Reading Notes B, Week 17, Bulosan

America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan (604-610)

Go back to Stockton and look for a job in the tomato fields…(604)

I was in flight, again from an unknown terror that seemed to follow me everywhere. (604)

Niles (grape fields and apricot trees)

San Jose got on a freight going south

Salinas to San Luis Obispo

Filipino man too him by car to Pismo Beach.

…community was a small block near the sea- a block of poolrooms, gambling houses, and little green cottages where prostitutes were doing business. (606)

Filipino man took him to Lompoc, passed through Santa Maria

I came to know afterwards that in many ways it was a crime to be a Filipino in California. I came to know that the public streets were not free to my people….. We were suspect each time that we were seen with a white woman. And perhaps it was this narrowing of our life into an island, into a filthy segment of American society, that driven Filipinos like Doro inward, hating everyone and despising all positive urgencies toward freedom. (606)

Standing behind him was my brother Amado, holding a long-bladed knife. (607)

My brother grabbed me affectionately and for a long time he could not say a word. (608)

“We are in the bootleg racket,” said my brother. “Alfrado and I will make plenty of money. But it is dangerous.” (609)

He put some money in my pocket. “Here is something for you to remember me by.” (609)

“If you would like to go to school, “ said my brother in parting, “just let me know. But whatever you do, Carlos, don’t lose your head. Good-bye!” (610)

“Please, God, don’t change me in America!” I said to myself, looking the other way so that I would not cry.” (610)

Reading Notes B, Week 16, The Californians by Gertrude Atherton

The Californians by Gertrude Atherton chapter 6

·         Magdalena had failed at every point. She had expected to fail, but she felt miserable and discouraged, nevertheless….With the sad philosophy of her nature she put the impossible for her, and considered the future. It had been arranged long ago that she, Helena, Ila and Tiny, were to come out at the same time; the great function which should introduce to San Francisco three of its most beautiful girls.. (311)

·         … stared in fascinated amazement at the red tongues darting among the blackened shells, the crashing roofs, the black masses of smoke above, cut with narrow swords of flame, the solid pillar of fire above the factory, the futile streams of water, the gallant efforts of the firemen….. her brain a medley of new sensations, as Helena went about, questioning, fascinating, sympathizing, giving. It was the first time she had seen poverty; she had barely heard of its existence…(314)

·         …it was her father she feared, not the law…. She had been a dociled child, and her father’s anger had never been visited upon her; but she had seen his frightful outburst at the servants… (315)

·         …he called her a “greaser.” She had all the pride of her race. This insult stifled her. She felt smirched and degraded. (316)

·         His face had turned livid, then purple. “”Dios!” he gasped…. Her father sprang to his feet with a yell of rage. He caught his riding –whip from the mantel… She turned her back on it and sat down on the floor. She had not uttered a word as her father beat her. .. But her self-respect had been cut through at every blow, and it quivered and writhed within her. She hated her father and she hated life with an intensity which added to her misery, and she decided that she had made her last confession to any one but the priest, who always forgave her. (320)

Reading Notes B, Week 15, Cathedral By Raymond Carver (1981)

This blind man, an old friend of my wife’s, he was on his way to spend the night.

She hadn’t seen him since she worked for him one summer in Seattle ten years ago.

I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit.

And his being blind bothered me.

My idea of blindness came from the movies.

She told me he touched his fingers to every part of her face, her nose- even her neck!

“I don’t have blind friends,” I said.

They’d married, lived and worked together, slept together – had sex, sure – and then the blind man had to bury her.

Imagine a woman who could never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one.

I saw my wife laughing as she parked the car. I saw her get of the car and shut the door. She was still wearing a smile. Just amazing.

This blind man was late forties, a heavy-set, balding man with stooped shoulders, as if he carried a great weight there. He wore brown slack, brown shoes, a light brown shirt, a tie, a sports coat. Spiffy. He also had this full beard.

I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat. He’d cut two pieces of the meat, fork the meat into his mouth, and then go all out for the scalloped potatoes, the beans next, and then he’d tear off a hunk of butter bread and eat that.

“Close your eyes now,” the blind man said to me.

So we kept on with it. His fingers rose my fingers as my hand went over the paper. It was like nothing else in my life up to now.

My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything.

“It’s really something,” I said.

