Journal 31

My job shadowing experience was not that great. I job shadowed a pharmacist at Complete Care Pharmacy, and he was pretty busy. It was the beginning of the month so everybody was getting social security checks and spending them on their medication. The pharmacist was on the phone seventy-five percent of the time, so I did not really learn anything. I already know a lot about pharmacy, so he would not have been able to teach me a lot. But he basically just stood in one spot the whole time. The only new thing I saw was a machine that contained half of the medicine in the pharmacy, and it could dispense whatever was needed. Most of the information was on a computer program, so the guy was on the computer also. I still want to be a pharmacist. I am really interested in it, and I think it is the right career for me. I think the person I shadowed enjoys his job, so I think I will too. I have always been interested in chemistry and anatomy, which makes up a lot of the curriculum; I obviously want to help people too; and it pays off financially in the end. I used to want to be a dentist, but I definitely do not want to work with teeth all day. I would much rather work with weird people and medicine than cavities and tooth decay. I do not mind having to talk to all of the different people because in the end they are getting the medicine that they need. I will probably have to continually go to school even after I graduate from pharmacy school, and I do not mind that. I am not sure what branch of pharmacy I will end up pursuing, but I think I will either be a typical pharmacist, a hospital pharmacist, or a nuclear pharmacist. It would have been better if I could have shadowed a different type of pharmacist to see why he or she went into that specific field.

Modernism video

Journal 30-Whitman

My favorite poem by Walt Whitman is probably “One’s Self I Sing.” Although I have not read all of Whitman’s poems, or even a good amount, I think this is a good one. It is his initial poem in Leaves of Grass, and it sets up the rest of the poems. The poem is short, but it presents important information that Whitman wants to convey at the beginning because it shows a lot of what he believes. The first two lines express how every individual is separate, but yet everyone is also ‘en masse.’ Next, he explains that it is not just appearance or just intelligence that matters; it is the culmination of all elements of a single person, making up their form, that matter. He also says that men are equal with women, so he has his own beliefs that may differ from the norm of the time. Then he ‘sings’ “of life immense in passion, pulse, and power…” Alliteration aside, he is saying that life forms, in part, from great experiences. Then he says “cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine…”, which implies that freedom is very important to the self and necessary in understanding the self. This poem is good because it really lays the track for Leaves of Grass in its entirety. This is like a broad illustration for a few topics that he goes more in depth with throughout the rest of the poems. I think this is his best poem because it is so explicit but open. Many of his poems can be very complicated, but this one is much simpler. Aside from maybe using the word ‘physiognomy,’ this poem is pretty straightforward. Whitman just comes out and gives his preamble in a concise manner, while still maintaining a sort of eloquence. Although many of his poems are also short and well written, this one is more direct. Some may be more expressive than this one, but this covers his idea of what self is and why it is important.
http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/2

Reflection: Whitman again (Chanting the Square Deific)

Walt Whitman creates a wholly unique spiritual belief in his poem "Chanting the Square Deific." He takes the religious topic and he does not necessarily restrict himself to one single religion. It is related to Hinduism, Roman mythology, and Christianity in a way that is all his own. Whitman's Self is implemented in "Chanting the Square Deific" in a way that solidifies his beliefs for the rest of Leaves of Grass.

What Whitman has accomplished in this poem, a combination of complex interpretations, is an entire background for his beliefs. “Chanting the Square Deific” has taken the typical Christian trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and turned it into a square or quaternity. His third stanza introduces the fourth side, which is Satan. This seems to be how he balances power. Satan is a “comrade of criminals” but also a “brother of slaves” (Whitman). This introduces Satan as an evil entity with warlike characteristics, but he also reaches to the despondent. He is not empathetic, but he is vengeful and a wanton revolutionary. This stanza has important antithetical statements to the first stanza about God. In the first stanza, he says “Not Time affects me—I am Time, old, modern as any” (Whitman). This is countered by the third stanza statement that says “Nor time nor change shall ever change me or my words” (Whitman). This means that Satan is unaffected by God; they are necessary to each other in almost neutralizing one another.

The second stanza, pertaining to Christ, does not seem to oppose the fourth, which represents the spirit. Christ is sacrificial, affectionate, and charitable; he appears to promote life, while the soul embodies it. His sacrifice is shown by him saying “all the world have I given up for my dear brothers' and sisters' sake, for the soul's sake” (Whitman). He is responsible for the soul, but the soul is “Including all life on earth, touching, including God, including Saviour and Satan” (Whitman). They have made up some sort of codependency upon each other for sustenance. This essentially facilitates the understanding of Whitman’s Self.

Whitman demonstrates his relation to all of these deities in every line of the poem. He uses the first person, not to write from the gods’ perspectives, but to proclaim his relation to them. They are all one entity. He concludes the poem in a way that seems to tell the readers that they too are a part of this omnipresent entity by saying “breathe my breath also through these songs” (Whitman). Charles M. Oliver believes that “The last line suggests that the poet himself represents the Santa Spirita, singing not just this "Chant" of the "Square Deific," but all the songs of Leaves of Grass.” It seems more like the “songs” are just referring to the four stanzas, but it is possible that it refers to the rest of the Leaves of Grass. Whitman’s profound illustration of spirituality, gods, and the Self has proven to be explanatory of his own intricate discoveries in life.

Whitman's poem has exemplified a great deal of complexity in religion. He brought his Self into the equation to make a truly intricate relation that incorporates four sides of gods. This poem is important in understanding Walt Whitman and interpreting his songs.

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 3, 2012).

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

Journal 29- Self

My transcendental self would be exactly who I am. There are a lot of words that could be used, but they do not exactly do me justice. I am more than just the words that I can come up with. I am intelligent, but I also look for knowledge and teach myself a lot. This is also because I am curious and spend a lot of time thinking. I do not think that anybody really knows me because I am the only person that can see it. Most people just get a gist of who I am, and it is not the best explanation of my self. I am very interested in gaining knowledge. I think that it is important to always be building on your self, by which I mean to constantly be improving on yourself. I think a person should, or really I, should always do something pertinent. I usually do things that enhance myself mentally or physically, or any other way. I can be hypocritical because I am not always doing something I want to, I can be doing something like watching tv, which usually has no point. Another important part of my self is that I have very strong beliefs and usually do not give up on something I believe. I am not religious, so I do not believe in any sort of god. I think the main points of religion are to give people morals and rules to follow that make them better people to each other and to explain the unexplainable. To me, there is no reason to be apart of one religion because I have my own principles of being kind to others, and I think science can eventually explain the universe. It seems more like a conformity to be religious. I am not just going to believe something that somebody tells me just because most people believe it. I am going to create my own ideas based on what I see. I think it is good to get away from people also. Most people have Facebooks and other things like that that make them just care about what other people are doing, which does not matter at all. I do not have a Facebook because I only care what I am doing. I think it is nice to just go outside, and basically do nothing. It is a much more productive thing to do than check out what everybody else is up to. This could go longer, but there is no more time.

Reflection Blog: Dickinson again

"Nature, the Gentlest Mother" by Emily Dickinson describes Mother Earth and how she takes care of her "children" and "household" (Dickinson). Nature is "impatient of no child" which symbolizes how Mother Earth takes care of everyone on the planet and even when her "children" harm her (carbon emissions, fires, ecosystem meddling), she will always be their mother and take care of them from the "feeblest" to the "waywardest" (Dickinson). The next stanza in the poem describes how Nature aids her children. She is present in the forests and hills, and is "heard by travelers" (Dickinson). "Hearing" nature invokes onomatopoeia of wind whistling and rustling the trees in the forests and whipping the tall grass and wildflowers on the tall and rolling hills. Also the animals making a variety of noises in the forest are a sign of Nature's presence. The flowers growing on the hills represent the gentle loving touch of Mother Earth as life on the hill. The third stanza uses personification. Emily Dickinson describes all of the flora and fauna, as well as the creatures and critters that roam the Earth, as Nature's "household" and "assembly" (Dickinson). Nature has "fair conversation" with her "household" (Dickinson). The conversation is a representation of the interaction between Nature and the living things on the Earth. Without sun light and rain the plants and trees could not survive. Also, the changing seasons effect the ecosystems and the animals. Mother Earth takes care of her "children" by providing "warm summer days" and not having freezing, deadly winters (Dickinson).

