Modernism Project

Eudora Welty- A Worn Path

Welty, Eudora. "A Worn Path" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 888-896. Print.

Journal #31 Job Shadowing Experience

Yesterday, I had a really good experience job shadowing in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Memorial Hospital. The lady that I job shadowed was an  intensive care RN. She was a very nice lady and she was really  good about answering all of the questions that I had. At times, Trisha sent me off with other nurses so that I could see that other cool things while my lady was logging charts on the computer. She was really goo about having me and explaining everything that she sees everyday. I would say that she was really good at having someone job shadowing because she was good about explaining things before i had a chance to ask her any questions. In the surgical intensive care unit, there were many different types of patients. Some of the patients were in there because they were trauma patients. Memorial and St. Johns switch off every year on who is going to have the trauma center, and this year it is Memorial. They had all of the trauma patients from Sangamon County. In the unit that I shadowed in, there were many people that had been involved in a car accident. These people were in such bad shape that they had to be placed in the intensive care unit because they needed more attention from the nurses and physicians. Even the patients were really nice to me. They were all in really poor shape, but it was good to see their faces light up because a young girl showed up in their room. I am sure that the patients probably get tired of having the same nurses in their rooms everyday, so it was exciting to them to have me in their rooms. My nurse had two patients that were in the ICU. The two patients were all really nice and they were all happy to have me in their rooms.

I do think that the position that I shadowed is a possibility for my future career. I liked the fact that these nurses were not seeing the same things everyday. They were all seeing different patients and all of the patients had problems that are totally different. I think that I like the adventurous nature behind the job was really good.

Journal #30: Favorite Whitman Poem

My favorite poem out of the ones that I read from Leaves of Grass was I Dream'd in a Dream. I think that this poem is my favorite because it talks about a perfect life. I think that it would be great to have a Utopian city like the one mentioned in this poem. Whitman says in the poem that the city he dreamed of was the city of friends. This leads me to believe that Walt Whitman truly valued the friendships he had because friendships appeared in his dreams. I agree with Walt Whitman in this case because it would be really nice to have a city in which everyone loved one another. This would mean that everyone in the society would get along. This poem is inspiring. It makes me wonder what it would truly be like if there was such a city. Walt Whitman also says that there is nothing greater than the power of love in the city of his dreams. Whitman must have also valued love because he included that in the description of the city of his dreams. I think that the city of my dreams would be somewhat similar to the city of Walt Whitman’s dreams. In my city of dreams I would also include the importance of friendships and family bonding time. I think that a person is only successful in life if they live a happy life. This poem reminds me of that story about the little boy in school. The teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up, and the little boy responded by saying he wants to be happy. That makes my heart melt a little inside. The little boy is thinking of the future of his dreams and all he wants is to be happy. I wish that everyone could live the lives of their dreams and be happy. There has to be an ideal city or town for everyone in the world, but unfortunately not everyone will ever find the city of their dreams. 

Reflection: Chanting The Square Deific

In this poem, God is seen as a quaternity (Oliver). This means that God is seen as having four parts. Instead of the traditional belief of God being a trinity, having the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Whitman's view of this poem show God as having four parts. The four parts that Whitman talks about in this poem are: God, Christ, Satan, and the soul or "Santa Spirita" (Oliver). These four parts are each described in their own stanza in the poem.

The first stanza describes the side of the square of God. He is not just talking about the Christian God, but Brahm, Jehova, Saturnius, and also Father Time. These five Gods are the top of the tree in their certain religion. Just like in the Christian religion, God is at the top of the holy trinity. Brahm, Jehova, and Saturnius seem to also be the top dog from their religion. These Gods come from the religions of Buddhists, Hebrew, and Mythology respectively. This first side of the square is talking about giving no mercy and accepting no remorse(Whitman). The power of this deity is compared to the strength of the Earth's gravitational pull and the changing of the seasons (Whitman).

The second side of the square is describing the son of God, or the figure of Christ. This side of the square is described as being as strong as Hercules. With this simile, Whitman was illustrating that this deity is also very powerful. Comparing the square from this poem and the Trinity of the Christian faith, this side of the square is comparable to Christ in the Trinity and the top being God. This is very similar to the simile referring to Hermes and Zeus. The equivalent to Zeus would be God; the equivalent of Hermes would be Christ, the son of God. This side of the square is younger and more enthusiastic. This side is described as being more influential and exuberant. This side is know as the "cheer bringing God" (Whitman). This is known as the "Consolator" and the comforter (Oliver).

Satan is the third side of the Square Deific.  He is the opposite of the two sides that have been mentioned so far. The side of Satan is described as being "dissatisfied ans plotting revolt" (Oliver). He is not there to help others, he is there to simply torment and persuade people into doing things that should not ever be done. Unfortunately, Satan is like God and Christ in the fact that he is also strong. His strength is not used for the better, in fact, Satan uses his strengths to do people harm. He is the "comrade of criminals," (Whitman) meaning that he is the striving force and the organizer of the wrong doings. This side would be the opposite of the force of God because Satan is the opposing force of God. While God id trying to lead people to do the right things, Satan is luring people into doing the wrong things.

The fourth side of the square is "Santa Spirita," or self. This side joins the other three sides together to make a completed shape. The "self" side is opposite the side of Christ is the most "solid" (Whitman). The side of the soul or self is the most solid because it includes parts of the other three sides. This makes it the "strongest" because it has the best resources and help on it's side. The word choice in the last stanza suggests that the speaker is believing that he makes up the side of "Santa Spirita" (Oliver). He is the most materialized and mortal.

"Chanting the Square Deific" is illustrating the idea of the certain square deity of the speaker. This deity includes four main components: God, Christ, Satan, and Self. The speaker believes that all four of these make up a powerful deity. Whitman's poetry is centered around self, and in this particular poem, it is really easy to see. Whitman related the speaker with the side of self because Whitman really valued the ideals of being individual and developing inside of yourself.


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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW082&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 4, 2012).

Whitman, Walt. "The Walt Whitman Archive." Chanting the Square Deific. Web. 03 Apr. 2012.

Journal #29: SELF

Self. There are three main components of my transcendental self. Part number one includes the spiritual self. My spiritual self involves the Christian faith. Because I attend a Christian Church with my family, I have grown up going to church and learning about the Christian religion. I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and he is my Lord and Savior. I think that this is a really big part of myself because I try to do everything that God would want me to do. The second part of self is my personality. My personality is rather outgoing and cheerful. I try to make the best out of ever situation despite the sadness it might bring along. I perceive myself as being a very nice individual and helping others as much as possible. I try to always be positive in all situations and I think that allows me to be good at my job. I work at PASSAGE, the after school daycare program at elementary  school. I think that I am good at this job because there is a certain quality you need. I love children and I am really good at dealing with all of the crap they come up with. The real me is just what you see when you talk to me. I have not completely figured out why I am here or who I really am. I think that as of right now I am here on the Earth to be a good person, a follower of God, and eventually go into medicine so I can help others. I feel like my "real self" includes just the qualities that make me up. With me, what you see is what you get. I think that some people try to hied their real self and be somebody they really are not. This is a very common thing in High School I think because they want to be popular and fit in. Even if I do not fit it as well as I would like, I really try to be myself in everything I do. 

Emily Dickinson Poem Analysis

The poem "Nature, the Gentlest Mother" is a poem by Emily Dickinson. This poem is a discription of mother earth and how she takes care of all of her children and her household (Dickinson). Nature is "impatient of no child" which is a symbol of how Mother Earth takes care of all of her children and people on the planet even when her own children harm her. When she means harm her, she means things like pollution and global warming and things of that sort. Mother Nature however will never turn her back on her children, she will always be there for them. Nature is an aid to her children. She is there in the hills and forests in a way to aid the travelers of these lands. This could mean lots of things. A reader could take these noises as wind or as aninmals in the forest or as a number of different things. They are all signs and beings of nature.

