A Pessimistic View: Blog 1

So far in American Literature we have read pieces by Sam Clemens (Mark Twain), Bret Harte, and Ambrose Bierce. With each story, I thought I had not found a recurring theme, but looking back now, I believe I have found what I cannot believe I missed at first glance. Pessimism may not be the theme of the stories, but ultimately, there is the element in each of the stories we have read thus far. For instance, in Mark Twain’s Journalism in Tennessee, though somewhat meant to be humorous, the main character gets shot and bruised and broken and ultimately ends up in a hospital without a job. In The Luck of Roaring Camp, it appears as though a rowdy group of roughnecks have finally found the source of calm and pride to their camp and it not only slips away from them, it is taken from them in the form of a freak accidental death. What is perhaps my favorite selection we have read so far is called The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. This dictionary is the definition of pessimism in my opinion; it contains clearly one-sided, albeit sometimes true, meanings of many words.

The Devil’s Dictionary is what some (or most) people would call extremely cynical. It is a rather subjective view on words, good or bad, but in all actuality, it is also brutally honest. I guess I found it to be somewhat humorous because we all think these harsh things about day-to-day events or objects every now and again. Just as an example, on a bad day where everything is going wrong, your cat might be called a “soft, indestructible automaton provided by nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle” when you just need someone to take your struggles out on after the long day.

It may be easy to make fun or think of how awful these definitions are when you are in a good mood, but to see them while you are in a foul mood or maybe a cat gets in your way at the right (or wrong) time, they make perfect sense.

To think this way in every moment of life, though, is a different story. It is what I call pessimism and it is something I come across all too frequently. It is the “cup’s half empty” view that some people take. Judging by some of the author’s short biographies before our stories, there is not information to tell whether or not they wrote only stories with such “bummer” scenarios, but reading all of these stories at once kind of starts to have an effect on the enthusiasm! Good thing I love to read.

Here is a link to what others thought of The Devil’s Dictionary and at times, some of their favorite words from the “awful” book. For some reason, I think their favorites tell a lot about the kind of person they are, especially whether or not they found it funny or just plain ruthless. It is interesting to see the personalities come forth and pick out the pessimists of the group, even if you do not plan to add your opinion.

This is a photo of one interpretation of The Devil’s Dictionary. I found it to be extremely haunting, though I am not sure why. Maybe it is just fitting with the inside of the book. I think it is safe to “judge a book by its cover” in this instance.

This is a photo of Ambrose Bierce. Though I mostly just really like his mustache, I find his eyes to be especially telling (as they usually are of everyone) of what kind of person he might be. He looks a bit cynical, don’t you think? Or am I being too judgmental? Perhaps it is because I know some of his innermost thoughts... and those are not wonderful.

Throughout the stories, I found that humor and pessimism are equally prevalent in each. I am left to wonder whether or not many of the stories of the time period had the similar feel to them because of happenings in the world that affected the feeling of the writing. Perhaps not, being that some of these authors are "worlds" apart in their own minds and distance, but I did want to leave some food for thought, or perhaps a topic for research on a later date.