To Build A Fire

“To Build A Fire” is, in my opinion, Jack’s greatest works. It is a wonderful tale of life and adventure in the vicinity of the Yukon Trail and one man’s fight with mother- nature to stay alive and make his journey to the next town. The story beings with a general description of the current town our traveler is in and the townspeople he interacts with. As the man began to map out his route further north, he failed to take into account the awful weather and the advice of an old weary traveler who told him the weather was entirely unfit for anyone to travel in. The story progresses and the man makes a few mistakes that almost cost him his life. He steps onto a warm spring where the ice is soft and his feet slip into the icy waters below. He hurries to make a fire and once it is lit, warms himself. However, failing to use situational awareness, his fire was made under an evergreen tree covered in snow. The snow melts, falls on his fire, and he is once again “left out in the cold”. This story was intriguing for me because I am an adventurer at heart and felt a connection with the man in the story. Excellent work by Mr. London and one that has struck my senses on every account.

Dare Devil

“How to Build a Fire” was an interesting story about a newcomer who has to the Klondike in search of gold. He decides to travel alone with a dog to meet up with his companions in camp. He was warn not to travel alone in temperatures lower than 30 but he goes anyway and the temperature is below 70 therefore causing the battle of man vs. natural. This writing falls in the realism and naturalism category because the writing can actually be compared to a believable situation. The man is determine like a high percentage of people today who like to show people they can things that other people say should not be done for either logic or safety reasons that is why the world is full of daredevils and the advance of mankind continue to increase because people taking risk. Nothing positive happens for this man as he have to pay the consequences for his behavior. The story tells how even the dog realize they shouldn’t be travelling in this temperature but the man refuses to turn back and luck turns against him and he wet his feet, and is unable to unthaw them so the story ends in a realism way with the man dying and the dog finding another master.

To build a Fire and its Themes

“To Build a Fire” is about an unnamed man who embarks on a nine-hour trek across the Klondike’s harsh winter landscape to meet his companions at a mining camp. Against the advice of an old-timer, the man makes the journey alone, except for a dog, and as a result of a series of disasters, he freezes to death before reaching camp. The man’s behavior and his ultimate fate highlight the story’s themes of survival in the wilderness, the individual versus nature, and death. Early in the story, it becomes clear that the odds are against the man’s chances of surviving in the Klondike wilderness. He is a chechaquo, or newcomer to the region, and has never before experienced its extreme winters. Further, he is “traveling light” on foot rather than by sled and carrying only a bacon sandwich, tobacco, matches, and some birch-bark kindling. What is more, he is outdoors in temperatures well below minus fifty degrees Fahrenheit. Although he has been warned never to travel “after fifty below” without a partner who can help him in emergencies, the man’s only companion on this trek is a half-wild husky a “toil-slave” who has no affection for him. At the best of times the Klondike wilderness would seem alien to the newcomer because of its vast stretches of snow “as far as his eye could see it was unbroken white” except for the trail. As it is, the man travels with few supplies and without a partner in extreme cold. Under such conditions, it doesn’t matter that he is both quick and alert to his surroundings, for without someone to help him, his “bad luck”,which is how the man refers to his fall into the icy river and “mistake”, which is how he describes the blotting out of his second fire by snow falling from a tree become full-fledged catastrophes and destroy the man’s chances of survival. Closely related to the issue of survival in the wilderness is “To Build a Fire”’s theme of the individual versus nature. According to the story, the “trouble” with the man is that he is “without imagination” and therefore never speculates about “man’s place in the universe,” his “frailty in general,” or the fact that people are “able only to live within certain narrow limits of temperature.” Yet during his trek the man is confronted again and again by his weakness as a lone individual against the formidable power of nature in the form of the brutal cold. Each time he removes his gloves, the man is surprised at how quickly his fingers are numbed. He is also startled at how fast his nose and cheeks freeze, and he is amazed when his spittle freezes in midair before it ever hits the snow. When the man stops for lunch, his feet go numb almost as soon as he sits still, a fact that finally begins to frighten him. Even the dog who is half wild and thus closer to nature feels “depressed” by the cold. Thanks to its natural instincts and its dense winter coat, the dog survives the extreme temperature long enough to head for camp, where it knows it will find food and warmth. Without fur or instinct, the man is too frail on his own to withstand nature or “the cold of space,"as it presents itself in the Klondike: “The cold of space smote the unprotected tip of the planet, and he, being on that unprotected tip, received the full force of the blow.”Once his fire is blotted out by snow and his body is threatened by hypothermia, the man must come to terms with death. His first reaction is to acknowledge calmly that the advice given to him by the old-timer was accurate: “If he had only had a trail-mate he would have been in no danger now.” This thought occurs to him again as he fails in his effort to rebuild the fire. From there he moves to “controlled despair”; next, to apathy; and then to panic as he makes a last, futile effort to save his life by frantically running on his frozen feet in hopes of making it to camp. The man’s ultimate response to death is to try “meeting [it] with dignity.” His final words — “You were right, old hoss; you were right” are part of a conversation that he imagines having with the old-timer who had warned him not to travel alone. They are also an acknowledgment of nature’s power over the individual.

