Sunday, May 6, 2012
Daily Journal #31
My job shadowing experience was one of the most fun things that I have done in a very, very long time. I went to the McClelland Aviation Company out at Springfield’s airport. It is a flight school and an airplane service company. We were supposed to shadow one of the flight instructors, but because he did not do much besides give lessons, we filled most of our time there with one of the linemen that worked there. The lineman’s name was A.J. and he was around 19 or 20 years old and he was a really cool person. His job was to prep the practice plane before the first flight which included fueling up the plane. He showed us how to fill it up and make sure everything was alright. After we filled up that plane, we went with him to go fill up some rich guy’s old T-28 that he flies in air shows across the country. Then it was time for their first flight lesson. It turned out that it was A.J. who would be getting trained and he was a lesson or two away from being able to go up in the plane by himself. This meant that the things they would be practicing were a little advanced. Elizabeth and I got in the plane and after everything was ready, we took off into the skies. First, he practiced very steep turns; we were turning almost completely sideways but there was enough centripetal force to keep us in our seats, and then some. Then came the best part, we heard him throttle down, and then he turned sharply up into a steep climb. Then alarms started to go off as we went slower and slower. Lucky for me, I knew that he was trying to stall the plane so he could practice how to get out of one, and the even better part was that Elizabeth did not know this and she also didn’t know that one the plane stalled, it would go into freefall before the pilot pulled out of it.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Daily Journal #29
The actual idea of Self itself is a very abstract and vague idea that Whitman proposes. While Self is in each one of us, it is also shared by everyone else, so it is not really a Self, rather a collective consciousness. Whitman breaks self down into a Trinity just like Christians do with their God; there is the spiritual self, the self-perceived self, and the actual self. The spiritual self is the part of Self represented by everyone’s abstract, unique personality and the different trends and similarities that people share across the world. The self-perception part of Self deals with how each individual person sees themselves and how they believe other people think of them as. The last and hardest to define part of Self is the Real Self. I think it is the hardest part to define from person to person because there are many different factors that affect how people perceive a person and it usually varies from how people perceive themselves. Whenever someone asks themselves “Who am I?” they are not talking about the self-perceived self because they already know how they see themselves; it is how everyone else sees them and what they are actually like. Finding out the Real Self requires one to look inward on their actions and how it might be seen by other people and also how their actions affect people around them. Since nobody is perfect and we live in a world with many other non-perfect people, the Real Self is mostly always different from the self-perceived self.
I know that, personally, the way I see myself is most likely different from how other people see me. Some of the things that I do may come across as odd to some people but as people get to know me and my sense of humor, it is easier to see why I do what I do. It is because of this that I try not to judge other people because I myself do not like to be judged.
I know that, personally, the way I see myself is most likely different from how other people see me. Some of the things that I do may come across as odd to some people but as people get to know me and my sense of humor, it is easier to see why I do what I do. It is because of this that I try not to judge other people because I myself do not like to be judged.
Reflection: "Chanting the Square Deific"
Whitman wanted to invent a style of poetry that everyone could relate to and this poem did a very good job of following that template. The only image that this poem creates is a square which is a symbol that almost anybody would recognize and know exactly what it is because it is a very common shape seen everywhere in day to day life. The main subject of the story is also about religion, which most Americans at this time were acquainted with. While not everyone would get the references to Hindu, Roman, and Greek mythology, they could still get the general message Whitman was trying to convey.
“Chanting the Square Deific” is a poem that creates a square in which each side is a part of Whitman’s signature “Self.” Each stanza outlines and identifies each side of the square. As the poem progresses, the sides are “filled in,” starting with the top and going clockwise. The sides, in order as they are presented in the poem, are God, Christ, Satan, and The Holy Spirit. Since it is a square, this order puts God and Satan on opposite sides which shows that Whitman believed that there was a “balance between good and evil, both necessary, he believed, in the lives of human beings and in all of Nature” (Oliver 5).
Although all of the sides of the square are supposed to be a part of the self, in the “Holy Spirit” stanza, the speaker of the poem claims that it is “including God, including Christ, including Satan” which shows that Whitman believed that the spirit was not only part of Self, it also included all of the other parts of Self within itself (Whitman 4). This is fairly contradictory, but so is the rest of the poem. Whitman portrays the soul as something that “contains contradictions and oxymorons “because the soul is “at once the most ethereal and most solid of the sides” (Huff 5). Although it may seem confusing, it is not altogether that different from the Christian belief that God was three separate parts (the Trinity) but also one being. In this case, Whitman portrays the Holy Spirit as the part of the “quaternity” that encompasses all of the other parts (Oliver 1). The Holy Spirit, and effect, Whitman’s characteristic “general spirit,” is “beyond the flames of hell, joyous, leaping easily above hell, Beyond Paradise, perfumed solely with mine own perfume” (Whitman 4). In effect, the soul, and ultimately, the Self, is superior to anything or place because they are each contained within Self; Self is the highest authority. This may be why Whitman is so obsessed with trying to determine Self.
Whitman, Walt. "The Walt Whitman Archive." CHANTING THE SQUARE DEIFIC. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892]) -. Web. 26 Apr. 2012.
Huff, Randall. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
“Chanting the Square Deific” is a poem that creates a square in which each side is a part of Whitman’s signature “Self.” Each stanza outlines and identifies each side of the square. As the poem progresses, the sides are “filled in,” starting with the top and going clockwise. The sides, in order as they are presented in the poem, are God, Christ, Satan, and The Holy Spirit. Since it is a square, this order puts God and Satan on opposite sides which shows that Whitman believed that there was a “balance between good and evil, both necessary, he believed, in the lives of human beings and in all of Nature” (Oliver 5).
Although all of the sides of the square are supposed to be a part of the self, in the “Holy Spirit” stanza, the speaker of the poem claims that it is “including God, including Christ, including Satan” which shows that Whitman believed that the spirit was not only part of Self, it also included all of the other parts of Self within itself (Whitman 4). This is fairly contradictory, but so is the rest of the poem. Whitman portrays the soul as something that “contains contradictions and oxymorons “because the soul is “at once the most ethereal and most solid of the sides” (Huff 5). Although it may seem confusing, it is not altogether that different from the Christian belief that God was three separate parts (the Trinity) but also one being. In this case, Whitman portrays the Holy Spirit as the part of the “quaternity” that encompasses all of the other parts (Oliver 1). The Holy Spirit, and effect, Whitman’s characteristic “general spirit,” is “beyond the flames of hell, joyous, leaping easily above hell, Beyond Paradise, perfumed solely with mine own perfume” (Whitman 4). In effect, the soul, and ultimately, the Self, is superior to anything or place because they are each contained within Self; Self is the highest authority. This may be why Whitman is so obsessed with trying to determine Self.
Huff, Randall. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Partner Reflection: "Arcturus is his other name"
“Arcturus is his other name” is the poem that was chosen for this reflection blog because it had to do with stars. First off, for a little bit of background information, Arcturus comes from Greek and can be translated into “Guardian of the Bear.” The star is so named because it is close to both Ursa Major (Larger Bear) and Ursa Minor (Lesser Bear). It is also the third brightest individual star in the night sky after Sirius and Canopus. This fits well into the Nature section of her collection of poems because it is something anyone can go outside and see on any given night, given that the sky is both clear enough and there is not too much light pollution to see it. Also, this poem would most definitely fit into the transcendentalist writing section because in it, Dickenson is complaining about how science is taking away the beauty of nature by classifying it and giving things scientific names.
In the beginning of the poem, it seems as if Dickenson is just complaining about how the scientists of the time were classifying everything and turning it into numbers and classification rather than what it really was. From flowers to butterflies to the sky, everything was laid out in a specific order that many transcendentalists, and evidently Dickenson, did not appreciate.
Towards the end of the poem, however, Dickenson shifted the focus from a personal disliking of science for the sake of the compromised beauty to the religious aspect of why she did not like what was happening to the world because of the scientists and their classifying. One reason that she gives is that the night sky used to be reserved for the thoughts about Heaven and now it “is mapped, and chartered too” (Dickenson 16). At the beginning of that same stanza, she states that “What once was Heaven, now is Zenith” which supports the aforestated quote because “zenith” is a scientific term that describes straight up into the sky from a person’s point of view (Dickenson 13). Dickenson despairs at the thought that the place she “proposed to go when time’s brief masquerade was done” might be changed too by the “curse” the scientists have released upon the beauty of the world (Dickenson 14, 15). She hopes that “the children there won’t be new-fashioned” because she fears that if they are like the scientists she left behind, they might “laugh at me, and stare!” (Dickenson 22 – 24).
This picture of Heaven contradicts the way that many people look at the idea of Heaven or how they visualize it in their heads. Most people see it as perfect and a place where there is only happiness and joy. Yet, in this poem, Dickenson portrays it as a place capable of ridicule and sadness for the people who are “old fashioned, naughty, everything” (Dickenson 27). One other important thing to note is that Dickenson see’s heaven and earth on the same plane, just separated by some kind of fence because in the last line, she says “over the pearly stile” which refers back to her wish that when she dies, God will take her to heaven (Dickenson 28).
In the beginning of the poem, it seems as if Dickenson is just complaining about how the scientists of the time were classifying everything and turning it into numbers and classification rather than what it really was. From flowers to butterflies to the sky, everything was laid out in a specific order that many transcendentalists, and evidently Dickenson, did not appreciate.
Towards the end of the poem, however, Dickenson shifted the focus from a personal disliking of science for the sake of the compromised beauty to the religious aspect of why she did not like what was happening to the world because of the scientists and their classifying. One reason that she gives is that the night sky used to be reserved for the thoughts about Heaven and now it “is mapped, and chartered too” (Dickenson 16). At the beginning of that same stanza, she states that “What once was Heaven, now is Zenith” which supports the aforestated quote because “zenith” is a scientific term that describes straight up into the sky from a person’s point of view (Dickenson 13). Dickenson despairs at the thought that the place she “proposed to go when time’s brief masquerade was done” might be changed too by the “curse” the scientists have released upon the beauty of the world (Dickenson 14, 15). She hopes that “the children there won’t be new-fashioned” because she fears that if they are like the scientists she left behind, they might “laugh at me, and stare!” (Dickenson 22 – 24).
This picture of Heaven contradicts the way that many people look at the idea of Heaven or how they visualize it in their heads. Most people see it as perfect and a place where there is only happiness and joy. Yet, in this poem, Dickenson portrays it as a place capable of ridicule and sadness for the people who are “old fashioned, naughty, everything” (Dickenson 27). One other important thing to note is that Dickenson see’s heaven and earth on the same plane, just separated by some kind of fence because in the last line, she says “over the pearly stile” which refers back to her wish that when she dies, God will take her to heaven (Dickenson 28).
Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Journal #30
I’ll be honest with you, the reason why I first chose this poem was simply because the fact that it had California in the name, and I dream one day of living in California, so this poem had an unfair advantage to be my favorite Whitman poem. I was happy and relieved to find out that it was also a shorter poem, compared to Song of Myself which was on par with the Iliad and Odyssey, and so I would be able to analyze it in a shorter amount of time and therefore being able to spend more time thinking about what it really means.
This poem, while being short, also holds a lot of meaning in its few lines. It is a poem that makes the reader a person looking west into the Pacific Ocean from a shore in California pondering the world beyond the range of their vision. Letting their imagination turn to the far off lands of the Asian continent and all of the different things it holds. People thought, as they do today, that mostly everything about Asia and North America are very different. Asia has had civilizations for a very long time, and America had been created not long ago, relative to the time civilizations in Asia had started. I think that this is how Whitman thinks about it because Whitman says “From Asia, from the north, from the God, the sage, and the hero” (Whitman 6). He also alludes to the fact that once the speaker is in Asia and then looks back home towards the East, they are “pleas’d and joyous” (Whitman 9). From there, he says at the end that he no longer knows where he started and wonders why it (where he started) has yet to be discovered. I think that this is about how people seem to want something different than what they have, and once they get it, they want what they used to have and can’t remember why they didn’t want it in the first place.
"The Walt Whitman Archive." FACING WEST FROM CALIFORNIA'S SHORES. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892]) -. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/43>.
