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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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

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.

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 

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.