"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.

"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.

"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.

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.

"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." - 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 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.

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.