Zitkala Sa

Throughout reading the life of Zitkala Sa I thought she was trying to put many themes or overall point to the story. She talks about things she sees and the way the culture around her works. She talks about her mother and how she's quiet and grieves of her lost family members and is not very fond of the pale faces. The legends, showed much about their culture and how respect for people around her, who are basically like family and her mother. "this taught me to remember all I saw in a single glance. Often I told my mother my impressions without being questioned." (page 1010) In the Beadwork it shows how dependent they are for themselves. They don't go to stores and buy things, the things they had we're hand made and still as beautiful as ever. The children would get together and have parties. "we delighted in impersonating out own mothers." (page 1012) how much of a role model their mothers were, and passing on culture down to their kids. In the end she talks about how she wants to go with the pale faces to the east. Although her mother is very uneasy about this, she decisides to let her daughter go and with her curiousity was very excited. Along with her excitement came the disappointmen of how much she missed her mother after such a short time, but in the same time was doing this to not follow what her mother was doing, but to decide her own path for her life.

Booker and Du Bois

Well, when I read Booker T. Washington's story on the Atlanta Exposition I felt that he was trying to bring blacks and whites together as equals. He used the idea of a bucket on a boat to show that all men were created equal. "there is no defense or security for any of us except in the hightest intelligence and development of all. If anywhere there are efforts tending the curtail and fullest growth of the negro, let these efforts be unred into stimulating, encouraging and making him the most useful and intelligent citizen." (762) i think he wants changes to happen but in the future when people realize that skin color shouldnt matter.

When reading Du Bois's I understand when you said it was thick. This part was kinda hard for me to understand and comprehend what he was saying. I defently think that he admired Washington's idea for the blacks. But i think that he thought that Washington didn't think he realized all the hardships that came along with such an idea. "And yet the time is come when one may speak in all sincerity and utter courtesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr. Washingtons career, as well as of triumphs, without being thought captious or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to do ill then well in the world" (885) Du Bois seems to think that there are many people who congradulated him when he gave his speech but there was still many people who dispised him. He thinks that men should have all equal rights but they can't practice those rights without any background information or proper education on how to excerise these rights.

Not quite sure if this is what you were looking for, but thats my input on the question.

1st blog assignment

Well, in reading Henry James piece of "Art of Fiction" I got confused on what exactly he was trying to get across. He himself thought that a good novel is determined upon the person reading it and their interests. He believes there is much to critism given to fictionous novelist. James believes that they can take an experience and make it seem very real without having to experience it themselves, altho he still believes that in some way their idea's for their stories come from real events.
His thoughts on fiction contradicts with those of Mr. Besant. He believes that every novel must come with "precision and exactness." He thinks that the novelist should have personal experience with the situation, and that it's impossible to define a character without a full knowing description of them.
These views i though also contradict those of Edith Wharton in "Souls Belated" because in the story there is never a full description of either Lydia or Garnett but the events in the story seem so real you can get the idea in your head without needing that description. THe idea of the story, and having relationship issues is very much a real problem in todays world. Whether topic can be considered a good one is not is depended upon the reader.
Overall I believe that novelist that write fiction should be aloud without any criticism. Everyone has their own opinions and if they don't like to read fiction novels, nobody is forcing them too. I also think that it depends on the kind of story whether a full description of people or places around them need to be detailed in order to understand the reading, and without that the reader would be lost.