from the rags to riches just like Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the US. And Gatsby’s dreams are just the products of this idea.

Gatsby has three kinds of dreams. The first dream is about wealth. He was born in a poor family and he dreamed of changing his life and live a wealthy and comfortable life as the upper class since he was born. In order to make his dream come true, he did a lot of jobs, like waiter, captain, secretary, officer, and even the guard of prison. As a man full of ambitions, he would never be satisfied with the common life. As to make his dream come true, he changed his name from Gatz into Gatsby, which means the son of god. In the eyes of Gatsby, without money, you can do nothing and the foundation of all the things is wealth. With such ambitions, he became a millionaire by selling illegal alcohol and cooperating with a ruffian, Wolf. In brief, he would do anything to reach his goals. Finally, he succeeded. His first dream came true.

The second dream of Gatsby is to get into the upper-class. He chose to hold all kinds of lavish parties to show off his wealth and associated with people from upper-class. And it seems just a small cake for Gatsby after his becoming a millionaire. But this kind of position may not be recognized by all the people. Still, a lot of people, like Tom, never admit. So, we can see, even in the society that advocates American Dream, it is still a dream and illusion for the rock-bottom people to get into the upper-class.

The third dream of Gatsby is about love. Gatsby treats Daisy as ideal combination of beauty and kindness. To get married with Daisy became all the prime powers of his hard-working. And he tried to win Daisy back with wealth. However, Daisy is not as he thought. She is a lady from upper-class, with good appearance and treats pleasure life as her goal. Her thoughts are not as beautiful as her appearance. She would no longer to sacrifice her own benefits to realize Gatsby’s dream. His dream was totally broken when he was killed.

“If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your house across the bay,” said Gatsby, you always have a green light that burns all nights at the end of your dock.” In the novel, the green light represented the hope, future and dreams of innocent Gatsby. As a result, the more perfect his ideal became, the more far away reality was.

5.  Inevitability of Gatsby’s Tragedy

Inevitability of Gatsby’s Tragedy is related with the illusion of Daisy.

In the mind of Gatsby, Daisy was the first lover and also the ideal lover. When Gatsby served in the U.S Army, Daisy was extremely popular among the military officers and Jay Gatsby was included. He would never change his feeling about her. In this novel, wealth was not the most significant to Gatsby. All the motivation of Gatsby’s hard working comes into a name, Daisy. In order to win Daisy back, he tried his best to own money even get immense wealth through criminal activity. To Gatsby, Daisy was just the paragon of perfection—she is charming, wealthy, elegant, graceful, and noble. He could only repeat the past with Daisy day and night and suppose one day that he will find lost pure love. After he became a millionaire, he bought a luxurious mansion in front of Daisy’s house. “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see your house across the bay,” said Gatsby, “you always have a green light that burns all nights at the end of your dock.” Almost five years, Gatsby never stopped recalling his first lover Daisy. “He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fine or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.” Definitely, he loved her more than she did.

However, Daisy was not as perfect as in Gatsby’s mind. She is an earthly woman and with bad virtues. Or we can just call her a woman with a badly worldly beauty with a good appearance and empty soul. In fact, she is beautiful and charming, but from the other hand, she is also fickle, shallow, bored, and sardonic. Daisy’s real nature became obvious when she chose Tom instead of Gatsby in Chapter 7, and then she allowed Gatsby to take the blame for killing Myrtle Wilson even with the fact that she was the accident causer. Finally, she hasn’t attended Gatsby’s funeral, but on the contrary, she and Tom just moved away.

Furthermore,Daisy is in love with money, ease, and material luxury. In this novel, the author has described that:

“She’s got and indiscreet voice,” I remarked.

“It’s full of —–” I hesitated.

“Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly.

That was it. Of love and marriage, she was also a failure, for her voice was full of money. “It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the symbols’ song of it……high in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl……” What’s worse, she was not a good mother, as she is indifferent even to her own infant daughter, never discussing her and treating her as an afterthought when she is introduced in Chapter 7. In Fitzgerald’s conception of America in the 1920s, Daisy represents the amoral values of the aristocratic East Egg set. Without any doubt, Daisy presents the epicurean: money first and material prominent. It was true that she loved Gatsby, but later in order to enjoy magnificent and comfortable life, she married Tom against her wills.When he found Gatsby has become much richer, she turned to him. But when Tom told the fact that Gatsby was a bootlegger and his wealth was illegal, Daisy shrank at once. “ ‘Even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom,’ she admitted in a pitiful voice, ‘It wouldn’t be true’. ”

Compared with Gatsby’s ideals, Daisy was far away from it. In reality, Gatsby fell in love with a person who didn’t worthy of his love as she was lacking of virtues and sincerity. But from the beginning to the end, he always treated her as his ideal lover and do everything to win her back. And all of these led himself to the death and caused Gatsby’s tragedy. From another hand, the illusion of Daisy and not realizing the reality completed his tragedy.