Literary devices used

Imagery

Setting

Characterization

Reading Notes B, Week 14, The Joy Luck Club

Double Face 253-266

Lindo Jong – at the hair salon getting her hair ready for the wedding. Waverly speaks for her mother.

Daughter – Waverly Jong – preparing for her wedding and thinking about her honeymoon in China.

“When you go to China,” I told her, “you don’t even need to open your mouth. They already know you are an outsider.” “What are you talking about? She asked. My daughter likes to speak back. She likes to question what I say.” (253)

“Even if you put on their clothes, even if you take off your makeup and hide your fancy jewelry, they know. They know just watching you walk, the way you carry your face. They know you do not belong.”(253)

“Oh, maybe ten years ago, she would have clapped her hangs – hurray!-as if this were good news. But now she wants to be Chinese, it is so fashionable” (253)

“It’s my fault she is this way. I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these two things did not mix?” (254)

“…but I couldn’t teach her about Chinese character. How to obey parents and listen to your mother’s mind. How not to show your own thoughts, to put your feelings behind your face so you can take advantage of hidden opportunities.” (254)

A Pair of Tickets (267-288)

Suyuan Woo – left twin babies on the side of the road, they are now adults and Jing-Mei and her father are traveling to China to meet them for the first time.

Daughter Jing-Mei Woo

“But today I realize I’ve never really known what is means to be Chinese. I am thirty-six years old. My mother is dead and I am on a train, carrying with me her dreams of coming home. I am going to China.” (268)

“Together we look like our mother. Her same eyes, her same mouth, open in surprise to see, at last, her long-cherished wish.”(288)

Reading Notes B, Week 13, The Joy Luck Club

The Voice from the Wall: Lena St. Clair daughter of Ying-ying St. Clair

Because, even as a young child, I could sense the unspoken terrors that surrounded out house, the ones that chased my mother until she hid in a secret dark corner of her mind. And still they found her. I watched, over the years, as they devoured her, piece by piece, until she disappeared and became a ghost. (103)

Lena was a very aware of her surroundings as a young child, because her mother, Ying-ying would tell her dark stories, such has how her grandfather sentenced a beggar to die and then he came back and killed her great grandfather a week later, there was a bad man who lived in the basement of their home. Lena started to see the bad around her and did not tell anyone. Ying-ying did not speak good English and her husband who was not Chinese, would try to say what she was thinking and speak for her. Ying-ying arrived in SF through Angel Island Immigration Station, which she stayed there for 3weeks, she was claimed as a Displaced Person, since they did not have rules for a Chinese wide of a Caucasian citizen. When Ying-ying and Lena were alone her mother would speak Chinese, and say that everything was danegerous. Lena’s father was promoted and they moved to a better area, up a hill in North Beach. Ying-ying was still not happy, did not feel like her home was balanced and started to move many things around in the apartment, food, furniture.

“When something goes against your nature, you are not in balance. This house was built too steep, and a bad wind from the top blows all your strength back down the hill. So you can never get ahead. You are always rolling backwards.” (109)

Ying-ying was pregnant and was nesting, but she did not take care of herself, she would bump into things and did not seem happy about being pregnant.

Lena’s bed was moved once the baby’s crib was in the room and she could hear a woman shouting at girl, she would hear yelling, pushing and hitting sounds, this would happen all of the time. Lena seen the girl in the stairs of the apartment but she would not look at Lena.

One day she was picked up from school from a family friend, who took her to the hospital, her mother lost the baby and was blaming herself. After this her mother was lost and slowly fell apart, piece by piece.

One night the neighbor girl who Lena could hear through the window came to her door, she came into the house and then started to go through Lena’s window back up to her room. Even though, her mother beat her, and treated her badly, she went back home and said her mom would be happy she returned. Later that night she heard, “you stupida girl. You almost gave me a heart attack……. Then I heard them laughing and crying, shouting with love.” (115)