The Open Boat

"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane is a story of survival of the fittest. In many stories of suvival of the fittest the strongest survives but in "The Open Boat" the strongest dies. As the group jumps in the icy water the oiler, the stronget, leads the group in to getting to the shore. The oiler jumps in, followed by the cook and correspondent swimming slowly and the captain holding onto the dinghy. The oiler lead the group to safety but did not make it. This story is in some ways opposite of survival of the fittest, because normally the strongest person of the group survives. The strongest person is the one who leads the others and keeps control. The oiler in this story did lead the group and stayed calm throughtout their troubles at sea but in the groups attempt to shore he does not make it but the others do. This story shows how the strongest person does take control of the group but does not always turn out the best for him. The oiler did his best to lead the group to shore and he was the one who died in the attempt.

"The Passing of Grandison"

This story is about a man in slavery and his family. This man is trying to win over his lady friend and she wants him to do something impressive and more with his life than just live off his dad's money and go hunting every once in a while. So he tries to find something that he think will really impress her. He decides to take one of his father's prized slaves and take him to freedom to make it look like he helped him escape. Grandison, the slave, seems very loyal and knows that he a has a great thing going where he lives now. His slave owner is very nice to him and rewards him for doing well, and also gives him a nice place to stay for him and his family. When the son tries to get him to runaway to Candada he does everything to stay so it seems as if he doesn't want a new life. Eventually the son just leaves Grandison and makes up a story as to what happened to him to his father. A few days later Grandison returns with a far- fetched story as to what happened to him. That he was starved and beaten and he escaped death by the skin of his teeth. He was rewarded for his bravery and tricked people in to thinking he really wanted to stay there and was loyal to his life there. But that all changed when Grandison escaped with his family back to Canada, he really just came back for his family. This story teaches you that you won't be happy unless you surround youself with the people who love you most and the ones you love the most, your family and friends. And you won't be satisfied till you know everyone is safe and you don't have to worry anymore and you are free. It also teaches not to think just about yourself, and you need to take risks to get what you want out of life sometimes.

The Open Boat

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is a story about four men being stranded on a row boat after a tragic ship accident. There was the captain, the correspondent, the oiler, and the cook. The correspondent and the oiler would switch off rowing whenever the other would get tired and needed to rest. The whole story all the cook would do was speak about food and sleep, while the captain was injured and hurt his arm during the accident and would help and guide the others. The captain was very motivational to the others so that they would not quit on him and would make it all the way through the end of the journey. They get near to land and then cannot reach it because of the tide and the waves. The boat is so weak and small that just by getting hit in the wrong way by a wave they would all be done. At the end the begin moving in the direction of the shore and the boat flips over as they all fall out of the boat. The all make it except for the oiler, which throughout the story was the strongest of the bunch. Stephen Crane writes about survival of the fittest, which usually means that the strongest will survive, but in this case all but the strongest survive.

TO BUILD AN AWEESOMMEE FIRE

What a beautifully constructed story this was. I felt as if I was experiencing life in the horrible conditions as the main character. Unfortunately, the story did not end happily, for I would have chose to read of survival. But this is not Hollywood. There are many literary terms that could be used to describe this poem, as discussed in valuable class time. The ideas of Realism, which as described by an undisclosed internet source, is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. The term also describes works of art which, in revealing a truth, may emphasize the ugly or sordid. The world is harsh and unforgiving, and unfortunately the character was unable to live a life post-story. This is a classic example of survival of the fittest at its best, and the main character was not the fittest. I believe that he was fighting hard to live, but deep inside his intuition told him he would not be so fortunate. Also presented deep inside the lines of the story, the uses of naturalism are consistently expressed. Naturalism was an extreme literary movement that shaped the lives and minds of writers and other literary figures. Naturalism, described by an online source, used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. The uses of naturalism and realism are vivid. If I could change the story, I would have written to see him survive and live to tell his grandchildren his story.

