Zitkala Sa

My first impression of these narrative stories was the level of innocence present through all of the observations made by the young girl. She has experienced bad things throughout her life, such as the death of family, but she still sees it as something natural and even bad. She does not yet understand the injustice or cruelty of it as her mother does. Her mother tries to explain the hate she has for the “paleface” but the girl cannot yet comprehend that kind of evil.
I believe that the essence of these stories is the focus on her innocence. She knows what it is to fear, but it is a natural fear of the unknown. For example, she fears the wild (wolves howling at night, etc.) and she also is afraid of Wiyaka-Napbina, the man that roams the fields and hills around her village. But it can be asserted that this man is also a wild part of nature that she fears. She does not have any fear of the missionaries, mostly just curiosity. It is not until she is in an alien atmosphere, having left her family that she “was as frightened and bewildered as the captured young of a wild creature.”(1019).
I think that an important theme that the narrator also wants to emphasize is the idea of respect and community. The whole village is like one family, which is evident in how they address each other. For example, when the girl goes to the teepees of the elders, they say “What do you seek, little granddaughter?”(1010) She is not their real granddaughter in the way we think, but for her, they are the elders and therefore her grandparents in light of the level of respect they deserve. Also, in the incident with the plum tree, the impression the girl gets from that significant day is what her mother told her about the tree because it emphasizes the importance of respecting the dead.

Washington v. Du Bois

In the writing by W.E.B Du Bois concerning Booker T. Washington’s “Atlanta Exposition Address,” Du Bois deals out his criticism of Washington’s proposed goals for African Americans following their recent emancipation. Washington uses an analogy of a struggling ship to bring his point across in his address, all in all saying that for success, they should take what they can get. He does not feel that his fellow man should over stride his boundaries in a sense of what he is and is not able to do, namely demand civil equality, gain political power, or receive a higher education.
Du Bois feels that Washington’s advice is not wise considering the repercussions, namely, “1. The disenfranchisement of the Negro. 2. The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro. 3. The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions of higher training of the Negro.” Du Bois is saying that since Washington encouraged former slaves to avoid things such as politics and pursuing more civil liberties, they have suffered inequality as a result, which is another kind of bondage.
Essentially, the main conflict lies in where both men feel the direction of change must go. Du Bois is supportive of a more direct approach, including not submitting to racial expectancies. He feels that “Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission.” He also relays his opinion in stating, “We have no right to sit silently by while the inevitable seeds are sown for a harvest of disaster to our children, black and white.” In saying this, Du Bois is expressing his conviction that it is reprehensible to sit idly and place limits on change and reform.

