Dubois and Washington

As I read through this novel by W. E. B. Dubois, I recognize that all of his writing, pertaining to Booker T. Washington was sort of like a politician trying to talk about his opponent in the nicest sense possible but deep down he knows that none of what he is saying means any thing to him. Even though Dubois tries to say that Washington is the best thing that has happened to the negro race since the civil war, I just sense some sort of resentment or hatred in his tone. I am not saying that because Dubois goes on to say that Washington’s idea of education will not get the negro far in the future and condoning civil liberties and the right to vote at times like this could very well mean the demise of the negro race. The reason I say that I don’t believe Dubois is because he in a sense worships Washington for his accomplishments and his hard work but at the same time tries to say that all the hard work done by Washington is of no use to the common negro because the lack of higher education. Because with that higher education the negro will be able to combine that knowledge with the knowledge learned at the industrial school of Washington and go on to better things. Dubois, also argues that the great speech given by Washington where he says that “In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”, was a great step toward making the white man realize that the negro problems and are not his problems and should be left to the negro. This, obviously might not have been Washington’s attention at all. But in my opinion, both have an opinion and both have the right to express it.

Up from slavery

As I finished reading this autobiography of Booker T. Washington, I came to realize that he had accomplished so much in such a little time. At the end, he notes that it was in the last ten years in which he has accomplished the task of creating an Educational Institute for black people. To me the most important or most interesting part of the autobiography was that part when Washington, along with his wife, visits Europe for 3 months. The thing that really surprised me was how every one knew him at every place he went. The treatment he received, while he was in Europe, was much better than he had ever imagined. I loved it when he said that the friendship of an Englishman is something you never lose. One quote that he repeats over and over again through out the book is the quote “to do a common thing in an uncommon manner.” This quote, I had heard before, but I never really realized that the origination of this quote came from Booker T. Washington’s hard work at Tuskegee and Hampton. He speaks of people of his race as having to do something so well that other races will require their services no matter what the race was. He says that they have to do everyday services so well that even if someone tries to find any faults with it they can not find any fault due to the excellence in their work. So the actual quote I was referring about, that is not in the book is “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon manner.”

In my opinion, Booker T. Washington had to be one of the luckiest men that ever lived, because where ever he went he was treated with respect and friendly faces due to his hard work in his life. The luck part comes in when he was only in slavery for some of his childhood and then he had the opportunity to earn an education. I say luck because I am sure that many other black children back then had the same ambition and desire for education but never were presented with an opportunity to succeed. I still respect Booker T. Washington more than many men for what he has accomplished in his life is amazing. For instance, he had made a goal in his mind to create an institution in which the President of the United States will visit. He succeeds in this goal towards the end of the book. To stick with what you want and to never give up on your dreams and goals is very hard to do and I respect Booker T. Washington for succeeding in what he put his mind to and succeeding with “flying colors”.

Up from slavery

As I read the first couple of chapters in the life of Booker T. Washington, I come to realize that not all slaves wanted to become free, because their survival depended on their owners. For example, those slaves who were 70 or 80 years of age were afraid for their lives for they did not know how to survive in the world without the ‘help’ from their master. I really like how Washington says that “It was very much like suddenly turning a youth of ten or twelve years out into the word to provide for himself.” This sentence really dictates the tone for those who thought of freedom as just a thing they have always wanted and no work was required after that. As I mentioned earlier that some free slaves, who were now 70 or 80 years old, they had their ‘glory’ days behind them, so there wasn’t a lot they could do to provide for themselves let alone their families. But one thing that was really interesting to me was how Washington’s tone at the beginning of the book is very calm and sensible towards his father, because I believe that he has every right to be mad his father for deserting him and his mother no matter what the circumstances were. But then again, I did not go through it, he did so therefore I cannot judge but I just thought that Washington was, overall, very forgiving of everyone who wronged him. Even though he says that they lived in poor conditions and barely had enough food to feed the family, he still was very ‘close’ to his master. But he does go on to say that when the old master would whip some of the slaves the little masters would beg for mercy for the slaves and I guess that is where the love for the little masters comes from. But after freedom, slaves were hit with the harsh reality of things concerning the real world and surviving on their own and that is where I left off reading so I will get back to you guys on that.

