Julie Borrego
English 48A
Journal for Davis

" "Do you know boy, you have it in you to be a great sculptor, a great man?-do you understand?" (talking down to the capacity of his hearer: it is a way people have with children, and men like Wolfe)...) (Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron-Mills)

“North and South were equally confident that God was on their side, and appealed incessantly to Him.”


Summary:

This quote from Life in the Iron-Mills is when Dr. John May is speaking to Hugh Wolf and trying to inspire him to become something better than he is. To transcend out of the steel mill and his current lot in life. That with his talent he was capable of being a better person, because of his ability to create.

Response:


My personal feeling is that when the doctor is talking to Hugh it is not so much for Hugh's benefit, but for his own. It was his form of charity and good deed for the day. He could walk away feeling good about himself.

This story was very eye opening. The movies that I have seen have always romanticized the 1800's, but with Davis's words she has made the life of the poor steel worker so real and depressing. What a horrible life to live from working in deplorable conditions and home is no different. The ironey is in the end that Hugh would rather be living his deplorable life than to be locked up. How much sweeter his life seemed from the barred window of a prison cell.

I have some first hand knowledge of factory life, because for 5 years I worked in-side sale for two Printed Circuit Board Companies(You know those green things that go into everything from your computer to your Ipods) The factory or "shop" as we call it is always next door. The last company I worked for was very small, and the "shop" was not in the best conditions. The workers worked hard and long for very little money in very toxic environment. Of course if an order was not done correctly if there was mistakes, they heard about, always being threatened with the the ideas that they might loose their jobs. So people must open their eyes, yes the conditions of factory workers has improved, but they are still being worked to the bone for little money for our Ipods.

Julie Borrego
English 48A
Journal for Stowe


"Then you will feel for me. I have lost two, one after another, -left'em buried there when I cam away; and I had only this one left. I never slept a night without him; he was all I had." (Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin)

"There is more done with pens than swords" (Stowe)

Summary:

Eliza is speaking in the quote from Uncle Tom's Cabin. She is explaining to Mr. and Mrs. Bird why she had left her master. Her one and only living child is the only thing she has left to live for in this world and she was not going to let them sell him to a slave trader.

As for Stowe's personal quote regarding, how literature and books are so much more powerful than violence is.

My Ideas:

I feel that Stowe was such a brave and powerful woman to have written such a controversial book. While reading you can tell that each word was carefully chosen to evoke a certain feeling. Especially as woman, I felt the the struggle of a mother trying to save her child from the unknown. Very powerful and very smart to play on emotions when you want people to side with your way of thinking. And to make such an impact on people as a woman, during the 1800's was amazing. I believe that Stowe was so successful, because her father encouraged his children regardless of being a women to become educated.

Julie Borrego
English 48A
Journal for Lincoln

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as god gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation;s wounds; to care fro him who shall have borne the battle, and for the widow, and the orphan-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among our selves, and with all nations." (Lincoln, 1865, Second Inaugural Address)

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Letter To Henry L. Pierce and Others" (April 6, 1859), p. 376.

Summary:

Lincoln knew that the nation had just experience a bloody civil war. In this quote from his Second Inaugural Address, he was stating that the people now should not take sides but to come together as a nation and help each other because both sides have lost so much.

My Ideas:

I feel that Lincoln was faced with a great challenge. He was first the President and then abolishionist. Lincoln had to keep in mind as always who he was speaking to. If he was speaking to pro-slavery people he knew just what to say to gain their support without offending them with his true ideas and beliefs on slavery.

I also admire Lincoln, because he did not have any formal schooling. He received all his knowledge from reading and a pure determination. He became a lawyer not by going to a law school but by studying law books on his own and then passing the Bar.