In the third stanza of this poem, there is a use of personification. Emily Dickinson is describing all of the flora and fauna, and she describes all of the critters that are on the Mother Nature's planet. They are known as natures household and assembly (Dickinson). The Mother Earth takes care of her children with days from summer by providing nice weather to the critters and the trees. This is the time of the year when agriculture flourishes in comparison to winter where it does not. Mother Nature could make a harsh winter year round, but she does not because she is taking care of her household.

Emily Dickinson says that nature, or mother nature, has an effect on every creature that is on her planet. Dickinson says that it is the smallest cricket or the most unworthy flower still gets taken care of by mother nature. She uses a lot of personification in this poem because she gives human like traits to all of nature and its beings. None of these things actually have human like traits. There is also a lot of imagry in this poem because it is very descriptive. All of her descriptions are very animated and life like and strong. She creates all kinds of images, such as children sleeping, a very small cricket, and an unworthy flower otherwise known as an ugly flower. She presents rhyme in her final stanza, but only with two different lines, the second and the fourth. The rhyme scheme is not constant, but the rhythm is. Her poems are pretty different from other poets because there is not common rhyme schemes in them. She uses a simple beat to match what she was familiar with.

Emily Dickinson has a good way of capturing her readers with many poetic devices. The most common devices used are personification, imagry, and occasionaly a simile or metaphor thrown in the mix. Emily Dickinson captures her readers with out being confusing and using too many poetic devices. She is a very smart and good poet.

Dickinson, Emily . "Nature, the Gentlest Mother." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 29 Mar. 2012.

Journal #28: Emily Dickinson I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

Emily Dickinson's poem, I Heard a Fly Buzz when I Died, is a very interesting poem. Out of all of the things that were going through her head before she died, she was thinking about a fly. She could have been thinking about all of the things that all ordinary people usually think about before they die. She could have been worried about giving away all of her possessions or worried about her finances, but she was worried about her keepsakes. She said that she "willed my keepsakes, signed away what portion of me I could make assignable" (Dickinson). This means that she had already gone through the process of giving away her material goods that she could. Emily Dickinson's poetry can be read differently every time that you read the poem. She could have been talking her being able to see the light like the light in heaven at the end, but we really did not know. The fly was interrupting her because she was on her way to death and the fly got between her and the light. The very first sense to go when you die is your sight. As soon as she looses her sight, she immediately switches her focus over to her hearing. After her sight is gone, she was only there to focus on the things that she can hear. She was preparing herself for death and she was already to the point where she could not see, so she was peacefully on her way to death and she was interrupted by this really annoying buzzing sound in her ears. I would have been really mad if I was about to be dead and there was a really annoying buzzing in my ear. I hope that when I die, there are not any flies around. Because if I heard that stupid little fly when I was about to die, I would probably freak out and come back to life just to kill that little fly!

Journal #27: Dickinson Poem Tunes

Many of Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to the tune of many well known songs. This is because they have a very rhythmic beat and they can be sung with the classical folk songs. Emily Dickinson was not around when all of these songs were written, but her poems were written with that same musical beat. These songs have a typical beat and it goes really well with her typical rhyme scheme. She was the first poet to start writing in this rhythm because she wanted to be different than the typical poetry style of the time. It was really ironic that her poems can be read to the tune of "Amazing Grace" because she was not involved with the Christian Church because she did not want to be. The only reason that she was even involved in the church was because of her family's influence. I found it really weird that the song that fits the best was Amazing Grace. Emily was not an involved member in the church and her poems seem to fit really well with many different church hymnals. I figured that because she was not involved in the church that she would not write poetry that went with the same beats and rhythms. Maybe she thought she was coming up with something original but she really was not. She would have known the songs if she went to church and actually paid attention. She probably was not too concerned with with paying attention because she did not have a very strong relationship with god. The reason that it seems really ironic that her poems go with songs that were really important to society is because she was disconnected with society in her seclusion. She must not have liked being around people because she did not go out just for any occasion. She secluded herself from society, but the she went and wrote poetry to the tunes of many popular songs.

Reflection: Emily Dickinson Writing Style

Along with Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson was also considered a "tweener." Also, like Walt Whitman, she was in between the two writing eras of Realism and Modernism. Being grouped with Walt Whitman and Walt Whitman only, Emily Dickinson's works were very popular. If I was asked to name a female poet that I have learned about in High School, I would probably name Emily Dickinson. She wrote very strong and emotional poems. That characteristic made her writings not fit in with the style of the Realism time period. She gave way too much detail and used too much emotion to have her poems classified as Realism writings. It is very unusual that Emily Dickinson did not want her writings published. She only showed her writings to her sister Lavinia (Glencoe Literature). Lavinia sometimes edited the poem before she published them after Emily's death. This means that we really do not know what the exact thoughts of Emily Dickinson were because it is possibly that her sister went back and changed some things after she died. The Before You Read section in the Glencoe Literature book said that her sister Lavinia eliminated dashes, undid capitalizations, and completely changed some words. Emily Dickinson was a Christian because her family pressured her into it. She lived in a very religious time period, and her family thought that their Christian faith was very important. Another reason that she joined the Christian Church was because she was very close with her sister and her sister was very dependent on the teachings of Christianity. Dickinson often wrote of love, life, death, nature, and would often question immortality (McChesney). The subjects of her poems makes it really hard to put her into a category because she does not fit the Realism period of the Modernism period. She did not fit in to the Modernism time period becuase her writings seemed to keep a steady rate and the writings of other Modernist writers seemed to jump back and forth on controversial topics. In the Modernism time period, writers were said to have been trying something new. This means they were purposely trying to write like that of no other previous author. The Modernist writers were trying something new simply because they were trying to get all of the attention and glory for coming up with a new great writing era. A modernist writer believed that a real person who is both thoughtful and real does not fit into society because it is mindless after the first world war we had. Emily Dickinson did not feel this way therefore she did not fit directly into this literary period. I do think that Walt Whitman could have been classified as a Realist/ Transcendentalist because his writings were very similar to those of the other Realism and Transcendentalism writers. I cannot say the same for Ms. Emily Dickinson however. Emily's writings were unlike anyone else's from the time and I think that she does deserve that title of "tweener" because she really did not fit the characteristics of the Realism period or the Modernism period.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. "Before You Read: Whitman's Poetry." Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 455. Print.

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. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

Reflection: Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman began a revolution in poetry when he first published "Leaves of Grass" in 1855. Whitman's poetry was realistic, free flowing, and shocking candid (Glencoe Literature).Whitman was the first poet to write extensively in free verse. Free verse is an unregulated form that sounds like the cadences in everyday speech.

Walt Whitman was considered a “tweener.” This title was given to him simply because he was between two periods of Literature. He did not fit all of the characteristics of Realism, but nor did he fit all of the characteristics of Modernism, he was considered to be a “tweener.” Most of the Realism writings were more structured than the writings of Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman’s writing looks like he did not revise anything. Most of his poems are telling some sort of story and go on in the cadences of normal speech. Most examples of Realism writing pertained to real life events or events that could actually happen. In Realism writings, the authors got straight to the point. There was no sugar coating reality. “Whitman's poetry was certainly revolutionary, not only for its expressive language and free verse but also for the intensity of his emotions when discussing his prominent and pervasive themes of love (spiritual and physical alike) and democracy (collectively for the nation and individually for each person's own self-fulfillment). He believed America needed a new poetry, one that related to and embraced more people; Whitman felt that he was the poet who could supply that type of verse”(Connors). Connors backs up the idea that Whitman’s writing was too descriptive for the Realism period.

