Extra Credit Blog

I would like to compare Sissy to Little Lord Fauntleroy. I would especially like to draw on the relationships between the boys and their mothers. They are both rather "girly" boys. Both Sissy and Ceddie are very different from the typical rough and tumble boys such as Tom Sawyer and Raggid Dick. They are proper and polite and they do not need to manipulated to get what they want. They are very much "Momma's boys" and strive to please. Although Sissy seems to be much more of a "girly boy" he like Ceddie are both able to be boys when needed. Kellogg says, "Willie was all boy or all girl, as the occasion required." (563) This also applies to Cedric especially in the scene where he is playing amongst the other boys.

The boys are very different in the fact that Cedric has money and is a Lord as opposed to Willie who has very little money and has to ultimately go to work to support his mother, and his new sister, Margie. Cedric also is trained and is proper. While Willie is a country boy and is just well mannered. He also has more of the domestic skills as opposed to Cedric who is just more of a Momma's boy and pleaser.

I would also like to comment on how Sissy ends. It leads up to a very predictable ending and then right at the end takes a twist. I totally would have thought that Sissy and Margie would have ended up together. Although that would have been a little weird since he said Margie would be his sister. I like the little twist at the end. It makes the story such a good and keeps the audience captive up to the very end.

Three Men and A Baby

I would like to draw more on the transformation of the men in The Luck of Roaring Camp.

A baby changes everything. This was no exception for the men in the camp. They were given a new human life and had no choice but to take care of it. I'm not so sure that it was their decision to change because of the baby, but it was the baby that changed them. They had to completely rearrange their lives all because of this child that they really had no responsibility for. It reminds me in a way of the Shakespeare quote, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them." Raising a child is a great task... not everyone aspires to be a parent and not everyone can do it. These men had the responsibility of raising a child thrust upon them.

They wanted to do everything to be good parents to this child. They do things that they would not normally do to be good parents to this child. For instance the christening. "Tommy was christened as seriously as he would have been under a Christian roof, and cried and was comforted in as orthodox fashion." They took on completely different personalities. I find it interesting because they have almost found maternal instinct even though they are clearly not female. Something changes within a man when he becomes a father. Things that we was too "manly" to do before he suddenly does all the time. He becomes mushy in a way.

Short Stories

I find that short stories are often hard to just skim over. All the details come at you quick and dirty. There is not the fluff and crying that we have seen in earlier novels. The author simply doesn't have the time to elaborate on the situation and other events. In the Wide, Wide, World we spend pages and pages and pages hearing about all of Ellen's sorrows. We spend seven pages picking out a Bible. Desiree's Baby is only 5 pages long. There is simply no time for crying. We don't see the drama. There is clearly drama seeing as Desiree's husband says that she is not fully 100 percent white, when we find out that. Ellen was often hard to follow because she was all over the place. I found myself wanted to stop reading the novels about ten to fifteen pages into the novels, but the short story is easier to finish.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

I would like to draw attention to the differences between Cedric, Ragged Dick, and Tom Sawyer. While there may be other contributing factors Cedric differs greatly from Dick and Tom. Dick and Tom are more of the typical "boy." They're dirty and manipulative. They don't hang around their mothers and they despise rules and authority. Cedric is quite opposite. He is, quite frankly, a mama's boy. He is clean, adores his mother and doesn't participate in the same type of activities that most stereotypical boys do. Boys are all about play and things like that while girls hung around their mothers and did domestic things. Could it be that we are seeing the way the author views children? Women are more likely to elaborate on the children in the way that they want their children to relate to them. They want a snuggly mama's boy. Men are more likely to kind of take the "boys will be boys" attitude.

Knowing the gender of the author gives a different perspective. If a man had written about Cedric in this fashion I might be inclined to think that he was making fun of him, or that it was satirical. I can understand why men would write under woman's names, or vise versa for that very reason. At this time, women spent more time with children and knew more about them. Men only saw them for a limited amount of time so it would make sense that they would have more of the stereotypical view.

