Sui Sin Far

Mikaila Garfinkel
English 48B
1/29/09
Journal: Sui Sin Far

"When my wife told to me one morning that she dreamed of a green tree with spreading branches and one beautiful red flower growing thereon, I answered her that I wished my son to be born in our country, and for her to prepare to go to China."

Hom Hing is saying this to the officer, and is explaining how he has been living and working in America a long time, and the only reason that his son was born in China instead of America, is because he wants him to experience the country he was born in. Chinese culture is notorious for being very traditional, and I feel that this quote exemplifies this notion very well because it illustrates that they want each other to experience the same things. The quote also shows Hom Hing's effort in trying to convey this idea to an American, and how the American does not understand. The flowery, over the top dream I feel is Far's way of portraying the stereotype of how Chinese are thought of as people that are into "fairy tales" and spiritual fantasies, as if they have little grasp on reality. It is also notable that Hing describes his son, not as his and his wife's son, but HIS son, which I think shows the importance of gender in China, especially during these times. It is also interesting that Hing wants their son to be born in China, when he is wealthy in America. It goes back to the idea of tradition, but it still draws some attention to the fact that he had his wife leave the wealth to birth their son.

The main reason I was struck interest by the quote, is because of the descriptions in the dream that can be implied as metaphorical. The first thing that I notice, is the fact that Lae only dreams of ONE flower, not multiple. In first reading it, I thought that Far includes flower to show the difference in expectations between Americans and Chinese. She can be implying that an American would be dreaming of many flowers, where as Chinese, who come from much poorer families, are perfectly content with one flower. As I continued to examine the dream, the tree drew more attention to itself. The flower can represent fertility, as the quote coincided with the story of their sons birth, and flowers often represent reproduction. The one beautiful red flower, represents their son. The flower can be red, because China was a communist country, and red is the color that symbolizes communism. Also, the tree branch is another clue that the flower is supposed to depict Lae's pregnancy. The tree branches are representative of a family tree, and the branches growing show that the family is expanding. Chinese culture is very adamant on the focus of ancestors and family, so the family tree is not an uncommon aspect of their life. While there are many possible interpretations of the meaning behind the dream, I feel strongly that Far wanted to show how beautiful the birth of their son is to them, and emphasize the pain that it causes to have him taken away.

Abraham Cahan

Mikaila Garfinkel
English 48B
Abraham Cahan
1/28/09

"It was anything but the world of intellectual and physical elegance into which she had dreamed to be introduced by marriage to a doctor."

This quote conveys the theme of "Americanization", and how it is often more desirable in theory, than in actuality. Flora has just married, and is excited to live the life of an American woman married to a Doctor, and be able to explore the scholastic life she has always dreamed of. Throughout the story, Flora is constantly thinking highly of herself, and percieves herself as more of an intellect than she actually is. Subconsciously, she is aware that her perception of herself is all fantasy, and that is why she yearns for a doctor husband, to help make her fantasy come true. When she finally marries her doctor, when she receives her granted wish, she finds that she is intimidated by its entire aspect. It is apparent throughout the text that Flora is clueless as to what "high class intellects are", for she reads books such as "Fireside Companion", which is described as "cheap reprints of popular books." When she convinces her husband to yearn for the lifestyle she dreams, he gives it to her, and she finds herself regretting her dream. Flora manipulates her way towards what she wished for, and it comes right back to her. The story can be seen as a lesson of morals, and how selfish intentions will not lead a person to the path they yearn for.


The reason I chose this quote, is it summarizes the theme of "Americanization", but also displays the idea that America is not always the "dream land" immigrants thought it to be. For example, Flora and Asriel live in the New York Ghetto, with other Jews. While they are tyring to assimilate, they are still surrounded by people in the exact same position as they are. America was thought of being a place where people could better their lives, and was a "melting pot", but the luxuriouss lifestyle is not always so attainable. Flora lived a wealthy life with her Father, a more Orthodox Jew, whom she constantly was differing in thinking with. She was born in America, so she was not raised to be an orthodox Jew. When she left the more "Non-American" way, she found herself more lost. She convinced herself that she didn't care about money, and that she would be more than content to marry a doctor and discuss books all day, but when the chance forced itself upon her, it is apparent that she had no clue as to what she was wishing for. I think that Abraham Cahan wrote this story to show how in actuality
"Americanization" was perceived as, and that assimilating isn't always for th better. Many Jews were fleeing to America at the time, and I believe her wrote it is almost a warning for them. Flora was given a luxurious lifestyle with her Father, and while she mocked his Jewish ways and refused to be part of them, he provided her a much happier lifestyle than her now American husband was going to.

