Stephen Crane and Edith Warton

Stephen Crane's Poetry

I am uncertain of what to think or say about Stephen Crane's poetry other than I found it sort of dark and drab. He seems to question many things about life in general and writes about life as if humans have no real control over the things around us that make up our lives and the lives of others. He also speaks of God in many of his poems; working off of people's beliefs, his own beliefs and the existence of God in general. Poetry and other works dealing with God and religion are often hard to understand unless you agree with the point of view that the poet is attempting to convey. Crane was raised in a very religious household and lived in a time where religion was everywhere; so I often wonder what he really believed when it came to God. I think it would be fascinating to be able to sit down and talk with someone like crane and have a theological discussion, though it might be dangerous for me to express my beliefs to him; you know the whole burning at the stake thing wasn’t completely outlawed when he was alive. I did really like the poem called “In the Desert”, it was very dark and interesting to me. Though I’m not entirely sure that I comprehend what Crane was trying to say with this poem; was he seeing himself and calling himself bitter or was it meant to be men in general? I think it might be a reflection of battle torn men who become bitter after many years of battle and eventually lose their hearts in the carnage. I’m not sure if that makes one bit of sense to you but it sort of does to me so I guess that its ok then.


"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane

This story is oddly interesting and cruelly ironic, why did the most likely man to survive actually die? I suppose Crane just wanted to show how cruel and ironic nature can really be, even if it doesn't always work out that way The coolest thing about this story is that it was based on the true events of the shipwreck that Stephen Crane experienced in 1898 on his way to Cuba and Crane is in fact the real correspondent in the story. It sort of makes me wonder who the other three men he was stranded with really were and where the cook and the captain ended up later on in life; though I did look it up and found out that the oilier was actually named Billie Higgins but no names were provided for the other two boatmen. I think having neat little facts like names makes the story come alive and makes you realize that this really happened and it isn’t just Crane’s slightly macabre imagination. I cannot see myself shipwrecked and stranded on a tiny lifeboat; for one thing, I cannot swim very well so I would have been the first person to die if we had to bailout of a swamped life boat. For another thing, I am pretty scared of water of significant depths so I wouldn't go out on the open sea without a life vest or water wings or something. Plus I cannot last too long without food or insulin because my sugar would go haywire and I could go into a coma or die; so it would be death by drowning or death by diabetic coma, I don't like either of those choices myself so I think I'll stick to dry land where I cannot be stranded in a never-ending expanse of undrinkable water.


"The Other Two" by Edith Wharton

Wow this story is so close to events in my own life that it's scary. I think Alice has the same problem as I often do, with her former relationships. I have kept in touch with several of my former lovers and that habit has caused a bit of trouble for me in the past and even now to tell you the truth. It is rather odd that her husband and her two former husbands run into each other so often; I mean does that happen a lot in real life? I know my current boyfriend and my former boyfriend run into each other every once and a while but they try to stay clear of each other. So why did Varick insist on going to Waythorn for his financial business; could he not find anyone else or did he just want to be close to Alice again? I think it has something to do with Alice because of how they seem to act around each other. I'm the same way with one of my exes, we want each other back but we can no longer have each other because we are involved with other people so we talk a lot in an attempt to stay faithful. I could not imagine what would happen if Chris, Josh and Brandon were to gather in a room with me for tea though; Chris would be civil but I'm not sure about the other two because they have a history as well. You know what? I think I need to write a book about my crazy love life, maybe it would turn out pretty good. I do think it is interesting that the three husbands seem to get along fairly well in the end, though it could be just because of Alice and possibly Lily. I really enjoyed this little story and I think I will have a few people I know read it and see what they think.