Reading Notes B, Week 12, The Joy Luck Club

An-Mei Hsu - Was from China, as a young girl, she lived with her little brother, grandmother, Popo, aunt and uncle, in their home in Ningpo. Her father had passed away and was told that her mother was a ghost, it did not mean that her mother was dead. Her mother had left An-Mei and her brother after their father, her husband died. When An-Mei was 9 years old, in 1923, her grandmother became very sick. Popo would call An-Mei into her room and tell her stories that she did not understand. An-Mei was told never to speak her mothers name and if she did, it was like spitting on her fathers grave. The feeling of her home was unhappy, cold hallways and tall stairs. An-Mei's mother returned to help take care of Popo, An-Mei's aunt was upset and tried to get her to leave, but she stayed and took care of her mother Popo. Popo was very ill and did not realize it was An-Mei's mother caring for her or else she would have been upset. An-Mei, mother rubbed her fingers under her chin, where she had a scare. An-Mei had a memory of when she was 4 years old at the dinner table, An-Mei's mother came back for her and begged her to come to her but during the commotion of the uncle, aunt, and Popo arguing An-Mei was burned under her chin with soup. Ani-Mei learned to love her mother because of the way she took care of Popo, she even cut some of her flesh to mix in a soup to try to save her but Popo passed that night.

Lindo Jong sacrifieced her life to keep her parents promise. She was promised to a boy at the age of 2 by the village matchmaker. She continued to live with her parents until there was a heavy storm that flooded their home and her family was forced to move, but she had to stay and go to live with the family she was promised to at the age of 12. When her mother left she was told, "Obey your family. Do not disgrace us." (54) Lindo was treated like a servant in the home, she had to live on the same floor of the home with them and was taught daily how to care for her soon to be husband, Tyan-yu. When Lindo was 16 she was told that Tyan-yu's mother, Huang Taitai, she wanted a grandson. The couple was married soon after but on their wedding night, Tyan-yu made her sleep on the couch next to the bed and there she slept for a long time, until one night she was forced to sleep next to him, but Tyan-yu did not want to touch her, she realized that he was still a young child and was scared. She had to think of a way to make the family release her of her commitment with out disgracing her family. She found a way and was released and was free from the promise her family made so many years before and she did it without disgracing her family.

Ying-Ying St. Clair was not always a quite woman but became that way after the night of telling the Moon Lady her secret wish.

Reading Notes B, Week 9, Fisher

The First Oyster by M. F. K. Fisher

Miss Huntingdon’s School for girls: 75 boarders, 25 woman

Mrs. Cheever: uncomfortable, lonely, college graduate, super-lady, cook, snubbed by her colleagues

Christmas Party: oysters served, exotic:

“got one with surprising neatness into my mouth”

“The oyster in was still in my mouth. I smiled, with care, and stood up ..”

“The oyster seemed larger. I knew that I must down it, and was equally sure that I could not. Then, as Olmsted put her thin hand on my shoulder blades, I swallowed once, and felt light and attractive and daring, to know what I had done.”pg 571

“If I could still taste my first oyster, if my tongue still felt fresh and excited, it was perhaps too bad. Although things are different now, I hoped then, suddenly and violenty, that I would never see one again.” Pg 574

Old Girls’ Day – warn day in June, fun party, good food. “mean to all but the Seniors, who had to be nice to the returning alumnae.” Pg 568 “For moment, at least, in the year, we were greatful to her for our deliciously full mouths.” Pg 569

Southern California: climate considered tropical 

Demitasses – a small coffee cup  

The literary devices used in this story were characterization and point of view. The author used characterization as ways to describe how Mrs. Cheever appeared, thought and felt. The author also used point of view to describe how she and others viewed Mrs. Cheever in the different settings throughout the story.

This was not one of my favorite stories to read in the book, the story did not really spark my interest. The only thing that thought was interesting and funny was when she had the oyster in her mouth and described it. My father and husband enjoy oysters and I think they are gross, so it was funny to read her point of view of the oyster and eating it.

Reading Notes B, Week 8: Jeffers

Robinson Jeffers pg. 407-413 poems about the California landscape, granite, and hawks. Jeffers used many different literary devices in his poems.

Continent’s End:

Literary device: Setting –

“when the earth was veiled in late rain, wreathed with wet poppies, waiting spring,

The ocean swelled for a far storm and beat it’s boundary, the ground swell shook the beds of granite.” pg 408

Tor House:

Literary device: Imagery –

Jeffers uses imagery in this poem, when describing the landscape and the possible changes that will occur as time passes on.

Hurt Hawks

I

Literary device: Suspense –

“The broken pillar of the wing jags from the clotted shoulder,….. and pain a few days: cat nor coyote.”pg 410 Jeffers is talking about a hawk with a broken wing and is he going to survive and get better, or get eaten by a predator.

