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.