Getting Paid to NOT do Your Chores?

"'Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.'

Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:

'No--no--I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see Aunt Polly's awful particular about this fence--right here on the street, you know--but if it was the back fence I wouldn't mind and she wouldn't. Yes, she's awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done.'

'No--is that so? OH come, now--lemme just try. Only just a little--I'd let you, if you was me, Tom.'

'Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly--well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't let Sid. Now don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to tack this fence and anything was to happen to it--'

'Oh, shucks, I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say--I'll give you the core of my apple.'

'Well, here-- No, Ben, now don't I'm afeard--'

'I'l give you all of it!'

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents." (Twain 413-414)

This scene just cracks me up. Here we see Tom turn into a little con-artist. He makes his job seem SO important to Ben. Ben is practically begging Tom to let him do his chores and ends up giving his apple up so Tom will "let" him whitewash. Once Ben is toiling in the sun, Tom takes a nice breather in the shade and starts thinking of who else he can pawn his chores off on.

I feel as if Twain is sending a message about American society. Some people work and work and get very little in return, while others don't hardly do anything and get a great reward. Kind of like slavery in the south. Sort of. Not completely. But who does all the work for no reward? They may not be begging to do the work, or offering up apples to do it, but there is definitely someone sitting in the shade reaping the benefits of their labor in the sun.

Sarcasm

I would like to draw attention to how much sarcasm is in this novel. Dick is always making some crack or sarcastic remark. If young Ellen Montgomery had done this it would have been seen as rude and inappropriate, but when Dick does it, its funny. In this time period there were many things that it was okay for men to do that it was definitely not ok for the females to do. Especially not ladies.

When I picture Dick in my mind I see the Huck Finn that Disney portrays in their movie. He's cunning, he's smart, and he is just flat out funny. I have always found sarcasm quite amusing. Obviously Horatio Alger does as well. My favorite scene is when Dick runs into Johnny after getting his new attire.

"'Where'd you get all them clothes?' asked Johnny. 'Have you been stealin'?'

'Say that again, and I'll like you. No, I've lent my clothes to a young feller as was goin' to a party, and didn't have non fit to wear, and so I put on my second-beset for a change.'"

I found this so amusing. Perhaps author's wrote about girls to teach, and boys to entertain. It was okay for men to dork around and be funny. It was offensive when women did such things. We are drawn to the characters that break the rules and live life on the edge, however, this is not how people want their sons and daughters to grow up. Another reason why I strongly feel that the boy was more for entertainment than for teaching purposes like in domestic fiction.

Insane by who's definition?

I found myself very torn to believe that Sybil is indeed insane. People were put in insane asylum's for multiple reasons. They were not always insane. Annie Sullivan from The Miracle Worker was put in an asylum for being blind and having no parents. Somehow I don't think that makes her insane. Helen Keller's parents also wanted to place her in an asylum because she couldn't hear or see. The only mark of insanity against Helen was that she was horribly misunderstood. Could this perhaps be the case with Sybil? Often times when we don't understand someone or something we quickly say that the person or the thing is "insane."

I found myself fighting for Sybil and her sanity right to the very end. She is a teenage girl presented with some very interesting problems. Maybe she didn't handle them with grace and dignity, but this certainly doesn't count her as insane. I found myself feeling that her placement in the asylum could have made her insane. The letter she found backs this idea up, "If you are not already mad, you will be; I suspect you were sent here to be made so; for the air is poison, the solitude is fatal, and Karnac remorseless in his mania for prying into the mysteries of human minds. What devil sent you I may never know, but I long to warn you." (Pg. 238)

On the flip side, Sybil very well may have been insane. Her relationship with her uncle and going back and forth about Guy doesn't quite make her exactly all there. I am very torn on whether or not to think she is insane. I hope someone choses to do her for their Facebook profile, i think it would be very interesting and intriguing to look at!