Journal entry #42 Sui Sin Far

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 14, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

“It won’t harm the boy to stay where he is, and your wife may get over it all right.” “Well, I will need at least five hundred to start with”…“You not one hundred man good; you just common white man”…”what about four?”

Summary:

This is the conversation among James Clancy, Lae Choo, and Hom Hing

Response:

When I was reading this part, I felt so sorry to Lae Choo and Hom Hing. At the same time, I was very angry about the lawyer’s behavior. The lawyer was just grabbing the chance to cheat the couple’s money. Since the lawyer understood that they were so hurry to get back their son, they didn’t have other choices, but paid the “five hundred” dollars to him. Moreover, from this quote, I can see that the bad image of “white man” in the Chinese perception at that time period. In the quote, Lae Choo didn’t scold the lawyer as a bad white man. Instead, she scolded him as a “common white man” after she felt that he was cheating her money. After the lawyer realized that the two couples were not able to pay 500 dollars. He immediately decreased the amount to 400 dollars. Moreover, he even said that the 500 dollars was only “a little money” (Norton 884). At that time, 500 dollars was actually a lot. He was just trying to persuade the couples to give money to him. Since I was not born at that time period, I really could not have the right to say whether all of the whites were bad or not. Nevertheless, I can feel that Sui Sin Far somehow disliked the white people. In her mind, white people, just similar to the lawyer, are very selfish, indifferent, and greedy. I think that the reason for her to have such an idea was that the Chinese immigrants were terribly suppressed during her time period. They encountered a lot of problems when they were trying to go inside America which was supposed to be “the Land of the Free”.

Apart from the quote, I think that the title of the story was very ironic too. After reading the story and the title, I feel that America was just opposite to the meaning of the title. It was not really free. Indeed, there were many restrictions which were set to the foreign immigrants.

Journal entry #41 Sui Sin Far

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 13, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

For twenty moons my wife care for and nurse the old people, and when they die they bless her and my son, and I send for her to return to me. I had no fear of trouble… “Very good, Hom Hing,” replied the first officer. “Nevertheless, we take your son”.

Summary:

It is the conversation between Hom Hing and the officer when the officer needs to take away his son.

Response:

Frankly, when I first read this part, I really don’t know the reason why Hom Hing has to explain such personal things to the officer. However, after attending to class and discussing with friends, I start to get why Sui Sin Far has to put this conversation in the passage. Indeed, Hom Hing is in such a helpless situation when the officer has to take away his son. At that time, he can do nothing, but bring out this story about his wife and his son. He wants to explain to the officer that he has already suffered from separating with his family for a long time . On one hand, he wants to express his sadness that they have separated with each other for a long time and his happiness that they finally can meet each other in America. On the other hand, he attempts to use his story to make the officers feel sympathize with their situations and not to take away his son. Although I don’t agree with what the officers do, I know it is their responsibility to protect their country from foreigners. I think I shouldn’t blame the officers. Instead, I should blame the government to have such a cruel law “in the land of the free”.

After I finish the story, I think that the U.S government should have a system which is more flexible. He is just a small boy. He will not bring big risk to the country. I think the government should allow him to stay with his family in the country for a certain period instead of immediately keeping him away from his parents.

Journal entry# 40 Henry James

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 7, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

“You were right in the remark that you made last summer. I was booked to make a mistake”. I have lived too long in foreign parts. Nevertheless, he went back to live at Geneva.

Summary:

This is found in the end of the story while Winterbourne admits that Mrs. Costello is right and claims that meeting Daisy Miller is a “mistake”.

Response:

After I read this quote, I realize that the rich people, like Winterbourne, will not care about, or worry about the death of Daisy. I admit that initially, he may feel a little bit sad or regret. However, after that, he can just turn to his usual life again. He can just go back to Geneva and start his life again. Moreover, in the quote, it is easy to notice that he considers the relationship with Daisy is just a “mistake”. I think that if he could choose again, he would never go to meet this foreign lady in his life. I think there are actually several reasons for him to consider it as a “mistake”. First of all, I think that the imbalance of social statuses between Daisy and Winterbourne discourages Winterbourne to keep remember this foreign girl. Perhaps, in his mind, there are still many beautiful girls who are more polite and who are in higher class outsides. He doesn’t have to stay there and feel sorry to this foreign lady for the rest of his life. Another reason is that in the end of the story, when he tells Daisy that “it makes very little difference whether you are engaged or not”, I feel that he is telling Daisy that he is already tired of her (Norton 427). Since he is a rich person, he actually doesn’t have to waste so many times on a lady whom he calls “a flirt”. He has “studied” her for such a long time, he starts to understand that whether she is engaged or not, she will stay go and meet many other men. This is her living style. In the end of the story, Winterbourne starts to realize that it is not worthy to put so much time on this “flirt”. I think that these are the reasons why he considers it is just a careless “mistake” after Daisy’s death.

Journal entry# 39 Henry James

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 7, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

The subtle Roman again dropped his eyes. “If she had lived, I should have got nothing. She would never have married me, I am sure”.

Summary:

It is the quote said by Mr. Giovanelli after Daisy’s death.