Inevitability of Gatsby’s Tragedy is related with Gatsby’s fatal characters.

There is a famous saying, characters decide one’s fate. That is to say, it is his unique and fatal characters that lead him to his tragedy.

Gatsby was also an American Dream follower and believer all the way. He thought the opportunity was equal to everyone and he could change his position and life by wealth. However, he was never accepted by the upper-class, like Tom and Daisy. However rich he was, he could not successfully get into the upper-class. But Gatsby did not realize it and still struggle for it and even hope one day, he could win the ideal woman back. Therefore, he was obstinate in his mind and dream. And this character is inevitable that his American Dream was disillusioned.

To some extent, Gatsby is naive and stupid, because he never sees Daisy in her true colors just as he never sees the green light clearly. He was supposing to gain the pure love from Daisy and repeat the past with her. In order to win her back, he tried to be wealthy even through illegal business. Later, when he became a millionaire, he bought a mansion where he could see Daisy’s house and held all kinds of lavish parties to gain her attention. But it is easy for us to find that throughout his courtship of Daisy, Gatsby is always in a position of less power and lower social status. Because what Gatsby saw is Daisy’s illusion, he would no longer realize his dreams. Even in the end, he was still willing to be responsible for the car accident, which was caused by Daisy. And this directly led his death. After his death, Daisy and Tom just moved away, and even a wreath was not sent to his funeral. The bad virtue of Daisy also made Gatsby’s dream for pure love unachievable.   

What’s more, Gatsby was ignorant and somewhat innocent. Firstly, Gatsby did not recognize the essence of upper-class clearly and was ignorant about this special society. As far as we can see, Gatsby set making fortune as the shortcut to involve in the upper-class. However, this class was far more than he had concerned. Though he spent no effort to struggle for his dream, he failed at last. When he was still alive, he held different kinds of feasts and lavish parties. As a result, quite a lot visitors came, most of whom were from the upper-class. But after his death, no telephones and messages arrived to show their concerns. On Gatsby’s funeral ceremony, “about five o’clock our procession of three cars reached the cemetery and stopped in a thick drizzle beside the gate—first a motor hearse, horribly black and wet, then Mr. Gatz and the postman from West Egg ,” what’s worse, “I could only remember, without resent, that Daisy hadn’t sent a message or a flower.” This is the true face of upper-class, but unfortunately, even he died, he didn’t realize it. Second character is his innocent. As I have mentioned, he was innocent about Daisy, about the upper-class, and also about himself.

All in all, it is the obstinate, foolish, ignorant and innocent characters —-destructive characters, that make Gatsby’s tragedy become more possible.

Inevitability of Gatsby’s Tragedy is related with ruthless and degenerate social reality.

From the surface, we may see Gatsby died of his love with Daisy. But when you think more about the cause, we can find, it is the society that he lived caused his inevitable tragedy. It is also a representative tragedy of this society, this generation.

After the World War I, American value concepts changed greatly and were different from before. People began to focus on the pursuit of material, instead of spirit. In their mind, money is as important as God. “all Gods have died, all the wars have been over, and all the faiths have faded away.” American people living in Jazz Age looked down on the traditional faiths and revealed against the moralities and customs that their ancestors used to abide by.

As living in a society lost in spiritual dreams, Gatsby seemed totally different, as he still struggled for his pure love, his spiritual dream, which was hard to be understood by the society. So American cruel social reality made him dream in vain. At that time, people of America’s value also changed a lot. Just the same as Daisy, their social value trend was that money is first. People tended to enjoy life regardless of moral concerns. Like Tom, he had affair with Myrtle, but he just treated her as a kind of entertainment and had no responsibility for her. Even she died, he didn’t care about her. And as I mentioned again and again, from the funeral ceremony, we feel the ruthlessness and coolness of the society. In this society, Gatsby was destined to be isolated helpless and to fail in all.

