The Hidden Hand

Throughout the course of this story, I really liked reading about one of my favorite things in life- people helping people. That's exactly what my motto is in life is that people should love and help each other. So, it really pleased me to watch a bitter old man who seemed selfish and self-righteous at first end up tending to a poor little girl in New York and taking her under his wing and all of the nice things he did for her. I couldn't have felt happier for Capitol, especially when Old Hurricane bought her a pony. I enjoyed it even more when Herbert told Traverse and his poor mother that all of their grief and hard times were forever over. The entire time I was reading I even thought, "this is what I want to do with my life, help people much less fortunate than me."

So... You can imagine my deep disappointment in Old Hurricane when he turned away Traverse and his poor mother away from his life and house and you can imagine my deep sorrow for Marah when she found out she wouldn't be able to live with him. I don't know if the end of the story was the end of the actual novel, but if so then whoever wrote that book had sole intentions of depressing people.

Stowe- Uncle Tom's Cabin

There's a lot to say about the role of children and the theme of childhood in the literature we read. In most emotional/tragic works such as Uncle Tom's Cabin, as soon as we sense the presence of any children our hearts automatically drop due to fear of that certain child becoming part of the tragedy. Sometimes, we even take it upon ourselves to feel sorry for the child even when the child doesn't feel sorry for his/her self. This is exactly how a text about slavery complicates our sense of emotion towards children. We want to view them as innocent but it makes us feel even worse when an innocent child is put in the middle of a horrific time period.

For example, when we read that Eliza would be separated from her child, we all felt sorry for Eliza and even worse for the child. It's tough to imagine a child being cast off on his own into a world of slavery he doesn't understand.

The Wide, Wide World

After reading the Wide, Wide World, I gained an insightful and emotional point of view of the life of a parent. While reading about Ellen's parents' behavior, I assessed that their behavior is much like that of our present day parents' behaviors.

Ellen's mother was very strong and wanted to be very strong for her child. I have been told that every parent's worst fear is someday not being able to be there for their young and become so vulnerable that their world is beyond their control. Ellen's mother exhibited much of this behavior as she was struggling to tell her daughter how sick she was and how she had to go away for awhile.

While I could get a firm grasp of Ellen's mother's unyielding faith in God, I wasn't really able to tell much about her father. Therefor, I saw no similarities.

The way Ellen views her parents is much the same way most children that look up to their parents view them- as the all-knowing being. For all Ellen knows, her mother was the equivalent of how we view God. Ellen's dependency and relationship with her mother really has an effect on the well being of her life.