Whitman may have started the Modernism period. Because his writing was “revolutionary,” he was causing a change in the style of Literature in that era. The writers of the Modernism time period were more of the risk-taking style. They were willing to try weird things in their writing. Modernism writing was not always written in a logical fashion. Because it was a controversial time for religion, there was not always equality amongst the different religions. This may have caused some of the authors to not always tell the truth and nothing but the truth. Walt Whitman fell more into the style of Realism than he fell into Modernism. Whitman knew much information on the topic of politics. Politics was a big topic of discussion in the Realism time period. The Realism time period was a good time to talk about politics because the authors were not dancing around the points. This allowed the public to actually know what was going on in the government system.

Whitman's style of free verse poetry was closely related to the ideas of the Transcendentalist writers, even thought they were popular before his time. Walt Whitman used nature as a major topic of many of his poems, which would be a typical topic for Transcendentalism writers to use. I think that if I had to choose and put him in a time period, it would be the Realism/Transcendentalism era. His writing has both characteristics from the Realism period as well as the transcendentalism period.

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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BCWWh02&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 21, 2012). 

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. "Before You Read: Whitman's Poetry." Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 408. Print. 

Reflection: Walt Whitman: On The Beach At Night Alone

"On the Beach at Night Alone" was a good poem. Walt Whitman uses so many different literary tools that his poems are really easy and fun to read. In the second line He refers to the ocean as "Old Mother" (Whitman). This shows that he agrees with Emerson and Thoreau about the importance of Nature. This seemed to be more like the Romanticism writers because he was really descriptive. In the time of the Realism writings, the authors seemed to be giving way less detail on the elements and Nature, so I can tell that this was not a part of the writings in the time of the Realism period. Whitman was really into giving the details. While the speaker was on the beach at night he saw the stars and the planets and the moons. I feel like he made the reader use almost all of their senses. When I read about the waves crashing in on the beach, I immediately could hear the sound of the waves crashing in from when I was in vacation in Mexico this summer. I could also seem to smell the salt. When I am at any beach, one of the things that I like the most is the smell of the salt water. I’m not sure what makes it so relaxing, but the smell is one of my favorite things about the beach. One other thing that I notice at the beach actually happens after a day at the beach. That is feeling the tightness of your skin after a day in the salt water and being in the sun all day. Whitman seems to have quite a few poems that deal with Nature. Because he wrote during the Naturalism time period, most of his poems are related to Nature. I love nature and I feel like it is still very influential in the world today. People do not seem to always treat nature with the best intentions, and nature come back to bite people in the butt. 

Huff, Randall. "'On the Beach at Night Alone'." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0300&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 12, 2012).

Whitman, Walt. "On the Beach at Night Alone, by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www.poetry-archive.com/w/on_the_beach_at_night_alone.html>.

Reflection: Emily Dickinson: Heart, We Will Forget Him

The poem, "Heart, We Will Forget Him!" was a very interesting poem. It was about how Emily lost a man in her life. She was basically making a plan with her heart about how they were going to cope with their loss. She was speaking to her heart as if it was an external force. She was telling her heart that it was going to have to forget about the warmth of her heart. She knew that her heart was going to miss the warmth of this man. Because she was living in seclusion, she knew that she was not just going to randomly run into him on the street because she never leaves the comfort of her own house. I think that Emerson and Thoreau had similar ideas to those of Emily Dickinson. They were all individualistic. This means that they all valued the individual over society and others. I can definitely relate this idea to Emily Dickinson because she was so individualistic that she stayed at her house every hour of everyday. This shows me that she cared more about herself than society because she did not ever care to go explore any of the things that society had to offer. In the poem at the end she tells her heart that whenever it is feeling down, it can just remember him (Dickinson). This is kind of ironic because the title says that she and her heart are going to forget him. The idea of the poem kind of goes with the philosophies of Thoreau. He said that he was not one to conform. This poem was written about the loss of a man. Because this poem was written, it tells me that she had a hard time making the adjustment when he was gone. Dickinson also had a simple way of living. She was home all of the time, so she did not really have a complex lifestyle whatsoever. Although Dickinson was more realistic in getting to the point of her stories than Emerson and Thoreau, they did have some similarities in writing style.

Dickinson, Emily. "Heart, We Will Forget Him!" The Literature Network. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/829/>.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True

Reflection: To Build a Fire: Jack London

Jack London's "To Build A Fire" was a very strong story about nature. Nature plays a huge role in this short story. In the style of Naturalism, authors wanted to show that Nature was really strong. They are proving that in order for you to get along in life and have a good time, you need to respect nature and you will you be treated back nicely by nature. In Naturalism the authors really wanted to show the strength and power that Nature holds. I think that Jack London was really trying to illustrate the fact that Nature was going to kill this man just because he thought he was stronger than nature. Because he decided to walk out into -75 degree temperature in the Arctic, Nature was going to show him whose boss. In Naturalism, authors focused on an accurate, almost clinical, record of a character struggling to survive some form of displacement from his or her surroundings (Sommers). This was represented in the story because the man was definitely at a displacement of his surroundings. He was never used to resorting to building a fire to save his life. Because he was going to have to take his shoes off to warm up his feet, he needed to build a fire. This was a life or death situation because without his feet he would not be able to make it back to civilization. At the end, the author makes nature the “winning team” because he showed that nature was stronger than man and that men should never mess with nature. I think that this story showed some of the beliefs of Emerson. Emerson believed in the quality of self reliance. This means that you kind of value yourself over anyone or anything else. I think that the man in this story was definitely self reliant because he was going out into the wilderness thinking that he was going to more big and bad than nature. Emerson believed that you learned through experience. I think that the guy in the story probably would have learned his lesson if he lived. Emerson thought that you would have to mess up somewhere along the lines in order to better yourself and learn lessons.

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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CBSS450&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 8, 2012).

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." American Literature. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 601-614. Print.

Reflection: Richard Cory : Edwin Arlington Robinson

I think that the poem Richard Cory was really sad. It sounds like he had everything going for him. He was rich and it sad he was admired by others and he seemed to be a nice gentleman. He said good morning to others and he seemed to brighten everyone’s days, but I guess he was a little insecure inside because he committed suicide at the end I the story. I was honestly expecting a happier ending to the poem because everything was going so perfectly for him until the very last like where it said that he went home and shot a bullet through his head. This is really sad because I know some suicides really happen like this in real life. People see the victim as being really confident in everything they do, but in reality they are just really good at hiding their inner emotions. This went against the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau because they were into individualism. They believe that you could have a successful life just by living up to your full potential. I think that suicide is a very selfish thing for anyone to do. Just because you think that it is going to help you, it really hurts all of you friends and family more that you were suffering in the first place. I guess that the idea of Realism was accepted in the Realism time period. The characteristics of Realism say that Realism works will show the imperfections of life. I think that this situation would have been an imperfection. It also says that Realism was showing life as it really is, not as people think it should be. I think that they should not have talked about this man committing suicide, but that was how life really was, so they were not going to sugar coat the truth at all. This guy, Richard Cory was definitely more concerned about himself than anyone else around him. It was really selfish to kill himself because it negatively affected so many other people.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 21, 2012).

Reflection: Darling : Anton Chekhov

The Darling was a story about a woman who had married several different men. Some of the men that she married died. People called her darling because she was well liked and she had always had a love for people. When she was young, her father died. She inherited her families townhouse and she lived there with her husband Kukin. Kukin was always in a sort of haze because he did not like how the weather was so gloomy. He was a theater owner, so he had to go to Moscow to hire some actors. While he was gone, Olga was informed that he had passed away. She was very upset, but she quickly moved on to the next man, Vasily Pustovalov. This man was a timber merchant and she was really fond of him. They eventually had a son together. Pretty soon after the son is born, Vasily developed a cold which turned into a really harsh long term illness. Olga is left alone again. She is depressed and lonely.

