Uncle Tom's Cabin-4

     When I think about life I believe that no matter what one changes about them selves their roots will always remain the same.  St. Claire must explain this to Ophelia and I really think that it is a good and important thing to realize.  He explains that although someone might try to change, their origins will never change.  This is common for many people today, even though there are a lot of opportunities in life, one cannot change where you come from.  Another major theme of the book is the divisions between upper and lower classes.  Not only does it surface in the novel but it also is evident in the bible, factory, chimney sweeper, and most recently occupy wall street.

Uncle Tom's Cabin-3

     In class one day we talked about Uncle Tom in comparison to George and I found this to be a very interesting conversation.  One thing we talked about was nobility, both of these characters in my mind are noble in different ways.  Both of them are loyal to the people in their lives that they care about and the causes fight against, although Tom cannot do much for his cause because he is still a slave.  Both George and Uncle Tom are honest in the most genuine sense of the word, however much it might hurt them.  Both of these characters are submissive and culture often doesn't look too fondly on that.

Uncle Tom's Cabin-2

     I want to think about slavery and Christianity a little more especially when it comes to Tom's journey and new owners in New Orleans.  St. Claire is a good man and treats Tom with the respect that he deserves, while Mrs. St. Claire finds her own misguided idea of Christianity and the world's view on slavery.  St. Claire has his doubts about slavery, yet he continues to take part in it.  When I see St. Claire I do not see his faults but I see a good man, at least compared to his wife, who loves his daughter and treats Tom fairly well.

     My perception of St. Claire is that he is far more open minded about slavery then Shelby.  I kind of see him as a liberal in today's society.  He sees the problem as it is and understands the cultural forces that compromise the good that could happen in the world.

Uncle Tom's Cabin-1

     Reading this novel brought out a variety of emotions and this caused me to read it from different emotional perspectives.  One of these is a sentimental view.  When I think about what it means to be sentimental my first thought is memories and how easily they can come flooding back, both good and bad.  Also, I think about love and the people that I love, along with that the attachments that I feel for the people that I love.   But in order to think about the book for what the author is trying to get across means that we cannot leave out the connections and relevance that the books examines.
    This novel went against the cultural norms of the time and looked deeper into human morals, the message against slavery, and the theme of slavery itself.  While reading the novel I noticed the different identities of the characters, as well as insight into human nature.  Finally I noticed a strong theme of Christianity and slavery pertaining to what the two have in common.

The Purloined Letter

     I do not believe that I have ever seen Sherlock Holmes but I can see that the elements within the Purloined Letter shares a lot of commonalities the first Sherlock movie.  We talked in class about the references to creative perception like Emerson and Thoreau.  Because by looking at the natural world  we can learn truths about life and various other things.  Nature is a reoccurring element within a lot of things that we have read over the second half of the semester.  I find nature to be an inspiration for creative ideas and what is nice is that there are always new elements to look at.

Edgar Allen Poe: The Raven

     Edgar Allen Poe has a unique way of making something that is very disturbing, a poetic masterpiece.  One of the ways he does this is within his poetic style.  He uses tools like alliteration, internal rhyme, and repetition.  Poe is one of my favorite poets because he uses these tools to create something unique and memorable.  The ideas that Poe plays with that create these disturbing emotions in the writing are mystery, the unknown, and the supernatural.

          I like the way the story of the man and the raven seems so vivid and it really pulled me in with the compelling nature of the narrator's mental state.  As I read this poem I found it very accessible because the idea of love and loss is something most of us feel.  The ideas in this poem cannot be dated, however, there are a few exceptions including language, references to palaces(Athena).  When I think of the raven I seen him as a demon and the evil within the narrator's mind.     

             

Nathanial Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter 4)

     In Chapter 10: The Leech and His Patient, we learn more about Dimmesdale and Chillingworth.  They have a very strange relationship.  Dimmesdale immediately comes off as a hypocrite because of his ideas of sin and his own sin.  Dimmesdale puts aside his recognition of sinfulness throughout their conversations.  There is also a sort of recognition about the supernatural.  There is a sign in the the sky of the A/RT, representing Hester's skills as an artist.  This leads to different interpretations of what the A could stand for.  There is also an idea that the imagination could be used to spell out what is being said about the A.

