This piece highlights an excerpt from Gertrude Atherton's The Californians.
The main characters of the excerpt are:
Magdalena and Helena
The policeman who arrested the two girls and the sergeant who sent them home.
Colonel Jack Belmont (Helena's father) and Don Roberto Yorba (Magdalena's father)
The plot of the story is:
Magdalena and Helena are both daughters of wealthy and prestigious men. The excerpt opens with Magdalena feeling like a failure and praying to the virgin mary to comforted; forgiveness. The plot begins when Helena sneaks up into Magdalena's bedroom and tries to convince Magdalena into sneaking out to the fire.
After some persuasion, Magdalena agrees to go with Helena who is dressed in boys clothes because girls are not allowed on the street alone after dark.
The girls make it out and to the fire. When they arrive, they see the fire not as the entertainment that they had originally intended, but they see the fire for the sadness and destruction it now represents. The two girls had never been expose to this level- or any level- of poverty and are taken back by it and even sympathetic to the people who have now lost their homes. "She stared at them, her brain a melody of new sensations" (pg. 314, Atherton).
Soon after the girls' interaction with the fire victims, a policeman sees them and recognizes Helena as a woman dressed in man's clothes which is a crime. The girls are taken to the police station. After a long debate, Helena decides to disclose to the sergeant who her father is, as a result, the sergeant arranges a ride home for the girls, guaranteeing discretion.
On the way home, Helena tries to convince Magdalena not to tell her father of where they had been, however, Magdalena did not wish to lie to her father and felt she needed to confess to him.
The story ends with Magdalena back in front of her alter with the virgin mary only this time she does not feel comfort or forgiveness as her father mercilessly beats her. "She hated her father and she hated life with an intensity which added to her misery, and she decided that she had made her last confession to any one but the priest, who always forgave her." (pg. 320, Atherton).
Atherton, Gertrude. From Chapter 6 of The Californians, pgs. 311 -320.
The main characters of the excerpt are:
Magdalena and Helena
The policeman who arrested the two girls and the sergeant who sent them home.
Colonel Jack Belmont (Helena's father) and Don Roberto Yorba (Magdalena's father)
The plot of the story is:
Magdalena and Helena are both daughters of wealthy and prestigious men. The excerpt opens with Magdalena feeling like a failure and praying to the virgin mary to comforted; forgiveness. The plot begins when Helena sneaks up into Magdalena's bedroom and tries to convince Magdalena into sneaking out to the fire.
After some persuasion, Magdalena agrees to go with Helena who is dressed in boys clothes because girls are not allowed on the street alone after dark.
The girls make it out and to the fire. When they arrive, they see the fire not as the entertainment that they had originally intended, but they see the fire for the sadness and destruction it now represents. The two girls had never been expose to this level- or any level- of poverty and are taken back by it and even sympathetic to the people who have now lost their homes. "She stared at them, her brain a melody of new sensations" (pg. 314, Atherton).
Soon after the girls' interaction with the fire victims, a policeman sees them and recognizes Helena as a woman dressed in man's clothes which is a crime. The girls are taken to the police station. After a long debate, Helena decides to disclose to the sergeant who her father is, as a result, the sergeant arranges a ride home for the girls, guaranteeing discretion.
On the way home, Helena tries to convince Magdalena not to tell her father of where they had been, however, Magdalena did not wish to lie to her father and felt she needed to confess to him.
The story ends with Magdalena back in front of her alter with the virgin mary only this time she does not feel comfort or forgiveness as her father mercilessly beats her. "She hated her father and she hated life with an intensity which added to her misery, and she decided that she had made her last confession to any one but the priest, who always forgave her." (pg. 320, Atherton).
Atherton, Gertrude. From Chapter 6 of The Californians, pgs. 311 -320.
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