This poem, while being short, also holds a lot of meaning in its few lines. It is a poem that makes the reader a person looking west into the Pacific Ocean from a shore in California pondering the world beyond the range of their vision. Letting their imagination turn to the far off lands of the Asian continent and all of the different things it holds. People thought, as they do today, that mostly everything about Asia and North America are very different. Asia has had civilizations for a very long time, and America had been created not long ago, relative to the time civilizations in Asia had started. I think that this is how Whitman thinks about it because Whitman says “From Asia, from the north, from the God, the sage, and the hero” (Whitman 6). He also alludes to the fact that once the speaker is in Asia and then looks back home towards the East, they are “pleas’d and joyous” (Whitman 9). From there, he says at the end that he no longer knows where he started and wonders why it (where he started) has yet to be discovered. I think that this is about how people seem to want something different than what they have, and once they get it, they want what they used to have and can’t remember why they didn’t want it in the first place.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Daily Journal #28
While death is a very common occurrence in reality, most people do not like to think about it. Some cultures throughout history have embraced it and recognized its spiritual significance. While I typed those few short sentences, hundreds, if not thousands, of people died all across the Earth. With all of the feelings and emotions that come with death, at least for the ones left behind, tend to cause people to not want to dwell on the subject; to just “cross that bridge once we get there.” Even though death can be a bad thing in many, many ways, it is also the main force that drives us to achieve great things. The feeling that we have a relatively short time to accomplish all that we want to do helps keep us focused on doing the most that we can.
Living next to a cemetery, Emily defiantly had enough time to ponder the different aspects on death and how it affects people and how people see it. I think that Emily was not afraid of death; it seems that she understood that it will happen to everybody, so there is no need to fear it or give it a mystical premise. In this poem, a person is on their deathbed with their relatives gathered around in solemn anticipation of the person’s final breath. Each breath is compared to the “heaves of a storm” in between which the people waiting grow tense, for it could be the person’s last. Then, when everything seems to be ready, a fly buzzes into the speakers view, tearing asunder the veil of peace that pervaded the scene and while the person was distracted, they died. Even though this was a scene of death, Dickinson showed little emotion towards the situation, more of a somber narration of a true story. This poem is more about the psychological aspect of death and how a simple thing like a buzzing fly could ruin the “perfect” moment right before one passes on.
Living next to a cemetery, Emily defiantly had enough time to ponder the different aspects on death and how it affects people and how people see it. I think that Emily was not afraid of death; it seems that she understood that it will happen to everybody, so there is no need to fear it or give it a mystical premise. In this poem, a person is on their deathbed with their relatives gathered around in solemn anticipation of the person’s final breath. Each breath is compared to the “heaves of a storm” in between which the people waiting grow tense, for it could be the person’s last. Then, when everything seems to be ready, a fly buzzes into the speakers view, tearing asunder the veil of peace that pervaded the scene and while the person was distracted, they died. Even though this was a scene of death, Dickinson showed little emotion towards the situation, more of a somber narration of a true story. This poem is more about the psychological aspect of death and how a simple thing like a buzzing fly could ruin the “perfect” moment right before one passes on.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Daily Journal #27
Though I would much rather write about how Emily Dickinson’s poems often seem to go along to the tune in the theme song of “Gilligan’s Island,” it would be rather hard to reason why this was because of the fact that the television show came on much, much later than when Dickinson’s poems were published. Instead, I shall write about how many of her poems could be read to “Amazing Grace” which is much easier to relate to Dickinson because it was most defiantly around when Dickinson was writing her poems.
I do not find it all that surprising that a common tune in her poems was a hymnal because of her family background. She was raised in New England by wealthy Calvinists. It is no stretch to say that since her father was a Calvinist, she was also one, due to the fact that women had little freedom, even in the choice of their religion. Given the fact that she grew up hearing this hymnal, it comes as no surprise that she uses it to base some of her poems off of in terms of rhythm. It was something that she was very familiar with and one that many people would also be familiar with. This allowed for more people to enjoy her poetry because they would be able to read it to a tune that they heard all of the time when they went to church.
The ability to read literature to a beat or rhythm also allows the writer to impart more meaning and feeling without adding any more words. I can see how this would appeal to Emily Dickinson because she was a writer that was very concerned and careful how she worded things so that all of the feeling she was trying to express would come out in a meaningful and eloquent way. By choosing “Amazing Grace,” she gives the poem more of a smooth and mellow feeling while different tunes could help her express everything that she is trying to get across to the reader.
I do not find it all that surprising that a common tune in her poems was a hymnal because of her family background. She was raised in New England by wealthy Calvinists. It is no stretch to say that since her father was a Calvinist, she was also one, due to the fact that women had little freedom, even in the choice of their religion. Given the fact that she grew up hearing this hymnal, it comes as no surprise that she uses it to base some of her poems off of in terms of rhythm. It was something that she was very familiar with and one that many people would also be familiar with. This allowed for more people to enjoy her poetry because they would be able to read it to a tune that they heard all of the time when they went to church.
The ability to read literature to a beat or rhythm also allows the writer to impart more meaning and feeling without adding any more words. I can see how this would appeal to Emily Dickinson because she was a writer that was very concerned and careful how she worded things so that all of the feeling she was trying to express would come out in a meaningful and eloquent way. By choosing “Amazing Grace,” she gives the poem more of a smooth and mellow feeling while different tunes could help her express everything that she is trying to get across to the reader.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Reflection: The Writing Style of Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson is hailed to be one of the greatest and most popular poets even up into the modern day where many people still read her works for inspiration. It is quite sad, looking back, that she did not know how well she was liked due to the fact that she actually only published a fraction of what she wrote during her lifetime, so she could not hear the enormous praise of her writings by many people.
Being born into a New England family, even she admitted that she had a “New Englandly” (McChesney 1). The ideals that she was raised around affected the way that she interpreted information, so it defiantly shows in her writing. It was obvious from very early on that Emily Dickinson was going to be some kind of poet, maybe even a famous one. In one of her letters to her friends, she contemplates why people, including herself, always take the fast fleeting days of summer for granted and only realize that they are gone once summer is almost at an end, yet next summer people do the same thing (McChesney 3). At the time, she was only fifteen years old, and instead of being “concerned with clothes and hair and social activities, Dickinson was already measuring her days with the weights and balances of a philosopher” (McChesney 3). Like other women of her time period, she was forced to do all of the housework, and subsequently, had very little time to actually write down all of the poet genius in her head. Her family, for the longest time, had no idea that she was writing poetry (McChesney 3).
One aspect of her writing style that she developed very early one in her writing life was when she was writing a letter to her cousin and she put a “blank” line instead of a salutation, to which she claimed that “’That isn’t an empty blank where I began—it is so full of affection that you can’t see any—that’s all’” (McChesney 3). These empty blanks that only she knew what went in them were continued to be used and perfected over her writing career (McChesney 3). One good example is when she says that “’I found the words to every thought I ever had – but One – ‘”which gives the impression that the word which is not there is unutterable word (Fagan 1). These dashes are “the physical manifestations of thought” which can be interpreted differently, depending on the reader (Fagan 2).
Another characteristic of her writing style is her love of nature that she shared with the rest of her family. Her focus in most of her works about nature was about the “miniature world of a leaf, a blade of grass, or an insect” (McChesney 3). By doing this she started to compare the relationships between the “tiny and the infinite” which led her to compare “the relationships of the natural world at hand with the boundless world of the universe” (McChesney 1). Even before Emily was fully grown and old, she seemed to poses the wisdom of an ancient thinker who spent the last several centuries just thinking.
McChesney, Sandra. "A View from the Window: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson." In Harold Bloom, ed. Emily Dickinson, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Fagan, Deirdre. "Emily Dickinson's Unutterable Word." Emily Dickinson Journal 14, no. 2 (Fall 2005): 70–75. Quoted as "Emily Dickinson's Unutterable Word" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Emily Dickinson, New Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Being born into a New England family, even she admitted that she had a “New Englandly” (McChesney 1). The ideals that she was raised around affected the way that she interpreted information, so it defiantly shows in her writing. It was obvious from very early on that Emily Dickinson was going to be some kind of poet, maybe even a famous one. In one of her letters to her friends, she contemplates why people, including herself, always take the fast fleeting days of summer for granted and only realize that they are gone once summer is almost at an end, yet next summer people do the same thing (McChesney 3). At the time, she was only fifteen years old, and instead of being “concerned with clothes and hair and social activities, Dickinson was already measuring her days with the weights and balances of a philosopher” (McChesney 3). Like other women of her time period, she was forced to do all of the housework, and subsequently, had very little time to actually write down all of the poet genius in her head. Her family, for the longest time, had no idea that she was writing poetry (McChesney 3).
One aspect of her writing style that she developed very early one in her writing life was when she was writing a letter to her cousin and she put a “blank” line instead of a salutation, to which she claimed that “’That isn’t an empty blank where I began—it is so full of affection that you can’t see any—that’s all’” (McChesney 3). These empty blanks that only she knew what went in them were continued to be used and perfected over her writing career (McChesney 3). One good example is when she says that “’I found the words to every thought I ever had – but One – ‘”which gives the impression that the word which is not there is unutterable word (Fagan 1). These dashes are “the physical manifestations of thought” which can be interpreted differently, depending on the reader (Fagan 2).
Another characteristic of her writing style is her love of nature that she shared with the rest of her family. Her focus in most of her works about nature was about the “miniature world of a leaf, a blade of grass, or an insect” (McChesney 3). By doing this she started to compare the relationships between the “tiny and the infinite” which led her to compare “the relationships of the natural world at hand with the boundless world of the universe” (McChesney 1). Even before Emily was fully grown and old, she seemed to poses the wisdom of an ancient thinker who spent the last several centuries just thinking.
Fagan, Deirdre. "Emily Dickinson's Unutterable Word." Emily Dickinson Journal 14, no. 2 (Fall 2005): 70–75. Quoted as "Emily Dickinson's Unutterable Word" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Emily Dickinson, New Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Reflection: The Writing Style of Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman is a very interesting writer, to say the least. With such popularity in today’s world, it is hard to imagine that at one time, he was virtually cast aside by his fellow writers. That is what happened, though; his writing style made him an outcast of sorts in the writing community. Some even despised his book because of his writing style. It was only until years after his death that people realized how good of a poet he actually was.
Instead of just following the writing styles of the other poets of his time period when he wrote his poems, he decided to try and create a new style; one unique to him. His main goal with this new writing style was to reach a wider audience in America so that more people would be able to read and understand poetry (Connors 1). He also wanted to revitalize the poetry scene during his time which had become mundane and seldom contained the “vigor and creativity Whitman knew existed” in America at the time (Connors 1).
The solution that he saw to the problem of poetry not being widely read by many Americans was fairly simple, he decided to make his writings easier to understand than the other writings out at the time. The way that he put this into practice was by writing in free verse, which means that there would be no meter or rhyme in his poetry. I believe this is because someone is restricted to meter and rhyme while writing a poem, they are forced to use a specific set of vocabulary that would satisfy the limits of their style. This in turn creates many cases where writers are forced to use unnecessary complexity simply to make sure that their writing style is “correct.” Now free from these restrictions, Whitman was free to express his feelings exactly like he wanted to without heed for whether or not he had enough syllables or if he rhyme scheme was correct. With less excessive figurative language, more readers would be able to read and understand Whitman’s poetry, which is what he wanted to accomplish. Another aspect of Whitman’s writing style was that he thought of all Americans, including himself, as one whole.
This extremely different writing style, which I assume would come across as an insult to the other writers of the time, angered many of his peers. One even got so mad at the near blasphemy that Whitman’s portfolio seemed to poetry that he through his copy of Leaves of Grass into his fireplace (Connors 1). As even more insult to Whitman, he was not invited to a meeting of prominent writers of his time period, either out of forgetfulness or on purpose (Connors 1). Whitman caught a break, though, when Emerson wrote a letter praising him, hailing him as a great poet who had a long and successful career ahead of him. This not only increased to popularity and legitimacy of Whitman’s writings but it also inflated his ego making it even bigger.
Connors, Judith. "Whitman, Walt." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Instead of just following the writing styles of the other poets of his time period when he wrote his poems, he decided to try and create a new style; one unique to him. His main goal with this new writing style was to reach a wider audience in America so that more people would be able to read and understand poetry (Connors 1). He also wanted to revitalize the poetry scene during his time which had become mundane and seldom contained the “vigor and creativity Whitman knew existed” in America at the time (Connors 1).
The solution that he saw to the problem of poetry not being widely read by many Americans was fairly simple, he decided to make his writings easier to understand than the other writings out at the time. The way that he put this into practice was by writing in free verse, which means that there would be no meter or rhyme in his poetry. I believe this is because someone is restricted to meter and rhyme while writing a poem, they are forced to use a specific set of vocabulary that would satisfy the limits of their style. This in turn creates many cases where writers are forced to use unnecessary complexity simply to make sure that their writing style is “correct.” Now free from these restrictions, Whitman was free to express his feelings exactly like he wanted to without heed for whether or not he had enough syllables or if he rhyme scheme was correct. With less excessive figurative language, more readers would be able to read and understand Whitman’s poetry, which is what he wanted to accomplish. Another aspect of Whitman’s writing style was that he thought of all Americans, including himself, as one whole.