     It can seem almost easy to bring out creative perception within the imagination, which offers a lot for the reader to look at.  A quote in chapter 13 really stood out to me, it says, "The letter was the symbol of her calling.  Such helpfulness was found in her, - so much power to do, and power to sympathize,- that many people refused to interprest the scarlet A bu its original signification.  They said that is meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength."  I found this an amazing quote and I could see that over time people were beginning to see past her sin to the strong person that she really was.

Nathanial Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter 3)

     One thing that stuck out for me from this portion of the book was on page forty-one where is talked about sin being dragged out into the sunshine.  There is an increasing exposure to sin between both Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale.  Hester Prynne accepts her sin while Dimmesdale continues to say, not me!  Hester is feeling a lonely and isolated with no one but her daughter for company.  She is in a sense the scapegoat for the entire town sins.  There is also an evident connection between pearl and the letter A because of her birth and immediate attraction to the letter.
     There are also many connections with Anne Hutchinson in this section of the novel.  One is of course, the rosebush,  but also Hester is in similar footsteps.  In Chapter 3: The Recognition, Hester will not tell who the father is.  She says the child will have a heavenly father, not an earthly one.  This make Hester look very brave to stand up to this alone.  Her exposure for her sin does not cause her to give up who the father is.  Although it would allow him to be punished as she was there is no need to expose him to the consequences that she has been exposed to.

Nathanial Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter 2)

     This novel continues to follow the romantic pattern within the actual text.  The pacing of the novel seemed very interesting to be from the beginning, it started out slow and then sped up very quickly.  Within Chapter 1: The Prison Door we are introduced to a lot of symbolism.  The first being the symbol of the white rose bush.  The differences in the allegories and the symbolism throughout the novel are that the allegory is concrete and only has one factor while a symbol can have many factors.  One symbol for the rose could be that it is feminine.  A symbol of femininity.  

     Another symbol that could possibly go with the rose is the thorns and how they are painful and leave a mark.  Considering the symbols for the letter A one could consider the red/ scarlet color and the connections that could be made to the sin and the color.  Also, the letter is very beautiful and that beauty could have meaning behind it.  There could also be a connection between the flower and the A considering the flowers are located outside the prison door where Hester is being kept.  However, my favorite symbol is that of hope in the flower and the sweet moral that blossoms from the rose.  All of these symbols lead to different perceptions of both the A and the rose.

Nathanial Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter 1)

     This book has pulled me in completely.   However, the introduction was not particularly enjoyable, to me anyway.  There seems to be a large amount of indulgence within the introduction.  I became somewhat confused if I was listening to Hawthorne or the narrator.  The introduction is clearly fiction, however, Hawthorne gives it a very historical true feel.  Some information that is helpful when getting to the actual novel is that the Custom House narrator is getting his information from the Surveyor Poe about Hester Prynne.

     Hawthorne use the frame story of Surveyor Poe to Custom House narrator to Hester Prynne by saying, that the Custom House Narrator finds Surveyor Poe's letters containing Hester Prynne's Story.   This introduction also uses romanticism like many works we have already talked about.  There is a discussion of the old versus the new, as well as, creative perception.  Another similarity between this and previous texts we have read in transcendentalism, with the use of nature and also the division of humanity.

Henry David Thoreau (Walden Ch.1 Economy)

     It was clear to see from the start of this text that there was a large amount of Emerson's influence throughout.  Mainly because a large theme was that work takes over, and often people lose themselves in work.  A famous quote, "lives of quiet desperation" there is no play for them.  The second important message throughout the work was, the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanges for it, immediately or in the long run.

