The Last Blog: The Luck of Roaring Camp and Sissy

Throughout this whole semester we have covered many different ideas about children’s literature. In the beginning we are told, “authors gave scant attention to settings of their narratives” (McLeod 90). Now in the reading “The Luck of Roaring Camp” by Bret Harte setting is very important. If we did not know that they were in California, would that have affected the name the men chose to give the child, “Thomas Luck” (Harte 535)? I think the author plays off of the setting to make the plot line make more sense. If they had been in Texas at this point in time, it would have been completely stupid to have Luck in the name. Since they are taking a hold of the idea of making it big, they show the amount of trust in luck that the people who went out in search of gold had. I think that we see how authors have decided to start to use the settings to play into what they really want to point out. At first they just wanted to make sure that the readers would get the point they wanted to make, but now they have decided that using the setting they can make the idea more meaningful.

We also talked about luck when it came to making it big. We are presented with the idea of the “American Dream” at this point in time and everyone is wanting to make it big. Many different people have many different ways or paths they thought would lead to greatness. For Roaring Camp they believed “that the baby had brought ‘the luck’ to Roaring Camp” (533). I think that we see luck portrayed as more common, but not necessarily people receiving benefits from it. People have a weird way of wanting to find that bit of luck. I mean a bunch of men found it in a kid for crying out loud. I think that people are looking for help when they figure out they cant make it on their own, and the author knows this is a general struggle so he plays off of that.

Changes in Reading Habits: Novel v. Short Story

When reading a short story, I find myself diving deeper into each word. I pay closer attention to the small details. When reading a novel we can trust that the author just means what he/she says. We do not think that there are multiple meanings behind a simple statement. When Susan Warner says “to make her mother’s tea was Ellen’s regular business,” (25) she literally means that Ellen made her mother tea. We do not have to add different meanings to all of the words in her writing. Warner has more than enough time to create her plot line. When reading novels I find myself skimming more often and just looking for the more important details. I find myself not worrying about hidden meanings. We place a certain trust in the author to tell us exactly what he/she means.

In a short story, with the lack of time to create a deep plot line, the author uses every single word to it’s greatest potential. I tend to read much more carefully and slowly to pick up every possibility for each word. I have learned to not trust the author to tell me exactly what he/she means. When Charlotte Perkins Gilman says, “I lie here on this great immovable bed—it is nailed down…” (509) we have to look deeper into the meaning of the text. After what we discussed in class, we know that she is either already dead or buried alive. When I take the context into mind I can make that statement mean that the character is in a coffin, and was just comparing it to a bed. I find myself looking for many different details as to what the author is trying to say. I find that I am confused more often by short stories just simply because I do not follow the depth that the author is taking every concept to. I think that when reading a short story that we have to make sure we do not just skim, but instead going ahead and looking at why the author chose each word, and the importance or secret meaning behind the word.