This extremely different writing style, which I assume would come across as an insult to the other writers of the time, angered many of his peers. One even got so mad at the near blasphemy that Whitman’s portfolio seemed to poetry that he through his copy of Leaves of Grass into his fireplace (Connors 1). As even more insult to Whitman, he was not invited to a meeting of prominent writers of his time period, either out of forgetfulness or on purpose (Connors 1). Whitman caught a break, though, when Emerson wrote a letter praising him, hailing him as a great poet who had a long and successful career ahead of him. This not only increased to popularity and legitimacy of Whitman’s writings but it also inflated his ego making it even bigger.
Connors, Judith. "Whitman, Walt." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
"O Captain! My Captain!"
Yet another author that I have heard many times spoken of in very high regard, similar to how Emily Dickenson is spoken about, Walt Whitman is a very popular author. We already had to read one of his poems, “Calvary Crossing a Ford,” and I was surprised when I heard the name Whitman to not be reading “O Captain, My Captain” because it is one of his works that is synonymous with his name, at least to me. Now that I am given the choice choose which poem by Whitman to read, I am going to have to go ahead and read “O Captain! My Captain!” so that I can see why everyone likes it so much.
As it turns out, “O Captain! My Captain!” is a fairly depressing poem. At first, I thought it was going to actually be about how these heroes come back from a dangerous trip alive. Then it is revealed to the reader that the Captain is indeed dead, and the narrator spends the rest of the poem lamenting his death and wishing and hoping that “it is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead” (Whitman 15 – 16). The people of the port do not yet know that their hero is dead on the deck of the ship, for unknown reasons to the reader.
I do not think that this poem shows very much correlation or hint of effect from Emerson and Thoreau’s writings and philosophies. I say this because Emerson and Thoreau’s writing seemed to me more “boring” and more about how to live one’s life and teaching simplicity instead of the “epic story” this poem seems to resemble. It also seems to show nature as being an unfair entity, or a force, that kills a Captain who was about to arrive home after a difficult yet successful voyage. He was so close to fame and glory, but nature had to deny him the right; this characterization of nature would defiantly be different from how Emerson or Thoreau would have portrayed “her.”
Whitman, Walt. "O Captain! My Captain!, by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.
As it turns out, “O Captain! My Captain!” is a fairly depressing poem. At first, I thought it was going to actually be about how these heroes come back from a dangerous trip alive. Then it is revealed to the reader that the Captain is indeed dead, and the narrator spends the rest of the poem lamenting his death and wishing and hoping that “it is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead” (Whitman 15 – 16). The people of the port do not yet know that their hero is dead on the deck of the ship, for unknown reasons to the reader.
I do not think that this poem shows very much correlation or hint of effect from Emerson and Thoreau’s writings and philosophies. I say this because Emerson and Thoreau’s writing seemed to me more “boring” and more about how to live one’s life and teaching simplicity instead of the “epic story” this poem seems to resemble. It also seems to show nature as being an unfair entity, or a force, that kills a Captain who was about to arrive home after a difficult yet successful voyage. He was so close to fame and glory, but nature had to deny him the right; this characterization of nature would defiantly be different from how Emerson or Thoreau would have portrayed “her.”
"Nature, the Gentlest Mother"
During my years of schooling and watching T.V., I have always heard people talking about how their favorite poet is the great Emily Dickinson. After reading just one of her poems, I can defiantly see why they like her so much; there is something in the way that she writes that seems to speak right to the reader. The poem that I chose to read from her was “Nature, the gentlest mother” from the Nature section in the complete collection of her poems. In all honesty, I chose one under this section and title because I figured that it would be the easiest to relate to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau because they both valued, nature, but I will get to that point later.
The short poem is a very simple one. It is simply about the way Emily see’s nature; as “the gentlest mother” ( Dickinson 1 ). It talks about how it is caring and full of life. It is the most loving and caring thing we know.
I think that Emily Dickinson was heavily influenced by the writing styles and philosophies of transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau. I believe this because she refers to nature as a “ her “ which gives the reader the illusion and idea that she believes that nature is a living person that cares for all living things with great love and care. This is similar to Emerson and Thoreau because they often times referred to nature with a capital “N” instead of the normal lower case letter. This shows that they have much reverence for nature. The capital “N” does not only imply reverence and respect, it also gives the idea similar to the one given by Dickenson; nature is a living person. Another similarity to Emerson and Thoreau was the fact that in the fourteenth line of the poem, she uses the word “prayer” which also gives the poem an immediate religious undertone, which is similar to Emerson’s idea that God can only be observed through nature.
Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000.
The short poem is a very simple one. It is simply about the way Emily see’s nature; as “the gentlest mother” ( Dickinson 1 ). It talks about how it is caring and full of life. It is the most loving and caring thing we know.
I think that Emily Dickinson was heavily influenced by the writing styles and philosophies of transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau. I believe this because she refers to nature as a “ her “ which gives the reader the illusion and idea that she believes that nature is a living person that cares for all living things with great love and care. This is similar to Emerson and Thoreau because they often times referred to nature with a capital “N” instead of the normal lower case letter. This shows that they have much reverence for nature. The capital “N” does not only imply reverence and respect, it also gives the idea similar to the one given by Dickenson; nature is a living person. Another similarity to Emerson and Thoreau was the fact that in the fourteenth line of the poem, she uses the word “prayer” which also gives the poem an immediate religious undertone, which is similar to Emerson’s idea that God can only be observed through nature.
"To Build A Fire"
“To Build a Fire” by Jack London was a short story about a man hiking the near the Yukon Trail in modern Alaska. It started off just talking about how he was making great time on his hike and how a dog started to follow him. There was a bit of foreshadowing when the narrator mentioned that a man told him that nobody should go out when it was fifty degrees below zero without a partner; it was seventy-five degrees below zero on this day. Then, as he is following a river, he falls into a deep pool of spring water. He only gets wet up to his knees, but that is still not a good thing to have when it is cold enough to freeze a man’s spit before it hits the ground. He tries to build a fire, but when he gets a good one started, snow falls off the tree above it and puts it out. By this time, his limbs are thoroughly numb, and he is having a hard time getting another fire started. He finally panics after failing to start another fire. He finally tires out, and lays down to fall asleep and accept death.
I think that this has some similarities to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. First of all, this has a great amount of descriptions of nature which is defiantly a characteristic similar to transcendentalist writings. Also, the fact that it is one man alone in nature taking care of himself is similar to Emersononian “Self-Reliance.” Another thing that stood out to me is the fact that at the beginning of the story, when the man was still relatively warm and, well, alive, he talked about the wolf dog’s instincts in a condescending way compared to the man’s knowledge that came with being with a human. Then, when the man is running to camp for his life after his failed attempt at making the second fire, he cursed the dog because “the warmth and security of the animal angered him” (London 614). This shows that London thinks knowledge found in nature, like the kind the dog has, is more important than knowledge found through reason.
Jack London. "To Build A Fire" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 603-614. Print.
I think that this has some similarities to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. First of all, this has a great amount of descriptions of nature which is defiantly a characteristic similar to transcendentalist writings. Also, the fact that it is one man alone in nature taking care of himself is similar to Emersononian “Self-Reliance.” Another thing that stood out to me is the fact that at the beginning of the story, when the man was still relatively warm and, well, alive, he talked about the wolf dog’s instincts in a condescending way compared to the man’s knowledge that came with being with a human. Then, when the man is running to camp for his life after his failed attempt at making the second fire, he cursed the dog because “the warmth and security of the animal angered him” (London 614). This shows that London thinks knowledge found in nature, like the kind the dog has, is more important than knowledge found through reason.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
"Richard Cory"
Between the two of the Edwin Arlington Robinson poems that we could choose to write this blog about, I would have to go with “Richard Cory.” I would pick “Richard Cory” over “Miniver Cheevy” because I personally think that “Richard Cory” shows more of a similarity and a better display of Robinson’s philosophies than “Miniver Cheevy” did.
“Richard Cory” is a short poem about a man named Richard Cory who is admired by all of the normal people in his town. He was “richer than a king” and every time he talked, he would “flutter pulses” of whomever he was addressing (Robinson 575). Even though everyone looked up to him and envied him, the end of the poem throws in a little twist; one night, Richard Cory goes home and kills himself by shooting himself in the head (Robinson 575). It is very easy to determine what the point to this poem is; money can not buy you happiness.
I think that this philosophy of “money can not buy you happiness” shows a similarity to the philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau. This shows a connection to the transcendentalist idea that material wealth and money is no way to true happiness and understanding. Nature is the only way to find truth and understanding of one’s self and the universe around them. Another little thing that stood out to me in the poem was the little phrase “And he was always human when he talked” (Robinson 575). The reason why this stood out to me was because it implies that the people did not think of him as a human, something more, a god of some sorts maybe. During the entirety of the description of Richard Cory, it never once mentioned anything about what he did nature wise, like how he hiked or anything like that. All it said was about how well he dressed, how formally educated he was, and how wealthy he was. That ended up meaning nothing to him.
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. "Richard Cory" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 575. Print.
“Richard Cory” is a short poem about a man named Richard Cory who is admired by all of the normal people in his town. He was “richer than a king” and every time he talked, he would “flutter pulses” of whomever he was addressing (Robinson 575). Even though everyone looked up to him and envied him, the end of the poem throws in a little twist; one night, Richard Cory goes home and kills himself by shooting himself in the head (Robinson 575). It is very easy to determine what the point to this poem is; money can not buy you happiness.
I think that this philosophy of “money can not buy you happiness” shows a similarity to the philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau. This shows a connection to the transcendentalist idea that material wealth and money is no way to true happiness and understanding. Nature is the only way to find truth and understanding of one’s self and the universe around them. Another little thing that stood out to me in the poem was the little phrase “And he was always human when he talked” (Robinson 575). The reason why this stood out to me was because it implies that the people did not think of him as a human, something more, a god of some sorts maybe. During the entirety of the description of Richard Cory, it never once mentioned anything about what he did nature wise, like how he hiked or anything like that. All it said was about how well he dressed, how formally educated he was, and how wealthy he was. That ended up meaning nothing to him.
"The Darling"
“The Darling” by Anton Chekhov is a short story about a woman named Olga “Olenka” Semyonovna who “was constantly in love with someone and could not live otherwise” (Chekhov 558). Although on the surface it might seem like this short story is simply about a girl who moves from husband to husband as each one leaves her in different ways, I think that there is much more meaning to it than that.
The main thing that stood out to me about this short story was the fact that whenever Olenka found a new husband to attach on to, she took up all of the traits and the opinions that they had. This effectively meant that she had no opinions for herself, which is why she was left so sad and empty each time her husband left. While the story does seem to show how happy she is when she has someone to love and to form opinions from, it also seems to warn about the dangers of someone not having the capacity to have their own thoughts and opinions. This comes from the fact that Chekhov writes about how she is wilting away when she has nobody to love.
The point that Chekhov is trying to make is that it is better for one to have their own opinions so that even when they have no one to love and to share ideas and opinions with, they still have independence in their own heads. I personally think that this is similar to the idea of Emerson’s philosophy of self reliance because they both promote the importance of being an individual. This story also strongly reminded me about the story of Echo in Greek mythology. This is yet another reason why this story shows influences of writers like Emerson and Thoreau.
One thing that I would like to point out, on the other hand, is that there is little chance that Emerson or Thoreau had any influence on this work because Chekhov was Russian.
The main thing that stood out to me about this short story was the fact that whenever Olenka found a new husband to attach on to, she took up all of the traits and the opinions that they had. This effectively meant that she had no opinions for herself, which is why she was left so sad and empty each time her husband left. While the story does seem to show how happy she is when she has someone to love and to form opinions from, it also seems to warn about the dangers of someone not having the capacity to have their own thoughts and opinions. This comes from the fact that Chekhov writes about how she is wilting away when she has nobody to love.
The point that Chekhov is trying to make is that it is better for one to have their own opinions so that even when they have no one to love and to share ideas and opinions with, they still have independence in their own heads. I personally think that this is similar to the idea of Emerson’s philosophy of self reliance because they both promote the importance of being an individual. This story also strongly reminded me about the story of Echo in Greek mythology. This is yet another reason why this story shows influences of writers like Emerson and Thoreau.
