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.