I believe that this story was sad. I think that it would be really hard to have two husbands back to back that died. Once she got over the first one and got comfortable with the second one, he died too. I cannot even imagine having my husband die let along having two that both died. After the second husband I think that it would be really hard for her to get married again. I think that if I was in her shoes I would never get married again. She clearly has bad luck with her husbands, so she should just stay away. Because she was such a nice person that everyone got along with, people loved her. She was that person that everyone knows and admires. I think that it would be especially hard on her because of the fact that she knows so many people. All of these people could be asking her how she is doing and that could get to be a little too much for her to handle.

She always needed a man though. Emerson and Thoreau were really set on being individuals. They said that you can find all of life’s answers in yourself and nature. She really relied on her husbands in the story, so she did not ever have to be an individual. 

Chekhov, Anton. "Chekhov Stories." SparkNotes. SparkNotes. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section7.rhtml>.

Chekhov, Anton. "The Darling." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2000. 557-66. Print.

Reflection: I Will Fight No More Forever : Chief Joseph

“I will Fight no More Forever” was a very short piece. The work is about a man is too tired of fighting. They never really tell us what they are fighting for or who they are fighting against, so all we know is that people are dying and they do not want to fight anymore. They are really sad because three of their powerful leaders have died in the battle and they feel like they should all be done fighting. I am not sure if there is a deeper meaning behind this piece and if there is, I may or may not be missing it. He says that the young is all that is left. All of the elders have died, and the decisions are left for the younger generations. I think that this work is basically bashing the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau. They both believe that people should always persevere and fight until the end, but these Indians are ready to give up. They have been fighting for a very long time and many of their important leaders have passed away. People are freezing because the weather is really harsh. The chief was really self-centered. I think that the chief should have gone and continued to fight because that was his job. He was using the idea of self reliance and that character trait is not good to have in a warrior of any kind. He was going to give up the war simply because he does not want to fight anymore and so he wants peace. I think that it would be wonderful if we could have peace in the world, but you know that is not going to happen any time in my lifetime. I do not agree with the idea of war. If everyone in the word would just grow up we would not ever have to fight. I think that all conflicts can be solved without physically fighting. It makes people look really immature when they cannot solve an argument verbally and they have to physically fight it out. I think that it would be bad to have a leader like Chief Joseph because he gave up and did not fight for what he thought was right.




McCloskey, Mary. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Welcome to Georgia State University. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www2.gsu.edu/~eslmlm/chiefjoseph.html>

Reflection: Spoon River Anthology by: Edgar Lee Masters

Spoon River Anthology is actually a collection of epitaphs. This is just simply a collection of poems that are all about different characters in a small town and how they are all related in some way. It reveals life how it really is. This is a characteristic of Realism. They were really into telling about life how it really was. They were not concerned with sugar coating the truth. This was a really good representation of the Realism period. In Lucinda Matlock, Lucinda just tells you about her life and how she lived into the age of 96. She says that the younger generations complain about everything and she also says that the younger generations do not live life to the fullest. She views the younger generation has a way lower importance than her own generation. Emerson was really interested in the difference between the levels of people. He says that we are all missing something. A major inspiration for Spoon River Anthology was Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, a work to which Masters was introduced by William Marion Reedy, editor of the St. Louis magazine Reedy's Mirror that first published many of his poems (Becker). He says that all people are missing something. No body is perfect, so they have to have something wrong with them. Each person has their own unique balance of these four basic energies: fire (warmth, inspiration, enthusiasm), earth (practicality, realism, material interests), air (social and intellectual qualities), and water (emotional needs and feelings)(Ralph Waldo Emerson General Characteristics). I think that it is really interesting that Edgar Lee Masters was from Illinois. He lived only about a hour away from where I am right now. His works are actually well known and he lived really close to us. This goes to show that not all famous people come from like New York or California. I think that this collection of stories was really interesting and I think that I may want to read more of these in my spare time.


Becker, Geraldine Cannon. "Spoon River Anthology." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds.Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL1405&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 2, 2012).


Masters, Edgar Lee. Spoon River Anthology. New York, 1951. Print.


"Ralph Waldo Emersongeneral Characteristics." Ralph Waldo Emerson Characteristics. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. <http://famous-relationships.topsynergy.com/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson/Characteristics.asp>.

Reflection: from Two Views of a River by: Mark Twain

This piece by Mark Twain was about how he was a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. He was talking about how dangerous the river is because of all the steamboat travel and how hard it is to navigate a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River. He says that he know the River like he knows the letters of the alphabet (Twain). He is disappointed that he does not see the River as a beautiful element of nature. He described the River as he saw it when he first started he job as the steamboat pilot. He was in awe at the beauty of the River. He loved the new world environment. After awhile, he began to not notice the wonderful elements of Nature. He is mad that he no longer sees the river as he did before. He wishes that he should go back and somehow train himself to continue to see the romance and the beauty of the river. The only things that he notices about the river is the landmarks that he needs to navigate the river at night. He is always too focused on the navigation of the dangerous river to notice all of the small details that he first noticed when he started his job on the river. The title of the book shows much significance. I think that the title actually helped me figure out what the story was talking about before I even read it. The two views of the river are both from Mark Twain, but they are at different times in his life. The first view of the river was from the point in time when he was first starting his job. The second view was after he had been working on the river for a long time and lost the ability to see the beauty in the river and surroundings. Twain grew up living by the Mississippi River, so he was very familiar with the nature and surroundings. This story kind of goes with the fact that the works of the Realism time period says that people are influenced by nature (Diamond).


Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 21, 2012).


Hearn, Lafcadio. "On Life on the Mississippi." New Orleans Times-Democrat, May 20, 1883. Quoted as "On Life on the Mississippi" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Mark Twain, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVMT129&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 29, 2012).


Twain, Mark. "from Two Views of the River" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 554-555. Print.

Reflection: The Red Badge of Courage

"The Red Badge of Courage" was written in the style of Naturalism. The main character was really worried about the amount of courage that he was going to have. He wanted to be a part of the army because he wanted to share in the glory when the army was successful. When the battle actually starts the main character was worried just like he had been the whole time he was in the army. He was really worried! Washington State University listed some characteristics of Naturalism and the very first thing that they said was that the main characters are normally was frequently ill-educated or lower class. I think that in the case of this story, the man was definitely less fortunate in the area of character. He was lacking in the ares of courage. Naturalism came for Charles Darwin. Back in this time people seemed to be really pessimistic. They were not expecting the best possible outcome. He was very much against the odds of something good happening as a result of a human's actions. People in the naturalism time period were controlled by outside forces. They might not have been able to make decisions for themselves. They were influenced by other people or outside forces (Giles).  I am going to have to give this guy some credit though because I would never have to courage to fight in a battle like that in real life. I think that I would be really scared. I think that it is okay that this guy is nervous. I would be nervous too! It is kind of sad though because if he was really in the army of the right reasons, he would not be concerned about dying in the war.  The only reason that he would be in the army in the Civil War is so that he can take all of the glory when his army is successful. I think that is really ridiculous. They guy is not in the army for the same reason.



Giles, James R. "naturalism." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?


Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature." Washington State University. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/natural.htm>.

Crane, Stephen. "Untitled Document." The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.

