In this poem “Little Annie’s Ramble” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author wants to tell his
readers and audiences that in today’s society, people as they growing up and getting older, they
behave in strange way by forgetting were also a child. The author used imagery as theme to
develop his passage where he states that “None but myself and little Annie, whose feet begin to
move in unison with the lively tune, as if she were loth that music should be wasted without a
dance. But where would Annie find a partner? Some have the gout in their toes, or the
rheumatism in their joints; some are stiff with age; some feeble with disease.” This demonstrate
that the little girl was enjoying her time by moving and dancing. She wish she had someone who
could joined her, unfortunately, it didn’t happen because she was surrounded of older people
who were in a bad living and health condition.
Category Archives: Post Group C
What Did I Do To Be So Blue?
Ralph Ellison’s first-person narrative in monologue form reveals the pains black people were suffering in American society over half a century ago.
When I finished absorbing the last sentence of this article, there was a voice ringing in my head as though hearing a sorrow tune in the distance… “What did I do to be so black and blue…” A deep sense of compassion overwhelmed me and I quickly flipped back to the first page and restart from the very beginning.
Ellison first introduces the main character in the first-person, who laments his invisibility to the white “sleep-walkers” of society. He tells a tale about how he almost killed a “sleep-walking” man on the street after the man blindly cursed him, even after being severely beaten. The narrator uses the metaphor of invisibility stating that this maltreatment towards black people is not because they are born invisible, it’s because they are born into a society that chooses not to see them.
As Ellison portrays in his work, what triggered this almost-murder is the insults the “tall blond man” shot at the invisible man. The white man was blind to the harm he did to the invisible man and kept cursing at him, although a simple solution would have been a sincere apology. Synonymous words to “invisible” repeatedly appeared in this passage, including the blind, unseen, and formless. These words emphasized the discrimination black people were subjected to and the extreme illness of a society at that point. Through the vivid depiction of the invisible man’s thoughts after the incident, readers finally understood the significance of “blue” in his sorrowful song. “I was both disgusted and ashamed. I was like a drunken man myself…Then I was amused.” Beating someone within an inch of his life and the yet absolute refusal of the sleepwalker to apologize hit the invisible man with a stark reality: “Would he have awakened at the point of death?” He would forever remain invisible.
The Mirror of The Adults
” As the pure breath of children revives the life of aged men, so is our moral nature revived by their free and simple thoughts, their native feeling, their airy mirth, for little cause or none, their grief, soon roused and soon allayed. “
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s sweet little tale took us on an interesting journey back to 19th century where a black-clad gentleman spent hours rambling with a five-year-old, whom this black-clad gentleman intimately addressed as Little Annie. They strolled through the sweet-shop, the toy shop, the bookstore, street by street, and they toured the circus where they’ve got to observe the same-self wolf, a hyena from Egypt, a bear of sentiment, two unsentimental monkeys that are called “queer little brutes”, and a “ridable” pony. Then they heard the town criers again, who announces that a little girl has strayed from home. The black-clad gentleman then realized his failure to inform little Annie’s mom that he was gonna take her on a ramble. On their way home, the black-clad gentleman reflected their journey and felt as if “after drinking from those fountains of still fresh existence”, which helped him “return to the world” and “do his part in life.”
Some vocabularies that repeatedly appeared in this text: weary, childhood, children, child, ramble, hand. Kept in mind these several words, I got to construct a picture in my head where there are only that black-clad gentleman who came off a little bizarre and the sinless little girl Annie with the purest spirit exist in the remote world. By stressing the youth, the purest heart of Annie and her motions and expressions, the contrast between the adult and the child becomes sharp, which appeared to be a little bit awkward to me at the beginning of his narrative. As their journey progressed, I imagined myself marching on with them side by side while they are wandering hand in hand. The inharmony between the two figures, Annie and the ‘creep’ adult who desperately craves for hanging out with a little girl, slowly disappeared. Then here lies, instead, a purely platonic relationship between the two beings, from which I perceive them as two spirits from the same body encountered when they are at different stages. The journey serves as a mirror that allows the adult to reunite with the old self with the same pure breath of little Annie.