6. Conclusion:

Gatsby was one of typical representatives of American Dream. But no matter how hard did Gatsby struggle for it, he could not get into the upper-class; no matter how many efforts did he pay, he could still not win Daisy back; no matter how well he performed, he could not escape from his tragedy. His tragedy was not about his death, but also the failure to involve in upper-class and to win Daisy back. Because Gatsby held different social value from common American people, the tragedy of believer and follower —Gatsby persistently seeking for American Dream asserted the bankruptcy of American Dream. His tragedy was closely related with his illusion of Daisy, his fatal characters and the ruthless and degenerate social reality. With these factor, Gatsby was destined to be isolated helpless and to fail in all.

Little Woman

Reasons for choosing this book:

When I first knew this book, I learned that is was intended to be “a story for girls”. I’m interested in the name and curious why it was called “little woman”. Another reason is that it matches the work of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which is one of my favorite books. So I pick it up and begin to read.

 

Key words: family, marriage, independence and self-respect

Little Woman

Abstract

“Little woman” written by Louisa May Alcott, is a very popular juvenile book which shows young adults how to improve their characters when they grow up. Based on the author’s memories of her childhood home, the story concerns the daily lives of the four girls in our story, boyish Jo, who wants to be writer, beautiful Meg, whose dream is to be a playwright, gentle Beth, who wants to learn music, and vain Amy, whose hobby is painting. As they progress towards womanhood in Civil War in New England, the four very different characters strive to achieve their personal ambitions in love, work and family life.

 

Brief Introduction of Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832 inGermantown, Pennsylvania. She was raised in Concord, Massachusetts, a small town that was hometown to many great writers of that time. She was educated at home by her father Bronson Alcott. She loved to read and write. She was one of these greatest 19^th century female writers who supported her family by writing many things—potboilers, fairy stories, journals about her work as a nurse in the Civil War, serious adult novels, and many books for children. Under the name of A.M. Barnard, Louisa May Alcott wrote dozens of “lurid” or “blood-and-thunders” stories about murders and strange crimes and executions. She also wrote journalistic pieces called Hospital Sketches and published in 1863, though not overwhelming. Later in 1868, she wrote Little Woman on the base of her family and it turned out to be a great success. She became a popular and respected writer, writing such favorites as Old Fashioned Girl (1870), Little Men (1871) and Jo’s Boys (1886). She died in 1888.

 

An Introduction to the Novel

The story begins with Mr. March joining the Northern forces in the war, leaving his wife and four daughters home. They have to manage without him. Mrs. March becomes the family’s main provider and gives her daughters a great deal of love. She is their moral guide and influences them on their pathway through life. Each of the March girls displays a major character flaw: Meg, vanity; Jo, a hot temper; Beth, shyness; and Amy, selfishness. The problems they encountered in their transitional period of development between youth and maturity are easy for us to understand. But their struggles for finding the true selves and becoming self-independent are touching and thought-provoking. The four different characters have their own interests, values and dreams of life. Though they have quarrels and angers, they try best to think in others’ places and love their family. The March sisters try to find happiness through daily activities, their dreams, and each other; they engage in productive work, they find meaningful happiness, either for a living or for the benefits of their family. The March girls and their mother support the family and bear the duty of the whole family. They found their true meanings of life, family and marriage at the end of the story.

Character Analysis

Meg March is the eldest of the four girls. She is drawn to domestic affairs and feels rewarded when she is able to please those around her. She struggles with her own vanity as she longs for many of the luxuries she can no longer enjoy. She adores wearing fine dresses and having nice things, but such items remain out of reach. When Mr. March loses his property in trying to help an unfortunate friend, she and Jo are brave enough to beg to be allowed to do something toward their own support. She works as a governess for the Kings, whose kids are not that easy to teach and in fact a little annoying for her. At the Kings’ she sees all she wants everyday. She tries not to be envious or discontented, but it is very natural that the young girl should long for pretty things, accomplishments and a happy life. With the hope of supporting the family, she struggles to go to teach in the “Vanity Fair” she longs for. Meg battles with her girlish weakness for luxury and money, and fearlessly expresses her love to Mr. Brooke in the face of Aunt March’s question and eventually ends up marrying the poor man she loves. Although Meg represents the conventional and good, she is by nature brave enough to pursue her desired happiness on her own.

 

Beth March is the second youngest of the March girls. She is sweet, selfless, quiet and warm, shy and withdrawn. She never asks for anything for herself and seeks only to make those around her happy. She has a talent for music but she is too shy to receive normal education. She likes to hide herself in the room and meets those who are very familiar to her. It is unimaginable for her to communicate with strangers. But owing to the love of music, she talks to Mr. Laurence about the music and goes to play piano in his study. When the letter from father comes, all the other girls weep and express their deep feelings. Beth said nothing, she just faces the reality and wipes away her tears with the blue army sock and begins to knit with all her might, losing no time in doing the duty. She is shy and withdrawn, but when she is helping others she is brave. After Maumee’s departure, when other sisters neglect the poor family, she would look after the baby all by herself. Unfortunately, she contracts scarlet fever and becomes extremely ill. She dies as a young beloved, household spirit. She does not want to go away, but she keeps persuading herself to be willing to accept the truth: “I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.”

