Before I read Mallon’s book, I was thinking why Nixon’s campaign people would break-in to the office. For Mallon, I felt like even Nixon himself was so clueless in this whole event, “He was unsure, even now, what Watergate really was. He remained as baffled as he’d been when talking to Haldeman on June 23, 1972. He would forever be able to hear himself on the tape: confused; groping; taking the first approach that came to mind, dooming himself. ” After reading through this part of the novel, I actually doubted that whether it was true that everyone was clueless in the story, or Mallon was just afraid of saying the truth out。 If Nixon was truly clueless as described in the book, there would be no need to command John Dean to cover up this whole thing. Speaking of John Dean, I was surprised that he confessed so easily and quickly. As a member of the break-in group, I thought John Dean should be one of the guys that Nixon trusted the most, and I was not ready for his confession at all.

Only a few characters were fictional in this book, and Garahan and Lander did most of the story-telling through the event. However, even from their words I did not see a strong tone in this, and Watergate seems like not such a serious scandal–most people were clueless, and there was no harsh criticisms even from the fictional figures. I think Mallon’s book did a great job in describing the whole Watergate incident, but it did not solve some of my questions such as John Dean”s quick “”betrayal”.

I think one of the greatest characteristics of Gatsby is that after he accumulated large amount of wealth and finally become a man that most people wanted to be, he still clearly remembered the beauty of his relationship in the old days, and he kept polishing it in his mind as well. Daisy stood as the perfect woman to Gatsby, which clearly she wasn’t. As Gatsby was born in a poor family that had nothing to do with the upper class, Daisy chose not to wait for him but married Tom, who came from a rich family. When finally Gatsby came back with huge wealth, he held parties everyday, as he was hoping that Daisy might stop by one day. When he finally caught Daisy’s attention, I think he realized that Daisy’s focus was more towards money instead of himself, but he still wanted to win Daisy over, the woman who was considered as his goal when Gatsby was at the battlefields.

Gatsby changed his name by himself, which I consider that he viewed himself as Jesus (Or he valued the virtues of Jesus and wanted to learn from Jesus?) Under such circumstances, he convinced himself to be royal to Daisy, even though he knew she was no longer the woman of perfection in his heart. Gatsby was used by Daisy and Tom, and died in the end.

During the time period, it was difficult for Gatsby to succeed, as he was not born in a rich family. Gatsby achieved American dream as he became really rich, but he was never truly accepted by people in upper class.

One thing that made me sad is that no one attended Gatsby’s funeral after he died. Those people who used to come to the party everyday suddenly disappeared, pretending they did not know the man. Daisy and Tom ran away from his death, too.

One question that I have when I was reading is :” Did Daisy kill Tom’s romantic partner purposely? or it was just an accident. I felt like she killed the woman deliberately.

Edward Bellamy described his imaginations of America, creating an Utopian society to let reader compare and contrast the similarities and differences between two different social systems. In the book, Bellamy discussed the drawbacks of America’s high concentration Capitalism, which 10% of the wealthy people controlling the majority of social resources, and also raised his opinions on how to improve the economic/political system of the U.S.

With the development of productivity and a high concentration of wealth, the negative effects began to grow. Thanks to the economic crisis in 1873 and 1883, America was experiencing a recession, in which factories were shut down, and thousands of workers lost their jobs. The rich class, however, did not suffer as much as the workers did, and they created a bigger gap between the rich and the poor. Wages were cut, working hours were increased. Working class people suffered during the age with limited income and obsessive amount of work. Bellamy started with revealing the cruel reality, and criticized the inferiority of the rich class, as well as the huge inequality within the society. Bellamy wanted to create an Utopian society where everyone would live equally; people with various occupations get paid the same amount, they hold equal social status and so on. He was influenced by the ideal of socialism, so he the protagonist sleep for 100 years to introduce this new system to the readers.

Bellamy imagined：“The country would take over the job, and there would not be shops, banks or currency.” Instead, it was a system that the country would allocate the resources equally. I think this is a really unrealistic idea, and it stops people from working hard or pursuing their goals. When China was established, it was claimed as socialism country as well. Right now, China is turning into Capitalism, simply because the idea of letting everyone share equal amount of wealth did not work. The Utopian society that Bellamy imagined is not the correct direction for future development.

The Red Badge of Courage describes the story of Henry Fleming, who joined the Union Army as the only child of his family for his pursuit of the badge. The book focused on the individual feelings of war during the Civil War period, and it showed Henry’s psychological change from naivete to maturity through various incidents. Despite the fact that Stephen Crane did not have the experience of actually participating the war, he did a great job portraying the reality of war , as well as how a single solider developed his mental status after running away from the field of battle, and redeemed himself after and formed a new understanding of the badge.

