Extra Credit Blog

The story of Sissy is very much like the story of Ellen Montgomery in The Wide Wide World, only the big and overwhelming difference is their genders. Both Sissy and Ellen spend much of their time at home and their closest companions are their moms, although Sissy doesn't seem to have quite the attachment that Ellen possesses. I find it interesting that both stories incorporate dress making as a vital aspect of the plots. Sissy makes Margie lovely dresses in order to show his love for her and almost as a bribe to keep her around because he enjoys her so much. Ellen must go to the store in order to get marino to have a new dress that will suit her for her future. I find the following passage interesting because it shows how Ellen's mom, who is wise of the necessities of a young girl, knows the necessity of her having a good dress. Ellen says, "...don't be in the least bit worried about my clothes. You know how little I think or care for them" and Ellen's mother responds with a smile and then "presently resumed her anxious look out the window" (Warner 36). The vitality of little girls having nice dresses is stressed because having these things was necessary if a girl was one day to find a husband. Sissy, although seemingly less interested in preparing Margie for her future, still stresses having nice dresses and seems to be living vicariously through Margie. He is a boy yet he enjoys dresses, having grown up dressed like a girl, yet being a boy he does not have to have nice dresses to secure his future or liklihood of getting married in the future.
Should it matter so much that Sissy is a boy while Ellen is a girl? It did in the 19th century for sure, with their strict and separate expectations for girls and boys. Us as readers in the 21st century can look on the text and maybe be more accepting of Sissy because there are more publicly feminine men. I think of Sissy as Clint off of the show What Not to Wear, and Sissy grows up to be a milliner. The idea of a "boy-milliner" was "striking" (Kellogg 564) yet Sissy lived a very successful life and eventually got married. It's interesting to note that the dresses that both Sissy and Ellen were so concerned with helped both of them fulfill the expectations of their different genders. Ellen's dress allowed her to eventually get married, a necessity of girls at the time to secure their future. Sissy's concern with dresses turned into a way for him to make money, allowing him to get married and have a family because his dresses allowed him to fulfill the financial duty that men have to their family.

Parenthood in "The Luck of Roaring Camp"

I think there is a message about children and parenthood that is being taught in "The Luck of Roaring Camp". The story takes the phrase "It takes a village to raise a child" literally as a whole camp of rough guys find themselves in charge of a young life. The aspect of the community working together to provide for the baby's needs suggests that society should as well, provide for the needs of the young, no matter if they belong to you or not.

Another aspect of parenthood I found interesting was the change that came over the rough, criminal-type guys at Roaring Camp. The presence of a new innocent life and the responsibility that comes with being in charge of this life completely transformed every individual and the camp as a whole. Kentuck turned from the grimiest guy in the camp to a clean cut man who "thereafter appeared regularly every afternoon in a clean shirt..." (Harte 536). It shows the impact of having a child on parents. I know many instances of people completely turning their world around from immoral to moral after having a baby because they know they must teach the baby to be good from their example. Having a baby present is the best incentive anyone could have to give up their bad ways for the child's sake. Having a child makes a parent forget about just themselves and put all attention on someone else. We should all act as if we are responsible of those in need and as helpless as this baby, even if we are not blood related. If everyone helped one another and acted as if the innocent and impressionable eyes of a baby were always watching our actions then the world would be a better place.

The Reader's Approach to Short Stories vs Novels

I’m relieved that we’re starting to read short stories, not just because school is getting more and more hectic but also so we can read the whole story, not just excerpt, so we can get the whole effect of the work and analyze it in its entirety. In reading the previous excerpts from novels I’ve felt like I was only scratching the surface of what the work is all about and all the ideas and character development that takes place. In long novels there is a long time and many pages for us as readers to figure everything and all the characters out. We as readers become attached to the characters because we spend more time learning about how they act in their life as the plot unfolds. In short stories it seems like we don’t have time to learn about complex characters in depth and analyze their characteristics. Instead, it seems like we are told directly how the characters are and we are meant to trust the narrator in his or her analysis moreso than in long stories where we have more experience with the characters to judge for ourselves. For example, in “Desiree’s Baby” Desiree’s personality is summed up in one sentence, “For the girl grew to be beautiful and genle, affectionate and sincere, -- the idol of Valmonde” (Chopin 517). The reader is left with no choice but to agree and depend upon the author and the narrator’s opinion on the matter as little other detail is given concerning her character.

So when I read short stories I feel like I don’t have to analyze characters as much but at the same time I have to analyze the wording of the narrator more. Since every word counts, there is little fluff and mostly everything is meaningful and should be analyzed. I find myself reading lines and phrasing over and over again to better understand what exactly the author wants me as a reader to understand or the idea I am supposed to take from the words. I’m not necessarily reading too differently, I’m still going through the work at about the same pace with maybe a few more notes in the margins than I had in the novel excerpts, but I find that I am analyzing the wording and small details mentioned in the short story far more than in the novels because they must be included because they are significant.