 

As the youngest March sister, Amy is spoiled and bad-tempered, and her family strives to correct her behavior before she gets older. Amy loves luxuries and is sensitive to her appearance. As she grows older, she manages to behavior in proper manners. She clearly knows her strengths and has an outstanding talent of painting. She is clearly aware of what she really wants and is brave to pursue what she needs. When Beth becomes ill, and Amy is sent to stay with Aunt March, she behaves as a lamb in order to earn that lovely turquoise ring. She is also brave to discuss her motives for future marriage. At first, she wants to marry someone rich, because she hates poverty. After her deep consideration, she finds that something more important than money and position is needed to satisfy the new longing that filled her heart so full of tender hopes and fears. It is brave for a girl to refuse the proposal of a rich gentleman with a delightful manner. Amy is clear about what kind of future she longs for and she is brave enough to pursue her ideal of happiness.

 

Jo is the second eldest of the four March sisters. She is independent, ill-tempered, energetic, clever and self-confident. Jo struggles throughout the story to learn to control her temper. She is an outspoken tomboy who is more interested in reading and playing games than in primping or gossiping with girls of her age. Her character is based substantially on Louisa May Alcott herself. Jo loves to write plays and short stories. The March girls enjoy performing Jo’s plays, in which she always plays the men’s roles. While other girls kiss goodbye, she shakes hands in a gentlemanly manner. After having two of her stories accepted for publication, Jo takes her writing more seriously. Writing brings her success and allows her to earn money doing something she loves. She is not ashamed of being not rich and she respects herself for being independent. “I don’t like favors; they oppress and make me feel like a slave. I’d rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.” She has no desire to get married, preferring the happy and satisfying life as a single girl she enjoys with her family. She rejects Laurie’s proposal because she loves him in a brotherly way not as a lover. Finally, she marries Professor Bhaer, an older man who is poor, educated, and supportive of her career. This arrangement is so different from a conventional romantic love story. Jo displays both good and bad qualities. But her bad characteristics—anger, rebelliousness, and outspoken ways—do not make her unappealing; rather, they suggest her understandable and accessible humanity.

Beautiful Sentences:

Money is a needful and precious thing—and, when well used, a noble thing—but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.

My castle was the most nearly realized of all. I asked for splendid things, to be sure, but in my heart I knew I should be satisfied, if I had a little home, and John, and some dear children like these. I’ve got them all, thank God, and am the happiest woman in the world.

To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman, and I sincerely hope my girls may know this beautiful experience.

I’m not afraid, but it seems as if I should be homesick for you even in heaven.

Brooke is commander in chief, I am commissary girl, the other fellows are staff officers, and you, ladies, are company.

I don’t like favors; they oppress and make me feel like a slave. I’d rather do everything for myself, and be perfectly independent.

Personal impressions

In Little Woman, on the one hand, the March sisters are depicted as self-contained women with self-confidence and self-respect. They support themselves and their family; they hold their own dreams and struggle bravely to fulfill them. In the search for their own identities, with courage and self-confidence, the March ladies also take some responsibilities that are supposed to be men’s.

On the other hand, as the other half of human species, the March ladies have their own limitations. Marriage, which is just one of many options of acquiring happiness, is taken by them as the best and the only way of obtaining happiness. Once in trouble, they lose their abilities to save themselves. No matter how hard they try to solve their problems on their own, they still cannot defeat their “bosom enemy”. Only with the help or education by men, can they finally triumph over their fault.

Most of the action in Little Woman takes place in the March home. “Family” a word usually associated with ease and relaxation that people long for, is often compared to a harbor where one can relax one’s body and spirit freely and comfortably. But in patriarchal culture, it stands for something that restrains women’s freedom and individuality. In Little Woman, some of the March girls surrender unconditionally to the patriarchal request; some of them surrender after hard struggle. Whether struggle or not, by different routes they reach the same destination that the patriarchal desires and imposes.