One thing that I would like to point out, on the other hand, is that there is little chance that Emerson or Thoreau had any influence on this work because Chekhov was Russian.
Chekhov, Anton. "The Darling" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 558-565. Print.
"I Will Fight No More Forever"
“I Will Fight No More Forever” is a famous speech by Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé peoples in the late 1800’s after his father died in 1871.
Even though this speech is a very short work, it contains as much emotion and meaning as a normal, full length short story. The main message that the reader gets when they read this is deep desperation and defeat of someone that was once considered strong by the people he lead and protected. When I read this in our literature books, I had the pre recorded voice read to me because to me, a speech, especially one like this, should be heard coming from someone else because that is how it was intended on being read to the listener. Even hearing it from some person hired by Glencoe Company to read it from a script was able to impart much feeling and emotion mostly because it would be hard not to read it without any emotion. I can not even imagine how moving it must have been to have heard it from Chief Joseph himself.
I do not think that this speech has or an show much similarity to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. The main issue that I think that sets the two groups apart would be the fact that Emerson and Thoreau thought that one should be “Self-Reliant,” for Emerson, and Thoreau thought that if something is against a person’s morals, they should not participate in those rules. These two philosophies differ from Chief Joseph’s in this instance because he, as a leader, can’t be self-reliant. He has an entire tribe that he has to look out for and keep safe. In this instance, he had to make the decision to stop the suffering of his people by surrendering and giving in to the government’s orders, which would also be against Thoreau’s philosophy. On the other hand, it was the peaceful option so maybe Thoreau would have approved.
Even though this speech is a very short work, it contains as much emotion and meaning as a normal, full length short story. The main message that the reader gets when they read this is deep desperation and defeat of someone that was once considered strong by the people he lead and protected. When I read this in our literature books, I had the pre recorded voice read to me because to me, a speech, especially one like this, should be heard coming from someone else because that is how it was intended on being read to the listener. Even hearing it from some person hired by Glencoe Company to read it from a script was able to impart much feeling and emotion mostly because it would be hard not to read it without any emotion. I can not even imagine how moving it must have been to have heard it from Chief Joseph himself.
I do not think that this speech has or an show much similarity to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. The main issue that I think that sets the two groups apart would be the fact that Emerson and Thoreau thought that one should be “Self-Reliant,” for Emerson, and Thoreau thought that if something is against a person’s morals, they should not participate in those rules. These two philosophies differ from Chief Joseph’s in this instance because he, as a leader, can’t be self-reliant. He has an entire tribe that he has to look out for and keep safe. In this instance, he had to make the decision to stop the suffering of his people by surrendering and giving in to the government’s orders, which would also be against Thoreau’s philosophy. On the other hand, it was the peaceful option so maybe Thoreau would have approved.
Joseph, Chief. "I Will Fight No More Forever" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 533. Print.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
"Spoon River Anthology"
The two excerpts that I read from Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology were “Lucinda Matlock” and “Fiddler Jones.” The poem “Lucinda Matlock” was about an outgoing woman who went to parties in her younger years, who met her husband whom she settled down with for the rest of her life. She enjoyed the simple things in life and died contentedly. “Fiddler Jones” was about a man who knew how to play the fiddle so he was always playing at parties and get-togethers. Everything he did reminded him on the dances he played at; the rustling of dry leaves remind him of the movement of a certain girl, “Red Head Sammy,” dancing or how the wind tousling the corn in the fields reminds him of the dancing and rustling of a girls skirt at a dance. He was always willing to join in on a good time.
From reading just these two poems from Spoon River Anthology, I got the impression that his philosophies might be similar to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. I make the connection between their writings because, for one, in “Lucinda Matlock,” towards the end of the poem the narrator refers to the children of the next generation as “degenerate sons and daughters” (Masters 516). This idea that the new generation is becoming distanced from where they are supposed to be is an idea shared by Thoreau. Thoreau believed that Americans had lost sight of what was really important in their pursuit of material gain and wealth (Grant 2). This claim could be easily backed up by the fact that Thoreau thought that the only way to real meaning is a better “relationship” with nature and in the poem Lucinda was said to have gone out to the fields frequently and singing to the forest (Masters 16). This close connection with nature brought Lucinda to the conclusion that it was the way to find true happiness just like Thoreau did.
Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of
Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Masters, Edgar Lee. "Spoon River Anthology" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 516-517. Print.
From reading just these two poems from Spoon River Anthology, I got the impression that his philosophies might be similar to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. I make the connection between their writings because, for one, in “Lucinda Matlock,” towards the end of the poem the narrator refers to the children of the next generation as “degenerate sons and daughters” (Masters 516). This idea that the new generation is becoming distanced from where they are supposed to be is an idea shared by Thoreau. Thoreau believed that Americans had lost sight of what was really important in their pursuit of material gain and wealth (Grant 2). This claim could be easily backed up by the fact that Thoreau thought that the only way to real meaning is a better “relationship” with nature and in the poem Lucinda was said to have gone out to the fields frequently and singing to the forest (Masters 16). This close connection with nature brought Lucinda to the conclusion that it was the way to find true happiness just like Thoreau did.
Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of
Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Masters, Edgar Lee. "Spoon River Anthology" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 516-517. Print.
Monday, March 12, 2012
"Two Views of the River"
To me, “Two Views of the River” shows a great deal of similarities to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. The easiest connection to make between the writers’ writing styles would have to be the fact that most of the short story was written describing a river. This fascination and reverence for the beauty of nature is very similar to Emerson and Thoreau because they were people who held Nature in the highest regards. One of the more in depth connections that can be made is the fact that when Clemens was talking about the river, one little word showed a connection to Emerson and Thoreau’s transcendentalist ideas. The word I am talking about would be “rapture,” which he says twice in the second paragraph (Twain 505). Even though he may not mean the literal rapture, although it is always possible he did, it still makes the reader look at the description of the river in more of a religious light just because of the religious implications the word “rapture” holds. This religious view of nature is very similar to the views of transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau because they saw nature as proof of the existence of a divine power and that true knowledge could only come from studying nature (Quinn 1).
The other important part of this short narrative is the fact that, as the name implies, it is a comparison between how he used to view the river as opposed to how he views it now. When he describes the beauty and splendor of the river, he uses language that conveys love and compassion for the new landscape. When he talks about how he sees the river now, though, he puts it in a way that seems cold and full of distaste. This association with nature as beautiful and the industry on the river as cold and calculated is very similar to Thoreau’s ideas that the society of his time had become obsessed with material wealth and less concerned with the spirit of the individual (Grant 2).
Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 504-505. Print.
The other important part of this short narrative is the fact that, as the name implies, it is a comparison between how he used to view the river as opposed to how he views it now. When he describes the beauty and splendor of the river, he uses language that conveys love and compassion for the new landscape. When he talks about how he sees the river now, though, he puts it in a way that seems cold and full of distaste. This association with nature as beautiful and the industry on the river as cold and calculated is very similar to Thoreau’s ideas that the society of his time had become obsessed with material wealth and less concerned with the spirit of the individual (Grant 2).
Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 504-505. Print.
Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
"The Red Badge of Courage"
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane was a story about a man, Henry Fleming, who was a soldier during the Civil War who was hit in the head by a fellow soldier during battle who goes on to lie about his injury. He is thought of as a hero for having been hurt during battle.
Even thought there was a very short excerpt from the whole work in our literature book, I gathered that Crane’s philosophy is different from that of Emerson or Thoreau. The initial fact that brought me to this conclusion is the fact that our literature books listed this sort part of the book and Stephen Crane as a Naturalist instead of a Transcendentalist like Thoreau or Emerson. Another reason why I think that Crane’s writing and philosophy differs from Emerson and Thoreau is because in the short part that I read, it talked mainly about Fleming’s feelings instead of the natural surroundings. On the subject of Fleming’s feelings, they are described in a very animalistic sense; Crane even compares Fleming’s feelings to that of the “acute exacerbation of a pestered animal” (Crane 493). This approach to analyzing the feelings of Fleming exemplifies that is a Naturalist because Naturalists were influenced by Charles Darwin’s writing and how he said that people are just highly evolved mammals and nothing else (Sommers 1). Naturalists also believe that humans had no souls because since everyone thought that animals did not have souls and he Darwin believed people were just a high ordered mammal, we also had no soul (Sommers 1). This idea, to me, is very contradictory to the philosophies of Emerson because his major work, Self-Reliance is about having the inner strength and having one’s soul in tune nature. Another way to put the goal in self reliance is to determine what is “natural in the world as well as what is inspirational within the human soul” (Brugman 1). The main behind the Transcendentalists is that the only way to achieve “true knowledge” is to go commune with nature and to look within one’s soul (Quinn 1).
Brugman, Patricia. "Nature in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of
Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Even thought there was a very short excerpt from the whole work in our literature book, I gathered that Crane’s philosophy is different from that of Emerson or Thoreau. The initial fact that brought me to this conclusion is the fact that our literature books listed this sort part of the book and Stephen Crane as a Naturalist instead of a Transcendentalist like Thoreau or Emerson. Another reason why I think that Crane’s writing and philosophy differs from Emerson and Thoreau is because in the short part that I read, it talked mainly about Fleming’s feelings instead of the natural surroundings. On the subject of Fleming’s feelings, they are described in a very animalistic sense; Crane even compares Fleming’s feelings to that of the “acute exacerbation of a pestered animal” (Crane 493). This approach to analyzing the feelings of Fleming exemplifies that is a Naturalist because Naturalists were influenced by Charles Darwin’s writing and how he said that people are just highly evolved mammals and nothing else (Sommers 1). Naturalists also believe that humans had no souls because since everyone thought that animals did not have souls and he Darwin believed people were just a high ordered mammal, we also had no soul (Sommers 1). This idea, to me, is very contradictory to the philosophies of Emerson because his major work, Self-Reliance is about having the inner strength and having one’s soul in tune nature. Another way to put the goal in self reliance is to determine what is “natural in the world as well as what is inspirational within the human soul” (Brugman 1). The main behind the Transcendentalists is that the only way to achieve “true knowledge” is to go commune with nature and to look within one’s soul (Quinn 1).
Brugman, Patricia. "Nature in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of
Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Sommers, Joseph Michael. "naturalism." In Maunder, Andrew.Facts On File Companion to the British Short Story. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
"The Story of an Hour"
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin is about the wife of a man who hears that her husband has died in a train crash. She gets very emotional and says that she needs to go to her room to be alone for a little bit. She goes and sits in a comfortable armchair that was facing an open window in her room. From there, the she observes all of the things that are going on outside; the “trees all aquiver with the new spring life,” “the delicious breath of rain,” a “peddler crying his wares,” and someone singing off in the distance (Chopin 554). As she sits there, facing the window and observing everything that is happening, she it hits her that she is no longer under her husband’s “rule” and there would be no more “powerful will bending hers;” she is free (Chopin 555). She starts imagining how wonderful her life will be now that she can just “live for herself” (Chopin 555). Her sister hears her breathing heavily and whispering to herself and mistakes it as intense grief and “implores for admission,” to which Louise Mallard replies “Go away. I am not making myself ill” (Chopin 555). After a while of imagining the new life ahead of her, she finally come out of her room and goes downstairs. Just as she gets to the main floor, though, in walks her husband, alive and well. In the shock of discovering her husband is alive, she dies suddenly due to her heart problems foreshadowed in the first paragraph (Chopin 555).
For such a short, little story, Chopin managed to use many literary devices. When she mentioned the heart problems at the beginning of the story, it was use of foreshadowing. When she mentioned that Louise now prayed that her life would be a long one when “only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 555), she used irony. She also used irony when she mentioned that the doctor claimed that she died of “the joy that kills,” because it shows that she was the only one that knew her true feelings pertaining to her husband’s death (Chopin 555).
“The Story of an Hour” shows similarities to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau because they both valed the signfigance of the “self” and Louise Mallard embodied this idea in the shape of a suppressed wife who did not feel like her will was her own. Chopin also shows a similarity to Thoreau’s writing because she is contradictory; for example Louise is “happy” her husband is dead, yet she mentioned that “she had loved him” and that her husband had a “face that never looked save with love upon her” (Chopin 555). This contradiction is similar to Thoreau because “Thoreau was a contradictory figure” (Grant 5).
Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of
Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 554-555. Print.
For such a short, little story, Chopin managed to use many literary devices. When she mentioned the heart problems at the beginning of the story, it was use of foreshadowing. When she mentioned that Louise now prayed that her life would be a long one when “only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 555), she used irony. She also used irony when she mentioned that the doctor claimed that she died of “the joy that kills,” because it shows that she was the only one that knew her true feelings pertaining to her husband’s death (Chopin 555).