Reflection: The Story of an Hour

The Story of an Hour is a really weird story. Mrs. Mallard was notified that her husband was killed in a train accident. She began to sob, but later in the story we find out that she was really happy because her husband was really oppressing. She secluded herself from all of the other women whose husbands in the train accident. I think the reason that she did this was because she did not want the other women to know that she was actually happy that her husband was dead and so she was not going to have to live with the oppression. She was free! At the end of the story her husband actually walks into the room. The story says that she died of great joy because she found out that her husband was actually still alive. I think that when he walked into the room, she felt oppressed again just by his presence, so she died of a heart attack. He seems to have been not a very good husband because she admitted that she did not love him all of the time. She then goes on to say that most of the time she actually did not love him. He was putting way too much pressure on her and she was getting tired of handling the situation. She became overjoyed when she found out he was dead because she was not going to have to live with that kind of pressure on her anymore.

This is a good example of the characteristics of Realism because they were telling how the situation really was. They did not try to sugar coat anything because in the Realism time period, the story was told as it really was in real life (Diamond). Realism also shows the imperfection of life (Diamond). The flaw in the marriage of the Mallards was definitely classified as an imperfection of life. It is very unfortunate that marriages have to be that way. Many marriages are like that today, but for different reasons. In the time of the Realism period the marriages went wrong because the man thought he was superior to the women.

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 554-555. Print.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 21, 2012).

Reflection: "from O Pioneers" Willa Cather

The story, "from O Pioneers" was set in Nebraska in the late 1800s. This was when Manifest Destiny was fist introduced. People thought that God had made the entire continent of North America with the intention that Christian Americans would spread out and live all throughout the country. This was controversial at the time because it was causing people to be racist. The Christian American were moving west as God wanted, but they were taking the land of the Native Americans that were already settled there. This cause some huge problems. Eventually the Americans paid some of the Native Americans to move north into the country of Canada. This made Americans look very arrogant and selfish. For some reason, the Christian Americans were better than anyone else that was trying to live in North America.

In the story, Emil and Alexandra have an argument on whether they should move out of Nebraska when the corn crops failed. Emil thought that they should move away and find better farm land, but Alexandra believed that the land in Nebraska was good and they just needed to be patient and use different farming techniques. The story then jumps sixteen years into the future and Alexandra's beliefs have paid off. Her land has been paid off and is prospering. Emil is killed towards the end of the story because he was found laying in the orchard next to Marie. He had always had a crush on Marie even though he was in another relationship. Frank, Marie's husband finds them in the orchard laying down, so he shoots them both dead right on the spot.

One of the characteristics of Realism was that some choices or decisions were shaped by the environment (Diamond). This was shown in "from O Pioneers!" when Alexandra and Emil were making their decisions about whether to leave their fields in Nebraska and find better farm land. This story also showed life as it really was, not as it was ideally thought of (Diamond). Because the land in Nebraska terrible they thought about moving. Ideally, the land in Nebraska would have been perfect for growing crops, but in this case the story was told in the Realistic style so thing were talked about as they really were.

Cather, Willa. "from O Pioneers!." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 489. Print.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 21, 2012).

"O Pioneers!" SparkNotes. SparkNotes. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/opioneers/summary.html>.

Reflection: An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge was a very interesting story in my opinion. The combination of the flash back and the flash forward really caught me off guard. The use of the tools was very awkward. This was a sad story I thought. The story really had a touch of reality I thought. Because Ambrose Bierce actually fought in the Civil War, the story was probably pretty accurate (D'Ammassa). I thought that the story was really sad because the poor guy did not even have anyone to come to his rescue. I thought that he should at least have someone to be there and witness his death. His wife is probably still sitting at home waiting for her hubby to come back home. The soldiers that killed Farquhar were really harsh because they bribed him into doing the crime in the first place. I think that they should not have given him the death sentence because he really did not do anything that was too terribly wrong. I think that the ideas of Emerson are present in this story because he did not want slavery. I think that the ideas of Emerson said that he was not for slavery. Because the soldiers were fighting against slavery. At the very end of the story, you find out what was going at the very end of the story when he actually falls through and is strangled. I think that this was also kind of an example of Thoreau because he was also punished by the government. He was all for standing up for what you believe is right. I think that would have helped out Mr. Farquhar in the story because he was doing something that he even knew was not right to do. This was one of the first works that I have read in Realism that was set in Nature. I thought the author did a really good job of making the setting visual for the reader. Thoreau was a big fan of Nature in his literary works.

D'Ammassa, Don. "'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge'." Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Bierce, Ambrose. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Online http://fiction.eserver.org/short/occurrence_at_owl_creek.html. January 18, 2011.

Reflection: Letter to His Son: Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee's letter expresses dismay at the State of the Union. He says that the country is going to split and erupt into Civil War. Robert E. Lee says that Civil War is EVIL, but he is scared because the way things are going, the country might go into Civil War. He is basically saying that if there is going to be a war, he will go back to Virginia and defend his homeland. He talks about how he hopes things are settled before the war starts because he says that Civil War is evil. I think this follows Thoreau's theory that you should do what you believe is right even if it is considered wrong. Lee wanted all of this to just go away he did not want it to end up in a Civil War. Slavery was a huge issue at the time, but Thoreau was actually an abolitionist. I think he felt so strongly about this because he felt so strongly about civil disobedience. Slavery was way too over powering. I think that both Emerson and Thoreau just wanted equality and freedom. They wanted thing to be done as they thought things should be done. Transcendentalism was mainly based on equality and freedom (Quinn). I believe that Emerson and Thoreau were right in saying they were for equality because I agree with them. Things should always be done the right way even if some people are telling you that you are doing things the wrong way. At this time in history not many people, especially in the South did not stand up for anything, and this is why our country fell to pieces and we were engaged in a great Civil War. The war could have been totally avoided if all people just did the right thing and made good decisions. I think more people should have agreed with these really smart men because they seemed to actually know what was right.

Lee, Robert E. "Letter to My Son." Weblog post. Wikispaces. 23 Jan. 1861. Web. Feb. 2012.

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.

Reflection: And Ain't I A Woman By:Sojourner Truth

In Sojourner Truth's speech, "And Ain't I a Woman," Truth was supporting women's rights. She was talking about common arguments against women's rights.  She then goes and destroys all of those arguments by backing them up with personal experience and common sense. She was aiming her arguments at men and white women. I think the reason that she was arguing against these people is because they were the people with superiority over the African American women of the time. She wants African American women to fight together with white women for women's rights. Truth thinks that she could influence the women to all fight together for the same cause.

When she was talking about how women should be treated and how they should be lifted into carriages and over ditches, she goes to her personal experiences and says that nobody was ever there to lift her into any carriages or over any mud puddles. She then says, "And ain't I a woman (Truth)?" She is saying this because she thinks that all women should be treated the same. Just because she is an African American woman does not mean that she should not be helped into carriages.
She then goes to advocate that women can do the same quality of work that men do.  She has worked in the field and she is more than capable of working as hard if not harder than a man would. She talks about how she's had thirteen children and almost all of her children have sold into slavery. She says that she can bear the sadness and cry out, but only Jesus would listen to her because she is a woman.

This goes hand in hand with the philosophies of Thoreau because he believed that you should do what you think is right even if other people consider it as being wrong. Sojourner Truth was speaking up for women and their rights, but she knew that she was fighting a losing battle because other people considered her ideas wrong. Her ideas conflicted the ideas of others that believed that men and whites were superior to African American women.



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.Jan 30, 2012.

Truth, Sojourner. "And Ain't I a Woman." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 370. Print.

Reflection: Slave Hymnals

Swing Low Sweet Chariot by Anonymous is about the pitfalls of being a slave Pre-Civil war era. This hymnal expresses the endurance of the average slave who wants to escape the pains of injustices. This slave sees the hope of taking the chariot to where its friends and family member may lie.