Regional Story

It was a beautiful summer morning and 7 year old Emily’s family decided to take a walk in the woods behind their house. Her dad wanted to show them a bald eagle’s nest that he had seen while checking the property in the spring. Her little sister Lizzy was very excited and almost ran out the door without her boots on. It had rained a few days before, but hopefully the hot July sun had dried up most of the mud. The dogs somehow knew they were going in the woods and began jumping up and down by the back door. Emily’s mom could hardly get Charlie, their little spaniel, to sit still long enough to put his harness on. Toby, their lab, didn’t need a leash, and he was already running in excited circles around the yard. Emily’s dad called him over, and they set off towards the opening of the path into the woods.
Lizzy ran ahead and her mom called to her to watch for prickers that sometimes grew over the path. The path was shaded by old maple and oak trees, so it was nice and cool as they headed further along. Charlie started barking excitedly after hearing a rustle in the bushes and Toby ran over to investigate. All of a sudden, a big gray rabbit shot out and Toby looked at Emily’s dad as if asking whether or not he could chase it. Emily’s dad called him back and Toby gave the rabbit a farewell bark.
They came to the corn field and started across, picking their way through the rows of loose soil. The farmer had planted this field last year, and all that remained this summer were the dead stumps of the husks. As they crossed the woods and went onto the old railroad tracks, Emily heard a small yelp to her right. She looked over to the edge of the path and saw three fox kits sticking their heads out of their den. Excitedly, Emily pointed them out to Lizzy, who's eyes grew wide with excitement. They crossed the bridge over the little stream and the girls layed for a while peering over the edge at the frogs and tadpoles in the water.
As they began to get nearer to the big pond, Emily’s dad picked up Lizzy and motioned for them to be quiet. There was a big pile of sticks lying at the bottom of a pine tree. He had Emily’s mom hold Toby by the collar and told the girls to stay by their mom. He went closer to investigate, being careful to look around for the parent eagles. He heard a desperate chirping come from within the pile of sticks, and considered the best option. It seemed that the nest had fallen out of the tree somehow, and the parents were nowhere to be seen.
They returned to the house and Emily’s dad looked up the number for his friend that worked for the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. He talked to him for a few minutes and when he hung up the phone, Emily asked him what they were going to do. Although the eagles are no longer endangered, they are still on the watch list, so her dad said they had to wait for his friend and his team to get there and remove them. They arrived later that day and Emily and her dad went back to the woods with them to show them the spot. The team told them that if they hadn’t found the baby eaglets when they did, they wouldn’t have made it much longer. It seemed the parent eagles had left because there was nothing they could do for their babies. As the rangers carried the box with the eaglets away, Emily whispered a goodbye.
A few months later, Emily and her dad went to the conservation facility in the swamps to visit the rescued baby eagles. Emily asked her dad why they were brown and didn’t look like bald eagles, and her dad told her they wouldn’t get their adult feathers until later. The ranger in charge of the eaglets came over and thanked Emily and her father for helping them out, and told Emily to come back and visit anytime. He told her that the world needed more girls like her, and gave her a "Junior Ranger" sticker. Emily had never felt so proud.

Henry James in respect to Edith Wharton

In Henry James’ “The Art of Fiction”, he discusses the dangers of defining what good fiction should and should not be. In his essay, he uses the lecture of Mr. Walter Besant to disprove theories that fiction can be defined. Throughout his essay, Henry James compares fiction to art, in that the successes of both are dependent on the “quality of mind of the producer.” I started reading this essay, I found it difficult to find the important points that James was trying to make. However, more careful scrutiny revealed that the entire essay was a serious of points and reinforcements of his general idea that the only requirement that a work of fiction should be held to is that it should be sincere. He also discusses the notion that “the only existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.” Whose life it is representing, however, is completely at the discretion of the novelist. He backs up this argument when he discusses Besant’s restrictions on what an author should write about, such as that “‘a writer whose friends and personal experiences belong to the lower middle-class should carefully avoid introducing his characters into society.’” To this, James says that he can neither dissent nor assent because he feels that while life experiences and sticking to what you know, per say, will lead to better fiction, a writer is still at liberty to write about anything.
In the excerpt explaining Edith Wharton’s life, it is interesting to see that some events in her life have a direct correlation to the plot of her story, “Souls Belated.” This no doubt lends to the sincerity of her observations on character and society, which, according to Henry James, is the most important aspect of a “good” work of fiction. In this story, Lydia is a young woman who has left her husband to be with the man she loves, Ralph Gannett. However, she feels hesitant to marry him, even though her divorce is final, because she is afraid (after her past experience with marriage) that marriage can only aid in driving apart people that love each other. However at the end, after Lydia tries to leave Gannett but finds she cannot because she loves him, the reader is fairly confident that the two will be married. Edith Wharton did not have any personal experience in this field necessarily, because she never remarried after being separated from her husband, but her writing is very genuine and sincere in that while Lydia struggles to accept marriage, the reader is rooting for it the entire time, since they really love each other. Therefore, in respect to “The Art of Fiction,” we see Henry James’ point that restrictions of experience should not be based on an author, and that even in writing in an unfamiliar arena, a “good” work of fiction can be developed.