Reflection: Two Poems

The Poems that I have chosen and decided to do my blog on is April, by John Greenleaf Whittier, and Autumnn, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Both poems are similar right away just by their titles.  Autumn and April both describe a time of year.  When you think of autumn you think of maybe the leaves falling, different pretty colors, and the harvesting of crops.  Harvesting of crops is really what Autumn is about. "Upon they  bridge of gold; they royal hand outstretched with benedictions o'er the land, Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain! Thy shield is the red harvest moon" (Longfellow 6-9).  They are hoping for a blessing that their crops turn out to be healthy and numerous.  They pray for rain and they hope for the best when it comes to the season and time to harvest their crops (Longfellow).  It exemplifies they romanistic style of writing by when it is descriptive in some of the things that they poem talks about.  The golden bridge, red harvest moon, golden leaves, etc. all describe the object to a further extent (Longfellow).  Instead of saying something like different colored leaves, which is boring, Longfellow says "golden" which everybody likes gold, and it adds life to the story.
The other poem, April is a very good poem that I fully understood and I enjoyed reading it.  It is similar to Autumn, but it is about the waiting for spring and the warm weather, kind of like when they are waiting to harvest their crops in "Autumn".  It starts by them opening up and describing the cold weather.

" 'T is the noon of the spring-time, yet never a bird
In the wind-shaken elm or the maple is heard;
For green meadow-grasses wide levels of snow,
And blowing of drifts where the crocus should blow;
Where wind-flower and violet, amber and white,
On south-sloping brooksides should smile in the light,
O'er the cold winter-beds of their late-waking roots
The frosty flake eddies, the ice-crystal shoots;" (Whittier 3-10).

It goes on, but you get the understanding of it.  It is cold and is still winter, and everybody is hoping for the spring to come, where, the buds sprout into flowers.  Also, when the warm weather comes,  when it brings life to death is something that comes out of this story.  When spring comes, the weather goes up and makes nature and all of life happier.

"The life of the spring-time, the life of the whole,
And, as sun to the sleeping earth, love to the soul!" (Whittier 34-35).

I found this quote very true, because when winter leaves, everybody is excited.  They are excited for the warm weather, and the cold weather to be gone.  It is a very pretty season when it comes too.  It is not too hot and not too cold. It is very comfortable.
"The chief inconvenience of the isolation imposed by blizzards like the one made famous by his poem Snow-Bound was that it kept his parents from their 16 mile round ride to the meetinghouse in Amesbury and back on Sundays" (Huff).  He may have wrote about the nice weather, because he wanted the snow to leave and the warm weather to come in.

Greenleaf, John. "April by John Greenleaf Whittier." Poem Hunter.Com-Thousands of Poems and Poets. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

Longfellow, Henry. "Sonnets. Autumn. The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1893. Complete Poetical Works." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

Huff, Randall. "Whittier, John Greenleaf." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven’s o’erhanging eaves

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven’s o’erhanging eaves

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o’er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended

Journal 20

The poem that we are reading is about how great autumn is and how beautiful the time is, but more about the farmers and their land.  The farmers are hoping that their land will produce vast amount of crops so that they can have plenty of crops.  They are praying that the rains come that they can water the crops so that they grow and they are strong and healthy.  It is understanding for them to be like this because it is what they do, they make their living and money by how the crops come up and you do not want your crops to be not very good.  They are praying that the rains will come.  I am not a farmer, but living in Illinois, which is consumed with fields, you understand how important it is to rain for the crops to grow.  They base their life off planting and harvesting their crops and they do their best at that, and that is all they can do.  They pray that their is rain that comes and nourishes their crops.  They really can not do anything else besides pray and hope for the best and that is what the characters in this poem do.
It exemplifies the romanticism because it is very descriptive.  Two examples of this is when they describe the moon, and the bridge.  They say that the bridge is golden.  Is it really golden??? Probably not, but it describes the bridge and it gives it a cooler meaning than just saying wooden bridge.  It makes the poem a romanticism writing by this.  The other is when it says that the shield is the red harvest moon.  It makes the poem more exciting when they give a more meaningful description of something, instead of some boring reason.  I am not going to lie, I have trouble finding the meaning of poems because I find it hard to understand.  I have to get help a lot because it is hard.  It does help to slow it down and take it one line at a time though.

Reflection: Chambered Nautilus

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,	10
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,—
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,	10
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,—
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,	10
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,—
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,	10
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,—
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,	10
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,—
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

The Chambered Nautilus is a poem about a creature who lives in a shell and is on a journey to magical lands.  There are five paragraphs, or parts to the poem, and each one has an impactful meaning. 

The first paragraph is a basic background of what is going on.  

This section of the poem is basically saying that the nautilus is sailing in a magical land with mermaids.  There is really not much to this part of the poem, besides what is here.

I was having a little trouble getting my insertion point in the right area so, I instead of going each part at a time, I put the poem and will  reference it below it.

The first paragraph does not have much significance besides the fact that the creature is sailing to magical islands that have mermaids.

The second paragraph, the shell breaks, and everything inside of it is seen “Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl” (Holmes). It is kind of depressing to hear that it was broken because it had worked hard to become how big it was.