To Build A Fire

Jack London’s To Build a Fire tells us about a man that goes off to Yukon on an extremely cold morning. The cold weather does not scare him since he rarely translates hard facts, such as the extreme coldness, into significant ideas, such as man's mortality. While he is traveling he only carries a sack of lunch in which he carries biscuits which he puts inside his jacket, for the purpose of warming them with his skin. He also has a husky dog that follows him. The man also has a lack of imagination. In this story the main motivations of the man is survival and to prove others that it is possible to go by yourself and travel under really cold temperatures and survive. There is a point in where the man sends the dog first after seeing the thin ice, the dog falls but as part of his instincts he comes out. The man takes his gloves off and as soon as he does that his fingers freeze. A little bit after that the man falls and gets soaking wet after, he tries to get out of the river and tries to start a fire but he could not light the matches and could not use his knife because his fingers were too numb for that. The man freezes to death because he did not have the proper knowledge, instincts and survival skills required in these cases. On the other hand the dog's instincts prevail and he survives. The dog may not have the intellectual capacity to create fire and food for himself, but he does know where the providers of these necessities are.

To Buuild a Fire

To Build a Fire by Jack London tells us the story of a man who is traveling across Canada. This man seems like an ignorant person, because he does not have the knowledge on how to survive in such weather conditions, but he was used to think about life and death so he was not really afraid of anything. At the same time he had a lack of imagination which at the end leads him into disaster. This whole time he is traveling by foot and for the purpose of go and meet up with his companions and for this whole trip he only carries a sack of lunch. At the same time the story tells us that he is traveling with a husky. Even though he lacks of imagination on the point that he was about to cross some hidden river he sends the dog first. The dog falls but immediately comes out the man tries to help the dog but as soon as he takes his glove his hands freeze. He decides to build a fire before he settles to eat his lunch. Soon he breaks in the ice and gets soaked and tries to build another fire to keep his numb toes unfroze. He remembers when that someone told him that it was not safe to travel by themselves on temperatures less than fifty. At the end he dies and the dog survives.

Just Think About It!

In Jack London's “To Build a Fire” the man never assumes the worst and because of this, he is not prepared for the worst when it comes. When nature first challenges him and he falls through the ice he immediately begins to build a fire, but his first thought was that this accident was going to put him stall his journey for an hour or so. He never thinks of the fact that this minor slip up could end with his death until it is too late and he is already too frozen to save himself. He also had previous advise from an old timer, but he decided to ignore this advice which may have saved his life. This again shows that the man did not use his head to think ahead in the situations, or as London put it “But all this...the tremendous cold,and the strangeness and weirdness of it all – made no impression on the man”(1395). This story was depressing to read because the whole time I wanted to go into the story and tell him to watch out and think about all possibilities, but I had to continue to read and watch him fall because of his own ignorance.

apple picking

In Robert Frost poem " After Apple Picking" he talks about how he is tired of all the work he is doing and decides to rest for a moment. I can relate this to hoe life works. Everybody gets tired of all the work they have to do and when they try to rest for just a little while more and more work backs up. The apples are the work that frost has to do, while the apples that have fallen to the ground when he decides to rest are the past deadlines he has missed and work he has not done. Eventually it became overwhelming for him just like it does in life. The better we can keep going with our task at hand the less work is missed and you won't fall behind which will just create more work for you to do.

Frost Death

Jack London's, To Build a Fire, was interesting in some areas. It imediately reminded me of a few scences from Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford as the main character. The big difference between these two characters is that, the character in To Build a Fire, lacked imagination and refused to take advice and went out into the dreadful cold without anyone to accompany him. Jeremiah however, was unskilled but was a quick learner and had imagination and that kept him alive. To Build a Fire is a great story to read when one is looking for what not to do when it's below freezing and one decides to go alone in the wilderness. The dog in this story is very smart and I am impressed by his instincts. Sadly the main character freezes to death after he gets wet and francically starts a fire which is then put out by the snow above it in the trees. This character was not very smart at all.

