Journal for Rebecca Harding Davis

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
Rebecca Harding Davis
10/6/11





Rebecca Harding Davis is a great writer. I have never read any of her writings before and I really enjoyed “Life In The Iron Mills”. I found it sad but truthful. For some reason, I could see what she was saying and kept picturing the life around the Iron Mills. There were so many quotes that I found interesting but I had to chose one and decided to choose something that she said at the beginning of the book that gave me the feeling of seeing. “Can you see how foggy the day is? As I stand here, idly tapping the window-pane, and look out through the rain at the dirty back-yard and the coal-boats below, fragments of an old story float up before me,-a story of thus house into which I happened to come to-day.” (2600).

Rebecca Blaine Harding explains how Davis was in touch with her writing and “Life In The Iron Mills” made a point and was known because she put effort into it, but she also says that her future writing lost its touch. “After the publication of “Life in the Iron Mills” and Margret Howth, Davis received a warm critical reception from the literary elite in Boston, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others. But many of her later works were stunted by her need to make her works marketable for the popular journals. Davis faded from literary circles as the years passed.” http://www.enotes.com/rebecca-harding-davis-criticism/davis-rebecca-harding Even though her later works didn’t make it like “Life In The Iron Mills” I still like it and that’s enough for me to like her writing. I haven’t read any of her other writings to judge, but maybe my mind will change if I do; as for now I like, “Life In The Iron Mills”.

The quote is trying to say to picture the foggy day and picture the tapping on the window-pane but also, to see the back-yard and coal-boats and the house. If you could see this, than you can what w life was like on the Iron Mills and you could see how people lived and thought. It was an introduction to what was to come and what was life was always like.

I really liked this quote because there was just something about it that made you see it all. I could feel and see everything that was described in this quote. This quote is saying something strong and making you picturing the life in the Iron Mills.  I think that it’s trying to draw you in, to see what was around and what was going on and if you truly looked; you could see that. I found it very heartfelt and descriptive and it’s what kept me wanting to read; to see and know more about life on the Iron Mills.