The Purse-Seine-

Literary device: Plot –

Jeffers is describing fishermen fishing for sardines. Going into the waters at night, spreading the net off of the coastal waters; Monterey, Santa Cruz, New Year’s Point or Pigeon Point when they see the “lakes of the milk-color light on the sea’s” pg 411. The fishermen bring up the nets full of the sardines, sea-lions come to watch.

Carmel Point

Literary device: Simile –

Jeffers describes a beautiful landscape, “unbroken field of poppy and lupin walled on clean cliffs;” and how it is destroyed by all of the homes. He says no to forget the beauty that surrounds us, “Safe as the endless ocean that climbs our cliff….. We must uncenter our minds from ourselves.” Pg 413

Reading Notes B, Week 7, Baum

In the story From Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, by L. Frank Baum, imaginary is used as the literary device.
Characters:
Dorothy: main character, young girl, arrived on a train from San Francisco to Hugson's Siding, it was several hours late due to the earthquakes. She was there to meet back up with her uncle Henry, so they could return home to Kansas. Uncle Henry was visiting with his brother in law Bill Hugson.
Zebedia (Zeb) was Bill Hugson's nephew and a second cousin to Dorothy. Zeb and his horse, Jim, had been waiting for Dorothy to arrive at the train station.
As the Dorothy, Zeb, and Jim were returning to the Hugson Ranch, earthquakes started again and the ground was splitting apart, the earth opened right in front of them but they did not fall in. However the second time the earth split right under the horse and buggy. "Suddenly there was a rending, tearing sound, and the earth split into another great crack just beneath the spot where the horse was standing....the animal body fell into the pit, drawing the buggy.."pg 350 As I was reading this I was imagining the scene in my mind, as the author was describing the fall I could see it in my mind. "...Jim's big ears turn to violet and the other to rose...she looked at Zeb, whose face was blue and whose hair was pink.." pg 352 Dorothy realized they were not in danger but she was going on another great adventure, as she had before. The three of them landed safely on a roof, in the middle of a large city.
I was not a huge fan of The Wizard of OZ and not even sure I watched the whole movie, but after reading this short section of this sequel, I want to watch the whole movie and read this book. Baum really has me as the reader wanting more because he uses imaginary very well in his story.

Reading Notes B, Week 6, Muir

From the Mountains of California pg 298-307

This passage describes the beautiful landscapes of California from the beaches to the snow covered mountain ranges.

• Go where you may within the bounds of California, mountains are ever in sight, charming and glorifying every landscape. 
• only one valley, and two chains of mountains
• Coast Range on the west side, the Sierra Nevada on the east
• the waters of which have only one outlet to the sea through the Golden Gate
• own climate, soil, and productions - each different landscape; coast, mountains and valleys all have their own climate and produce different things but all in one state.
• Central Valley, glowing golden
• the Sierra should be called not the Nevada, or Snowy Range, but the range of Light
• Sierra range is described as 500 miles long, 70 miles wide, 7000-15000 feet tall. 
• Yosemite kind are made up of rocks mountainous in size, partly separated from each other by narrow gorges
• grandest forest trees, the Sequoia, king of conifers, the noble Sugar and Yellow Pines, Douglas Spur
• described animals, reptiles; lizards, large numbers of ants, crows, ravens, rabbits, coyotes. 
• Avalanches are described in the High Sierra during the winter. it booms and roars like thunder, and makes a glorious show as it sweeps down the mountain-side
• North half of the range is mostly covered with floods of lava ad dotted with volcanoes and craters. 
• Mount Shasta, a colossal volcanic cone
• Mount Whitney only granite
• The great granite domes a mile high, the canos as deep, the noble peaks, the Yosemite valleys, these, and indeed nearly all other features of the Sierra scenery, are glarcier monuments. 
• Yonder let us spread broad sheets of soil, that man and the beast may be fed and here pile trains of boulders for pines and giant Sequoias. 

I enjoyed reading Muir describe California and how all of the landscape and different climates we have because of the glaciers that were here before. They have given the mountain ranges, valleys, coast, and every beautiful view in between. 

