Plot Twists & Turns

Sherlock Holmes. This particular story made me very delighted as there is finally a competent adversary to face off against Sherlock, the woman. She consistently outwits him and stays one step ahead of all of Sherlock’s plans. This was very much seen in the extra credit video that we saw Tuesday night from the television/mini-series Sherlock. In the video we saw that “the woman” managed to poison Sherlock, faked her death, and managed to throw him through a loop when it came to trying to figure out the pass-code to her cell phone. This is such an uncommon situation when it comes to Sherlock because he is known for being one of the greatest – if not the greatest – deductive specialists. He never misses anything, not even the minutest detail. So this makes it very interesting that this random woman is able to “pull the wool” over Sherlock’s eyes. The shows makes it clear that Sherlock and “the woman” have feelings for one another, whether those feelings are love or just admiration for a fellow genius is still to be seen. Nonetheless, it is quite clear to me that whatever the feelings he had for the woman made him vulnerable to her tactics – just as her feelings for him allowed him to beat her in the end. It truly is a riveting story line.

Another really intriguing story we read was Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King. The story of Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan going into the foreign land of Kafiristan to make themselves kings is a dream that most people have – I am referring to the being a king/queen, not taking over another land. They accomplished this by making the Kafiristan locals believe that the two of them were Gods among men. However, Daniel gets greedy and tries to take a wife which was against the rules. The woman was frightened and ended up biting Daniel causing him to bleed which showed the locals that the two of them were in fact not Gods, but mere humans like themselves. The locals turned against Daniel and Peachey, killed Daniel by making him fall to his death, and staked Peachey with wooden stakes – that is quite the grotesque scene when seeing the movie version. In the end, all Peachey has to remember his time as a king is the decapitated head of his dear friend (Daniel) and the crown that was upon his head when he fell to his death. Now if that isn’t a story that you can really sink your teeth into, than I don’t know what is!

These two stories both kept the three of us on the edge of our seats because they both included many plot twists. The fact that they were able to capture our attention so vehemently really shows how intriguing the two authors wrote their stories! This being said, we believe that the best stories frequently have thrilling endings that nobody sees coming (or at least, that is the idea the authors have in mind).

Kipling and Harrison

Hubert Harrison wrote, “The Black Man’s Burden (A Reply to Rudyard Kipling) in 1920.  This poem was written in response Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden.”  Kipling’s work is almost a satirical piece that concerns the hardships that white men went through in the nineteenth century.  Today when I read Kipling’s work I have to laugh in order to avoid complete anger.  The fact that Kipling tried to argue that what he was writing about were hardships is disgusting.  In fact, I think that Kipling was trying to be comedic because I have a hard time believing that anybody could have ever believed that what Kipling is describing was a hardship.  Harrison did a great job in his reply to Kipling though because what he described as hardships are really hardships.  Harrison talks about the lies that the white men told the black men.  He talks about how the white men starved their slaves and still worked them day and night in terrible conditions.  Reading Harrison’s work makes me realize the seriousness of slavery in the nineteenth century.  Harrison’s piece truly depicts the struggles that the black men and women had to suffer through during such a terrible time in our nation’s history.  As an aspiring teacher I think that these two pieces would be great to compare in a history class.  I think that these pieces show exactly the differences between what white men thought of as a burden and what was truly a burden for black men.  It is important that we read and understand pieces like these so that we can create a future in which we do not recreate the past.  I cannot imagine living in a world where all of the men in one race were considered less human than another race.  I do believe though that racial inequality still exists and that bothers me.  I do not understand how someone can think less of a person because of his or her skin color.  After all of the revolution that has taken place in our country it would seem as though we would understand equality, yet we continuously forget.  Harrison did such a wonderful job of comparing what a real burden was to what Kipling described as a burden.  I think it would be important to point this out to students so that they could see how naïve white slave owners were, how they lacked work ethic in every sense.  How they thought controlling an entire race was a burden that they were forced to uphold when it was a burden that they could have put an end to without much effort at all.  I really enjoy comparing these two pieces for a number of reasons.  I am a huge fan of poetry, and Harrison and Kipling to a great job of using poetry to portray their thoughts and feelings.  Also, I think that by reading work from this time I get a better sense of what was really happening in the nineteenth century instead of the sugarcoated version that I got from history books in high school.

