Sugar and Spice?

In The Lamplighter by Maria S. Cummins, the aftermath of Paul Cooper’s downfall, and Gerty’s proverbial rise can be taken as an indication of a collective desire for balance in society. It is not only in The Lamplighter that we see well-to-do characters falling and virtuous, hardworking characters rising. Even in modern literature this moral prevails: work and be rewarded, be rewarded and fall. What makes Gerty’s situation so interesting is the author’s willingness to break the archetype and show the reader the clockwork of their society, and of our society.

The twist in The Lamplighter is that Gerty does not have to work to rise out of the dregs of society: she has True, who earns her social salvation for her. This sort of Christian imagery pervades the entire story. After one particularly abusive night, Cummins directly addresses Gerty (and, in a way, the audience). “Poor little, untaught, benighted soul! Who shall enlighten thee? Thou art God’s child, little one! Christ died for thee.” And indeed, answering the author’s request, True comes along and brings her up from her lowly state, at no expense to Gerty. “Little Gerty had found a friend and protector.”

Unfortunately, as physically well off Gerty becomes, she has an unavoidable flaw: she is stuck in her street urchin lifestyle. When put into the loving hands of True she does not know what to do. In a way, we all understand her struggle to fit in to an alien situation. Girls today, while the demands of our society are different, deal with the same issues and are portrayed largely in the same way. The video The Yogini we see a modern Ellenesque girl, Anna: perfectly good, an example to all. Anna is independent, hip, and seemingly intelligent; not traits praised by eighteenth century society, but the point is she is well adjusted to today’s society. Which in my opinion is, dare I say, pointless. All our societal expectations are subjective; it is necessary, especially in America that we recognize individuality; that is not to say that it’s wrong to expect good manners, but I digress. We expect young girls to find their niche and obey the social norms, something that Gerty would struggle. Frankly, I don’t even think she could get on to a smart girls” show. As far as she has risen she is in no way an example for other girls. Though, playing along, if she were on the show she would have probably inquired about a way she could balance her life, come into sync with society.

Well, this is me.

Hello world, my name is Bill Hamlett and I am in the midst of a personal renaissance. Last fall, I applied as a freshman to Texas Christian University as a neuroscience major. However, in the time between then and now I have fallen in love with language and the arts. Long story short: I disappointed everyone I knew and loved and became a writing major.

Unlike many of my talented peers I was not born with pen in hand; in fact, it's been quite the opposite. I come from a long line of scientists and engineers, and fully intended on keeping the tradition. However, it turned out, through my little awakening that I discovered something in literature, opera and the arts that I could not find in beakers or even the anatomy of the human body. As amazing and beautiful as science is, I couldn't resist (for lack of a better term) the emotional draw of literature.

Anyway, there is not much more to know about me than that I love theatre, music, and a good time; I play the piano, I'm an eagle scout and I'm still passionately interested in the hard sciences. I suppose if I could have dinner with any three people I would choose George Gershwin, Teddy Roosevelt, and William Saroyan. My reason for taking Major American Writers, honestly, was the off chance that I would get to write a paper about Catch-22 or The Human Comedy. I know, nerdy, but I also know that no matter what we focus on I'll gain valuable writing experience. Plus, how can you go wrong with anything American?

I'm always looking for good books and stories, things I would have never thought to pick up. As far as reading goes, I tend to get stuck in ruts. I read a lot of Joseph Heller, which lead me to William Saroyan. And ever since I read The Heart of Darkness in high school I've worked my way through some of Joseph Conrad's work. I like reading from an author's first work to his last. I find short stories especially telling of an author's artistic direction and style. They're like the appetizer before a meal, or in this case a book.

Truthfully, I'm still finding my feet in writing. I've read a few books on style, but the best I can do right now (especially in creative pieces) is to imitate the writing styles of the authors I like best. Of course, it's hard for me to gauge my own voice, I honestly don't even know if I really have one or not. I do my best to avoid superfluous diction, awkward adverbial phrases, dangling modifiers, too many adjectives, R rated movies. That was a joke. I'd be happy to watch any movie with you at any time. Did I mention I have trouble focusing on one subject at a time?

Well, I guess to wrap things up, I hope that this blogging project helps me to mature as a writer and I hope I can provide some insightful analysis on nineteenth-century American children/popular literature. I modeled this page on the theme of The Lamplighter, I read an excerpt of it in high school. I find some the most interesting parts of literature lie in the details, especially the way authors describe light. That's another problem of mine, I find myself stopping and contemplating every splendid detail of a passage. Things can get pretty slow, but it's incredible how a writer can fit so much truth into so few words. I could sit around all day thinking of how to describe the movement of light and shadow, the way trees look when the sun is shining through technicolor leaves. That was weird. In any case, I hope the simple theme and dark colors of my blog make it easy to read and facilitate an intellectual mood.

Oh yeah, I have read the course description, I agree and understand all of it's terms and I will follow them, putting forth my best effort all the while. Slap me if I slack off.