Emily Dickinson explains that nature, or Mother Nature, has an effect on every creature, whether it is the “minutest cricket” or “the most unworthy flower” (Dickinson). Dickinson has done a great job of personifying nature in this poem also. She says that “her voice among the aisles incites the timid prayer”, so she has given nature a voice that reaches all creatures she has created (Dickinson). She also says that “with infinite affection and infiniter care, her golden finger on her lip, wills silence everywhere” (Dickinson). She has given nature not just a finger but a golden finger. That symbolizes that nature’s finger is of a more important significance because gold represents more noble or distinguished feature. She clearly has a deep affection for nature in this poem. This poem also has a good amount of imagery. Her descriptions are very strong and animated. She creates the image of children sleeping, a very miniscule cricket, an ugly or ‘unworthy’ flower, and how when nature turns to darkness it creates silence everywhere. She presents rhymes in the final stanza, but it is only with the second and fourth lines. The rhyme scheme does not seem to matter as much to her as a good rhythm. She keeps a constant rhythm that is different, but makes the reading flow. The syllables do not always match up with each line, but she creates a certain element of poetry that makes this poem, “Nature, the gentlest Mother”, worth reading.

Dickinson, Emily . "Nature, the Gentlest Mother." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.

Journal #28 More Emily Dickinson

In Emily Dickinson's poem, "I Heard a fly buzz when I Died", she is coming to terms with her death. There is an absolute stillness in the air and in her body. The people that mourn her are anticipating her death in the calmness, and, when she gives up her earthly attachments, she sees a fly buzzing through air. She would have passes away in utter silence, but the fly interposes on her serene passing. The fly seems to represent something of insignificance playing a significant role. It is an unimportant insect in life, but it symbolizes something of importance that cuts her off from the living world. From the beginning of the poem, the author has established a complete image of the setting. There is an overbearing calmness in the deceased and in the air. She also uses imagery to describe the insignificant fly. The fly is described "with blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz" so that the reader gets a good idea of what it looks like. It is not confident in its movements and it is stumbling, but even these imperfected movements distract the dying woman on her death bed. There does not seem to be a very strong spiritual message from this poem. The woman could be thinking about what will happen after she dies, like whether her soul will go to Heaven or if anything at all will happen, but she is thinking about a fly in her last moments. It is sort of ironic that a person could be living their whole life, not knowing the purpose, meaning, or significance of their existence, and when they could be analyzing their every action they are thinking about a bug. The fly could then be a representation of her. She is an insignificant being in the whole scheme of life, but she could have a profound effect on someone else or something else. It seems to be saying that anything, no matter how small or seemingly unnecessary, has some sort of importance in the world.

Journal #27 Emily Dickinson tune

Emily Dickinson was raised and pressured to be a Christian by her family. She had a deep respect for the Bible, but she basically refused to conform directly to Christianity. She had different religious ideas throughout her life, and many times there were Christian ideas involved. She waffled between different religious ideas, so it makes sense that Amazing Grace, or other hymnal songs, would be common tune in her poems. Amazing Grace has the obvious religious background and theme, but it also represents an idea of hope, although it is mostly a hope in God, which was prevalent in many of Emily Dickinson's poems. It is like she contradicts herself by using this song at the same time. By using this tune, she would be saying that God's grace saved her, but she could be believing in a different god that is not the Christian God. It is a very interesting thing to use this tune, or really any tune for that matter, over many poems. As the song says: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me..." She is saved by God's grace, but it is her God, which can be the typical Christian God, or anything different that she has formed in her own mind and ideas. She could be talking about either God, and, since she is not alive any longer, it is not really possible to know which one she was talking about. Basically she has her own religious feelings and interpretations that could be her own thing or a specifically different combination of Christian morals and ideas with her own. Amazing Grace is a typical religiously based song, so her use of it could just be significant because she was strongly religious. She interprets Amazing Grace the way that she wants to, and she uses it to coincide with her own works of poetry. Emily Dickinson's use of the song Amazing Grace has its own implications, which can also have different interpretations by those who read her poems.

Emily Dickinson writing style

Emily Dickinson has proven herself to be one of the greats of poetry in her time and beyond. Her poems resonate today, and her unique writing style remains unmatched. One of her distinctive elements as a poet is her use of dashes. They are consistent in her works, and, as Fagan says, they “become a thread between the sayable and the unsayable, a caesura between life and death, a pause, a gasp, sometimes a chasm over which one must make a leap of understanding.” She claims that the dash represents more than just a piece of punctuation. Dickinson’s writing style consists of a lot of figurative language such as rhymes, imagery, and personification. Her common themes, or motifs, include nature, the individual and their relation to different things like God and death, and beauty. Her writing is more like the transcendentalists because of its usual optimistic characteristics, but it resembles Modernism because it took poetry in a new direction that modernists were really just trying to reach.

Dickinson’s poem, “The Soul selects her own Society”, shows exactly the extent of her dashes. Literally every line ends in a dash, and some contain them within lines. It reads: “The Soul selects her own Society—then—shuts the door—“ (Dickinson 440). Although Fagan claims that there is an utterly profound reason for these dashes in Dickinson’s writing, it seems like more of just a unique style she used, and simply and added pause to make the poems read the way she intended. In “Because I could not stop for Death”, Dickinson explains that death occurred when she would not give in to it, but it brings her “toward eternity” (448). This shows her interest in death, and that she views it as a bridge to a new eternity. Dickinson’s “The Savior must have been a Docile Gentleman” shows her Christian influence. She is not necessarily Christian, but she still writes about it. In “Hope is the thing with Feathers”, she explains that hope is something that lives in the soul, and in the soul of everyone, and there is not a storm strong enough “that could abash the little bird” (Dickinson). Whether religiously, morally, or intuitively based, Dickinson’s optimistic hope is something that will not be destroyed so easily.

Dickinson uses figurative language in just about every poem. There are rhymes such as “and sweetest in the gale is heard; and sore must be the storm that could abash the little bird that kept so many warm” (Dickinson). In the same poem she gives hope animal qualities. She says that hope has feathers and perches in the soul. Arguably, every poem of Dickinson’s uses imagery. She writes words that cause the reader to see the images that she describes. Her beautiful and complex writing style help create these images in a person’s mind. Ultimately, getting the reader to visualize what the writer creates is one of the main goals. They basically just want to get the people to see their vision.


Dickinson, Emily. "Hope Is the Thing with Feathers (254)- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More." Poets.org. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.


Dickinson, Emily. “from Dickinson’s Poetry.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 437-451. Print.


Fagan, Deirdre. "Emily Dickinson's Unutterable Word." Emily Dickinson Journal 14, no. 2 (Fall 2005): 70–75. Quoted as "Emily Dickinson's Unutterable Word" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Emily Dickinson, New Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin

Whitman writing style

Walt Whitman’s writing style has a few distinct characteristics. Being one of the most influential and important writers of his time, and all time, he had something that was new to American writing and poetry. He neither fell directly into the Realism writing period nor the Modernism period, and it shows in his works. In many works, Whitman’s free verse poems are very musical and several times they begin with ‘The Song of…’, such as “A Song for Occupations,” “Song of the Exposition,” or more commonly “Song of Myself.” He also appeals to the common man in many poems, and familiar themes are patriotism, democracy, humanity and nature, and a couple of poems on Lincoln’s assassination. An important symbol in “Leaves of Grass” is the ‘I’ in it alludes to Whitman, but it represents a more omnipotent narrator. At the same time, this is also a certain pretention to his writing because Whitman is writing as the omnipotent.

The free verse style that Whitman uses is one of his most distinguishing features as a writer. During his time, it was very unconventional, and enough to give him the informal title of the father of free verse. William Sloane Kennedy “celebrates Whitman's free verse for diligently shedding the artificial syntax of traditional poetry, thereby evoking the spontaneous rhythms and turns of phrase characteristic of authentic human speech.” His writing is natural and comes from what he finds to be natural. In “One’s-Self I Sing”, Whitman says: “one’s-self I sing, a simple separate person. Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse… the Female equally with the Male I sing… the Modern Man I sing.” Being another poem that is Whitman singing, this represents what he is personally feeling. It comes from within, and it expresses his thoughts. “It can be indubitably proved that his poetic art…is profoundly consonant with the laws of nature and symphonic music” (Kennedy). Kennedy argues that Whitman’s style is naturally musical; that almost every other poet is unnatural and unmusical; and that Whitman’s poems could even be organized in a way that is typical of poets instead of his free verse style.