Life on the Mississippi

“Life on the Mississippi” by Mark Twain is an adventurous journey of life through the eyes of a young male living on the Mississippi river. I think that anyone who reads this story will be able to relate to it, because most people when they are young dream of being just like the superhero role model that they look up to. For Twain it was the steam boatman, not just the workmen on the boat but the man that got to drive it. A lot of people no days hit a point in their lives where they decide that it is time to “grow up” which to them means giving up all their childhood fantasies or dreams and going with a choice or career that is considered more reliable or safer. In this story Twain shows us that you can grow up and still live your dream. This story was especially interesting for me because I am at that point in my life right now when I must decide which path to take and which career to pursue.

The Past Two Weeks

Romanticism is out, Realism is in. Over the past two weeks in our review of American Literature we have witnessed a very abrupt transition between two contrasting styles. Over a span of approximately thirty years American Literature transformed from a style that used grand alliterations and exaggeration into a style that let allowed it's authors freedom to embody the natural beauty of life just by the style of imagery they used. Realism not only yields a different style of poetic writing, but also some of the greatest names in American Literature such as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Henry James. In contrast with the Romantic era writers such as Poe, Emerson, and Thoreau, these authors glorified the natural American citizen rather than grandiose heroes of both glory and infamy. For example, Twain's Life on the Mississippi is an epic detailing a trip on a steam boat. Twain uses cultural vernacular and visual imagery to glorify a rather mundane American job where as Poe and Hawthorne were forced to imagine great heroes and villains in order to draw American's to their writings.

Realism pwns.

Outcast of Poker Flat

The Outcast of Poker Flat by Bret Harte is a story of 4 citizens of Poker Flat that are recognized as a threat to the town. Each of the outcast have a different reason why they have been thrown out of town. The main character Mr John Oakhurst is a big time gambler that wins most of the towns peoples money. The reason for his exile from time was mainly that the town had lost several thousand dollars of money and the towns people thought it best he were one of the people to go. Mr Oakhurst was or seemed to be the strongest individual of the group at the beginning of the story. When the group was exiled he said nothing and showed no emotion while the other members were crying, cursing, and hollering. Mr Oakhurst was calm and collective he had his mind set on the journey to Sandy Bar the next town. He knew that the group was not equipped for delay. Mr Oakhurst was strong in the story until the end. In the end of the story he left the shack back to Poker Flat and was found with a bullet in his heart. Mr Oakhurst took the easy way out and shot himself. He took the cowardly way of doing things. It all turned out that in actuality he was the weakest of the group. He did not fight it out to the end he just gave up.

life in the mississippi by Mark Twain

In the passage Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain describes his dream of being a steamboat man. Mark Twain and his friends wanted to grown up to be pirates and clowns. In all their ambitions faded out and there weren’t allowed to be pirates or clowns. So, all that was left was the “ambition to be a steamboat man” (Mark Twain page 1) which leads to the authors telling this story. This passage makes a lot of sense to me because it is like how we were little kid and we wanted to be everything. When I was a little I always wanted to be a ninja or a panda. Well I am very satisfied to make one of my ambitions to (inside joke). Well during the story Mark Twain lives the live as a steam boat man and becomes a pilot of the boat with another man. The other man is like a god on the ship for his expertise of the river. Mr. Bixby is the name of this amazing man. He navigated through the river with ease leaving everyone in awe of his accomplishment. For, he did this in complete darkness going through the Mississippi river and he told everyone what they needed to do.

The Outcast of Poker Flat

In The Outcast of Poker Flat, Bret Harte chooses to see the good in all people. While Bret Harte is a realist writer, he comes out in this writing as a romantic. Unlike the dark romantics like Poe, Harte demonstrates that bad people can have a good moral side to them. The main character in this piece is John Oakhurst. He is accompanied by Uncle Billy, the Duchess, and Mother Shipton. They have been exiled. Oakhurst was a gambler by trade. The town of Poker Flat decides to purge itself of undesirables. All these characters are evil in their own way. Gambling which can be percieved as a type of stealing, actual stealing (Uncle Billy), and prostitution (the Duchess and Mother Shipton). Along the way they meet Tom Simson and Piney Woods. They are an innocent couple that end up traveling with the rough group on their journey. As the story goes on it provides the undesirables opportunities to do good. Uncle Billy reverts to his old habits and steals supplies and the horses. I believe that Harte uses Uncle Billy's character to say that there are some people that can't change regardless of their circumstances. This one character presents the reader with a realistic view of society. It shines a negative outlook on criminals that the majority of society would agree with. The rest of the group, however, redeems itself through good deeds. These characters create a romatic approach in the story. In their travels they get stuck by a storm an seek shelter in a roofless cabin. Mother Shipton is already near death and realizes it. She rations her food and sacrifices her own life to prolong that of others. The Duchess shows affection and comforts Piney Woods. Oakhurst is presented with a difficult delima. He has the option of saving his own life by pressing on through the storm. Instead he remains with the group and tries to help them in their passage. He creates snow shoes that he gives to Tom Simson so he can survive the storm. This sacrifice puts a postive light on the fact that their is good in all people. Yet Oakhurst is still haunted by his past and the struck of bad luck he has come upon. He commits suicide. I believe that Harte is trying to tell the reader that regardless of the good things we do in life they can't outweigh the bad. Even though we try to rectify our wrongs, we will dwell on our past experiences.