Meg and Amy have some superficial qualities in common, such as vanity and a love of finery. They also have a similar attitude of compromise to the patriarchy. They have the ability to support themselves, to be independent from men. They show their desire to seek their identity and independence. But they both quickly get engaged and then get married acquiring a new and attractive identity in marriage and motherhood. Women’s duty and virtue lie in domestic affairs. Like most other young matrons, Meg began her married life with a determination to be a model housekeeper.

Amy has apparently the simplest lessons to learn, those closest to the conventional moral disciplines of the time: the need to subdue vanity, to work in harmony with others and to control selfish impulses. Though different from Meg, she has her own talent and has the chance to follow her career as an individual; at last she gives it up willingly for family. She knows the life that she is living is different from what she had planed, but she compromises. She even does not have the will to change her undesired life. Because Laurie says modeling the figure of a baby is the best thing she has ever done. She persuades herself to accept it and tries to regard this kind of life as a significant life for everyone. In this course she forgets only one person—herself. Through Meg’s and Amy’s process of growth, the author is trying to show us that a woman can live comfortably in the contemporary patriarchal society—-with a certain talent, relative requirement for independence, and knowing when to compromise.

Jo always wants to remain a child with no gender: neither male nor female. She likes boys’ games, works and manners. She is disappointed in being a girl and she even does not want to be called Miss March. She hates to think that she has to grow up. She repeats the wishes that she does not want to grow up. She always clings to conceive the idea that she is still too young to be a woman. She wants to be what is in her. But as a girl she cannot be the one she wants to be according to the traditional requirement of a lady. Her preference for boys’ work and manners comes from the unconscious awareness of the limitations of being a woman. She tries to cover her female nature deliberately by behaving like a man. But she always shows her womanliness unconsciously. She can put things into place and give quite a different air to the room during a very short conversation. Jo is brave enough to pursue her independence and identity. She has the ability to support herself and her family. The confusion about her own gendered identity is proved in the hair-cutting episode, when she sells her long hair as a contribution to making her father more comfortable. Jo confronts her identity dilemma: her only feminine beauty or brand-new image. This new image stands for her independence from traditional requirement. She is proud to fulfill her “gentleman’s” duty for the family. She does look like a boy now. But when weeping in bed at night for the loss of her hair, she cannot understand the reason for her tears. She is confused about her mental identity. She becomes the one she wants to be, at last apparently. Once she achieves her goal of being a “gentleman” in appearance, behavior and habit, she retreats. To some extent Jo denies her new image. She in domesticated by the patriarchal culture and concept. She is used to the traditional requirements for a woman unconsciously. When the dilemma appears, she withdraws from the hazardous, formidable and unpleasant circumstance naturally.

On her death Beth implored Jo to take her place as companion and comfort to their parents, assuring her elder sister that love is the only thing that people can carry with them where they go. Loving others or being loved by others is happier than writing splendid books or seeing the entire word. Meg tells Jo that love and marriage is not that difficult and what Jo needs to do is to bring out the tender womanly half of her nature. When the March sisters are wondering about their future, Maumee stands out to tell them: “to be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman.” When she thinks of spending all her life in that quiet house, devoting to humdrum cares, she feels despairing and craves for affection. She starts to think of marriage as an excellent thing and wonder if she would be as happy as her sisters in marriage. No matter with long hair or short hair, wearing gowns or trousers, a woman needs to have her own image. Marriage is just one of the ways to happiness, not the only, or the best way. A woman should have more options: she can live happily as a housewife, she can live comfortably as a confident professional woman or she can be both. When she is a girl of tender age, Jo makes her name boyish and plays brother or father to other girls. Her wish to prolong her childhood and be a man to marry Meg comes from a desire to retain the intimacy she enjoys with her mother and sisters. This kind of intimacy tends to happen among women. Jo starts to be educated by the traditional concept ever since she was born. Finally, she compromises to patriarchal norms. Father is the master of the whole family, both in economy and spiritual convention. In order to please her father Jo will do her best to become a “little woman”. To some extent women are victims of patriarchal society, even the educated women. Consciously or unconsciously, they are oppressed and controlled by their husbands and fathers. Their minds are imbued with patriarchal moral principles, which may have acquired from the society in which they live.

The Way Back to Nature

Ⅰ.Abstract:

The Call of the Wild (1903) is a world famous animal story. Set in Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s. It’s about Buck, a dog’s magnificent cross-bred offspring of a St Bernard and a Scottish Collie. Stolen from his comfortable life on a Californian estate and shipped to the Klondike to work as a sledge dog, he triumphs over his circumstance and becomes the leader of a wolf pack. The story records the ‘de-civilization’ of Buck as he answers “the call of the wild”, an inherent memory of primeval origins to which he instinctively responds during his long trail and trace.