Zitkala Sa

Mikaila Garfinkel
English 48B
1/23/09
Journal #5: Zitkala Sa


"Judewin had told me of the great tree where grew red, red apples; and how we could reach out our hands and pick all the red apples we could eat...The missionaries smiled into my eyes, and patted my head. I wondered how mother could say such hard words against them."

This quote uses the apples to describe the land that she yearns for so much, and eventually gets to experience. When she lives among the white people, where she is forced to assimilate, she realizes that her mother was right about the white peoples evil intentions. Her relationship with her mother is tarnished when she leaves to be educated but he white people, and it is only after her hardships, and detachment from her mother that she understands her mothers original feelings for the Whites, and the reason for her attempting to pass down this knowledge to Zitkala. This quote shows how easily children can be influenced. Sa is intrigued by the words of her young friend, and uses her friends experience to override her mothers. The missionaries make an even larger impact on Zitkala, for she doesn't believe that killing can come from such people that smile and desire for her to come learn, and live a more advanced life with them. Her mother, who once made the larges impact on her, is more of a nagging voice now. This quote shows how Zitkala is growing up, for it is a common action for children to desire other teaching then their parents when they start to grow older. Sa yearns to leave towards the East and be schooled, and doesn't take into consideration the hardship that would come from leaving her mother. It shows how the Whites were so deceiving to the Sioux and other Native American tribes, and unfortunately, Zitkala learns this lesson through her own personal experience, not her mothers words.

The reason for choosing this particular story to write about is because of the subjectivity of the symbolism, the meaning behind the "big, red apples." The apples are referring to the more advanced land, a land that she has never been too, and arouses curiosity. Once she lives the lifestyle she was so curious about, she discovers that the land is corrupt, and that her freedom lies only with her Native ways. The apples can represent a number of things. The first is the biblical reference, and the Garden of Eden. The apples could easily mirror the forbidden fruit, and the curiosity of Zitkala with the apples can easily mimic the story of the Adam and Eve. It is not a far fetched possible intention, for Sa was schooled in a Christian school, and so she was forced to swallow these stories at a young age. Another possibility behind the apples is the fact that apples rot. The beautiful image she pictured of the East disintegrated when she experienced it. Apples disintegrate as well, so the apples could easily be interpreted as the life of her dream; beautiful and big, and then rotted away once she live it. Although I do not know the time when the story was written, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" also struck a bell with me. The witch give Snow White the poisonous apple, which ruined the wonderful life she had with the dwarves (until of course her Prince comes, but it is a fairy tale after all). "Snow White" is an old tale, so I find it a possibility that Zitkala Sa could have heard similar stories when she was schooled among the White people.

Life Among The Piutes

Mikaila Garfinkel
English 48B
January 21, 2009
Journal #5 Sarah Winnemucca

"So he separated his children by a word. He said 'Depart from each other, you cruel children;-go across the mighty ocean and do not seek each other's lives.'"

Sarah Winnemucca originally stated this quote in a speech, in which she is explaining the the story of how White people, and "Indians" were once a family, but were split up by God long ago. It is the subtle aspects of the parts of the story, such as this quote, that make it so powerful. The first line "so he separated his children by a word", shows how easily two groups can separate themselves from one another, despite every race sharing the same species. While a word may not actually separate two groups of people, a since action, such as a war, has the power to do so. Referring to his children as "cruel", Gods role in the story acts as the father, and the idea that two different types of people can't get along is almost "childish". They are both his children, which means they are related and share similarities. Dismissing these similarities, and "shared blood" is what makes them cruel. The last part of the quote "go across the mighty ocean" enhances the idea of how far apart the "siblings" have become. The ocean referred to as mighty, gives off the idea that to cross it would be a difficult task. When the Whites crossed the mighty ocean, the fact that they automatically are killing the Native Americans show the cruelty of them, for they go on a long, hard journey, to come start a war.