A Child’s Innocence
The focus of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Little Annie’s Ramble” is centered around the beauty of a child’s innocence. Hawthorne further explores how ignorant that beauty is when describing Annie’s “fearless confidence” when surrounded by a society of adults who have become bitter due to life experiences. By using the follow-the-trail method, the word “child”, or words relating to childhood, appear 23 times.
The story begins with an older man listening to the town crier announce the arrival of a circus. He then sees a little girl across the street, named Annie, who “feels that impulse to go strolling away–that longing after the mystery of the great world—which many children feel, and which I felt in my childhood.” He proceeds to take Annie into town, exploring all it’s colorful sights as they make their way to the circus. Although Annie doesn’t speak a word throughout the story, the older man is ecstatic to be with her, as if she makes him feel young again. As they continue their journey together, Annie begins dancing while passing by a musician. The narrator expresses how the adults surrounding her have every excuse not to join her— due to old age, disease, body structure, or judgmental attitudes. He then calls himself a “…gentleman of sober footsteps” entailing that he too, has become stiffened due to society’s expectations or norms. Once completely absorbed into the circus, the town crier announces that a mother is worried due to her lost little girl. The narrator realizes that he didn’t inform Annie’s mother of their whereabouts, and proceeds to take her back home.
In the last paragraph, the older man seems exhilarated and relieved to have spent time with Annie by stating that the “…pure breath of children revives the life of aged men.” The narrator proclaims that he can now go back into his darkened reality of a world, but with a “kinder and purer heart, and a spirit more lightly wise.” Hawthorne exhibits how a child’s innocence is blind to the evils of society’s thoughts and feelings as people age. As we grow older, we become more sensitive to these aspects and begin to perceive the world and behave in a more constricted manner- an environment that a child is not subjected to.
The Beauty in Naivety
Passages of Focus
“Here is a shop to which the recollections of my boyhood, as well as present partialities, give a peculiar magic. How delightful to let the fancy revel on the dainties of a confectioner; those pies, with such white and flaky paste, their contents being a mystery, whether rich mince, with whole plums intermixed, or piquant apple, delicately rose-flavored; those cakes, heart-shaped or round, piled in a lofty pyramid; those sweet little circlets, sweetly named kisses; those dark majestic masses, fit to be bridal loaves at the wedding of an heiress, mountains in size, their summits deeply snow-covered with sugar!”
“As the pure breath of children revives the life of aged men, so is our moral nature revived by their free and simple thoughts, their native feeling, their airy mirth, for little cause or none, their grief, soon roused and soon allayed. Their influence on us is at least reciprocal with ours on them. When our infancy is almost forgotten, and our boyhood long departed, though it seems but as yesterday; when life settles darkly down upon us, and we doubt whether to call ourselves young anymore; then it is good to steal away from the society of bearded men, and even of gentler woman, and spend an hour or two with children.”
Analysis
After reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Little Annie’s Ramble”, I decided to use the “archeological dig” method to analyze the two excerpts above. I chose to look at both excerpts because I feel as though the first segment can be used as a lens to understand the second, which I found to be the portion that identifies the central idea of the piece. While looking at the first excerpt, there is a blatant and almost overwhelming presence of details. In this section, the narrator goes into deep levels of detail in describing when he and “little Annie” go into a bake shop. Cakes and pies are not merely “cakes” and “pies”. They are described with phrases like “such white and flaky paste, their contents being a mystery” and “sweet little circlets, sweetly named kisses; those dark majestic masses”. Hawthorne’s immense attention to detail plays an important role in the development of the story’s tone. This piece has an overall feeling of poetic awe and intrigue. Not only is this first segment filled with powerful details and expression but also the entire piece as well. These tonal elements are a reflection of the feelings of our childhood.
When we take a look at the second excerpt, we can see that the magical and wonderstruck tones of the piece are intended to express an overall theme. This piece is an observation of the power of childhood innocence. This theme is brought together in the second excerpt, explaining that the way that little Annie feels throughout the piece, how everything around her contains beauty and a majestic quality, is due to the fact that “life has not settle[d] darkly down upon [her].” Hawthorne claims that being exposed to the “free and simple thoughts” of children helps to “revive” the sense of morality in one’s adult life.