Keep Your Hands on the Plow by Anonymous describes a slave who is forced to keep working throughout dire circumstances.

Paul and Silas, they begin to shout   

Jail doors opened and they walked out  

Keep your hands on the plow, hold on. 

This quote exemplifies what happens when a slave, for example, takes his or her hands off of the plow. Paul and Silas were two slaves who got sent to jail when they took their hands off of the plow. No one was there to bail them out.  This gives the other slaves motivation to keep their hands on the plow because if they took their hands off the plow, they would be sent to jail and they would not have anyone around to bail them out.

Go Down Moses is an African American slave hymnal that was sung during slavery times as they were working in the fields on those long, hot Southern days. It is also a song of freedom of the slaves. They are waiting for the day that Moses goes down and that they will all be saved and no longer have to live their days in slavery. Egypt in the song is symbolizing the confederate states in the Civil War (Anonymous). The songs are similar to Henry David Thoreau because the song is about slavery and freedom. Thoreau wanted the freedom. Slavery was controlled by government which is not okay with Thoreau because he was not fond of the central government.

These three slavery hymnals show the resemblance between the Civil War era and the ear of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau; the philosophies being: civil disobedience and self reliance.

Emerson, Ralph W. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm>.

Anonymous. "Go Down, Moses." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus; McGraw-Hill, 2010. 345. Print.


Anonymous. "Keep You Hands on the Plow." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus; McGraw-Hill, 2010. 346. Print.

Anonymous. "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus; McGraw-Hill, 2010. 344. Print.

Reflection: Calvary Crossing a Ford

The Calvary Crossing a Ford is a poem about a group of soldiers in a battle crossing a river. The poem is very descriptive about the simple task of walking across a river.This kind of goes against Henry David Thoreau because he was not too fond of the government system. He assumed that the military was connected to the government. Thoreau even went as far to call them robots because he thought that they were becoming so automatic. Whitman wrote a whole poem about an army crossing a river(Whitman). Also most of the poems by Thoreau and Emerson during the Transcendentalism period were about self and about one person because the Transcendentalism period valued self worth over intuition(Quinn). During the war that took place in the poem, Walt Whitman was a medic in the army. I think that he probably saw the scene created in the poem multiple times everyday. Like I mentioned before, Thoreau and the other writers from the Transcendentalism period writers did not like the government. Walt Whitman must of had some sort of respect for the government because he technically worked for them. He does not have the same opinions as the other writers of his time because he must have a good feeling about the army and the government. I recall that you, Mr. Langley, mentioned that the style of his writing is going to change in the future. I suppose that his writing is going to become more about self in the later writings that we are going to read. I like Whitman's works a little bit better than Thoreau's and Emerson's because I do not agree with their idea of civil disobedience. Especially the whole idea of hating the army and calling them robots. I mean they are going to fight for your freedoms and they are going to complain about the government's affiliation with the army. Just because they are in the army does not mean that they are robots. They are actually doing a lot of good for our country, fighting for our freedom. It is a little messed up that they could look at people that I have a lot of respect for in that way.


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.

Whitman, Walt. "Cavalry Crossing a Ford - Walt Whitman (1819-1892)." Books & Literature Classics. Web. 10 Feb. 2012.

Reflection: Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave one of the most well known speeches of all time. The Gettysburg Address. The Gettysburg Address was important to the people because it was very strong in saying that we we have declared our independence and we say that we are free, but were are not going to just keep living the lives that we are living. Great men from our country are fighting day in and day out to keep our country free. Freedom isn't free. Lincoln says that he is at the sight of the Battle of Gettysburg to honor those who gave their lives to fight for the freedoms we have in America, but he was also there to celebrate the lives of those fighting men that survived. The men that fought in the Battle were honored by a dedication of a portion of the battlefield as a resting place for those who gave their lives in the hopes that their country may live on (Lincoln). “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced” (Lincoln). This is also a very important part of the speech because Lincoln is giving all of the credit for his speech to the people that fought in the Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln was advocating for the abolition of slavery. I think that there is a connection here. Henry David Thoreau went to jail to stand up for what he believed was right. I in this regard, Lincoln and Thoreau were very similar. They were both very strong men that were going to stand up for what they believe in. These two men had similar ideas for the full devotion of their lives to show what is right. Lincoln was fighting slavery until the day that he died and Thoreau went to jail because he was standing up for what he believed in.

Lincoln, Abraham, and Roy P. Basler. "The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln."Net INS Showcase. Abraham Lincoln Online. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.

"Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.

Reflection: "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"

I do believe that the speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," by Frederick Douglass, was a very influential speech of the time, also a good example of what the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Both speakers and writers wanted liberty in America for all people. In his speech Douglass really wanted people to take a look at the holidays that we celebrate here in America. All white Americans take great pride in celebrating the Fourth of July, but how to the enslaved African American fell about it? Frederick surely wanted to tell everyone that slavery was awful and should be abolished, but this time he really just wanted to let people think for themselves on the topic of slavery. This is probably the best method of persuasion in my eyes because you cannot force someone to think in the same way as you. You have to propose your ideal thoughts to the people, and let them think for themselves. Also, Douglass made sure to say at the beginning, "The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too" (Douglass). This was a good way to start out his speech because he was still appealing to all of the people because they all believed in that statement. "Emerson observed that the differences among a particular race are greater than the differences between the races" (Brewton). I think that this is a great quote because it is true. The slaves were not even close to being as different from the American as they thought. Douglass said, “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future” (Douglass). I think that this was a very important statement in the speech of Douglass because it is true. Americans are celebrating their freedom, but they are hiding the fact that they have thousands of African Americans in the worst conditions ever. This speech was more rationalistic than the works of Emerson and Thoreau because it did not involve Nature and the more romantic feel of their writings.

Brewton, Vince. "Emerson, Ralph Waldo [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 24 July 2003. Web. 07 Feb. 2012.

Douglass, Frederick. "The Meaning of July Fourth For the Negro." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Africans in America. Web. 07 Feb. 2012.

Reflection: Henry David Thoreau's Essay

Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” is one of the most influential works of literature with a strong focus on protest. Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” is about his protest against a poll tax. In, “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau speaks of the poll tax placed on people rather than property often for the right to vote, that he refused to pay. In turn, he is arrested and spends some time in jail (Thoreau). He spends a lot of time talking about the injustice of charging someone for something that they are not a part of. This work revolves around a wrong or injustice that has been done by a large group that has an immense amount of power. Thoreau uses a very personal point of view, speaking primarily of his own actions and opinions of the occurrences that happened to him during his protest of the poll tax (Thoreau). This work highlights the idea of protest of the wrongs and injustices done by organizations like government that have arguable too much control.

Henry David Thoreau is talking about a poll tax that he does not want to pay. Henry David Thoreau had a good point with his protest. The poll tax is a little bit much; although I did know that the government needed money. The poll tax was okay and almost manageable for the wealthy citizens, but the poor people were kind of hung out to dry. There is no way that the less fortunate people of the country could afford any poll tax because they simply just did not have the money. Some people could barely keep themselves and their families living at the time because their money was not going as far as they needed it to go. So I believe Henry David Thoreau had justification in his refusal to pay the poll tax because some people could just simply not afford to pay it.

Henry David Thoreau writes his essay, Civil Disobedience, after he had refused to pay the tax and he talked about what had happened to him when he was in jail and what happened before that and after jail. Henry Davis Thoreau is just writing for a general population, no one in particular.

The two major issues being debated in the United States during Thoreau's life were slavery and the Mexican-American War. Both issues play a prominent part in Thoreau's essay. “By the late 1840s, slavery had driven a wedge in American society, with a growing number of Northerners expressing anti-slavery sentiments. In the 1850s, the country became even more polarized, and the introduction of slavery-friendly laws such as the Fugitive Slave Law, prompted many abolitionists to protest the government's actions via various forms of civil disobedience. (Civil Disobedience) ” These issues may have also made Thoreau a little bit irritable because they were big conflicts.