Sarah's purpose for the story is not just mere entertainment. The speech was addressed to Whites, in hopes of gaining their sympathy, or at the very least, their understanding. While it was a convenience that the story happened to fit chronologically with the rest of her stories, it was also an impressive strategic move on her part. She wanted the Whites that were robbing her people of their rights to understand that the Paiutes were peacefully people, and that it was them that started the violence between them. Her Grandfather even said to the Paiutes "now, the white people we saw a few days ago must certainly be our white brothers, and I want to welcome them. I want to love them as I love all of you." Winnemucca including this story was not only to guilt the whites, but to show how they were all a family at one point in time, well, at least according to the Paiutes. Everybody is related. True, families fight. But families do not slay each other (with few exceptions), and that is the message Sarah wanted to get across. It was pointless to make such a long journey, and gain not nearly as much that could have been gained if there had not been a war between them. Maybe there was a reason God separated them in the first place, because one groups cruelty will conflict with another group, even if their intentions are morally good. She wanted to convey that the Paiutes were peaceful people, and that they deserved the rights that they initially had in their own, separate life.

Journal #3: The Souls of Black Folk, Ch. I

Mikaila Garfinkel
English 48B
January 14, 2009
Journal #3: W.E.B Du Bois



"This, then, is the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius...these powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness."

This quote is a direct passage from W.E.B. Du Bois"The Souls Of Black Folk", and directly coincides with the title alone. This excerpt explains Du Bois view on slavery and segregation, and how discriminated against African Americans were. Whites, and even Blacks that were accustomed to the unequal life they had been forced to live, and even though it is the end of the civil war, and slavery is not as major of an issue anymore, there is still much racism and inequality that existed. The quote explains how even though it is the "end of striving", and supposedly the Blacks are free, their equal abilities and intelligence is still too often forgotten or ignored. W.E.B Du Bois was a highly educated Black Man, and was the first Black person to receive a P.H.d from Harvard. This quote reflects his belief that Blacks have been wasting there intelligence by continuing to work manual labor, and that they haven't been fighting enough to gain their equal rights. While there had been previous Black leaders, such as Washington, Du Bois believed that too much time had passed for so little change to happen. It appeared that know major changes had occurred except for the end of slavery, and while there were more actions for Blacks to partake in, no respect or being thought of as "American" had happened yet. He feels that he should not be considered an "exceptional" Black man, for it should be considered normal to society for a Black man to enroll in high education, for the civil war had ended, and Blacks were supposed to be free.



In reading "The Souls of Black Folks", compared to Washington's perspective on how to solve the Civil Rights issues with Blacks, he is ready for much more drastic action. He feels that Washington's approach was much too passive, and that it hadn't been effective since his leadership, and Du Bois is ready to take on the new role. I found the quote inter sting, because since Du Bois was such a successful intellect and leader, his own brightness is not wasted. While naturally he did face discrimination since a young age, he did not face the same type of discrimination as poor Southern Blacks did, such as Washington, and it is interesting as to how he is so adamant about taking a more drastic approach to end racism.

“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.”
-W.E.B. Du Bois

The Yellow Wallpaper

Mikaila Garfinkel

English 48B
1/07/2009
Journal #2: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first, and then playroom and gymnasium. I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls."

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story that describes a woman's journey through treatment for her mental illness, which in the end, destroys her sanity. The treatment itself is basically forcing the woman to bed rest, and forbidding her to participate in any though provoking acts, especially writing, of any kind. The woman's husband, a physician, moves her into a mansion for a couple months, in order to help her with her treatment. She is forced to stay only in the attic, with its barred windows and ringed walls, which she is convinced was once a nursery. The most fascinating, and disturbing, part of the room is the yellow wallpaper, which the woman, with nothing else to focus on, becomes obsessed with. Charlotte Gilman based her story on her personal experiences with mental illness, and treatment she was suggested, which included "never to touch pen, brush, or pencil again". It was this doctor that "treated" her who "so nearly drove [her] mad". While she never hallucinated such as the woman in the story, she was forced to suffer treatment through a dull, dormant life in which she was treated with no more respect than that of a child. It was her madness that also drove her to change the sexism that carried out even in mental illness, and her "supposed insanity" gave her the power to become one of the leading feminist writers to date.

