A Biological Allegory By Sherwood Anderson

My book club book, The Roar by Emma Clayton is about a semi-apocalyptic, semi-dystopian, society where there hasn't been any children born for the past 30 years and this is ‘reasonable move’ as Mal Gorman says, because the Animal Plague has been spread rapidly. Not much is known about the animal plague until the very end of the story.

Alice Malsenior Walker, an African American born into poverty, came into this world on February 9, 1944 in Eatonon, Georgia. She was the youngest child of eight children born to Willie Lee and Minnie Tallulah Walkers. Both of her parents were sharecroppers as well as expert story tellers. Things were not easy for the Walkers and Alice often witnessed her mother’s frustration of having the burden to take care of eight children with little means. Even though children of share croppers were usually made to work the fields, Alice’s mother made sure that her kids received an education. Alice was brilliant at writing poetry.

Brian Robinson from “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen, is a thirteen-year old boy from New York City. This novel essentially deals with the matter of man and nature alongside, of self-cognizant. On his way to visit his father, his plane crashes leaving him alone in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. The story mainly progresses through Brian's experiences existing alone in the wilderness and the struggle to survive with nothing but a hatchet his mother gave him as a gift. Thus, he is primarily the only paramount character. Throughout his survival in the woods, Brian develops notion of how things work for survival and alters his thoughts and action based on the environment he is positioned. The character demonstrates several psychological stages he undergoes to survive based on his prior knowledge and contemporary challenges.

Even though it was easy for women to obtain jobs in the field of domestic work or laundresses, they faced heavier exploitation; considering, that with these jobs women often had no time to care for their families. Leading a life in extreme poverty, these women had no choice, but to search for other opportunities to keep their families, and themselves, alive. At some point African American women even had to sacrifice their prides, in order to earn breadline wages to survive.

In The Natural by Bernard Malamud, the main character, Roy Hobbs joins the New York Knights with an uncontrollable desire to be the best, at first in baseball, but later on in other aspects of his life. Roy is unable to control his appetites, one of them being for women. Roy is considerably influenced not by stereotypical fatherly figures, but rather women, namely Harriet Bird, Memo Paris, and Iris Lemon. While Harriet and Memo are not positive influences, and only wishes ill of Roy, Iris certainly is a positive influence, and cares about Roy, liking him from the start. Harriet and Memo does not care about Roy, the two women only leads him on to further their own goals. On the other hand, Iris does care about Roy, she is concerned about

The plot, or basic storyline, of this short story is about a black woman, Annie Johnson, based in the United States before 1905. Her marriage had collapsed due to her husband leaving her to pursue religion in Oklahoma and leaving her with very little money. The plotline develops on to show her struggle to support herself and her two sons and how she has to use courage to support herself and her family.

When Even the Rat was White was announced as the book that we would be assigned to read and complete a reflection on, I felt indifferent. The title generated the all too familiar themes of cultures being white-washed. In other words, the United States has a past and ongoing history of taking every culture and putting a European spin on it. Naturally, with the announcement of this title, I immediately thought of the Eurocentric atmosphere that is diligently maintained in this country. With that title, the book had to be about the history of that. Also, there were thoughts brought to mind about the book including more information about the cultures that were disregarded and misappropriated.

Alexander Von Humboldt was a Prussian naturalist whose work has helped shape and define our modern understanding of nature. He used enlightenment rationalism to navigate his way through life and his deep connection to his natural environment inspired a visionary movement in ushering out the monotheistic creationist worldview. “Humboldt’s books, diaries and letters reveal a visionary, a thinker far ahead of his time. He invented isotherms...discovered the magnetic equator...came up with the idea of vegetation and climate zones that snake across the globe…and revolutionized the way we see the natural world.” (Invention of Nature, 5). Although his work was extensive, author of ‘The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf suggests that his work has largely been forgotten due to his polymath approach of including art, history, poetry and politics that made him unfavorable. While Humboldt gave us our concept of nature itself, “the irony is that Humboldt’s views have become so self-evident that we have largely forgotten the man behind them.” However, although his work individual work may be overlooked, Humboldt’s success in making science more accessible work and as a result, his legacy lives on as the source of inspiration for many influential thinkers throughout history.