I believe that Thoreau does show elements of Transcendentalism in his work. The literature of this time was known to have had a distinct focus on nature, philosophy, emotion, intuition, and psyche (Barney and Paddock). These are demonstrated through many works of American writers, especially ones of the subgenres known as Transcendentalism or Dark Romanticism (Barney).

Works Cited

"Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 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.

"Civil Disobedience: Context." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 26 Jan. 2012.

Journal #26: Breaking the Rules

I cannot think of any situation that would be acceptable for someone to break the law. Breaking the rules could be a little bit different because that is not in violation of a state or federal law. I think that even if you are a single mom and you have kids that you are trying to feed. I think that the mom could have been able to ask someone else for help before she had to go steal food. I think that I would never find it acceptable for me to ever steal something. I believe that everyone has an equal opportunity to be successful in the world, so it would never be considered acceptable under my opinion. I can understand why some people do break the law, but I have to saw that I would never purposefully break the law just because I can. I would probably understand if someone had to steal medicine. Some people can not afford the medicine that they need to survive and I think that it is just unethical to make them suffer because they can't afford the medicine. There should be a charity that collects money to pay for drugs that the less fortunate people in our society need and can't afford. I think that the topic of this journal said something along the lines of breaking the rules and breaking the laws. There is a huge difference between laws and rules. I think that I could probably think of many times when I did something that I knew was breaking a rule, but I think that I can only come up with one time that I was doing something that would be considered against the law, but we are not going to talk about that! Anyway, I do think that it is okay to break the rules every once in a while because we are all human and nobody is perfect, but breaking the law just because you can is a totally different story.

Journal #25: Fear

Fear... When I think of fear I probably think about things that I am afraid of. I am afraid of nuns and the dark. Nun really scare me because one time at Sam's club I was in the bathroom with my mom. She was still in the stall when I walked out. Anyway, I walked out of the stall and this nun lady was walking by. Apparently I walked out in front of her and made her run into me. She grabbed my arm ans lectured me because I walked in front of her without saying anything. She basically told me that all kids of my generation were rude and inconsiderate. I do agree with her that some of the people that are around my age can be very rude to people of her old age, but I really was not trying to be rude and I did not even recognize that I walked in front of her until she grabbed my arm and was yelling at me. I think that this is one of the scariest moments of my life because it involved someone that I was not familiar with. I was playing volleyball at a tournament and the coach from Loyola University in Chicago came up and talked to my coach about me and if I had any interest in playing volleyball for that school when I go to college. I flat out told my coach no because I am so scared of nuns that I refuse to go to a Catholic college where there might be nuns on the campus. By the way, when I was having trouble with my eyes I had to go to the Springfield Clinic, and I think that every nun in Springfield was there. It was the worst place that I have ever been. I think that it might have been scarier that walking alone at night in downtown Atlanta. The other fear that I have is the fear of the dark. I think that I am scared not only of the dark itself, but what or who could be hiding in the dark and waiting to come and get me.

Reflection: The Minister's Black Veil

The biggest presence of characteristics that I notice in the story, "The Minister's Black Veil" was mystery. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, used mystery as the driving tool this story. The whole story revolved around the mystery behind the Minister's veil. I have to say that if my minister at church came to church on Sunday wearing a black veil; it would make me rather curious. For some reason I think that humans automatically assume that something is wrong when there is a sudden change in the appearance or behaviors of someone they know very well. Just like when a group of people is talking and one person walks away. When that person comes back to the group, if anyone in the group is laughing, the person who left is automatically under the impression that they were being talked about. That is most of the time not the case, but I think it is human nature to assume that people are being negative.

Even though the people of the church have no other reason to think that something weird was going on with their minister, they assume that he is hiding something. Like I said earlier, I agree with the people of the church that it would be a little weird, but I don’t think that I would go so far as to say that he was hiding something. I am not really sure what the author meant in saying that the Earth was wearing her black veil too (Hawthorne 284). I think that he may be talking about the mask that people put on to hide their evil thoughts. When I think about people who wear black fabric over their faces, I think about bank robbers. It is really common for people to wear a black disguise if they are going to rob a bank.

It is very interesting that even Elizabeth, Mr. Hooper’s lover does not know the motivation for Mr. Hooper to wear the black veil. Eventually Elizabeth gets so fed up with him wearing the veil that she says that he is going to have to choose between her or wearing the black veil. I found it interesting that he chose the black veil. He thinks that it is more important to him that he covers up his face with a black veil. I guess Elizabeth was expecting him to say that he would take off the veil for her, but because of his decision to keep the veil on, she is going to leave him to find another man.

It is also interesting that the minister goes all the way to his grave without talking off the veil and letting anyone see his face. I thought that when he said yes that meant that he was going to let the man take the veil off of the minister’s face. I was wrong again. It seems like the minister is really just trying to get peoples’ hopes up because it turns out that he does not let them take it off. I think that the use of mystery was also shown at the end when the author never explains why the minister had a black veil over his face. The reader is left open ended with no clue as to why the minister was covering his face. Was he just trying to get a rise out of people? Or was he really hiding something bad that he has done. Sarah Wright says that Edgar Allan Poe had the idea of thinking that the minister was maybe hiding something that had to do with the death of the woman's funeral that he composed (Wright).

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Eldritch Press. 1986. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener. "romanticism." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EBWEP364&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 23, 2012).

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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCNH403&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 24, 2012).

Reflection: The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is written by Edgar Allan Poe. This work seems to represent both the works or Edgar Allan Poe himself and also the works of the Dark Romanticism literary period. In the dark romanticism period works that we are reading, the authors seem to have been using a mysterious and suspenseful approach in their writings. They use horror, darkness, mystery and suspense.

In this particular story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Edgar Allan Poe uses all of the characteristics above. In the very first paragraph of the story, the speaker is already preparing himself for death. Poe says, “The sentence—the dread sentence of death—was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears.” (Poe 263) The speaker is preparing himself for the end. Although he does not know how he will be dying, he is thinking about all the terrifying ways they could brutally kill him. The judge and the jury in this case in the Spanish Inquisition are already scaring the living daylights out of this man of whom we do not know why he is receiving the sentence he is.

The story goes on and eventually the character discovers that he is in a dark dungeon and after a while of observing the walls and ceiling he discovers that the walls are moving in on him. Also, he realizes that there is a giant pendulum suspended from the ceiling moving back and forth in greater arcs and slowly descending to a table on which he is strapped. Rats come along and chew away the ropes just before the pendulum comes low enough to sever his body in two. He is still trapped in the dark dungeon alone though, so his situation still is not one to be happy about. Poe is talking about the rats when he says, “"They were wild, bold, ravenous; their red eyes glaring upon me as if they waited for motionlessness on my part to make me their prey" (Poe 271). The speaker has not yet figured out that the rats are not going to eat him, so his is mortified of death by rats. This description is really intriguing to me because Edgar Allan Poe must have had a freakishly broad imagination to come up with stories such as this one.

After the rats gnaw the ropes off of the victim, the speaker begins to go in and out of consciousness. This pattern of moving in and out of consciousness is much like the pattern in "Ligeia" and is typical of Poe, for in such an alternating state consciousness has some of the characteristics of unconsciousness and vice-versa; one state is imbued the qualities of the other state (May). I think that this method is a very good one and also very well execution of Ligeia in this work. Edgar Allan Poe’s writings sure do have the general characteristics of the Dark romanticism writing era.