Regarding themes, Whitman even says that war is only one to have. He says: “Know’st thou not there is but one theme for ever-enduring bards? And that is the theme of War” (Whitman). Experiencing the Civil War first hand, Whitman must have seen something very important about it to make it that important of a theme. But, as Whitman says, “for you these from me, O Democracy… I am trilling songs.” Essentially he must be saying that he writes about war, or sings about it, as an ode to democracy. Whitman expresses his patriotism in “Turn O Libertad.” He says that things are changing, and changing for the better; “turn your undying face, to where the future, greater than all the past, is swiftly, surely preparing for you.” Whitman’s sorrow after Lincoln’s assassination is seen in “O Captain! My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”

Kennedy, William Sloane. "Whitman's Word-Music."Reminiscences of Walt Whitman, London, 1896: 162–90. Quoted as "Whitman's Word-Music" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVWaW042&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 20, 2012).

Whitman, Walt. "Leaves of Grass, 1891-92 Edition." Published Works. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. .

BLOG 18: Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”, which Ralph Waldo Emerson called “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed”, displays works on war, nature, life and death, and more (Kaplan 431). One of his poems, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”, really shows what Whitman is about. It is that transcendentalist belief that more can be learned from seeing things as they naturally are than from a lecture. In the poem, a man listens to an astronomer explaining something, but the author grows “tired and sick” (Whitman 411). He leaves the lecture and finds that looking up at the stars in perfect silence is much more divine. In this poem, but more so in many of his others poems, he expresses his attachment to nature.

“Emerson argued that divinity was present throughout the physical world and that all humans were equally miracles of creation”, which is something that Whitman definitely believed (Letter to Walt Whitman). Whitman said: “As to me I know nothing else but miracles”, and, after listing many natural things as miracles he says that “These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles” (Whitman). Emerson also had the same belief that Whitman expressed in “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” In “Nature”, Emerson basically says that intuition, with seeing things as they naturally fall in relation to a larger scheme of life, is preferable to sciences. They both seem to have this same belief, but it would make more sense if they could find harmony between the two. Listen to the lectures and study the sciences, and then apply that when looking at the stars or viewing nature.

One subject that Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman appear to differ on is government. Thoreau wanted little to no government, as he says: “That government is best which governs not at all", while Whitman praised democracy (Thoreau). Emerson and Thoreau had a lot in common due to their mentor-mentee relationship, and Whitman and Emerson had a lot in common, so, by the associative property, Thoreau and Whitman had a lot in common. They both loved nature and believed it had something to teach.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Letter to Walt Whitman (July 21, 1855). Quoted as "Letter to Walt Whitman" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVWaW058&SingleRecord=True

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Kaplan, Justin. “from Walt Whitman: A Life.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 430-436. Print.


Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Whitman, Walt. "Miracles - Walt Whitman (1819-1892)." Books & Literature Classics. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. .

Whitman, Walt. “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 411. Print.

BLOG 17: Emily Dickinson

The best thing about Emily Dickinson is that she wrote many short poems. Some deal with life and death, some with nature, some with the soul, and more. Writing many poems lets her cover more topics, and, although they are frequently short, they develop large ideas. In “Much Madness is divinest Sense”, Dickinson writes about how insightful people are the ones who are really mad, while madness is true understanding. She says: “Assent—and you are sane—demur you’re straightway dangerous—and handled with a chain” (Dickinson 442). She is saying that those who follow are normal, and those who disagree are the prisoners. The majority is setting what is sanity, but Dickinson is saying that the majority is not correct. In “This is my Letter to the World”, she writes that she wants to teach the things that nature taught her even though the world does not recognize her. This shows her interest in nature, her desire to bring others into its vicinity, and her want for others to “judge tenderly” of her (Dickinson 451).

Emily Dickinson definitely relates to Ralph Waldo Emerson on different topics. Regarding “Much Madness is divinest Sense”, Emerson’s writing in “Self-Reliance” provides some similarities; he said that “to be great is to be misunderstood” and, remarking on this, Brugman said: “while a strong individual is necessary for a strong society, a strong society crushes the individual who stands out as different” (Emerson). Dickinson’s poem expresses exactly this. Conformity equates to sanity and “demur” leads to punishment. One of Dickinson’s influences, Emerson clearly inspired some of her feelings toward nature. The ideas that she expresses in her poetry seem like direct descendents from Emerson.

The relation between “Much Madness is the divinest Sense” and Henry David Thoreau could be from a line in “Civil Disobedience that says “a minority is powerless when it conforms to the majority” or when he says that “the true place for a just man is also a prison.” The just man Thoreau speaks of is like the mad man in Dickinson’s poem because when they object they are both imprisoned. Dickinson’s view on nature from “This is my letter to the World” seems just as relatable to Thoreau as to Emerson because he also believed in learning from what it had to teach, which he explains in “Walden.”


Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL0377&SingleRecord=True

Dickinson, Emily. “Much Madness is the divinest Sense.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 442. Print.

Dickinson, Emily. “This is my Letter to the World.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 451. Print.


Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walden - an Annotated Edition." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

BLOG 16: Jack London

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a story of a man, an overly confident one at that, and the point, or at least one of the points, is that he thinks he is control when he is not. He is on a long trail, and, although he does not use all of it advantageously, he has information and is well aware of what to expect. Another man told him to bring a companion, he did not; his friend, Bud, wore nose straps, he did not. He does not respect other people enough to follow advice, he does not respect his only companion, the dog, enough to not attempt killing it, and he does not respect his environment so he dies. The man who was “quick and alert in the things in life, but only the things, and not in the significances” learned that there are forces outside of his control (London 604). He could have respected the omnipotent and omnipresent intensity of nature, but he suffered in the end.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works are somewhat contradictory in regard to this. He advocates respect toward nature to a great extent, but at the same time he focuses on self-reliance. Emerson beautifies nature all throughout “Nature” explaining that deifies people, that art comes from nature, and that it is not a substance but a phenomenon. In “Self-Reliance”, he says “A stranger will say with masterly good sense, precisely what we have thought and felt all the time.” The main character in “To Build a Fire” could have learned from what others say.

Thoreau follows the message from this story also. Specifically in “Walden”, he shows the importance of nature. He even explains that it can teach people by saying: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach…” The man in London’s story, once again, could have learned from this. Nature teaches messages, and, in this case, it was the difference between life and death.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.

London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 603-614. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walden - an Annotated Edition." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

BLOG 15: Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Corey” is a somewhat funny, ironic, little poem. It starts with an upbeat mood and “a gentleman from sole to crown”, but in the very last line the mood shifts completely to Richard Corey shooting himself (Robinson 575). With 16 short lines, this poem has a limited amount of interpretation. Corey is a sound man who seems content on the outside, but he clearly has some problem that is not projected externally. It shows that no matter how people may seem, or happy they seem, there is no way to know what they are dealing with on the inside. On the other hand, “he was rich—yes, richer than a king…”, but even this vast accumulation of wealth cannot satisfy Richard Corey. It shows that material items do not bring happiness, and, possibly, that they bring the exact opposite. The money, maybe some sort of stress related to it, caused him “to put a bullet through his head” (Robinson 575).

Henry David Thoreau has the same opinion on materialism as Robinson in “Richard Corey.” Thoreau, in “Walden”, went to the woods, which is exactly where material items are not. He even said that material items are “improved means to an unimproved end” (Thoreau). Although he hardly left society, he was clearly a believer in the idea that money does not buy happiness. He got joy from nature, from the woods, from walking, and similar things that were all free.