“The Story of an Hour” shows similarities to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau because they both valed the signfigance of the “self” and Louise Mallard embodied this idea in the shape of a suppressed wife who did not feel like her will was her own. Chopin also shows a similarity to Thoreau’s writing because she is contradictory; for example Louise is “happy” her husband is dead, yet she mentioned that “she had loved him” and that her husband had a “face that never looked save with love upon her” (Chopin 555). This contradiction is similar to Thoreau because “Thoreau was a contradictory figure” (Grant 5).
Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of
Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 554-555. Print.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
"A Wagner Matinée"
“A Wagner Matinée” is a short story by Willa Cather that tells the story of a man’s aunt who lives on the frontier must come to Boston to help settle the estate of a deceased relative. The man is excited because he used to live with his aunt out in the Nebraska frontier. He credits her with “most of the good that ever came my way in my boyhood” (Cather 522). It is revealed that the man’s aunt, Georgiana, had once been a music teacher at the Boston Conservatory when she met Howard Carpenter, the man’s uncle, and they got married against the wishes of Georgiana’s family’s wishes because Howard had no money. They decided to move to the Nebraska frontier where they took up a plot of land and made their new home.
The story starts to turn to Georgiana’s hard life on the farm, but then it reveals the message that she may not completely enjoy it there when it tells of the time of how the man, then still a boy, was playing the piano and his aunt stopped his practice and solemnly told him “’Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you’” (Cather 522). The quote shows that Georgiana may miss her life in Boston and also that she may be a little bitter about it looking back because she uses the word “taken.” Not only does it reveal her true feelings and possibly foreshadow the rest of the short story, it also lets the reader know that the narrator’s name is Clark, so from now on, I shall refer to him as such.
Then the story turns to how Georgiana seems odd when she arrives, and Clark decides to take her to the local symphony because he knows she likes music. Although she seems to be in a fog in the beginning of her visit, she seems to cheer up once she gets into the concert hall. During the program, she starts to cry, speculatively about her memories of her musical past and how it was now gone. At the end of the program, she started to sob and said that she did not want to leave because she knew that she would have to go back to the frontier.
I think that this is very different than both Thoreau’s and Whitman’s philosophies because in this case, the character wanted to stay in the crowded city instead of the very nature-heavy frontier in Nebraska. It also does not describe the nature and surrounding as much as Thoreau or Whitman most likely would have. It also talks about Clarks studies in things like Latin and music, which is more of an intellectual focus, like that of Rationalists, instead of spiritual-based studies, like that of Romantics.
Cather, Willa. "A Wagner Matinée" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 521-526. Print.
The story starts to turn to Georgiana’s hard life on the farm, but then it reveals the message that she may not completely enjoy it there when it tells of the time of how the man, then still a boy, was playing the piano and his aunt stopped his practice and solemnly told him “’Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you’” (Cather 522). The quote shows that Georgiana may miss her life in Boston and also that she may be a little bitter about it looking back because she uses the word “taken.” Not only does it reveal her true feelings and possibly foreshadow the rest of the short story, it also lets the reader know that the narrator’s name is Clark, so from now on, I shall refer to him as such.
Then the story turns to how Georgiana seems odd when she arrives, and Clark decides to take her to the local symphony because he knows she likes music. Although she seems to be in a fog in the beginning of her visit, she seems to cheer up once she gets into the concert hall. During the program, she starts to cry, speculatively about her memories of her musical past and how it was now gone. At the end of the program, she started to sob and said that she did not want to leave because she knew that she would have to go back to the frontier.
I think that this is very different than both Thoreau’s and Whitman’s philosophies because in this case, the character wanted to stay in the crowded city instead of the very nature-heavy frontier in Nebraska. It also does not describe the nature and surrounding as much as Thoreau or Whitman most likely would have. It also talks about Clarks studies in things like Latin and music, which is more of an intellectual focus, like that of Rationalists, instead of spiritual-based studies, like that of Romantics.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek"
Just like with Robert E. Lee’s “Letter to his Son,” I thoroughly enjoyed “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge;” more than I initially thought I would. Not only do I think that it is a very interesting story in and of itself, but it is also a story told in a very original and unique way. Whether the story is flashing back in the second part or whether the first and third parts are flash forwards from the time of the second part, it kept me reading closely until the very end. It came as a slight surprise at the end to find out that from the moment that he thought that the noose broke and he succeeded in escaping his executioners, he was really just imagining the entire thing while he was still suffocating at the end of the noose in reality.
Peyton Farquhar is a simple man living in the South that wants to be a soldier, but even though he is not, he still tries to help the Southern cause any way he possibly can. When he is presented the opportunity to help destroy a bridge to slow the Union’s advances, he jumps at the chance. The reader finds out a few lines after the “Confederate” soldier leaves that it was actually a Union spy that was setting him up; and since the spy only went back to the North after a couple of hours, I would assume that he also set up some other people, so it is possible that Farquhar is not the only one being executed that day. Also, the fact that the Union soldiers have such a methodical system of hanging people on this bridge shows that they have probably done this multiple times. The point about the soldiers being very methodical and robot like sounds very similar to me to the philosophy to Thoreau because in Civil Disobedience, he talks about how soldiers are basically just pawns in the governments hands; they really aren’t human anymore, just tools to do the governments bidding.
Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 389-396. Print.
Peyton Farquhar is a simple man living in the South that wants to be a soldier, but even though he is not, he still tries to help the Southern cause any way he possibly can. When he is presented the opportunity to help destroy a bridge to slow the Union’s advances, he jumps at the chance. The reader finds out a few lines after the “Confederate” soldier leaves that it was actually a Union spy that was setting him up; and since the spy only went back to the North after a couple of hours, I would assume that he also set up some other people, so it is possible that Farquhar is not the only one being executed that day. Also, the fact that the Union soldiers have such a methodical system of hanging people on this bridge shows that they have probably done this multiple times. The point about the soldiers being very methodical and robot like sounds very similar to me to the philosophy to Thoreau because in Civil Disobedience, he talks about how soldiers are basically just pawns in the governments hands; they really aren’t human anymore, just tools to do the governments bidding.
Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 389-396. Print.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
"Letter to his Son"
For some reason, I ended up really liking this short letter that Lee wrote to his son. I would even go as far as to say that I like Robert E. Lee, which is a weird thing to say, at least for me, because up until now, I was only told about the side of his life where he was the “evil” Confederate General who killed Union soldiers to “defend slavery.” After reading this though, I now see that it was not really in defense of slavery but he was more in opposition to the fact the “Northern” politicians seemed to making laws that purposely were aimed at negatively effecting the South. One of these points would obviously be slavery, which was a major part of southern economy, but there were various other things that they saw as aimed at them.
In his letter to his son, he talks about how he thinks that the worst thing to happen would be for the Union to break apart. In the beginning of the letter he calls anarchy and war “evils” which shows that he knows that neither of them are good options to the problems that were plaguing the nation at this time. In contrast, though, he says that a country in which force is a tool used on the people and where “brotherly love” is replaced by “strife and civil war” holds “no charm for me” (Lee 385). This shows that while he thinks that preserving the Union is of the utmost importance, he will defend what he thinks is right, and in this case it was the South that he saw was being “bullied” by the North, so he sides with them. In the last line he states that if it comes down to the Union being thrown into chaos from civil war, he was going to return to his “native state” (Virginia) and “share the miseries of my people” and he wouldn’t become violent unless he felt like it was in defense, which history shows that he must have felt he needed to defend himself (Lee 385). In this aspect, he is very much like Thoreau because Thoreau says in Civil Disobedience that people should oppose the government on anything that they find wrong, which is what Lee was doing when he sided with the Confederacy; he believed in the Union above all else, but in his eyes, it was not the same Union that the “founding fathers” created all those years ago.
In his letter to his son, he talks about how he thinks that the worst thing to happen would be for the Union to break apart. In the beginning of the letter he calls anarchy and war “evils” which shows that he knows that neither of them are good options to the problems that were plaguing the nation at this time. In contrast, though, he says that a country in which force is a tool used on the people and where “brotherly love” is replaced by “strife and civil war” holds “no charm for me” (Lee 385). This shows that while he thinks that preserving the Union is of the utmost importance, he will defend what he thinks is right, and in this case it was the South that he saw was being “bullied” by the North, so he sides with them. In the last line he states that if it comes down to the Union being thrown into chaos from civil war, he was going to return to his “native state” (Virginia) and “share the miseries of my people” and he wouldn’t become violent unless he felt like it was in defense, which history shows that he must have felt he needed to defend himself (Lee 385). In this aspect, he is very much like Thoreau because Thoreau says in Civil Disobedience that people should oppose the government on anything that they find wrong, which is what Lee was doing when he sided with the Confederacy; he believed in the Union above all else, but in his eyes, it was not the same Union that the “founding fathers” created all those years ago.
Lee, Robert E. "Letter to his Son" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 385. Print.
"And Ain't I a Woman"
In Sojourner Truth’s speech “And Ain’t I a Woman?” was a very influential speech, at least it was to me, because it did she did not try to make it sound fancy or anything, she just spoke in a way that just made sense. The counter points to the common thoughts about women back then that she made were also said in a very matter of fact way and they made a lot of sense; granted, the arguments against women’s rights were not that hard to find flaws with. This speech is not just about woman’s rights in general, it is pointing out the fact that the “northern” white women fight for women’s rights but they do not see African American women as equals. This sad fact is what brings about the refrain “And ain’t I a woman” because she is rhetorically asking the audience if she is a woman or not because since she is, she should have the same rights as white women because both groups are women. She emphasizes this point by relating to the audience about all of the things that she had to endure while being a slave that white women would not dream of ever happening to themselves because they expect to be “helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere” (Truth 370). She makes their “problems” seem petty when she talks about how she had to endure having her children being sold into slavery in front of her eyes and how she had to work hard labor, which scared her arms (Truth 370). Apparently, during the mid-1800’s, it was considered a strong argument to say that men were better than women simply for the fact that “Christ wasn’t a woman” (Truth 370). She quickly disproved that by pointing out that Christ was the product of God and a woman, asking “Where did your Christ come from” (Truth 370).
I think that this shows a little bit of Thoreau’s philosophy because Thoreau was an abolitionist, and I am sure that since he believed in equality, I would also assume that he was for women’s rights, which are both important
subjects to Truth.
Truth, Sojourner. ""And Ain't I a Woman?"" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 370. Print.
I think that this shows a little bit of Thoreau’s philosophy because Thoreau was an abolitionist, and I am sure that since he believed in equality, I would also assume that he was for women’s rights, which are both important
subjects to Truth.
Truth, Sojourner. ""And Ain't I a Woman?"" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 370. Print.
Friday, February 10, 2012
"Swing Low Sweet Chariot," "Go Down Moses," and "Keep Your Hands on the Plow"
The three African American hymnals “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” “Go Down Moses,” and “Keep Your Hands on the Plow” that we were required to read for this blog were sang by African American slaves while they were working in the fields. These songs were a very important part of the slave’s culture because that was basically all they had for themselves at a time where they were, for the most part, not even considered humans.
“Swing Low Sweet Chariot” is a very religious song that is about the slaves wishing that the chariot of God would “swing low” and carry them home (“Swing Low” 2). This is a very hopeful song because it talked about being free and going “home,” which would be one of the only things that I would want if I were a slave. This song also shows how the African American slaves adopted the American culture; they spoke English and they had been converted to Christians to the point where they wrote their own hymnals. “Go Down Moses” was a hymnal that related the struggle of the Israelites while they were enslaved in Egypt to how they themselves were being enslaved by the United States. This is similar to “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” because it is hopeful because they are hoping some day that someone will be their “Moses” and tell the United States government to “Let their people go” (“Go Down” 4). “Keep Your Hand on the Plow” is a hymnal turning the plow, a symbol of their enslavement and forced labor, into a symbol of religious strength.
These “field songs” show a similarity to Thoreau’s philosophy because while they are just songs, they are a sort of defiance against their “owners” because no matter what, they would not take away their voice and their spirit. I think this is similar to Thoreau’s philosophy because in works like “Civil Disobedience,” he talks of peaceful protests instead of violent revolutions. They are also similar to Emerson’s philosophy because these are Christian songs and Emerson himself was a Christian.