Reading Notes Part B, Week 5, Bierce

Moxon's Master, Ambrose Bierce pg 235-243

When I started to read this story I was confused and it was hard to follow. When I completed the passage I envisioned a Frankenstein creature as the machine chest player.
The following quote helped me connect the content from Moxon's conversation to his invention. "Was all his talk about the consciousness and intelligence of the machines merely a prelude to eventual exhibition of this device.....upon me in my ignorance of it's secret?"pg 241.
Moxon created a machine and was playing chest, once Moxon won the machine had a negative reaction to loosing, which could lead to his idea of it being conscious and can think for itself, as he described the vine following the stake in the soil several times, until it gave up and went it's own way.
Moxon did not seem to fear the machine man, even after there was a struggle and blood was on him after going into the "Machine Shop". I feel like maybe he was testing the machine man to see what his reaction was going to be, but unfortunately the machine was stronger than him, which lead to his death. He should not have done this without his assistant, Haley, present, maybe things would have ended differently.
Moxon's friend, the one telling the story, was a very curious, smart, and brave man. I also think he knew something was wrong when Moxon returned from the "Machine Shop" with blood on him. When he returned to the house and no one was answering the door, he could have turned away but instead he was curious and went inside to check on his friend and tried to save him when he was being attacked. He risked his life for Moxon and went up against a machine man, he knew nothing about. Thankfully he was saved by Haley. I wonder what happened tot he machine man?

Reading Notes B, Week 4: The Outcast of Poker Flats

The Outcasts of Poker Flats


Outcasts 11/23/1950
Mr. Oakhurst - gambler
The Duchess - young woman
Mother Shipton - young woman
Uncle Billy - suspected sluice-robber, drunkard

The Outcasts were escorted out of Poker Flats and was traveling to Sandy Bar.

Young couple going to Poker Flats from Sandy bar.
Tom Simson "The Innocent" of Sandy Bar
Piney Woods - waitress and engaged to Tom

Mr. Woods did not approve of the marriage, therefore the couple was traveling to Poker Flats to get married.

Both groups were tired and stopped to rest for the night, Tom and Piney stayed with the "Outcasts' in a cabin, during the evening Uncle Billy took the mule and left the group and never returned. Snow trapped the group in and planned to stay until it was safe to travel. The group had about a weeks worth of food. After a week, Mother Shipton, died from starving herself and left her food for Piney.
Mr. Oakhurst convinced Tom to leave the group and go to Poker Flat and if he did Piney would be safe. Mr. Oakhurst left the cabin with Tom and did not return. The two woman, "The Duchess" and Piney held each other and went to sleep. They died in each other's arms. Their bodies were found by some "law" from Poker Flats, they also found Mr. Oakhurst, who killed himself with a bullet to his heart. "..he who at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat."pg 225.

To me the theme of the story is no matter how bad of a person you are, a person can always change.
The two woman were outcast of the town, yet once they met young Piney, they took care of her. Mother Shipton starved herself and gave up her life for the young Piney. "You've starved yourself," said the gambler. That's what they call it."pg 223. "The Duchess" stayed with Piney and they died in each others arms and gave each other peace during the time of them freezing to death.
Mr. Oakhurst, was a strong man but in the end took his life because he was weak and could not freeze or starve to death.

Reading Notes B, Week 3, Nursling of the Sky

This is a passage that describes the different climates of California from the hills, mountains to the deserts. This passage also describes the seasons from rains, snow storms, to the dry desert winds of California.

"They have habits to be learned, appointed paths, seasons, and warnings, and they leave you in no doubt about their performances. One who builds his house on a water scar or the rubble of a steep slope must take chances. So they did in Overtown who built in the wash of Argus water, and at Kearsarge at the foot of a steep, treeless swale. After twenty years Argus water rose in the wash against the frail houses, and the piled snows of Kearsarge slid down at a thunder peal over the cabins and the camp, but you could conceive that it was the fault of neither the water nor the snow."

This section of the passage is a short but detailed about how they had to learn the land and weather to survive and to build because if you did not know how the weather was going to be in the different seasons then you wouldn't know how it would affect you. In this section a house was build and destroyed during the winter because of the snow. 

Later in the passage it describes the desert winds and the dust storms. "But being in a house is really much worse; no relief from the dust, and a great fear of the creaking timbers."

Lastly, the passage describes some of the native animals to California, such as the red snake, bobcats, trout in the steams, blackbirds, jays, crows, doves, mallards, cattle, deer, and sheep and the climates they are found and how the weather can impact them.

This was a very descriptive passage and helped me visualize the different climates and seasons of California.