In first reading the above quote, sitting alone without the company of words such as "nervous disorder" and "phosphates", it seems as if it is describing a rather cheerful room. A room full of sunlight and distant echos of children laughing. However, when reading the sentence with the rest of "The Yellow Wallpaper", it is anything but a desirable room. The woman in the story is described as "mentally ill", but as the reader begins to become more aware of her thoughts and the actual situation, it is questionable as to who the crazy characters are. Her husband, John, acts as if he treats her with nothing but doting acts and loving words, and the woman appears to, for the most part, buy it, or at least play along. The attic in which is is "getting better" in, is interpreted as not actually being a gymnasium, but a room in which woman like her have been treated as well. In other words, some form of a mental facility. I think that covering up the room as a child's room is used to symbolize how she is treated by her husband and others. They are constantly patronizing her, and while they are trying to be "gentle" with her, they are ultimately treating her like a child. Furthermore, the fact that the woman believes the room was once a nursery, just shows how naive she is to the way she is being treated. The room isn't "big and airy", it is filled with only a bed, which is nailed to the floor, and no other furniture. The woman's description of the room gives off a somewhat relaxed, passive tone, which as the story progresses, begins to change. Her cooperation disintegrates with her sanity, and by the end, John is the '"little boy", and she grows from being a child, into a rambunctious adult.

Journal #1: Ambrose Bierce

Mikaila Garfinkel
English 48
1/07/09
Jouranl #1: Ambrose Bierce

"Some loose boards laid upon the sleepers supporting the metals of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners-two private soldiers in the Federal army, directed by a sergeant who in civil life may have been a deputy sheriff."






"An Occurrence at Owl Creek" by Ambrose Bierce takes place in northern Alabama, right at the end of the Civil War when the South had lost. Bierce, while consistently changing the style of narration, tells the story of the Confederate execution of Peyton Farquhar, a 35 year old planter, who to most would appear to be quite normal, despite the solid piece of rope knotted around his neck. The above quote depicts the scene of the hanging, where soldiers disturbingly appear unfazed by the actions about to take place. The only people surrounding Peyton are soldiers, no family or civilians are present. The soldiers not participating in the execution act as spectators watching a dull theater production, unmoved by an all too familiar scene. While at first the reader is not given any information about the crime supposedly committed, we are left with the impression that it is not as dire as the punishment soon to be entailed.


The quote I chose stood out to me from the very beginning, mostly because of the phrase "civil life". True, the war in which this story focuses on is "The Civil War", but it is hard to imagine a life during this time, where interfering with railroad tracks is reason enough to be hanged, to be anything but a civil one. I found it very interesting that Bierce chose the position of Deputy Sheriff to include in this passage, and figured that there was probably some motive in choosing this position. When I learned of "The Devil's Dictionary", I decided to skim through some of the words, and see if I come across any that were in the story. Sure enough, Sheriff was in there, and is defined as "In America the chief executive office of a country, whose most characteristic duties, in some of the Western and Southern States, are the catching and hanging of rogues". A rogue is usually an outlaw or scoundrel, so his definition of sheriff coincided with that of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek". Another reason this quote stuck with me, is because when the narrator describes Peyton, he is not described as a scoundrel. We eventually learn that he is being executed for attempting to steal drift wood, an action that nowadays would harldy meet the qualifications for a rogue. The quote I selected I think emphasizes how much turmoil was occuring during the time, especially in the South since they had just lost the war. We always hear about how great it is that the North won, not that I am disagreeing, but we never hear about how the South lost. While many blacks were gaining freedom, many Southerners were losing employees and therefor money. The idea that a patron would risk their life for free wood just shows how many issues were still present and being created, even though the fighting was over.