free

What is being really free? In The passing of Grandison, Grandison was taken by Dick owens to the north so he could run away and be free from the slavery. Grandison kept being loyal saying that he liked being fed well and he could be with his friends back on the plantation. In this mind set he was happy to be where he was because he had his friends and family. Without them he didn't want to go anywhere. That is why he came back and was able to help all his family and some friends escape. As a single person in a free country Grandison did not feel free but when he was able to have his family with him in a free country he felt free. to me this shows that being "free" is more a mind set. if you can be happy in a place or with people you like then you are free. In a place with people you hate and a place you hate you feel like you are in prison.

The Passing of Grandison

Chesnutt’s short story The Passing of Grandison explains the story of a slave owner’s son and one of his best slaves. Dick Owens, son of Colonel Owens was trying to win Charity Lomax’s heart in the story. Everyone believed that Dick was handsome, intelligent, a gentlemen but none the less extremely lazy. So Charity declared that the only way that Dick would win over her heart was by actually doing something, and doing something that was meaningful. That same day Dick had attended the trial of a young white man from Ohio who had attempted to set a slave free that was not his property free and got convicted and ended up dying. Dick decided that the best way to win Charity’s heart was by doing the same with one of his father’s slaves. He then journeyed through New York, Boston, and finally Canada, but Grandison had no intention of escaping. When they arrive to Canada, Dick could not take it anymore and basically left Grandison behind. He lied to his father about the occurrences of the trip and married Charity. A couple of weeks later Grandison showed up at the house with an absurd story about what had occurred to him on the trip. The conclusion of the story was Grandison and a few of the other slaves escaping from the Colonel almost undetected. I believe that this story is trying to explain that the people that you care about are worth everything. Grandison risked everything he had just so that he could be with those people that mattered most to him, and in my opinion I believe that every person should be like him because there is nothing more important than being with the ones you love.

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

I felt “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” was a great story of morality and the different personalities described in each character that made them influential to the story. I love stories of adventure and this work was just such a story. I was able to relate well with John Oakhurst when he discussed continuing to move on to Sandy Bar instead of stopping for the night. It was obviously a bad decision to stop given the people who were in company. Had they kept moving, it is very likely everyone would have lived and all would be able to start anew with a clean slate. I enjoyed the read and I was able to connect well with this author because of the human nature described throughout the story.

The Outcast of Poker Flats

The Outcast of Poker Flats is a very interesting story which starts us of giving us the date and time the plot takes place. Tells us about the residents of Poker Flats which wanted to improve the town by expelling trouble makers or people not too good. The main character which is a professional gambler called John Oakhurts was one of the persons that they either wanted to leave town or hung him and kill him. He leaves town and find this group of people called the outcasts in which we find two prostitutes and a alcoholic and thief. They met each other and decide to camp outside town they did not had to many provisions to survive so they rationalize it after a couple of days there comes this young couple which just got married even against the will of Piney Wood’s dad. They join the outcast group after a couple of days being there they got snowed in and the food supplies were almost gone. One morning they woke up and uncle Billy one of the outcast has left the cabin, mother Shipton dies of starvation as well as Piney. Mr. Oakhurts gives Tom the innocent a pair of snow shoes after that they all go to sleep and mr. Oakhurts kills himself with a pistol.