Emerson probably has the same beliefs as Thoreau. In “Nature” he said that a harmony between man and nature will bring delight, and, since nature cannot be bought and is not a material item, it can be deduced that Emerson also does not think that money buys happiness. Ultimately, saying that money does not buy happiness is more of a philosophical argument than a rational argument. If nature is what brings a person happiness, then the rational argument would be that nature can be made more accessible by a person with money than by a person without.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Richard Corey.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 575. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walden - an Annotated Edition." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

BLOG 14: Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov’s “The Darling” is a story of an ignorant woman who cannot think for herself, so she incessantly falls in love and relies on men for opinions and ideas in a patriarchal society. The story seems misogynistic in nature like when Olenka, the main character, says something and the current husband retorts: “Haven’t I told you before not to talk about things you don’t understand. When we vets are talking shop, please don’t butt in. It’s extremely tedious” (Chekhov 562). Olenka is continually giving women a bad name. Her ignorance and conceited arrogance make a strange combination; she says that there is nothing as important as theatre and that people need to watch it and appreciate it more, but, not too soon after, she is too focused on timber and says: “We’re working folk, we can’t be bothered with trifles. What do people see in those theatres, anyway?” (Chekhov 561).Very rarely do people actually change their opinions on things they are passionate about so carelessly, which can make Olenka seem more fictional or make people think less highly of women. Ultimately, though, Chekhov was not a misogynist because he wrote this story to “show what women ought not to be”, and to reassert that women deserve the right to a mind and soul of their own (Poggioli).

As Henry David Thoreau said, “A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority.” Olenka represents feebleness in women being a minority, and a dependence on men. Men are almost always the majority or at least leaders, matriarchies being somewhat rare, so women, as Thoreau says, are powerless. In Chekhov’s story, she seems to be more dependent than powerless because she has power when she has love or a man, but when she is alone she cannot even form a basic opinion on something as simple as rain.

Emerson believes something quite similar to Chekhov, but contrary to the plot of the story. Dependence being the antithesis of self-reliance, Emerson was teaching independence, and, since Chekhov was warning women not to be like Olenka, he really had the same message. Emerson said that “In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts”, but this presents an interesting perception. Olenka either recognizes her rejected thoughts in every man, or she has no thoughts to recognize or even reject.

Chekhov, Anton. “The Darling.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 557-565. Print.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.

Poggioli, Renatto. "Storytelling in a Double Key" in Anton Chekhov's Short Stories, Ralph E. Matlaw, ed. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979): pp. 324–26, 327–28. Quoted as "Love in the Story" in Harold Bloom, ed. Anton Chekhov, Bloom's Major Short Story Writers. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2001. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BMSSAC34&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 6, 2012).

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

BLOG 12: Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters addresses several different things in “Spoon River Anthology” with his different characters that all express Masters’ realism. It is hard to say what his philosophy was because he is putting himself in the position of other people, many based on those he actually knew, so it will have to broken down into the different ideas in different poems. In “Trainor the Druggist”, shows how life is unpredictable. He says: “Only the chemist can tell…what will result from compounding fluids or solids. And who can tell how men and women will interact…” (Masters 19). He dies unmarried because he did not know what the results would be of his reaction with a women, or, in other words, how the child would turn out. In “Alexander Throckmorton” he says that “genius is wisdom and youth”, but wisdom comes with age so it is insurmountable to have both (Masters 125). Then, in “Professor Newcomer”, Masters tells of an engine that was so powerful it overworked itself to death. He compares this engine to humans using all their energies while having “nothing to do” (Masters 133). His “Fiddler Jones” ends with the lines: “I ended up with forty acres… a broken fiddle… a broken laugh, and a thousand memories, and not a single regret” (Masters 61). All of his experiences and memories made him who he is, so he has no regrets.

Thoreau would probably feel the same way as Trainor the druggist because he was left unmarried. Like the druggist, he stuck to his interests or what he knew. Thoreau would not agree with Professor Newcomer though. He says that “a man has not everything to do, but something…”, while Newcomer says man has nothing to do (Thoreau). And, of course, Thoreau wanted to live without regrets because he says so in “Walden.”

Emerson has a somewhat radical stance on what Trainor the druggist says. He probably thought it was possible to predict things the way he relied on intuition and basically says nature put things in certain relations that could be understood, but not by relying on sciences that were not so natural. Trainor is a man who solely relies on science that when he cannot predict what will happen in marriage, he does not get married. Relating to Throckmorton, Emerson admired infancy, which, Brugman explains, is pure and honest.

Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL0377&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 30, 2012)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Masters, Edgar Lee. “Spoon River Anthology.” New York: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1996. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

BLOG 11: Twain

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is a story by Mark Twain that uses his typical vernacular, exemplifying regionalism, to tell a story about a man telling a story. It is a tale of a man with a knack for gambling who gets tricked after what appears to be a lifetime of almost never losing. It seems very realistic the way the story is told. People usually exaggerate stories the way Simon Wheeler does, and it becomes mythic the way Jim Smiley is fictitiously illustrated that it is hard for the narrator to even believe it. There is not much of a serious message to take from this story except maybe to always try hard at everything or that everybody loses sometimes, but Twain really just appears to have written a comical story about another person telling an ironic story. Mark Twain’s philosophy in this story seems to be to take everything less seriously and more like a joke, which can be seen in the ending when he says: “Oh! hang Smiley and his afflicted cow! I muttered, good naturedly, and bidding the old gentleman good-day, I departed” (Twain 502).

Mark Twain’s philosophy is, then, much different than Emerson or Thoreau. Mark Twain’s story is like an entire joke, all while a character is telling a story that is to be perceived as a joke. Everything Emerson and Thoreau write is supposed to be taken seriously and they write about important things of their time that are still important today to make people look at things differently. Even when Thoreau writes “Walking”, a story about the art of walking, it is meant to be taken earnestly. Thoreau says: “I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks, who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering” (Thoreau). After this, he goes on about the word ‘sauntering’ for an entire paragraph. He is so serious when it comes to walking, but it is something he is passionate about. It is similar to Emerson’s fixation with nature, and how, as Wayne explains, he sees the two versions of nature, the common and philosophical (Wayne). Mark Twain does not have this obsession with the universe and understanding it through self-education; he just seems to write a story for entertainment purposes.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walking." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. .

Twain, Mark. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 498-502. Print.

Wayne, Tiffany K. "Nature." Critical Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=CCRWE0088&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 30, 2012)

BLOG 10: Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane, author of “The Red Badge of Courage”, exemplifies a good deal of Naturalism. This is shown when he wrote: “A man said to the universe: “Sir, I exist!” “However,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation” (Crane 492). This shows that the universe is not going to help the man in his life, but, at the same time, the universe is going to contribute to the formation of the man’s life. The universe does not revolve around the man, but instead the man revolves around the universe. In “The Red Badge of Courage”, the main character, Henry Fleming, is modeled by his environment. When Fleming flees from battle, afterwards wanting a “red badge of courage”, the universe ironically gives him a red badge of shame in the form of a soldier hitting him on the head. In the beginning, Fleming seemed to admire war, but at the end he thinks fondly of “images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks--an existence of soft and eternal peace” (Crane). Consequently, Crane’s philosophy must be Naturalistic, so he believes that ordinary people are shaped by their environment and are against “an indifferent society” (Crane 492).

Thoreau could definitely be classified as a Naturalist. One of his main topics, nature, is even the root of the word. Thoreau even went to Walden pond to “live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach…” (Thoreau). The important part here is that he is learning from nature. He is not just unknowingly being influenced by his environment, but he is going out to deliberately learn from it.

Emerson’s emphasis on self-reliance relates him to Naturalism. When a person is self-reliant then they do not need help, and because, as Crane said, the universe is not obliged to help, they are living naturalistically. In “Nature” Emerson says that when man and nature are in harmony there is delight (Wayne). This sort of seems like impossibility in regard to Naturalism because man should not be able to be in harmony with the universe.

Crane, Stephen. “from A Red Badge of Courage.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 492-493. Print.

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

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walden - an Annotated Edition." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. .