19th Century Amusement

In the nineteenth century sports became largely popular in the United States. This was mainly due to the introduction to bat-ball sports when New England started to migrate west. The biggest of those sports was cricket, which became vastly popular within the middle states. Americans changed around the format of this game to create the game of baseball which was just a more organized and “sophisticated” way of playing. It quickly rose to fame in the United States and was unofficially reputed as our national past time.

Another reason that sports became so highly integrated into Americans’ lives was the rise of boxing and the invention of basketball and football. Boxing before the nineteenth century was largely despised because of the violence and gambling that came along with it. However, after the Marquess of Queensberry Rules called to have the boxers wear gloves when they fought the sport rose to national fame almost immediately. With the invention of football and basketball everyone in America had a sport of their choosing to watch and love. Football first began in 1869, while basketball was created later on in 1887. These two sports – although new – were vastly popular in America. People flocked to the games to watch how they were played and to see the athletes who played them. This new fascination led to the sports being incorporated into the collegiate level.

Speaking of collegiate sports – they first began in 1852 with the first rowing match between Harvard and Yale. This was followed by the first baseball game in 1859 between Williams and Amherst, and later followed by the first football game in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers. Harvard University is actually where the football that Americans play today was created. Beforehand football was more like soccer – a kicking sport. However, Harvard wanted it to be closer related to that of rugby and thus the IFA (Intercollegiate Football Association) adopted the rules to fit Harvard’s version.

It was also during the nineteenth century where Vaudeville shows came to be as the main form of mass entertainment. The first Vaudeville Theater began in 1881 in Manhattan by Tony Pastor. New York was pretty much the Vaudeville capital of the United States soon after as they had ten theaters there (New York is still the capital of theater with Broadway taking over). For the younger generations, “the greatest show on Earth” was invented by Phineas Barnum and James Bailey. It was a three-ring circus with a vast array of acts for the kids – and it is still very popular in today’s society.

The nineteenth century was also dubbed the “age of the bicycle.” The invention of the velocipede – the bike with the really big wheel – was in 1885. The bicycle than became safer with equal sized tires and became a much better way of exercise for everyone. It also helped improve women’s fashion as they were unable to ride with the Victorian hoop dresses, so designers had to come up with a freer and less constrictive style.

"The Luck or Roaring Camp"

I really loved the story “The Luck of Roaring Camp” by Bret Harte.  I’ve always been a fan of Western literature.  Growing up my favorite movie was Tombstone.  I loved all of the wild action, the lack of law and order, the abundance of gunfights.  I could watch Tombstone every day of the week without it ever getting old.  When I was reading “The Luck of Roaring Camp” I noticed all of the similarities between how that town, Roaring Camp, and the town of Tombstone are represented.  Roaring Camp is dirty, rugged, full of criminals all running from the law, very much like Tombstone.  Tombstone is run by a gang, the law in that town is virtually nonexistent due to the fear that the gang, the Cowboys, enforces.  As I read the story and it explained gamblers and drinkers and people shooting their revolvers just like a lot of the scenes in Tombstone.  One thing that I thought this story did well was show how humanity can restart.  While Roaring Camp is a dirty and rough place everything changes as soon as a baby is brought into the mix.  As soon as the baby is born, and the mother dies, all of those men who were originally depicted as mean and gruff become more human, more motherly.  I think it is almost comical how clean and caring the men become.  Each one of them does his part to care for the baby, Tommy Luck, the “luck” of Roaring Camp.  It’s funny how when the baby is born another character, Kentuck, calls him a “damned little cuss” but he uses it is as an endearment.  It is clear that all of the men in the town love the baby and it helps them to better themselves.  I think that this story does a great job of showing that anyone can change if they find something worth caring for.  For these men, before the baby, there was nothing to care for.  They were simply trying to get by, avoid the law, make a little money, and have a good time.  They gambled, they fought, they drank to their fill whenever they pleased.  They were noisy, they were messy and they were just downright gross.  Once they find something worth truly caring for, the baby which is attributed to their newfound luck, they really turn over a new leaf.  They begin to refurbish the broken furniture within the camp.  They start to bathe regularly if they intend to spend time with the baby, they are quiet and they are more civilized.  The end of the story is tragic which I think only attests to the fact that in an instant everything can change in an instant.  As soon as the flood comes it changes the landscape and the well-being of the camp.  Many people die, including the baby and Kentuck and the men who survive are left to rebuild for themselves and restart.  Their lives change again in an instant just as quick as they did when little Tommy Luck was born and the camp decided that keeping him would be the right thing to do.