     It's interesting to think about the amount of life spent paying off debt.  I know I will be spending a lot of time doing that.  We talked about the example of buying a house may be a reasonable price, but in the long run it takes a long time to pay off.  Another thing I found interesting was the necessaries of life, and recognizing that he has the luxery to do things but not everybody does.  Business is a badge of honor, Thoreau thinks we are just running from one thing to another never finishing anything.  

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Nature)

     It seems as though the idea of transcendentalism continues to pop up with every reading that we do.  This is, of course, because it is such a large part of the way these others thought at the time.  The idea of nature is brought of up in the first reading we did of Emerson's, but is brought into much more detail in the reading of "Nature."  The analogy that Emerson uses about accessing the spiritual world through nature seemed really interesting to me because I think nature is the closest thing to creation and God.  However, there is an evident disconnect between nature and the soul.

     Another interaction the Emerson shows with nature is it's relationship to art.  Art becomes so insignificant that it is not distinct from nature itself.  There are four classes of nature.   Commodity, which is temporary, useful, and practical.  Beauty, natural world, in and for itself, delight, and spiritual.  Language, analogy, simplistic, and naive.  Disciple, understanding and reason and ultimate goal.  There are also some Romanticism qualities in the work, such as, live naturally versus book.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (The American Scholar)

     I really like the theme in "The American Scholar," of "live life" rather than follow others.  It seems as though following other can often times become far too easy.  When one begins to live life apart from following others they can then begin to experience what the world has to offer.  I also noticed that being active and creative becomes a part of that as well.  What of the first ideas that I noticed was roles which include, the Liberal Arts.  I see Emerson's idea that we have to become the functions that we serve.  The metaphor he used was the difference between a farmer and a man farming, which is the second is individual. 

     The second thing that I noticed with this was the section on Estates.  There were four sub-points in this section, the first being nature, the second mind of the past, the third action, and the forth duties.  The idea of nature was expanded by including the connection between the spiritual world and the natural world.  Emerson also connects this in with the ages of human history.  Which include, classical-child, romantic-youth, and philosophical- adult.  This made sense to me because as we get older we do become more philosophical about life.

Washington Irving (Rip Van Winkle)

     The first thing I noticed about "Rip Van Winkle" was the humor hidden within it.  I chuckled about his lack of enjoyment in marriage and yet he is very well liked by the children in the town.  Rip Van Winkles personality also stuck e as intriguing.   On was hand, he is very charismatic and well like by the community.  Yet, on the other hand, he is not invested in working around the house and his wife hates him.  He seem also oblivious to life and he only care about chatting it up with his neighbors and friends around town.

    There is a shift in the story after Van Winkle's twenty years of sleeping that seemed to me like the moral to a very tale.  Van Winkle begins to care more about his life and family in general.  He is choosing to be busier and begins bustling around town.  There is evidence in the second half of the story that he is reinventing his path in life and becoming better.  I also enjoyed noticing the subtle changes in the people becoming citizens of this new country.

Carnival Post 1700-1820

During our unit on "The Enlightenment" we have read a variety of authors ranging in topics from sermons to self help narratives.  Each of the blogs have expressed how our class perceived various authors.  While each blog is worth reading here are a few that can be referenced for further insight on each author.  Four authors really stood out to me as making a strong impact on the Enlightenment period, as a whole.

Johnathan Edwards

If you found Johnathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, intriqueing because it dealt with a new way of looking at Christians, without sugar coating anything, you should check out Tanisha's Blog.  She points out how it is important to see the greatness of God and not His possible desire to punish us.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was a man with a plan.  If you found him to relate to your need to have every minute of your day mean something, then you should check out Julia's Blog.  Here she talks about Franklin's chart measuring his success rate and what she found interesting about his need to be successful.

John and Abigail Adams

John and Abigail Adams communicated for almost 10 years of their lives through letters to each other.  In class we read a few of these letters and talked about how this communication worked and did not work.  We also discussed the lack of affection shown between the two.  Nicole's Blog talked a lot about this lack of affection, she says, "It did not seem like they had much affection for each other but I guess how much affection can you show in a letter?"  This is very interesting, check out the rest of her blog to see what she thinks!