Response:

Everyone in the story thinks that Daisy is engaged to Mr. Giovanelli, the Italian gentleman. However, it is not the truth. Unluckily, Winterbourne only can know the truth after Daisy dies. Moreover, I think that this quote reveals Mr. Giovanelli’s inner conflict—sad yet relief after Daisy’s death. On one hand, he “dropped his eyes” which represents his sadness towards Daisy’s death. It seems that he hopes if Daisy can still be alive. However, immediately after this, he said “if she had lived, I should have got nothing.” This saying is like a contradiction to his previous action. Somehow, he knows that if Daisy is still alive, she may already have gone to pursue her love for Winterbourne and left him. Then, he would have got nothing. Therefore, he seems to mean that it make no difference whether she is alive or dead because she will not stay by his side in either ways. I even felt that Giovanelli is even a bit relief after the death of Daisy because he may suffer from the lost of Daisy to Winterbourne and he will get “nothing” if Daisy is not dead. Yet, he did get “something” now because he have spent the last period of Daisy’s life with her and most importantly he would never lose Daisy to Winterbourne. Personally, I think that love always creates dilemma. For instance, in the story, Winterbourne does not know if he should go ahead to Daisy since it seems that Daisy actually loves Mr. Giovanelli, but not him. Indeed, the end of the story shows that Daisy’s true lover is Winterbourne, but not Mr. Giovanelli. Why can’t both of them be more honest to each other? After reading the story, I guess if Daisy explained everything well to Winterbourne, she might not go to that fatal place and die at last.

Journal entry# 38 Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 7, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency— what is one to do?

Summary:

This is a quote found in the beginning of the story. It explains how her husband feels about her problem and how she feels about his treatment.

Response:

I think this quote clearly shows the unequal marriage at that time period. In the beginning of the story, I think that the narrator only feels a little bit sick. However, John, her husband, insists that she is suffering from a “temporary nervous depression”. He told her that she should think about the house instead of her “condition”. Since John is her husband and a professional physician, the narrator cannot refuse his treatment. At that point, I can feel her powerlessness in her family. His husband thinks that he is absolutely right and what the narrator needs is to be locked in the room and to do nothing. Although the narrator clearly knows that the “congenial work, with excitement and change would do [her] good” (Norton809), she does not have the choice to write or to do other things which can help herself. Therefore, instead of the “phosphates and phosphites”, I think that the narrator needs stimulation and activity which can strengthen her body and mind. However, the treatment which John provides is totally opposite. In my opinion, the treatment definitely worsens her situation and makes her even feel more depressed. Unluckily, in that society and that time period, she can say nothing to oppose the authoritative voices from her husband. Otherwise, her husband may say that she is in a much worse situation and provide some more stupid treatments to her which she does not have any right to say “no”.
From this quote, I can see that the narrator is just served as “a little girl” who is considered to have no ability to understand what is happening in her body. In the text, John even simply laughs at her about her idea. Here, I can easily see the imbalance of the family status between woman and man. Woman always has to follow instruction while man is always the one who sets the instructions

Journal entry# 37 Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 7, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. I was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls. The paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it.

Summary:

This quote is found in the beginning of the story. It explains the room of the narrator which is designed by John.

Response:

I think that the whole story has a lot of ironic sentences. Among them, I think this quote is the most ironic one. The “big, airy room” makes me think that the room is very beautiful and well-built for her to help her problem. However, when I keep reading the quote, I found out that it is so ironic.

In the quote, the “playroom” shows that John considers the narrator as a child or an infant. At this point, I think it is not common for a woman to be treated as an adult in that century. Moreover, in the room, there are even “windows [which] are barred and rings and things in the wall”. I don’t think they should be existed in a room for the narrator who only has suffered from a “temporary nervous depression”. These kinds of stuffs should only appear in a room for a person who has serious mental disorder. Not only there are horrible equipments in the room, the room is covered with yellow wallpaper. I think the yellow is a disturbing color which definitely worsens her mind. However, the narrator does not intend to ask for a change. I think that not only the color is bad, but the quality of the wallpaper is also terrible. In the quote, it explains that “the paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it”. I think that Gilman wants to magnify how terrible the wallpaper is. At this point, I really can’t find any reason for John, a so called “professional physician”, to put his wife into this poor room to cure her “temporary nervous depression”. I think that the narrator indeed wants somebody to accompany her, rather than the “rings and things in the wall”. Also, I guess if the narrator was not put into this terrible room, her problem would not be worsened into that level.

Journal entry# 36 Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 7, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

I don’t like to look out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did?

Summary:

It is found in the end of the story. It explains what the narrator sees outside her room.

Response:

After the narrator has torn down most of the yellow wallpaper, she thinks that the woman inside the wall is now free. She can come out eventually. However, when I am reading this part, I ask, “So where is the freed woman?” Indeed, the woman in the wall has already combined with the narrator. They have become one unit. Instead of thinking it as a horror story, I think that the woman in the wall is an image of the narrator. Since the narrator always creeps in the room, she sees that the shadow also always creeps in the wall. Gilman wants to use the shadow on the wall to explain the hopelessness and weakness of the narrator that she cannot help herself out in that situation.

Why the women are always creeping? I think that Gilman wants to use “creeping” to explain that the women have no difference with infants. Since infants do not have power to stand up and walk, they always have to creep. Similar to women, they do not have the “power” to stand up. They will never have full development. The “power” can only be possessed by the men. Only men have the abilities to stand up.

Moreover, in another point of view, I think that the women do not have the courage to stand up. If they stand up, they may threaten the social and family positions of the men. Therefore, the men would use his “power” to “cure” them in the method which is similar to what the narrator receives.Furthermore, “those creeping women” outsides the rooms help explain that there are actually many women like the narrator in that time period. Gilman wants to use these women and the narrator to further prove that the narrator is not the exceptional case. It is a common trend in that society. Women are treated as infants. They are always trapped in their houses which have no difference with prisons.