Ⅱ.Key words

Deterministic ideas of naturalism, survival, de-cilization or primitiveness

Ⅲ.Brief introduction of the writing background and the author

ⅰ.about the writing background

  The American literature which is just over 200 years old is one of the youngest literatures, but it holds an enormous effect on the world literature. And it’s best known for its complexity of literary schools. Among them realism (1865-1914) had originated in France, a literary doctrine that called for “reality and truth” in the depiction of ordinary life, while naturalism, a new and harsher realism, is the peak of American realism. Naturalism in America had been shaped by the war, by the social upheavals as well as Darwinism; therefore realists hold a pessimistic world-view. The pessimism and deterministic ideas of naturalism pervaded the works of Jack London.

   What deserve a further explanation are the influential factors contributing London’s lively writing. Above all, it’s Charles Darwin’s theory in The Origin of Species (1859) which drags many writers moving far away from religious ideas. Darwinism seemed to stress the animality of man, to suggest that he was dominated by the irresistible forces of evolution. Secondly, Kipling’s The Fungle Book is an important exemplar for London in blending the fable with the parable and which exemplifies the “worldliness of the beast fable and the more programmatic moralism of the parable…in clear allegories containing both animal and human characters.” Thirdly, London’s Klondike year in a rush for gold also nurtures his visual imagination in the descriptive power he brings to the settings of his stories including The Call of the Wild, White Fang. Moreover, own much to the poverty of his early years and his desperate struggle for economic survival, London successfully presents the thematic idea, namely survival, in The Call of the Wild.

ⅱ.about the author

Jack London (1876-1916) grew up in extreme poverty and experienced profoundly the struggle for survival. His works deeply felt commitment to the fundamental reality of the law of survival and the will to power is dramatized in his most popular novels, The Call of the Wild《野性的呼唤》and The Sea Wolf《海狼》. As to his writing style, London had written too much too fast, with too little concern for the stylistic and formal refinement and subtlety of characterization. He frankly acknowledged that he wrote only for money. He had not, moreover, reconciled his contradictory views of man’s nature and destiny. But London’s stories of man in and against nature contribute to be popular all over the world.

    Through The Call of the Wild as well as in its companion piece White Fang, it is easy to perceive the significant contributions London made in the American literature. He developed a style for voicing the consciousness of animals, a style that renders the immediacy of sensory experience as it determines action in the animal world. The animal life is characterized by their response to the stimulus of sight, sound, touch, hearing and smell, and this is shown in London’s grasp of the concrete descriptions of animal behavior. What he also offers is a more contentious representation of the inner life of animals, where issues such as trust, fidelity, supremacy, love and other affective emotions are brought into play. London once disregarded the criticism from those commented on his use of dogs as primary protagonists: I am making fresh, vivid, new stuff, and dog psychology that warm the hearts of dog lovers and the heads of psychologists, who usually are sever critics on dog psychology. I think you will like these two books and there may be a chance for them to make a good impression on the reading public.

Ⅳ. Plot

Buck should have been a happy domesticated dog, quite content with his life in the southern part of America, the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley with Judge Miller’s families. However his fate is forever changed and he sets out for a tragic journey as a sledge dog after being stolen, shipped away from the tranquil California to the turbulent northern region. The first station is the Dyea beach where he has saw “dogs fighting as those wolfish creatures fought.” What he is lessoned firstly by the “red-sweater man” the law of club and fang which curses him to obey strictly to the human world. There he meets his initial pack of companions, Spitz, Francois, Dave, Perrault, Bille, Joe and Sol-leks (the dominant dog). They share little similarity with Buck who is “civilized”. They’re aggressive, care about nothing but survival. Buck is isolated at first. He is lessoned again to keep away from them. During their harsh toil, “the first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment.” “His development (or retrogression) was rapid.” Buck quickly makes himself adapt to live as a blood-thirsty wild beast. The call of the wild from now on constantly occurs in his life. His inherent, latent wildness drives him into a position of primordial supremacy over all other dogs. Physical vigorous, psychological independent, Buck turns out to be a more competent in place of Sol-lerks, and he organizes the team into a well-order. Before long Buck takes the leadership, all the team dogs are resold to head farther toward the northland. It’s a tough way since they trudges through season after season. All of them are nearly driven to die for the harsh nature and a desperate want of sufficient food, warmth, rest. The toil ends with the only survival of Buck— John Thornton saves him. More sincere love than gratitude, Buck willingly leads a harmonious life with his master. Moreover, he saves John from the death two times. But Buck regards himself part of the wild, and he must answer his ancestors’ call. He leaves John for the forest, finds a wolf the creature he longs to be all the time. He comes back only witnessing John’s death. The last tie that binds Buck and human is broken. Buck determinedly turns to the primitive wild. Finally he is successfully transformed to become the leader of a pack of wolves.