All of the authors we read had something amazing to say, however, these four authors seemed to be able to capture the new period in their own unique ways.

J. Hector St. John DeCrevecoer

     I thought that DeCrevecouer had some very valid ideas about America in his narrative.  I thought his idea that once everyone is in America their heritages begin to blend together is very true, even today.  The idea that the English, Irish, Scotch, German, Swedish, etc. all sort of become one mixed group that describe all Americans is happening just as much in the 21st Century as it was in the 18th and 19th Centuries.  Certain aspects of the cultures that come over to America seem to fade away as communities come together.  Recently I took a human relations class that dealt with the ideas of American cultures and the melting pot idea.  I thought that the idea of every culture sort of melting together to form the unique American culture is a fabulous idea.  However, America today still has prejudices that started to form in the early days of the country.

     DeCrevecouer also talked about the same thing happening with religions.  I think that America is absolutely a place where people can be free to be a part of any denomination they choose.  The idea that all religions will be allied is certainly a positive of American culture.  However, like with races, religions are still victims of prejudice.  Christianity has been guilty in the past of claiming that they the superior religion.  I am Christian, however, I still respect other religions completely.  There is still work to be done for all religions to be perfectly allied.

John and Abigail Adams

     I really liked the letters from John and Abigail Adams for a variety of reasons.  First, I liked that theses letters were deeply personal and probably not intended for us to see.  I thought that most of the time they seemed pretty dry towards each other and did not share much emotion.  However, there were instances when I could tell that they really did worry about each other.  I cannot imagine how hard it would be on a relationship to be apart for that long.  Especially, since at the time there were many diseases that were going around and they must have both been very scared for the others safety. 

     Second, I though that there was a different tone in these letters than in the previous pieces we have read.  It is clear that Abigail is concerned primarily for her husband's well being and also the health of her children.  While John is driven by his ambitions, however, still gets distressed when he does not hear how his children are doing after their smallpox sickness.  I would like to know more of whether or not Abigail was ever frustrated by the fact that John was off doing his own thing all of the time.  It is clearly a, period of time, situation.  I think that today a marriage would never be able to sustain such a long separation.  At the time I think that women had to just accept whatever that men decided, which is no longer the case today.

Benjamin Franklin

    I found Benjamin Franklin's narrative intriguing in a variety of ways.  First, simply what he came from and how far he got is very inspiring.  The idea of being a "self-made man" is so admirable because he was literally poor and some how rose to be one of the most remember people in U.S. history.  What adds to this is that he was able to step out of the shadows of his family and do things his own way.  I think of this time period as very controlled and people always had to go by the rules.  However, I think that Franklin had to courage to kind of put that aside and focus more on himself and take pride in the things he knew he could accomplish. 

     Second, I found his obsession with trying to perform his day to day tasks in meaningful ways was also very interesting.  When I stop and think about my day I never take the time to think about who I have impacted and what I have done to help anyone else.  It seems so selfish when I think about it in retrospect.  However, I think that the ways in which Franklin was trying to control all of the things going on in his life down to the minute is unrealistic.  No one can be completely perfect all of the time.  I think that after Franklin's research he was able to see more closely how impossible it is to live that way constantly.  He was filled with self determination and I think that is what causes him to want to be that perfect member of society all of the time.

Jonathan Edwards

     When I think about the sermons that I have heard recently in my own church and others that I have attended, they seem so light and nice.  Jonathan Edwards clearly does not share this same approach.  One particular aspect that I found intriguing was his use of fear in order to get his parishioners to follow in the right way with Christ.  Nowadays we would find this totally out of line, however, I do in some ways think that people need to be told when they are not following on the right path.  The harsh tone that is carried out during the sermon is needed I think in order for the listeners to understand the seriousness of Christianity.  