Henry James- Daisy Miller

Daisy Miller is a young woman around the age of 18. It's setting is in the late 1800's in Switzerland/ Europe. She is a very pretty girl with an ill mother and a hyper little brother. Unfortunately she attracts negative attention to herself. She is alway seen with different men walking around by herself with them in the country. During this time that was unacceptable and looked down upon very much. Because of her actions, people didn't respect her or want to give her the time of day. There were only a certain few who truely cared for her. Her mother, brother, Mr. Winterbourne, and an older woman named Mrs. Costello. But she is very hard-headed and doesn't care what people think of her. So the more they tried to direct her, the more she rebelled. When comparing this story to today, you can see how much society has changed over time. Today, woman are seen as independent self-sufficient woman and can make their own decisions. In this story, even though Daisy Miller wouldn't listen, people would try to guide her what to do because they felt she couldn't make decisions for herself. Also, woman are seen as scandalous if seen walking with men, or have many different male friends. It's accepted. And I also feel that even though people still judge a lot today, it's not as bad as back in Daisy Miller's time.

Daisy Miller

In today’s society you don’t find many girls like Daisy Miller. Most girls care too much about what others think and say. Daisy could care less of what people said about her and what people thought of her. Daisy does some things that a typical girl her age wouldn’t do in this time period. Her mother is very ill and doesn’t pay too much about her children. Daisy runs around doing whatever she wants. She meets a young American guy, named Winterbourne. Winterbourne is visiting his aunt when he meets Daisy Miller. Since Daisy has no one really looking out for her, she seems a little rebellious. I like how Daisy and Winterbourne both don’t care what others think. They both know that Winterbourne’s aunt does not want to meet Daisy because she is too “common”. That still doesn’t stop them from seeing each other. A few days later Winterbourne takes Daisy to Chillon. Winterbourne tells Daisy that he must go back to Geneva in the morning. Daisy and Winterbourne then make a promise. Winterbourne says that he will take Daisy to Rome. I like the story because no matter what they try and work things out. Even though they are being split they know that they will one day see each other again.

The Road Most Likely Taken

The Outcast of Poker Flat isthe most interesting story I read this semester. It’s amazing how the author Brent Hart decided to take three outcasts and show the readers how people can change depending on the situation they in. As for Uncle Billy I guess a thief is always going to be a thief. It is hard to put this in the realism category because it’s hard to believe that Oakhurst would have really stopped and stayed with the group knowing it wasn’t a good idea besides it was a group of criminals. Also, that Mother Shipton would starve herself to death for the young girl she just met named Pinney could have more to eat. The reading seemed to be more of Romanticism because this is how we would like for the world to be making this reading more imaginary then real. The items included which I could compare to real world is Uncle Billy waiting for everyone to go to sleep and run off with all the mules leaving people he really didn’t know and care about stranded which led to three of his companions death. I understand that is cruel behavior but like people say life is not a bag of candy.

Miss Daring Daisy

I found the story of Daisy Miller very interesting. I feel like I can connect to Daisy Miller, in a way that I somewhat do what I want regardless of what others think of me. I played boys baseball untill my junior year of high school. This was not always accepted, and I went through a lot of bullcrap just to make the high school boys team. Although there was a lot of commotion and I faced some pain I stuck through it. Daisy is a strong willed girl and seems to do what she wants regardless of what society views is lady like or not. Daisy is a free spirit, and some of her actions may be a result of having no father figure and this causes her desire for male attention. I don't believe there is anything wrong with being a flirt, but I do believe there is a problem with going out on the town with strangers. Daisy's mother is a bit of a push over, and i wouldn't know what that feels like because my mother is a retired senior chief. Therefore, I don't know how it felt for Daisy to not have an authority figure at all in her life. Daisy is different and takes her behavior to a new level, one that not many agree with but she is unique and that is rare to find.

Daisy the mysterious Weed

Henry James's novella of this naive young American girl in Europe, narrated by an upstanding gentleman, illustrates a world centered on ettiquite and proper behavior instead of worth and true virtues. The character Winterbourne sees Daisy not for what she truely is. He is more or less an observer studying the behavior of a peculiar animal. When Winterbourne talks about her boring rhetoric and silly conversations she starts, this captures Winterbourne's true feelings about Daisy. Daisy's actions throughout the story are viewed only through what Winterbourne thinks and says. It almost seems as if Winterbourne's actions are more steps to observe her and are misinterpreted by Daisy as true affection. In reality he really only seems interested in her the way a scientist is interested in an experiment. To conclude Daisy's true nature is never actually revealed, but it is certain that Winterbourne is remorseful for her death. However, it took Daisy's death for him to feel anything real at all.