 

Ⅴ. Character Analysis

In The Call of the Wild, London’s characters tend to fall very simply into the categories of the good or the bad, an allegorical mode of representation inherent to the parable, which was greatly influenced by Kipling and was similar to the ancient Greek writer Aesop whose stories use animal characters to illustrate moral lessons, so that for example foxes are cunning, hawks predatory, and sheep silly. In this sense the fable tells us what we already know, and affirms ancient wisdom and the fable works by the exhibition of these characteristics in animals as lessons in human behavior, which is also the intention London applies the dog as his primary protagonist. This is most evident in chapter five in the sharp contrast between John Thornton and Hal, Charles and Mercedes. Hal and Charles are embodiment of folly whose ignorance of the real dangers of their work leads to their deaths, whilst Mercedes is a portrait of feminine selfishness and sensationalism. In contrast Thornton exemplifies the virtues of patience and love.   

 

Buck’s Fellow Team Memebers

The readers can have an overall view of some Buck’s fellow dogs’ differentiated human characteristics from an episode in the book when Buck triumphed over his primary antagonist Spitzer to win the mastership, the team members are required to give Buck a judgment. Dave and Sol-leks did not mind the change in leadership. It was none of their business. Their business was to toil, and toil mightily, in the traces. So long as that were not interfered with, they did not care what happened. Billee, the good-natured, could lead for all they cared, so long as he kept order. The rest of the team, however, has grown unruly during the last days of Spitz, and their surprise was great now that Buck proceed to lick them into shape. Pike, who pulled at Buck’s heels, and who never put an ounce more of his weight against the breast-band than he was compelled to do, was swiftly and repeatedly shaken for loafing…the first night in camp, Joe, the sour one, was punished roundly-a thing that Spitz had never succeeded in doing. Buck simply smothered him by virtue of superior weight, and cut him up till he ceased snapping and began to whine for mercy (Chapter IV, P29). One the one hand, this episode gives vivid comprehensions of those dogs’ human-like psychology. On the other hand it showcases indirectly but strikingly Buck’s dominant stance in comparison with the earlier days.

Buck-the primary protagonist

Dog is a highly valued image by the westerners as a representation of being loyal, a risk-taker, a frontier who never ceases to win the mastership over the nature and survive the harsh reality. Therefore, it embodies partly their individualism whose subject is a retreat from the confines of the civic life so as to realize the full potential of personal talents.

Buck is beyond any doubt the best representation of Jack London’s Darwinist principles of “evolution” and “Natural Selection”. His condition in the story moves from subordination to dominance, his position in the sled team changes from a follower to the leader, his relationship with men varies between mutual dependence and obedience under the law of clubs and fang. Buck possesses double identities; on the one hand he is a de-civilised animal, on the other hand he reveals a universal theme that’s shared even by human, namely a strong desire to survive any harsh environment. Such a connection shows itself according to London like this which is also the way Buck trudged to answer the call of the wild: Under Perrault and Francois’ control, Buck felt an intimation of a hereditary past and he was evoked a remarkable vision of a primitive man, the hairy crouching ancestor of the human whose animal-like agility and alertness suggest “one who lived in perpetual fear of things seen and unseen.” This is Buck’s as well as London’s powerful vision of human and animal origins, one that is a recurrence to Buck, and “when he has little work to do he wanders with the hairy man in that other world.”(p57) Buck was seized by this irresistible but mysterious call of his ancestors；to him“it was boundless delight, this hunting, fishing and indefinite wandering through places.”(p56) “He loved to run down dry water courses, and to creep and spy upon the bird life in the woods…But especially he loved to run in the dim twilight of the forest, reading signs and sounds.” At last, he answered the call when he joined a wolf’s company. He ran by the side of his wood brother-the wolf-toward the forest. He could no longer stay with his master Thornton, because now he was a killer, blood-longing, preyed on things that lived, unaided, alone. He was absolutely capable to “survive triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived”, which was manifested by his avenge to Indians who killed Thornton. Confronting the forever lost tie with the human society, Buck was totally merged into the primitive forest where he became the unchallenged leader of a pack of wolves, breeding with their dams, passing his pure wildness to later generations and transformed in the tale of the Yeehats into the Ghost Dog, of whom they are afraid and whose women speak of him as the Evil Spirit. The irresistible natural force now was fully instilled into Buck’s soul. He was never afraid of the wildness.

