Stephen Crane & Edith Wharton

Stephen Crane Poetry

As I read Stephen Crane’s biography, I found that he was an undecided person. He never really knew what he wanted to do in college so he just dropped out. I think this decision did him some good. After he had spent some time away from school and settled down to write, he became a very famous author. Over the course of four years, he had three books and well known short story published. He was very busy while he was alive but he did not get to live a full life of fame and fortune. He died in 1900 at the young age of 28. I find Stephen Crane’s poetry to be almost as hard to understand as Emily Dickinson’s. All of his poetry is talking about the human in some way. “In the Desert” is talking about a man who is literally eating his heart. I am pretty sure this can never be done in real life, but I guess in poetry it can. He is asked if the heart is good and the man replies that it is bitter. If he is eating his own heart and says it tastes bitter, then I am guessing he is saying that he himself is bitter. This does not bother the man because he goes on to say that he likes it because it is his heart. I guess, even though the heart is bitter, the man likes it because it is a part of who he is. One of the few poems I actually, halfway, understood was “A Man Feared That He Might Find an Assassin.” In this poem I am guessing there are two different men. One says he is afraid he will meet an assassin and the other says that he will meet a victim. I am also guessing that the man who is afraid of the assassin was the victim and the man who met the victim was the assassin. The only part I did not fully understand was the last line. This could possibly mean one of two things. The assassin was smarter and killed the victim, or the victim was smarter and ran away. Another poem that I halfway understood was “Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War is Kind.” In this poem the narrator is trying to tell all of that they should not be sad because they had lost someone in war. The narrator then goes on to try and explain their point, but, in my opinion, they just made things worse. They talked about all of the gloom things that happen in wars and there is no way that those images could cheer a person up.

“The Open Boat”

I enjoyed reading this story. It was filled with great details and I could actually imagine what was happening to these people. I think that this story is a great example of how you should never give up no matter how trying something can be. These four men had a chance to completely give up and just drown in the ocean and possibly get eaten by a shark. They did not want their lives to end that way so they each fought and worked in any way they could to keep themselves alive. The two men rowing did their part by, well, rowing. They kept the little dinghy going in the direction they felt it needed to go. They did not let it get too close to the shore and turn over and they tried their hardest to keep it from getting pounded by the strong waves. The captain did his part by telling the rowers which way they should be going. He got them close enough to a shore that they could actually see it. He also helped them get to the shore when they all fell out of the boat and he did this while he was injured. The cook did not do very much. However, he did help keep a lookout and near the end of their voyage, he actually took over the rowing so the rowers could sleep. I thought it was funny that the men kept repeating themselves when nobody came from the life-saving station. I also thought it was funny that they got so worked up about nobody coming to save them. I know they did not know that there was nobody around to help them, but they should have figured it out when no one came. I was happy that most of the men had survived when they had to flee the little boat and swim ashore. However, I was a little disappointed that the oiler did not make it alive. He had worked so hard rowing the boat and he had actually gotten the men to the point they were when they had to make it ashore on their own. I did not think it was fair that he had to work so hard and then he ends up dying. Other than the end, I enjoyed this story and would definitely read it again!

“The Other Two”

This story depicts a great representation of many families in American society today. There are so many families falling to divorce nowadays and there is no way that any person can truly get away from their ex-partner, especially if there are children involved. It has to be awkward when the ex and the new partners meet. There is no way of knowing when it will happen but it is bound to happen, even more so if they all live in the same city. It had to be hard enough for Waythorn when he heard that his wife’s ex-husband was going to be coming to their home. The two were newlyweds and he adored her and her daughter. I do not think he ever contemplated the fact that Haskett, the girls’ father, would ever be visiting her at his home. Since he had so much love for his new family, I do not think it ever bothered him too much. If it was not bad enough that Waythorn had to deal with Haskett, he also had to deal with yet another ex-husband of his wife. Mr. Varick was Mrs. Waythorn’s second husband. Waythorn had to know that he would eventually run into Varick because they lived in the same place. To make things more awkward, Waythorn and Varick had to work together while Waythorn’s partner was sick. I am pretty sure Waythorn never saw this happening. By the end of the story, it seemed like the three gentlemen were getting along just fine. Mrs. Waythorn, however, acted awkward around her two ex-husbands, which is understandable. I am guessing she had to get over her awkwardness though because Haskett was going to continue visiting their daughter at the Waythorn residence and Varick and Waythorn were still working together so he would definitely be around. I liked how at the end of the story she invited all of the men to join her for tea. This showed that she could cope with being around all of the men at the same time. It also showed that she was ready to get over the awkwardness she experienced around them. The final gesture made by Waythorn showed that he was okay with all of them being together.