Henry’s psychological feelings of the badge can be divided into several parts as “the ideal idea of the badge”,  “running away from the badge”, “regaining the pursuit of the the badge”, “getting a fake badge” and eventually getting the “true badge”. The story started with the teenager Henry,  who worshiped the badge without knowing the reality and cruelty of war at the beginning, joining the Union Army after his mother’s discouragement. When Henry actually joined the army, he started to feel scared, confused to the war, and his ideal idea of the badge was challenged. As the result, he flea from the battle field, and later rejoined the war with an incredible madness/enthusiasm. As a ordinary teenager who had strong pursuit of the badge and being a hero, Henry developed himself from naivete to maturity and eventually grew up as a real man. There were changes in Henry’s thoughts, but his pursuit of the badge never changed.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin described the lives of Uncle Tom and George, and their different choices and endings. Uncle Tom is a figure with complex personalities. On one hand, he was diligent, loyal and accommodating. On the other hand, he was a devote Christian, who showed no resistance in response to all cruel treatments he received from some of his masters.  Uncle Tom served three masters：Shelby, Augustine St. Claire and Legree. The first two treated Tom relatively well, whereas Legree was being a completely tyrant, and beat Tom to death. When Tom was serving Legree, he put his fate to God, and believed in it till he was dead. Uncle Tom’s cabin was considered as a monument of freedom, devote religion and honesty.

On the other hand, George Harris was a opposite character, who believed that devote religion would not be able to help him change his status of slavery, and the only way he could gain freedom was by his resistance and rebellion. Though going through many dangers and suffering, George Harris flee to Canada with his wife and his son, even receiving education in France later on.

I saw positive characteristics in both Uncle Tom and George Harris, but I was sad when I read about Tom’s full forbearance towards Legree, making him a less strong figure.  Uncle is mentally religiously strong as he kept his faith till the very end, but do you think his religion and forbearance also showed his weakness as a slavery? George lived till the end despite the fact that he wasnt a religious man, do you consider George as a strong figure or weak figure?

The Pioneers recreated the story of the Pioneers’ conquest of nature as well as the establishment of civilized society. Before the invasion of the civilized group, Bumppo was hunting with his Indian brothers. They enjoyed everything that nature provided them, and they were obeying the rules of nature at the same time. There was peace between human and nature before the Pioneers took over, and humans constraint their desire and behavior based on self-disciplines. After the Pioneers came, they cut the woods and build a urban system at the expense of destroying the nature. Law, Educational institutions and religions were created upon civilization. Cooper portrayed a clear conflict of two completely different lifestyles between two opposite groups: the civilized group who were trying to overrule the nature, and Bumppo and the Indians, who lived alone with the nature. One clear conflict occurred due to the difference of believes towards nature. which was the deer hunting. Bumppo hunted a deer based on what he believed as “only hunting for survival when necessary”, but he was penalized by Judge Temple for violation of the law. As the result, Bumppo and the Indians were forced to keep heading towards the West, and more civilization were built in the West by the pioneers at the expense of destroying natural resources. In the end, Bumppo eluded from civilization, which I considered as Cooper’s indication of the conflict: When a civilization is built on destroying another civilization, and it seemed to be inevitable, how should we view this form of conflict.

If the King Philip’s War did not take place, Mary Rowlandson could have just lived her live as a normal human being. Her captivity changed her life, as she was captured by the Indians for 11 weeks and then later released to her husband for 20 pounds. This is my first time to read a story written by a captured person about her story living with those who attacked her, and I am impressed by her change in attitude towards the Indians in terms of the boundary between civilization and wildness.  As a puritan woman, she considered the Indians as savages as she witnessed their behavior: They eat horse meat and bear meat, and they are no where close to decent civilizations. However, as time went by, she started to get confused, as she liked to eat the same food the Indians ate, and she was starting to build relationships with the Indians, too. I saw a change of Rowlandson’s attitude towards the Indians  from ” savage pagans” to finally she even considered one of her master’s wife as a friend. The book contained huge details about the Indians’ life, and there was to some extent equality existing in the tribes. Thanks to that, Rowlandson was able to live, and exchange some food for making clothes for them. When she made a hat for King Philip’s son, King Philip gave her dinner as exchange. I would say that Mary’s experience was tough, as her daughter died in her arms and she could not do anything about it. But during the time she was captured, I do not see any harsh treatments towards her, which was for me quite impressing.  It was a good experience for me to read a story, which records the first hand details of the Indians living at that time.