Wayne, Tiffany K. "Nature." Critical Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=CCRWE0088&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 30, 2012)

BLOG 9: Kate Chopin

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is an interesting story because it is about a woman and is also an ironic tragedy. There is sort of a cavalcade of emotions for the main character, Mrs. Mallard. The loss of her husband causes immediate grief but also eventual reluctance and freedom. She is liberated from the bondage of man and marriage, but, in the twist ending, the husband is still alive and she dies from the shock. In regards to her husband, she says she loved him sometimes, but “often she had not” (Chopin 555). This makes her freedom more easily acceptable, and she can go out and see “the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life”, feel “the delicious breath of rain… in the air”, and hear “the notes of a distant song” and “countless sparrows… twittering in the eaves” (Chopin 554).The philosophy is that freedom is natural, women deserve their natural right to freedom, and marriage is a form of bondage. It deals with, as Werlock says, “issues of feminism, namely, a woman's dissatisfaction in a conventional marriage and her desire for independence” (Werlock).

Pertaining to women being able to have equality, Emerson said that “it is they and not we that are to determine it” (Vetter and Dane). Emerson almost seems like he waffled on this issue, but he generally believed in equality by saying: “If women feel wronged then they are wronged...I should vote for every franchise for women” (Vetter and Dane). To marriage, Emerson said that “a man’s wife has more power over him than the state has” (Vetter and Dane). This is definitely something Chopin would disagree with. In her story, man either has all the power or marriage takes away both of the husband and wife’s freedom. A good marriage to Chopin might look something like FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt’s marriage; where they both did their own thing and the whole affiliation was mostly political.

Thoreau said that “a minority is powerless when it conforms to a majority” (Thoreau). Granted he was not talking about women when he said this, it really applies to all minorities. Although, this does not insinuate that he believes each minority, in this case women, should be empowered. Thoreau also said “it is the marriage of the soul with Nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination”, so his marriage is different than both Emerson and Chopin (Creative).

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. 553-555. Print.

"Creative Quotes and QuotationsOn Imagination..." CreatingMinds. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. .

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Vetter, Herbert F., and Andrew Dane. "Women’s Rights | Emerson - Living Legacy."Harvard Square Library. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. .

Werlock, Abby H. P. "'The Story of an Hour'." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, 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= CASS782&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 23, 2012).

BLOG 8: Cather

Willa Cather’s “A Wagner Matinée” concludes very well, at least comparatively to the rest of the story. It starts kind of slow and boring, but there is a strong ending that ties up well and makes it worth a read. The story is told from a boy named Clark’s perspective, but the main focus would have to be set on his Aunt, Georgiana. Georgiana is living in Nebraska, but she used to live in Boston, where Clark currently lives. She shows up, they go to a matinée, and she is basically succumbs to emotion from the music being played. It is short lived because “just outside the concert hall lay the black pond with cattle-tracked bluffs…” that is her home in Nebraska (Cather 526). It ends with a thought of the Aunt’s memories and alludes to what once was. Some of the main ideas seem to be about regret, sacrifice, music, choice, and consequences. The best fitting philosophy would be to live life without regrets.

Cather’s philosophy is easily related to Thoreau. In “Walden” he says “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Thoreau). Generally, he does not want to reach his last days of life and realize that he has regrets. It seems more like the Aunt in “A Wagner Matinée” has not heeded Thoreau’s warning and now has regrets in her life. Of course, it was not Cather who faced regrets, but she created a character from whom to learn a lesson.

Emerson said “How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements” (Emerson). Cather takes one of these elements, music, and puts large meaning behind it to ‘deify’ Aunt Georgiana. Both Emerson and Cather are similar in the way they portray emotion; Emerson toward nature and Cather toward music. The quote from Emerson that best fits is: “The lover of nature is he… who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood” (Emerson). Aunt Georgiana has retained her infantile love of music into her adulthood.

Willa, Cather. “A Wagner Matinée.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 521-526. Print.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walden - an Annotated Edition." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. .

BLOG 7: Ambrose Bierce

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce seems to be bordering between Romanticism and Realism. It has a realistic ending, but it also fantastical because reality is blurred in the third section. There are a few thematic ideas to this story, but one conspicuous example deals with death. It seems to be saying that death is inevitable. The main character, Peyton Farquhar, is faced with being hanged by Union soldiers in the first part of the story, and, after he seems to escape and be safe at home, it all turns out to be some sort of dream and he dies on the noose. This leads to what Bierce’s general philosophy could be, at least in this story. It appears to be a question of what is really true and what reality is. Bierce’s biographer, Carey McWilliams, said that he “did not trust people… nor… governments, businesses, churches… easy answers or sentimentality” (Bierce 387). This must have led him to distrust reality also.

When it comes to what truth is, Emerson’s idea appears contrary to Bierce’s. Emerson says things like “trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string” to show that he thinks everyone knows what the truth is (Self Reliance). Bierce thinks that nobody knows, or at least he does not know, what is true. Emerson also believed in intuition for the truth. He said that “a dream may let us deeper into the secret of nature than a hundred concerted experiments” (Nature). He goes against sciences of different sorts in “Nature” because he believes they can almost push people away from other things including the truth. Bierce shows an attraction to nature in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, but Emerson is enthralled by it. Bierce beautifies nature when his character’s senses are heightened and pays close attention to certain things, but Emerson wrote a whole essay with eight different parts capturing almost all elements of nature and putting in his opinions.

Thoreau has some similar views as Bierce. Thoreau does not really come out and say he does not trust the government in “Civil Disobedience”, although he does somewhat come out against it, but Bierce did not trust hardly anything (Thoreau). While there is not much to get from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek” about government, there too is not much from what Thoreau talks about that is in this story. Thoreau also had a profound feeling toward nature like Emerson. Grant says that Thoreau’s relation with nature was that it was an artistic model, a source of sustenance, and a moral teacher (Grant).

Bierce, Ambrose. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 387-396. Print.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. .

Grant, P. B. "Nature 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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL1134&SingleRecord=True (accessed January30, 2012)

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

BLOG 6: Robert E. Lee

Although Robert E. Lee was the general of the Confederate army, something most people would oppose, he wrote the “Letter to His Son” quite proficiently or possibly just admirably. His letter is probably enough to make a person respect the Confederate cause. Lee states that he does not want civil war to “take the place of brotherly love and kindness” (Lee). Lee also says he will “draw my sword on none” “save in defense” (Lee). He contends to his principles, he is prideful, and he is “willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its [the Union’s] preservation” (Lee). It is pretty obvious that Lee’s philosophy is that each person should live by their principles and stand by their people, even in the worst times.

Thoreau’s ideas expressed in “Civil Disobedience” are right alongside with Robert E. Lee. They both basically say that people have to do what they believe regardless of the legality or consequences. This is a slightly more bold idea, but they are not far off from it. Thoreau says that people should be able to govern themselves, and that unjust laws could be broken. He says “but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law” (Thoreau). That is pretty much what Lee did when he left the Union.

Some of Emerson’s ideas also coincide with Robert E. Lee. As Patricia Brugman says, “Emerson states that the strong individual is the result of strong, personal truths” (Brugman). According to this, everyone who follows their deep truths is a strong individual, so Lee would be considered a strong individual to Emerson. But Emerson also says “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string” (Emerson). If everybody had the same truths then the Civil War would not have gone the way it did. The Union had a different idea about secession than the Confederacy, and, when the war was about slavery, their ‘truths’ differed once again. Robert E. Lee would probably say that strong individuals live by strong truths, but they are not necessarily the same from person to person. Regardless, their ideas, along with Thoreau’s, all have some commonality.

Brugman, Patricia. "Work in Emerson's 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL0379&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 31, 2012)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. .

Lee, Robert E. “Letter to His Son.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 385. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

BLOG 5: Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth’s “And Ain’t I a Woman” is a speech about women’s rights. She uses simple arguments to justify that she deserves equal treatment. She says that someone said women “need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the place everywhere”, but nobody does that for her (Truth). Then she argues that she can do just as much work as men can do, and after that she makes it a religious argument. She says that men had nothing to do with Jesus because it was just God and a woman (Truth). She makes fairly obvious arguments that are generally common sense, but they are firm and persuasive. If there was a central philosophy to her message it would be that people need to essentially use sense and logic to govern their discriminatory views, specifically toward women. Obviously the main point to her speech was that she, along with all women but explicitly black women, deserves to be treated respectably as a woman, but epitomizing her philosophy explains this.