     The second aspect of the sermon that I really liked was his use of honesty.  I feel like pastors today do a lot of sugar coating when it comes to the more serious issues and I really like some of Edwards honesty is needed today.  Edwards is trying to stir the crowd up by taking down the walls and just putting his truth about God out on the table.  He is, of course, focusing on the emotions of the audience.  But it is easier to get people to understand the truth when their emotions are out on the table.

Edward Taylor

     This is probably the first reading that I really did not get into that much.  I found the meditations somewhat confusing.  I understood better through our discussions in class what the meditations were more about.  Taylor was very talented at creating wonderful poetry to go along with the sacred communion.  Communion is a very confusing theological subject and I think that Taylor's idea of using these meditations as a way of explaining what communion is and the reason's why we celebrate communion.  I thought the idea of using the meditations as an elaborate metaphor of what Taylor believes about communion is very unique and interesting.  Often times people need images to understand a topic and using a metaphor can allow the reader or listener to learn through imagery.  Although I did not find the meditations extremely interesting I was able to understand why he wrote them and the importance of the meditations at the time.

Mary Rowlandson

    When I read the narrative of Mary Rowlandson I first thought about all of the details that she must have had to leave out.  Rowlandson went through an event that no one in our day and age can even imagine, this fact can explain why some of her situations seemed hard for us to understand.  We talked in class about whether or not Rowlandson exaggerated any of the events that happened to her.  I thought about this a lot and I think that she did not exaggerated but rather recalled the events as she remembered them.  When anyone is put in a life changing situation like she had they are bound to have some sort of traumatic stresses.   I also thing that if we had read ever excerpt out of the narrative we would have better understood her situation and whether or not she was exaggerating.

     One other thing that I found interesting was the fact that the narrative itself is unique to the New World and the culture that it was creating.  I think this has a lot to do with the Native Americans that were here when the settlers first came.  This is a country that already had a culture and the settlers came in a short of invaded that culture.  The result of this was the capture of settlers and then the captive narratives. 

Anne Bradstreet

  I loved reading Anne Bradstreet's poetry.  The way in which she is able to express her struggles and emotions throughout her poetry is extraordinary.  It is common knowledge that women had to struggle at the time however, Bradstreet is able to express the struggles in a way that fits her strengths and abilities.  I found this amazing because at the time she lived in a world that make it very difficult for a women to have opinions.  Though she has many points of contradiction  in "The Prologue" she is not afraid to say what she thinks.  At that time men would have looked down at her for doing thing, she recognizes this in lines 31-32, "But sure the antique Greeks were far more mild- Else of our sex, why feigned they those nine."  This is Bradstreet's way of telling men that Greek men were given their idea by women muses so it seems only natural that artists like Bradstreet would write beautiful and worthy poetry.  

   Bradstreet was not a literally strong women, she had many health problems.  However, the knowledge that she carried and expressed through her poetry was very strong.  She may not feel like she has the power to write epic poetry, but she does have the power to express the frustrations of her time and what she thinks should be done about that.  Maybe her poems are not pages and pages of battles and heroes, but she does tell little stories with very big meanings.  People listened to her poetry and even if she did not realize it at the time it did make an impact. 

Winthrop v. Smith

   When I read these two pieces I debated with myself as to which side I agreed with more.  In one aspect Winthrop is looking at the new world and all of the potential it has to be great.  This is nice and it shows how much faith the puritans had in their new country.  I also liked how he had such high hopes of building a strong Christian community.  The times were hard and being able to come together and help the people survive as a whole is truly a good idea.  I did strongly disagree with how Winthrop believed that people were assigned certain roles in life and they could never move up in wealth or jobs.  America is known now as being a place that allows people to have opportunities that they would never have in their home countries. 

  However, I also found myself agreeing with Smith's realistic ideas of marketing the new world.  In order to build America as an economic stronghold it is crucial to get the rich into the country.  If every person that came to America were poor and lacked the means to build up the country America at the present time would probably be a third world country.  A mix of both rich and poor would allow people to seek opportunity and the country would then continue to grow.  Also, I came to the conclusion that it would took a mixture of both Smith and Winthrop's ideas to help the new world prosper during that time period.