The ending of this story was not at all what I expected to happen. Because Edgar Allan Poe seems to always write dark and gory thing, I had figured that the speaker was going to have a gruesome death and I was going to have to read about it. I am very glad that I am wrong and he is saved from the gross death I have predicted.

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." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 263-273. Print.

"Romanticism." Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/romanticism

Journal #24: Spooked

There was one night when I was in sixth grade my dad played a huge prank to scare me.  My daily routine at night is to get ready for bed, then I usually read for a while and after that my mother would always come and turn my light off and shut the door. Well, this one night, my dad decided that he was going to go lay on the floor under my bed before I went in there to read. When I went in there to read, he was really quiet and I had absolutely no idea that he was hiding under my bed. I was done reading and my mom came in to shut the light off. All was well and I think about ten minutes passed before I started to hear something rattling at the end of my bed. He was laying on the floor shaking something.  I was freaking out, so I called out to my mom and told her to come into my bedroom. As she was walking down the hallway to my room, he jumped out and jumped on my bed. I was so freaking scared that I wanted to sleep in my parents room for the rest of the night.  My mom was so mad at my Dad that she made him sit in my room until I fell asleep.  She was not happy with that little guy. He was going to lay at the bottom of the bed until he knew that I was a little bit scared. He did a very good job at scaring me that night because I was scared for like a whole week. The two scariest things to me are nuns and the dark.  I think that the dark is scary for me because I have a creative imagination. I imagine that there are things that are coming to get me. When I get home at night I always run to the front door because I am afraid that something is waiting to come get me. Maybe I could just blame my father for all of their fears. 

Reflection: Edgar Allan Poe- Poem of Choice

The poem that I have chosen to analyze is titled “The Spirits of the Dead,” by Edgar Allan Poe. I chose this poem because I had never heard of it before. I love the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and I was looking forward to reading a poem of his that I had never read before.

The literal meaning of the first stanza is saying: You will find yourself alone in the middle of dark thoughts of gray tombstones, and not one person in the entire crowd is going to interrupt your time of secrecy. I think the author’s meaning is really that there will be no one in the cemetery at night to disrupt your thinking.

The second stanzas literal meaning is: You should keep quiet in your aloneness because you are not truly lonely because you are surrounded by the spirits of the dead, who before stood alive, but now are dead and standing around you. Don’t move. I believe that the meaning of this stanza is to say that when you are in the cemetery at night, you may feel like you are alone, but you really are surrounded by many of spirits of the people that are buried under the ground you are walking upon.

The third stanza was a little bit more confusing than the first two; stanza three requires more analysis to truly understand the author’s meaning. The stanza is literally saying: The night is clear, but it frowns, and the stars are not looking down from their thrones in heaven with light and hope. Their red orbs are not beaming, and they seem like a burning fever that will last forever. This literal meaning translates into the author’s true meaning. I think Edgar Allan Poe was trying to set the scene of the sky and make it clear that the person in the cemetery is going to be feeling lonely because not even the stars in the sky are there to keep you company. The red glow of the stars is like a fever making you feel exhausted forever.

The forth stanza is talking about the person going to visit the dead spirit has thoughts that will not go away and visions that will not vanish because they pass for the spirit like nothing. As small as a dew-drop on the grass.

The fifth and final stanza is still setting the scene of the conversation of the visitor and the spirit of the dead. It was a windy night because God was breathing his breath and mist upon the hill of the cemetery. I am not quite sure what the author is referring to when he says, “Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken/ Is a symbol and a token/ How it hangs upon the trees, A mystery of mysteries!” (Poe 25-28).

This poem definitely is characterized by the dark romanticism era of literature. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was the mythology of the stars in the sky. They were referred to as people that were not there to keep the visitor company. The last stanza shows the characteristic of mystery, but I did not really catch the meaning of that part, so it is difficult to explain.

Krueger, Christine, ed. "Romanticism." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 19th Century, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2002.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "Spirits Of The Dead by Edgar Allan Poe." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

Sova, Dawn B. "'Spirits of the Dead'." Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Journal #23: Scary Story Techniques

What makes a scary story scary? I believe that the authors and movie producers use suspense in scary movies. The movies seem to always start out as a normal, day to day story line and then all of the sudden there is a scary scene. Then the movie goes down another slow path until there is another scary scene. I think that the Paranormal Activity movies are great examples of a good scaring technique. The movie always starts out as a normal day and the camera just gives you an over view of the house and the people in the house and closely related family. Then at night, there is always something a little bit sketchy going on. In the beginning of the movie the nights are always just a little bit scary and then as the movie goes on, the nights get gradually scarier. They also use shadowing and strange noises to make the setting scarier. Gross and ugly things can also make things more scary in a literary work or movie. Slow continuous movements can also make someone or something scary because things are said to move like that if they are possessed by the devil. Scary stories usually have a "bad guy" or a threatening antagonist. A lot of scary stories involve death and or dying because that is something that most humans are scared of. We all know that everyone is going to die eventually, but people are scared of dying in a scary or haunted way. I was trying to think about what makes a haunted house haunted, and the only thing that I was able to come up with was the strange noises and the dustiness with cobwebs. Creaky floors can be scary because it makes you think that there is something or someone in your house coming to get you. Many people are also scared of the dark, so most scary movies have mostly dark scenes. People in disguise can also be scary because you never know who might be hiding in the disguise.

Journal #22: Sledding Poem

In winter we get a snow day from school

Children go outside although it is cool

Their mothers watch at the window with care

 Little girls struggle to wrap up their hair

Children have trouble to get up the hill
Sometimes they slow down because of the chill
Some kids wake early to go out and sled,
while others are still asleep in their bed

The snow will fall down on top of your head,
but it's all worth it to go out and sled.
The brisk winter winds will turn your nose pink
And when you're all done you might need a drink

Teachers are mad 'cause they don't get to teach
Preachers are sad that they don't get to preach
Rich children can sled, but so can the poor
All you have to do is get out the door

People must sit down to lace up their boots
You better watch out for trees and their roots
When you come in, hang your coat on the hook
Grab a blanket and sit down with a book.

If your mom is nice, she'll make you a drink
Pour in the mix and stir it clink clink clink
Serve you hot chocolate and give you a wink
What you don't finish just pour down the sink

Journal #21: Snow

Well considering the fact that I have not seen snow in way over a year, I consider it difficult to describe it accurately. White. I love when everything outside is covered with a smooth white blanket. I feel like the environment is sleeping under the pure white blanket of the snow. The world is quiet and innocent. I love when it snows because the snow muffles all of the sounds of the environment. The sounds of the car tires crunching the snow and ice is a pleasing sound for my ears. I almost think that a beautiful blanket of snow is prettier than the green of the grass. I consider the snow to be more beautiful because it does not occur as much in central Illinois as the green grass. A blanket of snow shows some innocent youthful qualities. I perceive youthful innocence as quietness and not arguing. The younger you are, the more you obey and respect your parents because they are so much bigger and older than you. So that is why I see the snow as innocence because it is quiet and innocent. There are also things that go along with snow that are not so innocent and youthful. The ice and blistering wind are just unbearable. Sometimes the elements of winter are harsh and cannot be personified in a youthful sense. The weight of the heavy, white snow is can also become problems for people. Although winter snows seem light and fluffy, sometime they can be heavy enough to break in roofs and an even weight down the power lines. Icy roads cannot be seen as youthful and innocent because they are guilty of causing many car accidents every year. The sight of snow always makes my mouth water over hot chocolate. The best thing after playing out in the snow on a cold day is to come inside and find a piping hot mug of hot chocolate on the counter waiting for you. Snow can have youthful qualities, but for some people it is hard to see past all of the tragedies that it causes.