Apart from Buck’s toughness, independence and passion, I’m also deeply affected by his humanistic personality, loyalty and wisdom. It’s easy to find significant movies about the dog as more than a brutal animal. In the Eight Below, Max, the hero saved the whole sled-team in the extreme environment after the chief dog Maya was wounded. In Hachiko: A Dog's Story, Hachiko awaited for the return of his master in the train station without knowing his master was unable to come back again. It is always their human-like characteristics that convince me all the time animals are no enemy of human beings, instead they deserves our respect and tender. There was not a happy ending in the novel The Call of the Wild. John Thornton and his colleagues were killed by savages. Buck, after killing them, returned to the forest where he thought himself belong to.

Personally, I myself am a pro-transcendentalism that views the world and the nature in a romantic point. Any living creature is part of the nature and they are never alienated from each other. Therefore, although in terms of Darwinist determinism, The Call of the Wild is somewhat the author’s pessimistic and tragic life-attitude, what strikes me most is the interconnectedness between living creatures, man included, and the wild.

 

Ⅵ.Comment

Buck, the protagonist in the Call of the Wild is an animal, however he fully reveals the major themes Jack London makes his every effort to crackle: survival and deterministic ideas. The most enduring popularity of the story lies in Buck’s primitive struggle in the context of irresistible forces.

London believed in Darwinism which seemed to stress the animality of man, to suggest that he was dominated by the irresistible forces of evolution. Therefore, the protagonist is no other than a dog and since the moment Buck was away from “the sun-kissed Sarita Clara Valley” and Judge Miller’s family, he was thrown into a primitive world where he was deeply seized by the overwhelming will of survival that “He must master or be mastered: while to show mercy was a weakness.” (Chapter VI, page 47), particularly after he was taught the lesson, namely “the law of club and fang” for the fist time since he was born by “the red sweater man”. For being never tortured by the shortage of food, caring and security, Buck was placed as the author’s intention in a tough journey to “grow up”. According to the author the hero survives by strengthen and courage, so what fatally contribute to Buck’s final triumph over a pack of wolves are his physical strength and psychological independence. As a domesticated dog, Buck was innocent of turmoil of the world outside his cozy birthplace. Buck’s ignorance and shallow content are depicted in the book like this: He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge’s sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the roaring library fire……. Among the terriers he stalked imperiously……, for he was the king, -king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included. However, it’s the extreme desire to survive during the long trace and trail as a sledge dog after his absolute departure from any physical or spiritual protection that polished him to become a real wile beast that kings over all creatures, and even killed “man, the noblest game of all, and he had killed in the face of the law of club and fang.” Abraham Maslow, a famous psychologist stated that human needs vary from the lower level to  higher level；he posited a hierarchy of them based on two groupings: deficiency needs（匮乏动机） and growth needs（成长动机）which belong to the lower level and higher level respectively. With the deficiency needs, each lower need must be met before moving to the next higher level. The first four levels are: 1. physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.2. Safety/security: out of danger.3.Belongingness and love.4. Esteem: to achieve approval and recognition. According to Maslow, an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if and only if the deficiency needs are met. This theory can be well justified by Buck’s struggle for survival which is motivated in his long trail featured by the need for food, water, sheltering, supremacy, loyalty and love toward his last human master—John.

Another thematic point London focused on is his natural flowing in the book of a pessimistic and deterministic outlook on the internal and external world, which is a distinct characteristic of naturalism in his time. According to London, the external world, namely the nature is indifferent and dwarfs the sufferings of individuals. Life is hard; fate is not in our hand; humans have no control over it; suffering is unavoidable in one’s life. Therefore, beyond any doubt Buck is destined to be called back to the wild because of its irresistible forces. As a dog, Buck was convinced that he had inherited the nature of primitiveness from his ancestors, thus his fate has been determined. He had to be de-civilized. In the book, Buck’s hearing “the call of the wild” is a frequent recurring that confused but compelled Buck so much that he often felt himself appealed to go into the forest. Buck answered the call in the last chapter when he “lost his only tie with human” as his likely compromising with the civilized society perished forever along with the death of John. At the end of the story, London depicted Buck “musing for a time, howling once, long and mournfully” every year in the place where John was killed, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s an vigorous play where Buck on the one hand commemorated his bonds with the society, on the other hand sang for his primordial life.