The diary of a shirtwaist striker

As I started reading this book, the thing that intrigued me the most was how nonchalant the narrator was at the beginning of the story. She did not seem to really understand the seriousness of the strike and thought that the strike would be over in a day or two. But as the story progressed she started understanding the seriousness of the situation and became really involved with the strike. This can be seen through the effect that the strike is having on her personal life.  First of all, her relationship with Jim can be seen suffering at the beginning due to her involvement with the strike. Jim believes that she should not be involved with the strike and leave it to the ‘other’ women and by other he means those that are poor and in some instances Jewish. This sort of talk by Jim really angers the narrator because she believes that Jim does not understand the hardships that these girls have to go through. Also her father angers her by saying that she should stay home if she cannot go to work and not worry about the money. This really angers her because she thinks that her father might have understood the strike because he was a union man him self but he ends up talking like all the men she knows. One more thing that really amazes her is how Jim and her father talk about her marriage with Jim without consulting her about it. All this happens while the strike is going on and she says that if any of this had happen any other time she would have cried her eyes out but since the strike nothing in her life seems so serious anymore after seeing what other people are going through in their lives. So far this novel or diary has been really interesting to me but I am still waiting waiting for the plot to develop more and I am sure that will happen soon.

Blade Runner

When I watched this movie, I was expecting a really decent movie due to the fact that Harrison Ford was in it and it involved robots, technology and violence. But after the movie, I was very disappointed due to the fact that this was probably the most useless, boring, pointless and unrealistic movie ever. The Nexus-6 Replicants who leave their planets in order to come to earth was really a bad idea for the movie to begin with. I understand that the Replicants were created by men and sent to other planets to control the civilizations over there and they got too ’smart’ or they were out of control of men so they were forced to stay on those planets and they were illegal on Earth, but why do only four decide to come to earth? Why is the creator of those replicants still living a really good life here on earth when his creations have been banned on the planet? If I have made any mistake in interpreting the story, I apologize, but that can be explained and the reason for that is that I was very confused about the whole replicants coming to earth and how they were sent to save mankind but they end up being a danger to all of mankind. I also expected the movie to better convey the replicants struggle on other planets because even though at the beginning of the movie they explain everything, it still would have helped to show how the replicants became uncontrollable and what led to the replicants being produced in the first place. Another thing that I was very confused about was why was the setting of this movie in a very asian-isque place. Was the world controlled by an Asian country or people? Why does Ford’s character decide to kiss the replicant who thinks she is a human because she has human memories? I understand that Ford’s character takes a liking to her but still that doesn’t make up for the fact that he has feelings for a non-human.

Life in the Iron Mills

As I began reading this short story by Rebbecca Harding Davis, I couldn’t help but notice the mood and tone of the story from the beginning. The mood started out depressing and only increased through out the story. The tone was also very depressing and sad. The setting of the story, along with the mood, helped greatly in developing the plot of the story. First of all I noticed that through out the story the protagonist of the story, Hugh Wolfe, does not even think of helping himself or the betterment of his family until Dr. May comes along. Hugh Wolfe, who is a iron mill worker, is disliked by his co-workers because of his education and also because he doesn’t do what the other men do for instance: he doesn’t drink often unlike other men instead he choses to carve things out of korl, and that is the reason why he is noticed by Dr. May. Dr. May along with four other men, comes to the mill to inspect the mill and its workers and has to stay due to the bad weather outside. It is then that he notices this carving carved by Wolfe. He immediately wants to know who created that peace and starts asking questions about what it represents and why hasn’t the creator of this tried to pursue a career. Wolfe asks if Dr. May will help him but he says he doesn’t have the money to help him. But he leaves Wolfe with the advice that “take care of himself, and to remember it was his right to rise.” With this thought in his mind he plans to change his and his families life by stepping towards a better future. But in order for him to have a better future he needs to take some giant steps in the right direction and the first step he takes turns out to be the last one also because that first step turns out to be him taking the money from Deb, who has stolen that money from Mitchell who is also one of the owners of the mill. For this crime Hugh Wolfe gets 19 years in prison and Deb gets 3 years. But the part that ‘pissed’ me off the most was when Dr. May reads about Wolfe in the paper all he is able to say is “Scoundrel! Serves him right!” After being the only one that was human enough to sympathize with Wolfe he fails to understand the circumstances Wolfe was in when he took the money from Deb. The ending of this story, to me, is the saddest by far due to the declining condition of Hugh Wolfe and what Deb has to go through during the death of Wolfe, who dies in prison after being mentally ‘drained’. But after all this I still have many questions some of which include the following: Who is Janey and what happens to her after Wolfe’s death and Deb’s sentence? Who is Old Wolfe and how old is he? What is the relationship between Hugh Wolfe and Deb? But overall I loved this short story.