In the opening chapters, Sharpless depicts that African American women pursued the work of cooking for white families, because it was important to the financial stability of their families. Sharpless mentions how before women got the opportunity to work as cooks, they were forced to do field work, which involved working on cotton plantations, and even on farms tending and harvesting corn, tobacco, rice, and sugar. Doing field work consisted of long hours every single day, with very little to no pay, and working in harsh weather conditions like rain, hail, sleet, and snow, and when these women did not cooperate they were beaten and abused by their masters. Sharpless illustrates that once the opportunity came along to be inside the house and cook for these families, African American women leaped with joy. Even though the women still faced hardships in this profession, their family’s needs kept them motivated to work. These women could earn up to $17.50 a week and sometimes the employers of the cooks would give them used clothes, and allow them to take leftovers home to their families. Having the opportunity to become a cook gave these women lots of benefits, allowing them to keep their families sheltered

Concerning women at the end of the nineteenth century, “95% … remained ‘at home’” and “Their lives … were tied to house and children, endlessly unacknowledged work, little opportunity for outside contact or variety of experience, and little relief from everyday triviality” (Hartman 2018). Even though it seems the narrator’s social standing exempts her from working, this proves boredom and confinement to the house was not the exception but the rule. Men, however, ought to work and be the breadwinners. Indeed, the narrator says about John that he “is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious” (Gilman 1892). Consequently, they are both, in their own way, constricted by traditional gender roles that put them in an unequal relationship.

In a crowded city such as Manhattan, it was no wonder that a man like Jerry felt lonely. He was without a friend, a mother and father, and the typical 'wife, two children, and a dog,'; that many others had. Jerry was thrown in a world that he felt did not want him, and his human flaw of wanting to escape loneliness led to his tragic death. In Edward Albee's play, The Zoo Story, all Jerry wanted was to be heard and understood, and in the end, after sharing his life story with a complete stranger, he got his final wish - death. The Zoo Story not only tells of the alienation of man in modern society, but also reflects the philosophy of twentieth century existentialism.

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman is one of the many authors that represent the realism movement. Realism is a style of writing started in the mid nineteenth century and lasted until the early twentieth century. Realism was a response to romanticism. One of Freeman’s most popular story is “The Revolt of Mother”, which is a story that represents farm life during the nineteenth century. The main character in this story is Mrs. Penn, who is a dedicated, and loving mother and wife. Even though she is a dedicated woman, her husband does not appreciate her or gives her the respect she feels she is needed. Her husband did the hard work, while she was in the house washing dishes and cleaning like many wives during this period. Her husband keeps on promising that he will build her a house,

In the book, The Control of Nature by John McPhee, one can see humans in a multitude of locations attempting to control the various aspects of their natural environment. Furthermore, it is clear that the three enduring understandings of Earth Science are present throughout the book as an ongoing theme. The first, the idea that energy, from the Sun and from Earth’s interior, drives all of Earth’s cycles and processes, can be interpreted in many different ways. However, in the different sections of the book, one sees that the Sun can cause weather patterns and can lead to different outcomes. Additionally, the energy, or power, resulting from the intense heat and pressure from the Earth’s interior, can cause volcanic eruptions. As for the idea that matter moves through Earth’s spheres in cyclical processes, over varying periods of time, and at different scales, one can see that water, land, plant matter, and even molten rock come and go in a definite period, whether it is thirty years, or even centuries. In regards to the third idea, that Earth’s surfaces and processes are altered by human engineering, one can see a plethora of examples in the book. The energy from the Sun and from Earth’s interior and the events that are caused from that energy can cause humans to alter the surfaces and processes of Earth by building everything from levees to basins and can even cause humans to make an attempt at cooling flowing

In Edward Albee's play, The Zoo Story, Jerry tells Peter bizarre stories about people he has encountered that influence his shallow and lonely existence, to demonstrate Albee's view that society is unnecessarily consumed by indifference, unkindness, weakness, and emptiness. In an attempt to cause Peter to realize that his own life is filled with emptiness and shallowness, Jerry tells Peter about the lives of some of the people in his boarding house. He talks about the colored queen, the Puerto Rican family, the landlady, and the woman who cries all the time, in hopes of causing Peter to compare the meaninglessness of his life to their lives. In doing this, Jerry hopes Peter will realize that his life

Being a single woman with a family to support in the 1930’s was not an easy job. Especially when society had so many chips stacked against them. Tillie Olsen’s “I stand Here Ironing” is a short story that addresses feminine social disorders and inequalities as well as economic disadvantages that people of lower circumstances have to overcome to survive. In the short story it is basically an autobiography of Tillie Olsen’s life told by the narrator (Emily’s mother). Throughout the story the narrator is reflecting the way she brought up her daughter during a depression and feminist era. She feels very regretful reflecting 19 years late because of the decisions she was forced to make because of the absence of Emily’s father. This story can be seen in a feminist perspective as well as a Marxist perspective; even though they are very different from one another both perspectives help interpret Tillie Olsen’s short story. The Marxist perspective helps illuminate Tillie Olsen’s “I stand Here Ironing” when the narrator explains how the capital system negatively affected Emily and her Family. In a feminist perspective the narrator describes her different encounters with men that abandoned her; causing her to have to take on a male dominated role. Because of the societal characteristic she had to take on it caused her to turn away from her daughter in order to survive.