English 48A
Journal for Davis
October 1st, 2009
Rebecca Harding Davis
1831-1910
1831-1910
"There is no hope that it will ever end. Think that god put into this man's soul a fierce thirst for beauty, -to know it, to create it; to be -something, he knows not what, -other than he is." (The Norton Anthology pg 2606)
"Whether Alcott, Emerson, and their disciples discussed pears or the war, their views gave you the same sense of unreality...Their theories were like beautiful bubbles blown from a child's pipe, floating overhead, with queer reflections on them of sky and earth and human beings, all in a glow of fairy color and all a little distorted." (pg 33-37 Bits of Gossip)
The first quote is select
ed from Davis' description of Wolfe. In it she describes a man of desperate desire. A man born with the gift of being able to see with the eyes of an artist, but condemned to a life of slavery. A man who doesn't even know what he desires, simply knowing that he wants something more, and will never be given the chance. He is a victim of society, a man born into a world of injustice, driven on by men of power, only to die having never had the chance to live.
The second quote was selected from Davis' 'Bits of Gossip', in which she describes the contemporary essayists, philosophers and poets of the time as they talk in a parlor at Hawthorne's estate. She describes the lack of actual experience that these great men base their philosophies and theories upon, finding them 'distorted', and 'unreal'. In doing so, she describes a society detached from the reality of suffering going on in the United States. Perhaps these experiences are what brought Davis to lead the realist literary movement.
A short story that Davis had obviously intended to be a narrative on social classes, '
Life In The Iron Mills' serves to describe the effects of society on a quickly growing worker class, testing the moral fiber of America's industrial future. Davis starts by describing the setting of the town of iron-works, a town of smoke and fog, burdened with so much pollution as to place it on the verge of being inhospitable. Within this town of industry Hugh Wolfe, like all the workers, is a slave, a slave made up to be a voluntary worker, and born into the lower class with no means of escaping it.
Representing the hope in all slaves, however small, and seemingly insignificant, Hugh Wolfe desires more. A man with the gift of being a great artist, Wolfe is inflicted with the desire to create beauty, in a world devoid of kindness. Unfortunately, in trying to escape his fate, society condemns him to a life in prison, and unwilling to be a slave once more, he kills himself. Is Wolfe guilty for taking the chance to escape his world of slavery? When a man is inflicted with desperation, is an attempt at escape, whatever the cost immoral? What would you do to escape a life of slavery? What would you be willing to do if your life was at stake? Davis forces the reader to confront these moral dilemmas, putting the truth in perspective.
One of the strongest points I found in her story, was the apathetic nature with which the work camps were treated. An apathy that made such slavery possible in the industrial world. Kirby, and his friends walk around the iron-mill with a detached interest. Kirby, when confronted by Mitchell says "I wash my hands of all social problems, -slavery, caste, white or black.". He knows that what he does is wrong, but denies the fact that he is the direct cause, finding no guilt in it. Mitchell goes on to say that the man who allowed Jesus to be put on the cross said the same, mocking him for the methods of his denial.
Note that the three men described all give different methods of accepting the inhumanity of slavery. Kirby, making a profit off of the work, cares not, and goes so far as to say that he doesn't even feel guilty for their fate; the Doctor wants to help, but then decides not to, saying there would be no use in helping only one man; and Mitchell finds himself to be above the workers, going so far as to say that he isn't one of 'them'. Describing the common arguments for accepting slavery, Davis plainly paints a picture of the lies people tell themselves in order to accept what they know to be wrong, and it's a powerful statement.
It seems strange indeed that with the end of the civil war, came the end an era only to give birth to a new one in which slavery was no longer a burden of race, but of an entire social class.
"Whether Alcott, Emerson, and their disciples discussed pears or the war, their views gave you the same sense of unreality...Their theories were like beautiful bubbles blown from a child's pipe, floating overhead, with queer reflections on them of sky and earth and human beings, all in a glow of fairy color and all a little distorted." (pg 33-37 Bits of Gossip)
The first quote is select
ed from Davis' description of Wolfe. In it she describes a man of desperate desire. A man born with the gift of being able to see with the eyes of an artist, but condemned to a life of slavery. A man who doesn't even know what he desires, simply knowing that he wants something more, and will never be given the chance. He is a victim of society, a man born into a world of injustice, driven on by men of power, only to die having never had the chance to live.A short story that Davis had obviously intended to be a narrative on social classes, '
Life In The Iron Mills' serves to describe the effects of society on a quickly growing worker class, testing the moral fiber of America's industrial future. Davis starts by describing the setting of the town of iron-works, a town of smoke and fog, burdened with so much pollution as to place it on the verge of being inhospitable. Within this town of industry Hugh Wolfe, like all the workers, is a slave, a slave made up to be a voluntary worker, and born into the lower class with no means of escaping it.Representing the hope in all slaves, however small, and seemingly insignificant, Hugh Wolfe desires more. A man with the gift of being a great artist, Wolfe is inflicted with the desire to create beauty, in a world devoid of kindness. Unfortunately, in trying to escape his fate, society condemns him to a life in prison, and unwilling to be a slave once more, he kills himself. Is Wolfe guilty for taking the chance to escape his world of slavery? When a man is inflicted with desperation, is an attempt at escape, whatever the cost immoral? What would you do to escape a life of slavery? What would you be willing to do if your life was at stake? Davis forces the reader to confront these moral dilemmas, putting the truth in perspective.
One of the strongest points I found in her story, was the apathetic nature with which the work camps were treated. An apathy that made such slavery possible in the industrial world. Kirby, and his friends walk around the iron-mill with a detached interest. Kirby, when confronted by Mitchell says "I wash my hands of all social problems, -slavery, caste, white or black.". He knows that what he does is wrong, but denies the fact that he is the direct cause, finding no guilt in it. Mitchell goes on to say that the man who allowed Jesus to be put on the cross said the same, mocking him for the methods of his denial.
Note that the three men described all give different methods of accepting the inhumanity of slavery. Kirby, making a profit off of the work, cares not, and goes so far as to say that he doesn't even feel guilty for their fate; the Doctor wants to help, but then decides not to, saying there would be no use in helping only one man; and Mitchell finds himself to be above the workers, going so far as to say that he isn't one of 'them'. Describing the common arguments for accepting slavery, Davis plainly paints a picture of the lies people tell themselves in order to accept what they know to be wrong, and it's a powerful statement.
It seems strange indeed that with the end of the civil war, came the end an era only to give birth to a new one in which slavery was no longer a burden of race, but of an entire social class.
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