California Literature

Robinson Jeffers ·       Born in Pennsylvania ·       Occidental college ·       Enrolled in the university of Southern California 1905 ·       Jeffers is a voice of nature Continent’s End ·       Ocean maternal characteristics ·       Sea is the source of life ·       The short lyrics tells the meaning of human life and its correlation to the sea. It focuses on the more ancient source of both human life and the ocean. Oceanic life-forms into the mindset and assurance of human kind. ·       The sea is destructive as well To the Stone Cutters ·       A free verse ·       Contemplation of the future ·       The tone is dark and discouraging ·       Poets and sto...

Anonymous Chinese Immigrants The first poem speaks on the journeys of travelers. It refers to the hundred poems on the wall as their messages left behind. It speaks about life and all its value but how one is to know their future or what is to come. It questions why people complain when they are detained because years ago, those who were detained may the biggest heroes. I assume they poem is speaking about immigration and how they fought their way through all obstacles and made the best of it for themselves.  The second poem speaks about time. By the sounds of it, they aren’t old but time has gone by quickly. It states that time and life is the only thing that can’t be taken or detained. It’s motto: to live life without questioning. The third poem is a bit dark. It seems to talk about death. It has a very bitter and even angry tone. The mention of hell means that man was not a good man.  The fourth poem speaks within the new year. It explains the decoration an...

Yone Noguchi ·       Born: Nagoya, Japan ·       Studied: Haiku and Zen Buddhism, English philosophy and poetry at a university in Tokyo. ·       First literary figure in two cultures to arrive in California. ·       A major influence in California after a few years. “Some Stories of My Western Life” ·       A autobiography; creative nonfiction ·       Yone Noguchi tells the story of his journey to California. In the beginning of the story Noguchi says that his friends wished him godspeed and how he became sad his eldest brother came to say goodbye to him from Yokohama. He speaks about being on a steamer and the day it reached San Francisco.  ·       Noguchi is moving from one country to another. While reading the story, the reader becomes engulfed in multiple emotions.  ·  ...

George Sterling ·        George Sterling  (December 1, 1869 – November 17, 1926) was an American  poet  and  playwright  based in  California  who, during his lifetime, was celebrated on the Pacific coast as one of the great American poets, although he never gained equivalent success in the rest of the United States. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sterling ) ·        Beyond the Breakers o    Nature o    The poem speaks about nature and how it plays a role in the area wear the narrator lives. It speaks of the wind that makes its way from the West. o    It is a change of weather and it illustrates each change and how it either benefits or affects the area.  o    The poem uses a lot of imagery. o    The narrator is riding through these weather changes. o    Nurture vs Nature o    Where is the nar...

William Nauns Ricks ·        Ricks was born in Wytheville, Virginia, on September 6, 1876, and came to California in 1889. An African-American veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Ricks worked at the information desk in the lobby of California Packing Corporation, but his chief occupation and interest was writing. Little is known about him, other than his activities as documented in his personal papers. Ricks was a member of several local writing organizations, active in his church, and frequently attended art, lecture, theater, and musical programs and events in the Bay Area. ( https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf887006m4/entire_text/ ) ·        The Coming Night (From the Berkeley Hills) o    Nature o    Colorful scenery o    The poem speaks of the area in which the narrator lives in. He speaks of the multiple way’s nature calms the place. How the trees make way for the wind to bl...

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) ·        Born in Ohio ·        Came to California after Civil War ·        Had many different attributes to literature Moxon Master ·        Nature of life and intelligence ·        An isolated system ·        Moxon is developing a sentient conscious machine, one that can think and possesses intelligence. ·        Moxon is developing a machine which he believes will be capable of thinking, acting and possessing consciousness- a robot or automaton which will be able to perform actions independent of its creator. ·        The idea of a humanoid robot  ·        Quote: “you know well enough that when I say “machine” I do not mean a man, but something that man has made an...

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton (1832-1894) ·       Born to an elite Mexican family ·       She wrote the first novel by a Mexican woman o    The novel was to inform and tell the fictional defense of one of California founding peoples and a sharp expose of the common practice of land “squatting.” The Squatter and the Don ·       It prints the picture of what the 19 th century after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ·       Gives a voice to native Californios/Mexicans ·       Ruiz de Burton provides a clear definition of squatters and settlers, and their relationship with the west. ·       De Burton tries to give voice to all the people that in other novels don't have voice. ·       The squatter of the title is Darrell, who agrees to pay the Don for the land he’s homesteading. ·  ...