“Swing Low Sweet Chariot” is a very religious song that is about the slaves wishing that the chariot of God would “swing low” and carry them home (“Swing Low” 2). This is a very hopeful song because it talked about being free and going “home,” which would be one of the only things that I would want if I were a slave. This song also shows how the African American slaves adopted the American culture; they spoke English and they had been converted to Christians to the point where they wrote their own hymnals. “Go Down Moses” was a hymnal that related the struggle of the Israelites while they were enslaved in Egypt to how they themselves were being enslaved by the United States. This is similar to “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” because it is hopeful because they are hoping some day that someone will be their “Moses” and tell the United States government to “Let their people go” (“Go Down” 4). “Keep Your Hand on the Plow” is a hymnal turning the plow, a symbol of their enslavement and forced labor, into a symbol of religious strength.
These “field songs” show a similarity to Thoreau’s philosophy because while they are just songs, they are a sort of defiance against their “owners” because no matter what, they would not take away their voice and their spirit. I think this is similar to Thoreau’s philosophy because in works like “Civil Disobedience,” he talks of peaceful protests instead of violent revolutions. They are also similar to Emerson’s philosophy because these are Christian songs and Emerson himself was a Christian.
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." - NetHymnal. Web. 10 Feb. 2012
"Go down Moses Lyrics." SoundTrack Lyrics Web. 10 Feb. 2012.
"Keep Your Hands On The Plow." GospelSongLyrics.org Web. 10 Feb. 2012.
"Calvary Crossing a Ford"
The short poem “Calvary Crossing a Ford” by Walt Whitman is basically talking about exactly what the title implies; it is about a contingency of soldiers crossing a shallow river, or ford. These particular soldiers are Civil War soldiers, which was going on when this poem was published.
The first two lines of the poem describe the line of soldiers that are waiting to cross the ford. He describes the line as “serpentine” and that they “wind betwixt green islands” (Whitman 1, 2). This descriptive style that involves nature is very similar to the writings of the authors in the Romanticism time period, especially the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau because they both tended to write most of their stories about nature. He is also very descriptive in the general sense because he uses so much detail about the colors and the soldiers in the scene. He mentions color when he talks about the “green islands,” the “flash” their guns produce in the sunlight, the “silvery river,” the “brown-faced men,” and of the group’s ”Scarlet, and blue, and snowy white” guidons. This style of very descriptive writing is very similar to the writing style of the romanticism time period.
While this writing shows similarities to Emerson and Thoreau’s writings, there are also some things that could be seen as being different to their writings. Just like Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Whitman is writing this about Civil War soldiers and it seems to me that he is writing about them in a favorable light. As I said in my blog about the Gettysburg Address, this is different than the writings of Thoreau because he did not like the idea of soldiers because they were basically the government’s “robots” and not all of them really wanted what they were fighting for, they were just going along with everyone else. On the other hand, since they are Union soldiers, which you can tell because they describe their guidon as red white and blue, it would be similar to Thoreau and Emerson because they were against slavery, which the Union forces were fighting to end.
Huff, Randall. "'Cavalry Crossing a Ford'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay, [c1900]; Bartleby.com, 1999.
The first two lines of the poem describe the line of soldiers that are waiting to cross the ford. He describes the line as “serpentine” and that they “wind betwixt green islands” (Whitman 1, 2). This descriptive style that involves nature is very similar to the writings of the authors in the Romanticism time period, especially the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau because they both tended to write most of their stories about nature. He is also very descriptive in the general sense because he uses so much detail about the colors and the soldiers in the scene. He mentions color when he talks about the “green islands,” the “flash” their guns produce in the sunlight, the “silvery river,” the “brown-faced men,” and of the group’s ”Scarlet, and blue, and snowy white” guidons. This style of very descriptive writing is very similar to the writing style of the romanticism time period.
While this writing shows similarities to Emerson and Thoreau’s writings, there are also some things that could be seen as being different to their writings. Just like Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Whitman is writing this about Civil War soldiers and it seems to me that he is writing about them in a favorable light. As I said in my blog about the Gettysburg Address, this is different than the writings of Thoreau because he did not like the idea of soldiers because they were basically the government’s “robots” and not all of them really wanted what they were fighting for, they were just going along with everyone else. On the other hand, since they are Union soldiers, which you can tell because they describe their guidon as red white and blue, it would be similar to Thoreau and Emerson because they were against slavery, which the Union forces were fighting to end.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay, [c1900]; Bartleby.com, 1999.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
"The Gettysburg Address"
I can not think of any case in which an American citizen, both born and naturalized, which has never heard anything to do with or about the Gettysburg Address President Abraham Lincoln gave on November 19, 1867. In elementary school, we had to memorize this address and now that I go back and read it after all of this time, I realize why we had to; it is a very powerful albeit important historical speech in a time of great turmoil in the dark period in American history.
Abraham Lincoln is arguably one of the most memorable and important presidents in American history, even though I might be biased because we live in the “Land of Lincoln” but biased or not, he was president during a very influential time. The actions he took would decide the course of this country forever. Just imagine what would America would be like if he would have been on the side of the South instead of the North.
This speech showed a little bit of philosophy similar to Thoreau’s, but most of the time, it was quite different. The only thing that seemed similar would be that Lincoln was most definitely against, slavery, as was Thoreau. That is where I think that the similarities end. Thoreau believed in peaceful protest and change, and Lincoln was using war to resolve the problem. I would like to point out thought that Lincoln did not really have much of a choice; either let the nation be torn apart on the petty subject of slavery, or fight to keep the Union alive. Another difference that Lincoln and Thoreau is the fact that Lincoln holds the soldiers that died at Gettysburg in high honor; they died in service of their country and for the struggle of keeping it together. On this point, I would argue that Thoreau would think that most of them did not all want that, they were only fighting because their government was making them.
Thoeau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
Abraham Lincoln is arguably one of the most memorable and important presidents in American history, even though I might be biased because we live in the “Land of Lincoln” but biased or not, he was president during a very influential time. The actions he took would decide the course of this country forever. Just imagine what would America would be like if he would have been on the side of the South instead of the North.
This speech showed a little bit of philosophy similar to Thoreau’s, but most of the time, it was quite different. The only thing that seemed similar would be that Lincoln was most definitely against, slavery, as was Thoreau. That is where I think that the similarities end. Thoreau believed in peaceful protest and change, and Lincoln was using war to resolve the problem. I would like to point out thought that Lincoln did not really have much of a choice; either let the nation be torn apart on the petty subject of slavery, or fight to keep the Union alive. Another difference that Lincoln and Thoreau is the fact that Lincoln holds the soldiers that died at Gettysburg in high honor; they died in service of their country and for the struggle of keeping it together. On this point, I would argue that Thoreau would think that most of them did not all want that, they were only fighting because their government was making them.
Thoeau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
Lincoln, Abraham. "The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln." NetINS Showcase. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"
Right when I start to read this, it strikes me that when Douglass starts the main part of his speech, after confessing to the audience about how nervous he is, he starts to talk about what the speech is really about; the Fourth of July. The most revealing part about the beginning of the speech is that he says “It is the birth day of your National Independence, and of your political freedom” (Douglass 4). The fact that he replaces the word “our” with “your” is a very obvious and strong reminder of how separated the country was at that time, especially between whites and blacks. This separation of himself from the government very much reminds me of Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience because Thoreau said “I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also” (Thoreau 7). Thoreau was very much in opposition to the institution of slavery in this time of American history and was jailed once because he refused to pay his taxes because he did not see the government as his own government. Later, he says “I am glad, fellow citizens, that your nation is so young” which shows that he sees the people he is addressing, mostly people who do not support slavery, as fellow citizens, but then immediately contrasts that with the fact that he still does not see the nation as his, but theirs (Douglass 4). He goes on to explain why he is glad that America is still young; it’s still impressionable, still able to be shifted in the right direction, comparing it to nature saying “Great streams are not easily turned channels, worn deep in the course of ages” (Douglass 4). This connection to nature is a very easy connection to make to Thoreau because he, like many other Transcendentalists, loved to write about nature. Douglass then goes on to compare his feelings about government to how the fathers of the audience felt, that the government (British) was unjust in its laws and it was unneeded. By making it personal, I think that Douglass brought the point “home” more efficiently.
Douglass, Frederick. "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass."History Is A Weapon. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
Thoeau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
Douglass, Frederick. "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro by Frederick Douglass."History Is A Weapon. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
Thoeau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Reflection:"Civil Disobedience"
To even start to analyze the reasons why this writing is a transcendentalist writing, one would have to have a base understanding of exactly what transcendentalism actually is. Transcendentalism is a writing style of American literature that broke off of the romanticism movement. The writers in this sub-group were the ones who believed that while the physical world provides one with good experiences and an understanding of some things, the inner studies of a man’s intuition provides more important discoveries. Many of the ideas that the transcendentalists had came from the German thinker Immanuel Kant who said “what we know is not generated by experience but is inherent in us and transcends matter” (Barney 2). These thinkers were the ones that believed that true knowledge only comes from within and with a communion with nature.
From the beginning of this long essay, it is obvious where Thoreau stands on the issue of big government; using the quote “The government that governs best is the one that governs least” (Thoreau 1). Thoreau goes on to talk about how he thinks that the United States government is very inefficient and that just gets in the way of progress. Even thought he thinks that the government is not very good in its current state, that people “must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have,“ meaning that people have to have the knowledge that there is some kind of government, whether it is successful or not (Thoreau 2). He then goes on to argue that the government did not “keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate,” asserting his idea his idea that people are more important than the government that he reasons can be controlled by a single man, and therefore it is not trustworthy. One very indicative to transcendentalist writing is the quote “I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward” which exemplifies the transcendentalist idea of self-reliance. Another quote that shows Thoreau’s preference of self reliance is when he asks “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator” (Thoreau 4). This quote also shows the idea that mental and moral reasoning is more important to making decisions than conventional reasoning is.
In the next section, Thoreau argues that people are petitioning the State government to break away from the Union, when they themselves can break their ties with the State government; reasoning that “ they stand in the same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union” (Thoreau 14). This is not just something that Thoreau is preaching, he practices it. The main reason that he wrote this essay was because he was jailed after not paying his poll tax in protest of the Mexican-American War and slavery (Wayne 1). He said that he could not call a government his if it is also a slaves government (Thoreau 7).
Then Thoreau gets into the part where the essay gets its name. He talks about how there are unjust laws that everybody recognizes are in the wrong. He states that if one believes a law to be against their morals they should “immediately transgress” the law (Thoreau 16). I particularly like the line “Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels” because it exemplifies the transcendentalist rejection of religion and the liking to thinkers whether they be rational or not, even though they prefer more philosophical ideals than rational (Thoreau 16).
"Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 2." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. "Transcendentalism."Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
From the beginning of this long essay, it is obvious where Thoreau stands on the issue of big government; using the quote “The government that governs best is the one that governs least” (Thoreau 1). Thoreau goes on to talk about how he thinks that the United States government is very inefficient and that just gets in the way of progress. Even thought he thinks that the government is not very good in its current state, that people “must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have,“ meaning that people have to have the knowledge that there is some kind of government, whether it is successful or not (Thoreau 2). He then goes on to argue that the government did not “keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate,” asserting his idea his idea that people are more important than the government that he reasons can be controlled by a single man, and therefore it is not trustworthy. One very indicative to transcendentalist writing is the quote “I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward” which exemplifies the transcendentalist idea of self-reliance. Another quote that shows Thoreau’s preference of self reliance is when he asks “Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator” (Thoreau 4). This quote also shows the idea that mental and moral reasoning is more important to making decisions than conventional reasoning is.
In the next section, Thoreau argues that people are petitioning the State government to break away from the Union, when they themselves can break their ties with the State government; reasoning that “ they stand in the same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union” (Thoreau 14). This is not just something that Thoreau is preaching, he practices it. The main reason that he wrote this essay was because he was jailed after not paying his poll tax in protest of the Mexican-American War and slavery (Wayne 1). He said that he could not call a government his if it is also a slaves government (Thoreau 7).
Then Thoreau gets into the part where the essay gets its name. He talks about how there are unjust laws that everybody recognizes are in the wrong. He states that if one believes a law to be against their morals they should “immediately transgress” the law (Thoreau 16). I particularly like the line “Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels” because it exemplifies the transcendentalist rejection of religion and the liking to thinkers whether they be rational or not, even though they prefer more philosophical ideals than rational (Thoreau 16).
Wayne, Tiffany K. "'Civil Disobedience'." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. "Transcendentalism."Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Daily Journal #26
Since we are able to understand the concepts of right and wrong, humans are taught that there are certain rules that they are to live by for the rest of their lives. They vary from place to place, but they are the same at their core. There are common sense ones like “Do not kill” and “do not steal” and such things as that. Then there is another “class” that involves things that keep people from doing anything that would negatively affect other people; such as rules regulating driving and trespassing laws. The purpose of laws is to improve the lives of everybody by providing a structured code that everybody lives by. This gives people the sense of security by providing them with the knowledge that there are rules out there to protect them.