This can sort of be related to Emerson in “Self Reliance”. He said to "trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string” (Brugman). This could be interpreted to represent common sense, which would relate to Sojourner Truth. Fundamentally everyone should have common sense, which would be the hearts vibrating to the same iron string. Emerson also says “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius” (Emerson). In this he says that everyone knows what is true, and Truth basically says that everyone knows, or should know, that her people are not being treated justly when they should be.

It is a slightly harder to relate Thoreau to Sojourner Truth. One quote that does it is when Thoreau said “A man has not everything to do, but something… because he cannot do everything…” (Thoreau). In this sense, Sojourner Truth was just doing that “something”, which would be helping women. A kind of correlation between the two is that Thoreau comes out against the state and sort of wants people to have more control and power in their lives, while Truth basically has to fight to have any power over her life.

Brugman, Patricia. "Work in Emerson's 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL0379&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 31, 2012)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. .

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Truth, Sojourner. “And Ain’t 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.

BLOG 3: Whitman

Walt Whitman has a similar philosophy in “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” to Emerson, but his whole poem is patriotic and collective in essence. It may seem very different than Emerson, who focused on self-reliance, because Whitman focuses on interdependence, but it is a lot like what Emerson was saying in “Self-Reliance”. Whitman’s poem is about an army, and armies are obviously dependent on each individual working together. Whitman ends his poem with a symbol of unity, which makes sense because he is mostly talking about the Union army. He says “scarlet, and blue, and snowy white, the guidon flags flutter gaily in the wind” (Whitman). The flag is symbolizing how unified the army is, and that they work together. Emerson said that “strong individuals are necessary for a strong society” (Brugman). This is just like how Whitman wrote. There were people being individualistic and doing what they wanted, he says some went to get a drink and others were negligent, but in the end they still work together (Whitman). This is all a good philosophy because during this time people all over the nation were becoming very independent (Divine).

The patriotism is what really makes this different than Thoreau’s philosophy. Thoreau really comes off as an anti-patriot, even if he is not. He appears this way because he starts of “Civil Disobedience” by saying that he wants no government and begins his next paragraph by saying the American government is annually losing its integrity (Thoreau). Most patriots do not claim the government to be lacking in integrity, but Thoreau likes to go against the grain and say what he really believes. He shows this to be true by going to jail for what he believes when he refuses to pay the poll tax (Thoreau).

The way that all of these are similar is in the way they all seem to succumb to nature. Obviously Emerson and Thoreau are fascinated by nature; Emerson wrote an essay titled “Nature” and Thoreau went to live on his own, or partially on his own, in “Walden”. Whitman’s “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” has a lot of description, and most of it pertains to nature. Although it is only a few lines long, the poem paints a good picture of nature with horses and how it is like each element of the scene is fit for a picture. He explains a lot of the color in this poem too. He says the “green islands”, “silvery river”, “brown-faced men”, and the flag is “scarlet, and blue, and snowy white” (Whitman).



Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL0377&SingleRecord=True(accessed January 30, 2012)

Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay, [c1900]; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/142/.

BLOG 2: Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln definitely differs on certain philosophical ideas with Henry David Thoreau. Lincoln is basically as far in the government as someone can go, and Thoreau is saying things against the government. Thoreau even goes to jail for not paying a poll tax, making a statement against voting, and Lincoln is only in the position that he is in because of voting. It is possible that Lincoln could side with Thoreau even if Lincoln is the president. Thoreau believed that voting did not mean anything without the backing of someone with morality to execute that which was voted on (Thoreau). Lincoln does not really say directly if he believes this, but he is, in many cases, the one who is supposed to execute the thing that was voted on. On the issue of slavery, Lincoln was changing with time. He started off politically without any real opposition to black servitude, but, well into the Civil War, he finally changed his beliefs to being against slavery but having a more gradual reformation plan (Divine). He even says in his second inaugural address that slavery was destroying the Union, but he never would have said this in his first address (Inaugural). Thoreau’s idea was more about immediate emancipation, and he demonstrates his fervor by helping escaped slaves (Wayne).

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lincoln also had clear differences. Emerson wrote a whole essay on being self-reliant, and Lincoln is in a position where everyone is reliant on him. Although Lincoln was a Republican, this was a much different Republican party that is really unrecognizable to today’s party. The main issue that defined them in the nineteenth century was slavery, and that is irrelevant today. Lincoln even enforced more government power and intervention, and, during the Civil War, he suspended the basic right of habeas corpus (Divine). Lincoln’s focus was more that people should strive to be self reliant, but that this would require government assistance until everybody, black or white, could live off their own means. That really is not too realistic in a time where slavery does still exist. Emerson had a lot of good ideas on self reliance. He said that “to be great is to be misunderstood” (Brugman). He also said that a strong individual was pertinent for a strong society, but a strong society will crush the individual who stands out as different (Brugman). It is contradictory and ironic, but there is a lot of truth to it. A good example is how Galileo claimed that the earth was heliocentric in his time. He was deemed a heretic even though he was right, and rejecting Galileo’s idea was keeping society regressed. Galileo is the strong individual in this case, and the strong society is preventing him, therefore preventing their own strength.

Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=ETL0377&SingleRecord=True(accessed January 30, 2012).

Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O.: for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1989; Bartleby.com, 2001. www.bartleby.com/124/.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Wayne, Tiffany K., ed. "Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson." Critical Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=CCRWE0243&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 31, 2012)

BLOG 1: Frederick Douglass

It is not easy to render Thoreau or Emerson to one single philosophy, although they do sometimes address consistent themes. With Frederick Douglass, it is easier to pinpoint a single argument or statement. He believes slavery is wrong, and he believes that everyone knows slavery is wrong. Douglass says he will not argue that slaves are men because “the manhood of the slave is conceded”; he will not argue that men are entitled to liberty because “you have already declared it”, referring to The Declaration of Independence; and he will not argue the wrongfulness of slavery because “there is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong” (Douglass). He makes his point; he iterates it eloquently; and he does it all logically.

Although abolition may be parts of Thoreau’s and Emerson’s beliefs, they do not make up the entirety of their philosophies. Their beliefs are more abstract in a way that a lot of them cannot be proven factually. Emerson can say that “matter is a phenomenon, not a substance” but there is no way to prove this, and, if anything, this would be easier to disprove. (Emerson). Just like how Thoreau can say that there are times when it is acceptable to break the law in “Civil Disobedience”, but there is no way to substantiate this.

In relation to Douglass’ belief of abolition, Thoreau said “if one honest man, ceasing to hold slaves, withdrew from the government and went to jail it would be the abolition of slavery in America” (Thoreau). Emerson has said “I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.... If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own” (Riley). Both of these men definitely had the same beliefs as Douglass in regards to the ethics of slavery, but they were not as adamant about it. Emerson was reluctant to associate himself with the cause until later in his life, but Thoreau helped fugitive slaves in his life (Riley). Douglass was more compelling about the issue, in writing and in life, because it directly affected him. Thoreau wrote about government and government intervention because that was something that directly affected him, so their philosophies were what they focused their attention on.

Douglass, Frederick. "Africans in America/Part 4/Frederick Douglass Speech." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. .

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. .

Riley, Shannon. "Ideas-Reform-Emerson." Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. .