Through A Child’s Eye
Nathaniel Hawthorne poem focus on the view of life from a child perspective as well as an adult,many times Hawthorne would look at little Annie and see same excitement in her eyes as it was in his when he was a little boy.
“Who heeds the poor organ grinder? None but myself and little Annie, whose feet begin to move in unison with the lively tune, as if she were loth that music should be wasted without a dance.”(Hawthorne) Here Hawthorne express that children are more care free about life then adults as little Annie is dancing to the organ player while adults are too preoccupied with their lives to even notice the organ player, even he stands by idly and watches her instead of joining her. He states that children are always curious about the world they live in, even doing something simple like strolling down the street is an exciting adventure for a child.
Overall, he sympathizes with little Annie’s youthfulness, he quotes “After drinking from those fountains of still fresh existence, we shall return into the crowd, as I do now, to struggle onward and do our part in life, perhaps as fervently as ever, but, for a time, with a kinder and purer heart, and a spirit more lightly wise.” being around little Annie make him feel nostalgic about his own childhood and he realize that maybe he should be a little more childlike in life, to live it with a lighter spirit and not struggle with the burden of being an adult.
Longing for Youth
After reading “Little Annie’s Ramble” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I decided to try the follow the trail close reading method. While using this method I came to realize that there is repetition of variations of the word “child”; words such as children, childish, and childhood. It seems to have an ongoing theme regarding youth. As far as I understand, during my flat-footed reading, this story is being narrated from the perspective of an older gentleman in the town, which is interesting because I thought it was strange at first, for an older gentleman to just sweep away a little girl and take her around town. I also thought that the explanation of the animals seemed flashy and enticing, but in a way that would be attractive for a younger reader. This made me believe that the story’s intent was for a younger audience, perhaps even being a children’s story.
The follow the trail seemed to be too general so I decided to look into a particular part that caught my attention. Paragraph 3, the last 6 sentences or so, gave off a sense of sadness and the inability to perform in a certain physical way. I also felt a sense of longing for youth whilst reading this particular part of the story. Annie seems to represent youthfulness as the narrator is reflecting on his life and the life he sees in front of him. There’s a sense of realization that older folk can’t exactly do things like they use to in their youthful days. I felt as though the narrator was strongly emphasizing the restrictions that are placed upon elders that stop them from being Annie’s dance partner even if they wanted to. Instances in which he said “stiff with age; feeble with disease; … their bones would rattle,” there’s a heavy sense of solemness in these words.
Additionally, when the narrator said, “their hearts are far heavier than lead. It is a sad thought that I have chanced upon” I was given the impression that growing old seems to be more of a burden than anything else. I find this amusing because most people believe the older one grows, the wiser they become, but I get the impression that the sadder they become as well. I personally feel as though this applies to the overall perception of aging and how the older one grows the more they crave for things they once had. The more longing and perhaps regret fills their minds and clouds their hearts.
Excerpt:
“None but myself and little Annie, whose feet begin to move in unison with the lively tune, as if she were loth that music should be wasted without a dance. But where would Annie find a partner? Some have the gout in their toes, or the rheumatism in their joints; some are stiff with age; some feeble with disease; some are so lean that their bones would rattle, and others of such ponderous size that their agility would crack the flag-stones; but many, many have leaden feet, because their hearts are far heavier than lead. It is a sad thought that I have chanced upon. What a company of dancers should we be! For I, too, am a gentleman of sober footsteps, and therefore, little Annie, let us walk sedately on.”
Post Group Assignments
Here are the groups for posting on the smaller readings that we will ALL read throughout the semester. For more on posting, please refer to the “Posting and Comments” page under “Assignments.”
POST GROUPS
A: Alisha, Domonique, Hnin, Tom, Jasmine, Samantha, CJ, Danay
B: Katherine, Jelandi, Mamady, Ruwani, Mark, Shannon, Ishaana, Jamaul
C: Sarana, Gudman, Caleb, Media, Andrea, Sanam, Abby, Jia