Now, as to the question of when it would be acceptable to break the law, there are two possible ways to look at this. There are times when it is socially acceptable to break the law and there are times when it is morally acceptable to break the law. The laws that are commonly broken that could be classified as socially acceptable would be ones like speeding, doing drugs, underage drinking, other related things. Then there are rules that are, by some, seen as morally acceptable to break. For instance, there are many people who do not morally believe that the law against polygamy, so they do not follow it, and accept the consequences when they are caught. I do not think that there should be laws prohibiting things like that because it challenges people’s legitimate moral beliefs, and makes them choose with abiding by the law and abandoning their morals or living by what they truly believe in but getting in trouble for it. Other similar laws are ones banning gay marriage or abortions. There is always an extent to which laws should be followed; like if it’s an emergency, laws are sometimes a hindrance against the solution, and therefore should be able to be broken without consequence.
Now, as to the question of when it would be acceptable to break the law, there are two possible ways to look at this. There are times when it is socially acceptable to break the law and there are times when it is morally acceptable to break the law. The laws that are commonly broken that could be classified as socially acceptable would be ones like speeding, doing drugs, underage drinking, other related things. Then there are rules that are, by some, seen as morally acceptable to break. For instance, there are many people who do not morally believe that the law against polygamy, so they do not follow it, and accept the consequences when they are caught. I do not think that there should be laws prohibiting things like that because it challenges people’s legitimate moral beliefs, and makes them choose with abiding by the law and abandoning their morals or living by what they truly believe in but getting in trouble for it. Other similar laws are ones banning gay marriage or abortions. There is always an extent to which laws should be followed; like if it’s an emergency, laws are sometimes a hindrance against the solution, and therefore should be able to be broken without consequence.
Reflection: "The Minister's Black Veil"
“The Minister’s Black Veil” is, well, a story about a minister who wore one day started to wear a black veil around his face. A simple little scrap around the pastor’s face caused quite the commotion at first and eventually caused him to be shunned and isolated from the rest of the community. Even against all of the adversity, he kept his veil on into death.
It is very obvious that this is a dark romantic work because it focuses mostly on the psychological aspects of the minister’s actions rather than the logical reasons why he is doing it. In fact, it never definitively states why Mr. Hooper wears the veil in the anywhere in the poem, leaving it up to the reader’s interpretation.
One early example of why this is a dark romantic work is when the narrator says that to Mr. Hooper, the veil gave him “a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things” (Hawthorne 3). This quote shows a connection between the physical effects of the black veil, and the mental effects. A related quote later states that, during his sermon, the “pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them” (Hawthorne 5). This simple black cloth has scared the minister’s congregation out of their wits; some people even leave during the service. The service is about the secret sins that everybody has and how one tries to even conceal it from themselves (Hawthorne 6).
When the service is over, the people rush out to gossip about the preacher, which to me symbolizes the afore mentioned point that people try to hide their secret sins from even themselves. They had been intently listening during the sermon, but now that they were out, they seem to be trying to push it out of their minds and think of more trivial things; like the minister’s mysterious new costume choice. This exemplifies the fact that people push thoughts of their secret sins to the back of their minds. On the contrary, some people actually did leave the service “wrapt in silent reflection;” so it seems that the message did go through to some people (Hawthorne 7).
One quote by the local physician, “But the strangest part of the affair is the effect of this vagary, even on a sober-minded man like myself. The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot” shows the point that even though it is only a small change, the mental aspects of it are very daunting (Hawthorne 8). I think this is a very central theme to the story; the mental view on something is often more influential than its physical meaning. In other words, “The important issue raised by the veil is not why Hooper donned it so much as to pinpoint its influence on the course of his life” (Wright 2).
At the wedding ceremony in which he presided over, he caught a glimpse of himself in his wine, and he immediately dropped it and ran outside, which also “had on her Black Veil” (Hawthorne 9). This example proves the thoughts earlier by the physician and his wife when the wife says “I wonder he is not afraid to be alone with himself” to which the husband replies “Men are sometimes so” (Hawthorne 7). Whatever is causing the preacher to conceal his face like he is, it must be very important to him given the fact that he
continues even after frightening himself with what he has become.
Wright, Sarah Bird. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Hawthorne,, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1836." Eldritch Press. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
It is very obvious that this is a dark romantic work because it focuses mostly on the psychological aspects of the minister’s actions rather than the logical reasons why he is doing it. In fact, it never definitively states why Mr. Hooper wears the veil in the anywhere in the poem, leaving it up to the reader’s interpretation.
One early example of why this is a dark romantic work is when the narrator says that to Mr. Hooper, the veil gave him “a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things” (Hawthorne 3). This quote shows a connection between the physical effects of the black veil, and the mental effects. A related quote later states that, during his sermon, the “pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them” (Hawthorne 5). This simple black cloth has scared the minister’s congregation out of their wits; some people even leave during the service. The service is about the secret sins that everybody has and how one tries to even conceal it from themselves (Hawthorne 6).
When the service is over, the people rush out to gossip about the preacher, which to me symbolizes the afore mentioned point that people try to hide their secret sins from even themselves. They had been intently listening during the sermon, but now that they were out, they seem to be trying to push it out of their minds and think of more trivial things; like the minister’s mysterious new costume choice. This exemplifies the fact that people push thoughts of their secret sins to the back of their minds. On the contrary, some people actually did leave the service “wrapt in silent reflection;” so it seems that the message did go through to some people (Hawthorne 7).
One quote by the local physician, “But the strangest part of the affair is the effect of this vagary, even on a sober-minded man like myself. The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot” shows the point that even though it is only a small change, the mental aspects of it are very daunting (Hawthorne 8). I think this is a very central theme to the story; the mental view on something is often more influential than its physical meaning. In other words, “The important issue raised by the veil is not why Hooper donned it so much as to pinpoint its influence on the course of his life” (Wright 2).
At the wedding ceremony in which he presided over, he caught a glimpse of himself in his wine, and he immediately dropped it and ran outside, which also “had on her Black Veil” (Hawthorne 9). This example proves the thoughts earlier by the physician and his wife when the wife says “I wonder he is not afraid to be alone with himself” to which the husband replies “Men are sometimes so” (Hawthorne 7). Whatever is causing the preacher to conceal his face like he is, it must be very important to him given the fact that he
continues even after frightening himself with what he has become.
Wright, Sarah Bird. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Hawthorne,, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1836." Eldritch Press. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
Daily Journal #25
Fear is a very important psychological factor that plays into mostly everybody’s lives. It is all around us. Fear is very evidently present in the modern media; they use it to scare people into thinking things that they would normally not give much thought to. The use of fear to persuade people is becoming more and more common now that we are getting close to our next presidential election. There are few campaign ads that I have seen that did not use fear to try to sway the targeted constituents into siding with whomever the ad is for.
I think that the reason why fear is such an effective tool against people’s minds is that above all else; above happiness, sadness, or contentedness, every human being has the sense of self preservation. Fear is at the center of the feeling to keep oneself safe from danger; the fear of doing something that is going to negatively affect one’s life in some way shape or form. When someone is convinced that something is going to harm them, they try their very best to avoid it.
Fear can also be a good way at putting one’s problems into perspective. For example, when someone has a near- death experience, they, for the most part, change something about their lives because they now fear that they might not live much longer. Fear, instance, can be used to motivate people to accomplish the things that they want to do because the fact that they do not want to die without fulfilling their dreams.
Fear can also be very persuasive. This is evident in the different kinds of torture that engage in making the fear more excruciating pain or death. When someone is afraid for their life, they will most likely do anything that could help them escape from the situation.
Fear is often used to misconstrue the truth in order to persuade people, like in the example of political campaign ads that I had mentioned earlier.
I think that the reason why fear is such an effective tool against people’s minds is that above all else; above happiness, sadness, or contentedness, every human being has the sense of self preservation. Fear is at the center of the feeling to keep oneself safe from danger; the fear of doing something that is going to negatively affect one’s life in some way shape or form. When someone is convinced that something is going to harm them, they try their very best to avoid it.
Fear can also be a good way at putting one’s problems into perspective. For example, when someone has a near- death experience, they, for the most part, change something about their lives because they now fear that they might not live much longer. Fear, instance, can be used to motivate people to accomplish the things that they want to do because the fact that they do not want to die without fulfilling their dreams.
Fear can also be very persuasive. This is evident in the different kinds of torture that engage in making the fear more excruciating pain or death. When someone is afraid for their life, they will most likely do anything that could help them escape from the situation.
Fear is often used to misconstrue the truth in order to persuade people, like in the example of political campaign ads that I had mentioned earlier.
Reflection: "The Pit and the Pendulum"
I am going to try writing my reflection journal over “Pit and Pendulum” as I am reading it; let’s see how this goes.
From the beginning, it is very evident that this is a dark romantic short story. The sixth word in the short story is “death” and it immediately launches into the psychological nightmare of being held captive and being shocked until the character passes out. It goes on to talk about what happens when someone regains consciousness after passing out. One good example of how this is a writing of a romanticism writing is the fact that Poe separates the awakening process into the regaining of the mental and spiritual consciousness, and then the regaining of the physical awareness. The fact that he puts the mental before the physical is a great example of the romantic writing style. He also talks about even though he was unconscious, there was still a little bit of consciousness left and goes on to relate it to the fact that he thinks that “even in the grave, not all is lost” (Poe 2). In my personal opinion, the second paragraph is very important because along with the first two examples, there is a third example of how this is a romantic writing. Poe talks about the convoluted thoughts in the “gulf” of the unconscious mind, if able to be recalled, could possibly be similar to the “shadows from that of the tomb” (Poe 2). Poe then goes on to argue that people who have experienced this kind of unconsciousness see things that other people do not; a very psychological claim to make, making the reader think of what it would be like to experience it for themselves.
The next section of the story is a realization of many people’s worst fears. Upon regaining his consciousness once more, he starts to explore with his hands. He feels something damp, hard, and very close to him. For a time, he did not want to open his eyes not because he did not want to “look upon things horrible,” but that he would look and there would be “nothing to see” (Poe 5). After he opens his eyes, his fears are confirmed; he can not see anything. He reasons that he has been buried alive given the fact that even in his cell, there is at least a little bit of light. The narrator soon starts exploring his vault. While walking around it to ascertain the size and shape of it, he falls, and while he lay there, he discovers that he had almost fallen into a large, deep pit. The rest of the story does not seem very important, to me at least. The pit is one of the more important psychological aspects of the story.
In the end, right before he is killed by the walls of his cell that are closing in on him, he is rescued by the “outstretched arm” of the French General Lasalle. One interpretation of this brings up a very good point that this story could be the narrator’s attempts at remembering something that could be a real event or that of a dream (May 1). This story is a very psychological story putting the reader in the situation of the narrator.
May, Charles E. "Alternate Realms of Reality." In Edgar Allan Poe: A Study of Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991, pp. 96–97. Quoted as "Dreams and Reality in the Story" in Harold Bloom, ed. Edgar Allan Poe, Bloom's Major Short Story Writers. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1998. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Literature.org - The Online Literature Library. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
From the beginning, it is very evident that this is a dark romantic short story. The sixth word in the short story is “death” and it immediately launches into the psychological nightmare of being held captive and being shocked until the character passes out. It goes on to talk about what happens when someone regains consciousness after passing out. One good example of how this is a writing of a romanticism writing is the fact that Poe separates the awakening process into the regaining of the mental and spiritual consciousness, and then the regaining of the physical awareness. The fact that he puts the mental before the physical is a great example of the romantic writing style. He also talks about even though he was unconscious, there was still a little bit of consciousness left and goes on to relate it to the fact that he thinks that “even in the grave, not all is lost” (Poe 2). In my personal opinion, the second paragraph is very important because along with the first two examples, there is a third example of how this is a romantic writing. Poe talks about the convoluted thoughts in the “gulf” of the unconscious mind, if able to be recalled, could possibly be similar to the “shadows from that of the tomb” (Poe 2). Poe then goes on to argue that people who have experienced this kind of unconsciousness see things that other people do not; a very psychological claim to make, making the reader think of what it would be like to experience it for themselves.