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Civil Disobedience

“Civil Disobedience” is a good example of transcendentalist ideas. One of the main topics is about the individual in society, which is one of the biggest points in transcendentalism (Dark). Henry David Thoreau believed that there should be limited to no government because “That government is best which governs least" (Thoreau). As Graves says “Thoreau recognized that government… can sometimes be grievously wrong. I have some problems with a few of Thoreau’s ideas. Transcendentalism works well in writing fiction, but not in politics and government. Thoreau is more about everybody just helping themselves and not caring about the well being of others. If there is no government then anything can happen. It opens the door to corruption, so monopolies and price fixing can occur when there are no regulations. Thoreau says “Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it” (Thoreau). First of all everybody cannot always get what they want; secondly this is basically how the Constitution came to be; and thirdly the American government was founded on compromises. Not only was it created by compromising, but that is essentially how it works, and therefore what our country is based on. Thoreau also wants people to break laws if it requires a person to be an “agent of injustice” (Thoreau”). Who defines injustice but each individual with their own moral beliefs? He really embodies the Romanticism style that focuses on nature by saying that plants and acorns are following their own laws, so humans should too. Another idea of Thoreau’s is that “the best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor” (Thoreau). The problem with this is that a lot of wealthy people were born into their money, so they cannot carry out the beliefs they had when they were poor because they were never poor. Finally he says that he does not want to rely on the State for protection, but if he is disobedient then he will punished. The fault in this is that some people do need help. There are people who need government to help them economically and otherwise, so maybe Thoreau should be like his criticized minority and conform to the majority. Of course one thing that can be agreed with is his stance on abolition. But he criticizes people who oppose it in thought but do nothing in action. People cannot always put their full support behind something they believe. Everybody cannot be like Thoreau, who goes to jail for his beliefs. But he also said “if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America” (Thoreau). Thoreau only went to jail for not paying a poll tax, but he had the potential to follow through with this and end slavery in America. Either he is not an honest man, or he has succumbed to hypocrisy. He is speaking about abolition, but he is not following through with actions to support it.

"Dark Romanticism - ArticleWorld." Main Page - ArticleWorld. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

Graves, Roy Neil. "Individual and Society in 'Civil Disobedience'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. 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= ETL1130&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 25, 2012).

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. .

Journal #26 When to break the law

When is it okay to break the law? It is basically a question of only morality. Usually people answer this by saying it is never okay, or maybe it is okay if it will help people. The most common answer is probably that it is okay to break the law if it is unjust. But there is nothing to determine whether something is unjust because every law is created in the thought that it is just. The people who create the laws are supposed to have the best knowledge of what is right and wrong, but people find it alright to break the law when they feel these people have made incorrect decisions. But there are many controversial issues where there cannot be a definite answer. Everyone could have a different opinion, so the people who create the laws may not be right. Sometimes they could even be wrong. When the law regards something very complex that a politician does not understand well, it would make much more sense to have the experts decide the legality. One of the most common laws broken would have to be drug use. Large amounts of people everywhere use, sell, and make drugs that are completely illegal. On a moral level, I think it is alright for people to use drugs, but it could lead to other problems mostly in society. A lot of people have to break the law by using drugs to cure or help with serious to minor diseases. I just watched a documentary where a man had to use magic mushrooms to cure cluster headaches, and he said he would have killed himself otherwise. This man is clearly benefiting from this with no negative effects, but he is breaking the law. In my opinion, this man should be able to do this without having to break the law. Of course there are a lot of people who feel differently, but it has the possibility to save lives.

The Minister's Black Veil

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a story that is engrossed by a central symbol. It is a black veil that is worn by a sexton. A short summary of the plot would be that there is a minister who puts on a black veil, and, while suspense is building for what it hides throughout the entire story, he never takes it off, not even when he dies. Of course there is more of a thematic meaning because it is written by Hawthorne. It implements elements of the Romanticism and Dark Romanticism writing styles along with some psychological importance.

The Romanticism concentrates on emotion and intuition over reason, so it emphasizes on looking inward for the truth, and it usually focuses on God. The Dark Romanticism focuses more on tragedy, sin, evil, mystery, and human nature (Dark). This story is more or less a tragedy because the main character does die, but it is more of a peaceful death. Although, the minister was sort of secluded from living a normal life in society because of his black veil. This crepe kept him from love and made people avoid him, but it has hidden his sin. As Wright says, the story is based on an actual minister who wore a handkerchief instead of a veil over his face to hide the guilt of killing a friend. The same is presumed about Father Hooper. He is thought to have done something awful, and now he has to hide his face or his guilt and sin. The story is fairly open to interpretation because there are not many answers. The veil is not removed at all, so anyone can weigh in. One possibility is that it is supposed to represent not the sins of Hooper, but of everyone else. He isolates himself from everyone else in a way where he has almost sacrificed his life so that everyone else can live normally. In this way he could be acting like Jesus, which makes sense considering he is a minister.

“The Minister’s Black Veil” is a very interesting story psychologically. A man has simply put a piece of cloth over his face but above his mouth, but people cannot get beyond this. They see him as a monster, but, if anything, the black veil has only made him a better person. So what is making these people fear this man? The veil is such a mystery that everyone talks about it, but nobody ever sees behind it. I think if I was in this situation I would run up and remove the veil, but apparently no one in the story thought of that. The veil is just such an extreme manifestation of almost supernatural power that “Even the lawless wind, it was believed, respected his dreadful secret, and never blew aside the veil” (Hawthorne 287). In that case, if someone did try to snatch the veil then maybe some unknown force would prevent it from happening. Because the people have shunned the minister his whole life he finally retaliates on his death bed. He says “I look around me, and lo! on every visage a Black Veil!” (Hawthorne 289). In deeming the minister as a monster, they have showed themselves to be just as monstrous themselves.

"Dark Romanticism - ArticleWorld." Main Page - ArticleWorld. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 280-289. Print.

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 23, 2012).

Journal #25 Fear

Fear is an important element in stories. It comes from suspense, the unknown, darkness, and really a lot more. There is a whole genre of movies based around fear, and these scary movies do pretty well. But it is not a positive emotion; it is very negative in nature. When a person experiences fear they are not happy, joyful, or in a good mood. Nevertheless it is still a necessary part of humanity because it brings a lot of other effects. Fear can inspire or cause people to do things they would not do otherwise. Most people are scared of the norms in the world of fear such as spiders, snakes, heights, and sometimes darkness. As John F. Kennedy said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself", but most people have much more to be afraid of. I really have no fear of spiders or snakes unless they are very large and dangerous, but usually they are just harmless. I have no problem with heights or darkness either. The only real prominent fear that I have, although it is pretty weird, is birds. For some reason I have always had this strange fear. It is fine when birds are farther away, but is just an irrational fear. I do not expect them to attack or anything, but it is more of just having a bird nearby or touching them. But even though this is a fear, I will still not freak out from it. I will just be a little uneasy in the situation. It is really weird when people have these irrational fears like arachnophobia. Especially when a big man is frightened but a tiny spider. It does not seem to make sense, but it still happens. The world might be a better place without fears, but, although there is no way of knowing, it would probably be different. It could change the way people react to things, so it is an important part of society.

The Pit and the Pendulum

“The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe is another work that fits both the Romanticism and Dark Romanticism writing style. It is a story, taking place during the Spanish Inquisition, about a man incarcerated dealing with psychological aspects from torture and a certain amount of loneliness, and it is written eloquently and rhetorically with vast description. This is one reason that it fits the Romanticism Period. The amount of description in this story is so voluminous and appeals to almost every sense, taste is the excluded, that it is almost overwhelming. The narrator implements the senses by likening a scent to “the peculiar smell of decayed fungus” or saying “the odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils” (Poe). This is just the description of different scents, so his vivid imagery to the sense of sight is much more powerful.

More common elements of Dark Romanticism are focusing on the tragic, evil, mysteries, and limitations of man instead of the Romanticism that focuses on the individual; the Romanticism in general uses a lot of emotion and description also (Dark). The whole scenery of the story is pretty mystical. There is an unnamed man locked in a dungeon for unknown reasons and he is shrouded in darkness. A fitting reason of why “The Pit and the Pendulum” leans more toward the Dark Romanticism is that the main character is clearly human because he clearly has flaws. He has already been locked up, but he makes mistakes. He miscounts the paces it takes to walk the perimeter of his prison and assumes that it is irregularly shaped when it is a square, and he is actually drugged at one point. He even deems himself “the veriest of cowards” (Poe 267). The poem clearly uses torture a lot, which is obviously a dark element. The narrator often brings up common torture tactics of the Inquisition like the autos-da-fe, where the accused were burned alive (Poe 265). He is constantly tortured both mentally and physically. He aches for food, he has a scythe that could strike him, and he is in utter darkness and loneliness. This leads to the psychological aspects of the story.