Terminator 2

As I finished watching the movie called Terminator 2 Judgment day, I couldn’t stop thinking of the comparisons between Twain’s novel “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” and Terminator. First and for most, the killing of people in order to save lives is seen in both for example: in Terminator Sarah Connor’s philosophy is that killing one person who is responsible for 3 billion deaths in the future is perfectly moral where as in Twain’s novel, the Yankee immorally kills thousands of knights in order to save the lives of those who eventually die at the end by diseases spread by the dead corpses of the knights. But overall, the Terminator movie involved violence with technology against technology. Where a terminator helps defeat another more advanced terminator in order to protect the life of a young boy, who has sent this terminator from the future. One question I have regarding the ending of this movie is that when the terminator destroys the other advanced terminator, also known as T1000, he also destroys him self so there will be no remains of terminator technology in the future. But my question is that before all this occurs the good terminator loses his mechanical arm and the movie fails to explain what happens to that arm. But overall, in my opinion this movie does a great job of portraying the mayhem that can be spread through out the world with the wrong usage of technology.

Ragtime the end

As I recall my most recent blog entry, I could not understand why Doctorow was praised so highly for his work Ragtime. But that was only after reading first couple of chapters of the book. Now that I have finished the novel and understood the stories within the story, I come to realize why this is considered to be one of his best, if not the best, piece of work. The different stories within the novel make this a novel of greatness. I loved how Tateh and Mother’s Family “accidentally” bump into each other and they end up getting married. To me, Mother’s little Brother was the most intense character in the whole novel due to the changes he goes through. For example, at the beginning of the novel he is in “love” with Evelyn Nesbit, who also has her life transformed through out the novel. Mother’s Little Brother is so much in love with Evelyn Nesbit that he actually starts stalking her and ends up ‘getting’ with her but not for love, well atleast not on the Evelyn’s side because she says that she wants a man who can treat her bad. Towards the end of the novel, he joins with the forces of Coalhouse, who forms a revolutionary group with 3-5 members to go against the government for not repairing Coalhouse’s car after it was trashed by the police. After taking over the J.P. Morgan library, Mother’s Little Brother ends up going to Mexico and joining a revolutionary group and dying in Mexico. his story is one of many in the novel but probably the most intense. This novel really made me think of how the society worked then compared to now and I have come to notice that even though racism is not a big issue today but still the government seems to me as corrupt as ever and the mention of J.P. Morgan reminds me of the documentary I once saw called “Zeigiest”, which relates J.P. Morgan and Rockefeller to the corruption of this country.

Ragtime

Ragtime, by E.L. Doctorow is considered to be his most famous work and after reading first 8 or 9 chapters, I have yet to see why this novel is so highly acclaimed as his best work. Even thought the story seems very interesting, but so far all these characters that are real historic figures just come and go in the novel. For example: Sigmund Freud appears in the novel, “bad-mouths” America about its sexual believes and its economy and stableness and leaves. So far the story of the novel is at best interesting. Nothing has really popped out at me yet. Their is one thing that I enjoyed in the first couple of chapter and that was how Doctorow related real historic events in the novel with the characters, for example: the character named Father goes on a trip to the north pole with Peary, who is the first man in history to reach the north pole. Another interesting thing about this novel is Doctorow’s writing style is very unique. Doctorow does not use any quotations through out the book so it makes the reader discern between the narrator and actual dialogue between characters.

Connecticut Yankee

As I finished reading this novel, I came to understand that the Yankee, who is also known as Hank Morgan, did what he thought was best for the people of the sixth century. Although his intentions were good, he faulted in his actions toward the betterment of the sixth century society. That fault came when he assumed that what worked for the 19th century folks would work for the people of the sixth century. Even though at first he gets through to many people and even learns a few things from them, he expects too much from the people and expects them to act according to the standards of the 19th century people. So when he leaves Clarence in charge of the community, he finds out how bad things were and how he had faulted in assuming that things would just work out for the best. Also, the ending disturbed me a lot because of the Yankee killing thousands of people to save a few and then those few dying of disease. This book in a lot of ways was very interesting but it also pointed out that technology can not save the people from themselves.