The next section of the story is a realization of many people’s worst fears. Upon regaining his consciousness once more, he starts to explore with his hands. He feels something damp, hard, and very close to him. For a time, he did not want to open his eyes not because he did not want to “look upon things horrible,” but that he would look and there would be “nothing to see” (Poe 5). After he opens his eyes, his fears are confirmed; he can not see anything. He reasons that he has been buried alive given the fact that even in his cell, there is at least a little bit of light. The narrator soon starts exploring his vault. While walking around it to ascertain the size and shape of it, he falls, and while he lay there, he discovers that he had almost fallen into a large, deep pit. The rest of the story does not seem very important, to me at least. The pit is one of the more important psychological aspects of the story.
In the end, right before he is killed by the walls of his cell that are closing in on him, he is rescued by the “outstretched arm” of the French General Lasalle. One interpretation of this brings up a very good point that this story could be the narrator’s attempts at remembering something that could be a real event or that of a dream (May 1). This story is a very psychological story putting the reader in the situation of the narrator.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Literature.org - The Online Literature Library. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Daily Journal #24
When I was little, as with most little kids, I was easily scared. For some unknown reason, I was deathly afraid, at least during the night, that a burglar would break into my house and start to steal all of my things. When he would continue to look for more of my family’s things to take, he would come into my room. Upon seeing that I was still home, he would freak out because he did not want to get caught. He would become irrational and, without thinking, he would kill me. I know, it is a pretty weird thing for a kid to think of, but I did, and it seriously freaked me out.
Now that you have that pretext, I can tell you about a time that I legitimately thought that that exact situation was going to happen to me. Me and my dad were asleep, and in the middle of the night, I thought I heard a noise, so I did what every other did does when they get scared in the middle of the night; I ran into my dad’s room. Now that I look back, that first noise was probably just my house. I have an old house that creaks whenever it gets cold in the night, so it was most likely just that. Since I already had the mindset that someone was in my house, it definitely did not help that shortly after I ran into my dad’s room that I heard a loud bang come from my garage. Now that definitely was not my house creaking again. With the first noise and then this second, very loud noise, it is no stretch to say that I was very, very scared. My dad also heard the noise, so he told me to stay in the bed and he would go look to see what the noise was.
After he left, I was convinced that he was going to be gotten by whoever was in the garage, so that did not help my fear. Of course, he came back up after about 45 seconds and it turns out it was just a paint can that fell over in the garage.
Now that you have that pretext, I can tell you about a time that I legitimately thought that that exact situation was going to happen to me. Me and my dad were asleep, and in the middle of the night, I thought I heard a noise, so I did what every other did does when they get scared in the middle of the night; I ran into my dad’s room. Now that I look back, that first noise was probably just my house. I have an old house that creaks whenever it gets cold in the night, so it was most likely just that. Since I already had the mindset that someone was in my house, it definitely did not help that shortly after I ran into my dad’s room that I heard a loud bang come from my garage. Now that definitely was not my house creaking again. With the first noise and then this second, very loud noise, it is no stretch to say that I was very, very scared. My dad also heard the noise, so he told me to stay in the bed and he would go look to see what the noise was.
After he left, I was convinced that he was going to be gotten by whoever was in the garage, so that did not help my fear. Of course, he came back up after about 45 seconds and it turns out it was just a paint can that fell over in the garage.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Reflection: "The Raven"
“The Raven” has been seen as the reason that Edgar Allan Poe became as famous as he is now. Throughout the poem, there are many spots that make it obvious this is a writing of the Dark Romanticism time period.
The poem starts out by setting the scene: a dark and sad night (Poe 1). The main character is absently and sadly reading many books of “forgotten lore” (Poe 2). The character was about to fall asleep, a tapping noise startled him awake. He attributes the noise as a stranger “rapping” at his “chamber door” (Poe 4). The line “’’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘tapping at my chamber door - / Only this, and nothing more,’” shows the character is trying to calm himself down by rationalizing that it is just a visitor and he has no need to be startled (Poe 5-6). The next stanza reveals that it is in December and refers to it as “bleak.” This in and of itself shows a characteristic of the Dark Romanic writing style because if it would have been a classical Romanic writing, winter would have been described as a beautiful season as good as the rest of them, but since this was a Dark Romantic writing, it describes it in a melancholy and sad way, indicative of the writing style (Donohue 1). He is sad and all he wants is for another day to begin, as he wastes his time “vainly” reading books to distract him from his “sorrow” (Poe 9-10). It is then revealed that the source of his sorrow is his “lost Lenore,” which the reader can infer that Lenore is a lost love of the character.
The next stanza begins the building action of the poem. It talks of how even the random rustling of the curtains is creeping him out and how he has to keep repeating himself that it is only a visitor to try and calm himself down (Poe 13-18). Repetition is displayed throughout the rest of the poem, giving it a unique rhythm. With his fear growing, he finally calls out and breaks the silence by apologizing to the visitor he was sure was there just before opening the door, but when he does open the door, there is only darkness (Poe 19-24). If this happened to me, I would be seriously freaked out. This sense of fear is very much a sense of the Dark Romanticism writing style.
From there, he returns to his chamber, his fear causing him to imagine terrible things; feeding back onto itself; growing until he broke the unnatural-seeming silence with the name “Lenore” hoping it was her returning, but all he got was an echo, another example of repetition (Poe 25-30). He closes the door and continues to ponder the strangeness of the situation, when he hears the tapping again, and this time he places it at his window, not his door (Poe 31-36). When the window opens, in comes the ominous raven of the poem. The raven is a “stately raven of the saintly days of yore” which seems to refer back to a mythology of some sort, keeping to that Romantic writing style. The raven perches on the bust of Pallas, another name for Athena, the goddess of wisdom, which is another allusion to mythology (Poe 37-42).
The rest of the poem describes how the character keeps asking the raven questions, but the only answer he gets is “nevermore” (Poe 48). At first he thinks that the raven is only repeating the word from memory, but then he starts asking questions to see if he is actually answering them. When if he would ever see Lenore again, but the bird, of course, answered “Nevermore” (Poe 96). At this, he calls for the raven to leave, but the obstinate raven replies “Nevermore” (Poe 102). The repetition he used earlier to calm himself was now being used to “torture” him. It almost seems to the reader that the main character is asking the questions he is just to get the answer obvious answer “nevermore.”
The poem starts out by setting the scene: a dark and sad night (Poe 1). The main character is absently and sadly reading many books of “forgotten lore” (Poe 2). The character was about to fall asleep, a tapping noise startled him awake. He attributes the noise as a stranger “rapping” at his “chamber door” (Poe 4). The line “’’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘tapping at my chamber door - / Only this, and nothing more,’” shows the character is trying to calm himself down by rationalizing that it is just a visitor and he has no need to be startled (Poe 5-6). The next stanza reveals that it is in December and refers to it as “bleak.” This in and of itself shows a characteristic of the Dark Romanic writing style because if it would have been a classical Romanic writing, winter would have been described as a beautiful season as good as the rest of them, but since this was a Dark Romantic writing, it describes it in a melancholy and sad way, indicative of the writing style (Donohue 1). He is sad and all he wants is for another day to begin, as he wastes his time “vainly” reading books to distract him from his “sorrow” (Poe 9-10). It is then revealed that the source of his sorrow is his “lost Lenore,” which the reader can infer that Lenore is a lost love of the character.
The next stanza begins the building action of the poem. It talks of how even the random rustling of the curtains is creeping him out and how he has to keep repeating himself that it is only a visitor to try and calm himself down (Poe 13-18). Repetition is displayed throughout the rest of the poem, giving it a unique rhythm. With his fear growing, he finally calls out and breaks the silence by apologizing to the visitor he was sure was there just before opening the door, but when he does open the door, there is only darkness (Poe 19-24). If this happened to me, I would be seriously freaked out. This sense of fear is very much a sense of the Dark Romanticism writing style.
From there, he returns to his chamber, his fear causing him to imagine terrible things; feeding back onto itself; growing until he broke the unnatural-seeming silence with the name “Lenore” hoping it was her returning, but all he got was an echo, another example of repetition (Poe 25-30). He closes the door and continues to ponder the strangeness of the situation, when he hears the tapping again, and this time he places it at his window, not his door (Poe 31-36). When the window opens, in comes the ominous raven of the poem. The raven is a “stately raven of the saintly days of yore” which seems to refer back to a mythology of some sort, keeping to that Romantic writing style. The raven perches on the bust of Pallas, another name for Athena, the goddess of wisdom, which is another allusion to mythology (Poe 37-42).
The rest of the poem describes how the character keeps asking the raven questions, but the only answer he gets is “nevermore” (Poe 48). At first he thinks that the raven is only repeating the word from memory, but then he starts asking questions to see if he is actually answering them. When if he would ever see Lenore again, but the bird, of course, answered “Nevermore” (Poe 96). At this, he calls for the raven to leave, but the obstinate raven replies “Nevermore” (Poe 102). The repetition he used earlier to calm himself was now being used to “torture” him. It almost seems to the reader that the main character is asking the questions he is just to get the answer obvious answer “nevermore.”
Bloom, Harold, ed. "'The Raven'." Edgar Allan Poe, Bloom's Major Poets. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
Donohue, Joseph W. Jr. Dramatic Character in the English Romantic Age. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1970
Donohue, Joseph W. Jr. Dramatic Character in the English Romantic Age. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1970
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Daily Journal #23
It seems like every scary movie that comes out has the same kind of base template. Sure, the story line and kind of characters change, but at the core, they are all mostly the same. Whether it is a zombie movie, an exorcism movie, one about a murderer, or one about aliens; they are all the same. They all present a situation at the beginning of the movie that seems realistic so that you sympathize with the characters and you imagine yourself in their shoes, adding to the scare factor later in the movie. Then they start to show the little things that make up the building actions of the story. These add to the suspense and psychological effects because they are just little bits of weird things that creep you out, but not really scare you. They also set up for the next part of the story. Then they start the climax of the movie, which is where they start all of the really creepy scenes or all the suspenseful scenes one after another. This usually begins with an unexpected action which scares people.
Along with suspense, scary movies like to use music to help make the scenes even scarier. Sometimes the music heralds the scary scene that is coming soon, or it is kept calm before a surprising scene to help keep its element of surprise. Another thing that scary movie directors tent to favor is using themes in their movies that strike at the deepest fears of their viewers. The fears like what is lurking in the darkness while they are sleeping or maybe what would happen if some crazy escape convict found their house and he kidnapped their whole family or something along those lines. When people start to visualize themselves in these situations, they are easily scared because they are basically living out what would happen if they were ever in one of those awful situations, which I guess is why they like it.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Daily Journal #22
All of the kids love to play in the snow
They wake up to the blinding sparkling white
They run down the stairs and get ready to go
They put on their coats to prevent the bite
They rush out of the door into the wind
They go to grab their worn out beaten sleds
They go to find the hill with the big bend
The snow falls gently on their wool capped heads
Their small hearts pound in their chest as they run
They reach the spot they had been searching for
Now at the top, they shoot off like a gun
They hit a bump and know they will be sore
But they keep going and going all day
Up then down, and then back up to the top
They do not notice the sky has turned grey
They notice the change in time; time to stop
Their fingers and toes have no more feeling
They have slowly been chilled deep to the bone
Now it’s back to the warmth for its healing
They walk into the door and hear the phone
Now it’s time for the hot chocolate
Warming themselves deep in their soft bedding
Feeling happy finding the thrill they sought
Looking forward to more days of sledding
Friday, January 6, 2012
Daily Journal #21
The rolling hills, once alive with the wanderings of cattle, the innocent frolicking of children, and the silent persistence of the beautiful flowers and grass, are now covered in a thick blanket, one that extends for as far as the eye can see. The trees, now just skeletons of their former beauty and size, spring forth from the unyielding cover. The flakes are falling gently from the sky so that they just barely come to a rest on an outstretched hand. Each flake robust flake different from the rest, yet all so light and delicate. The unending white stretched out in all directions. The brilliant white of the snow reflects the sun back and is nearly blinding, especially when first coming out from indoors. The snow is a single undisturbed layer, except for some of the spots where a dear or bird looking for their food has left their mark to be filled in. The product of a few seeds, this cold and barren season will be over when the sorrow of the Harvest has been abated. The frozen river once churning and always changing, now is solid, predictable. The absolute silence and stillness is a calming comfort. The warmth of your breath is suddenly visible, billowing out every time you exhale. Off in the woods, far from any house or town, a herd of deer scour the forest floor for a little bit of still green grass to satisfy their hunger. Cardinals flit by, fast as a flash, easy to see against the bland background, like a drop of blood on a piece of paper. Most birds have since left in search of warmth, leaving the skies empty and the woods quiet. The dry, crisp air stings ones lungs, yet it invigorates like nothing else. People are bundled up in their heaviest coats. A large hill will most likely be carved out with the tracks of many sleds, boot prints littering the ground about it.
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