The story is told in a first person point of view with the narrator talking to himself, or more so the story is what he is thinking. This is because he is alone with his thoughts. He displays changing emotions from despair and a want to die like when he says “the thought of sweet rest there must be in the grave” to hope and even joy. Sova references the overall situation as “a symbolic story about everyone's worst nightmare and an allegory of the most basic human situation and dilemma.” This is good information to have to help determine his mental state. He is facing everyone’s worst nightmare, so it makes sense to be somewhat emotionally unstable. Hope, fear, pain, anxiety, and confusion are all feelings of the narrator. In the end he is saved from this dark nightmare, but there are still many questions left unanswered.

"Dark Romanticism - ArticleWorld." Main Page - ArticleWorld. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. .

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.

Sova, Dawn B. "'The Pit and the Pendulum'." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= ffazpoe095001&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 19, 2012).

Journal 24- spooked

One time, long ago, I was in my house. It was a normal day at first, but then the night came. Everybody left the house and it became desolate. The loneliness was overwhelming and the darkness began to flood. For some reason the power went out, and it was almost impossible to see anything. We had no candles, so I was by myself in a world of darkness. I was trying not to get scared when I heard a loud noise. Bang! It sounded like a someone was taking a battering ram to the side of my house. I stepped outside for a moment, leaving the door open a few yards behind me, to check what happened. There was nothing there, but when I turned around the door was closed shut. It appeared like someone had sneaked in through the entrance when my back was turned, but how could they be so silent and quick? I went inside to search for this unwanted intruder. I heard some rustling that sounded like it was coming from across my hall. I got close and it was coming from the shower in the bathroom. I move the shower curtain and a ghost jumped out at me. I was quite spooked. It is not every day that a ghost breaks into your house, hides in the shower, and then jumps out. The ghost commenced to make creepy moaning noises, and flew around my in circles. I was all alone with a supernatural spook, so I did not know what to do. The ghost, all of a sudden, had a maniacal look, and he came right at me. Then the power came back as abruptly as it left. The ghost dissipated into the air, and left for good. Then, about a minute after the ghost disappeared, everyone returned home. The darkness was gone and the loneliness went with it. I had made it through a spooky experience, and nobody would believe it... probably because it is not true.

Edgar Allan Poem

Edgar Allan Poe has many poems that could fit the Dark Romanticism characterization because Poe really embodied it with a lot of his works. There are similarities between Romanticism and Dark Romanticism, but Dark Romanticism has its own specific characteristics. Some common elements are mystery, supernatural, and imagination (Randon). It also represents the belief that mankind does not possess divinity or perfection, but are prone to sin or other bad things. It can show failures of men, and have an all-powerful nature reveal how weak man really is (Randon). Many of Poe’s, and other poets’, poems will depict tragedies or death. A poem that represents the Dark Romanticism period does not have to have all of these qualities, but it usually possesses some or similar characteristics. This is almost like a response to transcendentalism because it shows flaws in a way that almost mocks it.

Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Lenore” implements a lot of Dark Romanticism elements. He starts his poem by telling of people singing “An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young” (Poem Hunter). He has already depicted a tragedy, but, like Shakespeare, this tragedy has a good outcome. In life, Lenore was “loved for her wealth and hated for her pride”, but when she dies she is in a better place. Poe says she gone “From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven!” (Poem Hunter). He shows how powerless and evil or sinful the mortal world is by calling it the “damned Earth” from which Lenore literally transcends. As Sova explains, the poem is about a loving husband who is upset by the way people looked at and treated Lenore, and he will mourn by singing. The singing aspect really has a lot to do with the poem. In the first stanza the people are singing an anthem at Lenore’s funeral; in the next two stanzas the narrator questions the people who are singing with lines like “How shall the ritual, then, be read?- the requiem how be sung. By you- by yours, the evil eye,- by yours, the slanderous tongue”; and it ends on her “flight with a Paean of old days” (Poem Hunter). The poem represents ideas about jealousy and love, like many other poems. The “wretches”, as Poe calls the people who can presumably be friends or family, hated Lenore’s pride. The poem says several times that she “died so young”, and it explains why by saying “she fell in feeble health” (Poem Hunter). So it is assumed that Lenore became fatally sick for some reason, and the only person who really cared was the narrator, but when she dies others probably want to take a part of her wealth. This poem deals with the reoccurring theme of death. The Romanticism poets seem to believe that, because death is so inevitable, it should be looked at very differently than a devastating event. It is either a coming together with nature or transcendence to Heaven. There is usually a optimistic view of this tragedy that is seen in both Romanticism and Dark Romanticism.

Poem Hunter. “Lenore.” Edgar Allan Poe. http://poemhunter.com/poem/lenore/

Randon. “Dark Romanticism Notes (1840-1865).” http://www.wordfight.org/dromanticism/dr-unit_packet.pdf

Sova, Dawn B. "'Lenore'." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= ffazpoe0692&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 17, 2012).

Journal #23 scary stories

I do not know if I have really read a scary story, but I have seen a few scary movies. One of the most significant techniques used is probably suspense. The building of suspense is always a good cause for a scare. This is always seen when there is a killer going after a character in a movie, and the character is hiding. Sometimes the killer will not find the character, and the suspense will seem to have disappeared. Then, after it has been quiet for what seems like forever and the killer is gone, another character will be right there and say something, which makes the audience startled because it was just unexpected. Suspense usually goes right along with sound effects and other mechanical tools to dramaticize the event. The music could build up for a while or there could just be a sudden boom, which is seen at some point in almost every scary movie. The camera angle is also important. Going back to the character in hiding, it is important to have the point of view with that character so the audience feels like they are also hiding from a murderer. I think the big element in writing a story would have to be suspense though. Of course the story can be written in the character's point of view, but it cannot make a booming noise, it can only have the word "boom" or other interjections. It is somewhat easy to make a movie scary because there are so many different mechanical and technical elements to be implemented, along with coming up with new ones, but writing a story that is supposed to be scary is a lot harder. They have to frighten a reader just by the choice of words and selected literary devices. Most people probably will not scream or get really scared from reading, so the writer has quite a difficult task that has to be developed very carefully.

Journal #22 sled poem

Sledding down the mountainous hill of snow,
The white flakes are dissipating apart.
As I slowly pick up the speed to go,
I move like a high-velocity dart.

The experience felt is of total joy,
The feeling of immaculate Winter.
I am going around on this great toy,
Like the world's fastest sprinter.

This wondrous invention that is the sled
Has caused fascination with the season.
The rush going on is beyond my head.
It is throughout the body without reason.

The cold is conquered by the warm jacket,
But it is not enough to stop Jack Frost.
My clothes are like a polyester bracket
But it cannot keep the freezing cold lost.

The sled is plastic but feels light as air.
I am as weightless as an astronaut,
But I am descending without a care.
When I want to stop the fast sled does not.

As my departure comes to a swift end,
I am going to fast, so now I fear
The consequences of the sled I send
Down the hill and into the strange and queer.

Journal 21- snow

At six o'clock the day is cold and young. The temperature is below freezing and little flurries are building up. After about an hour the snow flakes are binding together and there is nothing untouched by the snow. The snow can cause excitement, gloom, frustration, or complete joy depending on who it affects. Children go out to play in the frigid world during a snow day, while adults are clearing the unrelenting flakes from their aging vehicles. Everyone is bundled up to survive the harshest of temperatures, but they remain cold no matter what because it is Winter. The streets are slick and accident prone, so the safe, or intelligent, people drive slowly with great caution. The kids are constantly enjoying their day off and enjoying the day the snow has brought. It has brought opportunity to a day that otherwise would have been dreary and desolate. It can now be a almost magical time for all the children who are without any obligations for the next 24 hours. The white, fluorescent, and glittering crystals that were once descending gradually have now picked up rapidity toward the previously dismal region. The snow appears so immaculately as it falls, but the true fascination it causes comes from its wondrous properties. On a chemical level it is as simple as two minuscule hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom, but it is much more fantastical on a larger scale, especially to a person of ignorance who has never seen water in this nonfluidic form. It is said that each one of these hexagonal flakes, plummeting into and becoming one with nature, is different than its predecessor, yet they they seem so harmonious en masse. As the Sun shows its shining anterior, the snow begins to dissipate. But it is not scattering or growing farther apart; it is becoming water and just spreading over the land. As it departs from view it also leaves a memory of the Winter it corresponded with.