The third paragraph, is saying that the creature had worked so hard every year to build its shell to make it bigger because it was growing. “Year after year beheld the silent toil” (Holmes). It had become bigger so it needed to build up its shell.

The fourth paragraph is telling us that the nautilus is dead. “From thy dead lips a clearer note is born” (Holmes).  The nautilus is no longer living.

The last paragraph is saying that the nautilus needs to continue to grow and build his shell, each level, better than the last. “Let each new temple, nobler than the last” (Holmes).

Oliver Wendell Holmes began the poem by recalling a myth specific to this animal; as "poets feign" (line 1), it could stretch "webs of living gauze" (line 8) across the shell and use that living sail to cross the open ocean. This gives rise to speculation as to the enchanted gulfs it could explore, home to Sirens (line 5; in Greek mythology these were sea-nymphs who called sailors to their doom) and sea-maids (mermaids; line 7) that lie on naked coral reefs "to sun their streaming hair" (line 7).
He cannot know any of that since he has only the empty shell on hand. He accurately describes its discrete chambered cells and their "irised ceiling" (line 14; the inner shell has a mother-of-pearl shine), but returns to speculation in describing its "frail tenant" and with a "dim dreaming life" (lines 11–12) (Huff).  I thought that this criticism was all relevant so I put it all in.  It brings up the question of how the author, Holmes could know everything with only the shell.

"801. The Chambered Nautilus. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 1909-14. English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 07 Dec.

Huff, Randall. "'The Chambered Nautilus'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Reflection: R.V.W and Irving

Rip Van Winkle and The Devil of Tom Walker are both examples of romanticism writing.  According to my literary criticism, romanticism is not just being romantic (lovey-dovey), but it includes one's individual aspect of being center of life and having thought of individual thought and response. It also includes a sympathetic view of what has already happened, the past, mysticism, etc (Werlock).  The biggest mysticism example is when Rip Van Winkle falls asleep after drinking the liquor from the keg (Irving Rip paragraph 25). This keg had been given to him by a stranger.  When he woke up, everything was different.  He slept through the American Revolution.  He had not experienced anything that went on for the past twenty years.  He had seen a sign of George Washington as the new leader, where King George the Third had been the king when he went to sleep (Irving Rip paragraph 33).  It is mysterious because he had slept for twenty years, over some mysterious drink that had been given to him (Irving Rip paragraph 19).
"The children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghost, witches, and Indians" (Irving). As I will get to later on in my blog, both males in their stories, are quite childish in their ways, which is a characteristic of romanticism.  Here, Rip is doing nothing with his life and is playing with children which drives his wife crazy.
Between the two stories they do share one same thing that stands out right away.  They both do not like their wives, and they believe that they are very nagging. In The Devil of Tom Walker, "However Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil, he was determined not to do so to oblige his wife, so he flatly refused, out of the mere spirit of contradiction"( Irving 246). Here Tom does the exact opposite of what he is told to do.
One of the most important descriptions or qualities of romanticism writing is the description that is used in the stories.  They go out of their way to give you a very descriptive detail of the surroundings, which I like about this writing style.  A perfect example is right when The Devil of Tom Walker starts off. "A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet, winding several miles into the interior of the country from Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp or morass. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove, on the opposite side the land rise abruptly from the water's edge into a high ridge, on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size" (Irving 242).  He is very descriptive right out of the book and goes into detail about the surroundings.  You would not find this in any other style of writing which is unique about romanticism.

Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." Bartleby.com. Web. 06 Dec. 2011.

Irving, Washington. "The Devil and Tom Walker." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 240-250. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "Romanticism." 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. Web. 06 Dec. 2011.

Thanatopsis

Thanatopsis literally translates into "The View of Death".  That was the first thing I looked up about the poem because I had no idea as to what that word meant.  It is a very unique word that I have never heard of before.  Anyways, when I saw what the title meant, I was a little bit disturbed because it is a very depressing title and I was thinking that I really did not want to read this poem, but I did.
The story starts off in a somehwat happy mood however.  "To Him who in the love of Nature holds/ Communion with her visible forms, she speaks/ A various language; for his gayer hours/She has a voice of gladness, and a smile" (Bryant 1).   It is what the child thinks of death.  It may be saying that a child does not really care at the time, but it uses the words gladness and smile, whereas the title is a different story.
After the little bit of joy comes out of the poem, it is immediately followed by sadness.  "When thoughts of the last bitter hour come like a blight over thy spirit, and sad images of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, and breathless darkness, and the narrow house, make thee to shudder and grow sick at heart; go forth, under the open sky, and list to nature's teachings, while from all around earth and her waters, and the depths of air comes a still voice yet a few days, and thee the all-beholding sun shall see no more.
It goes right into death and what will happen in this part.  After you have lived, there will come a point in time, where there will be no more life and it all will be over.  It is sad to think about this, but it is true in saying this.
Bryant does however make death sound happier when he says that you will be buried in the darkness of a narrow house (Bryant 21).   However, the criticism that I have found is upset with how Bryant said where you will be laid after your time has past.  The criticism said that instead of writing that description of a burial, he should have just said coffin (Huff).  I would rather go with Bryants way of saying it because, coffin sounds depressing.  It makes me think of death and I really do not like or want to think about death.  The poem says that everyone will die and be buried in the ground.  The poem also makes it sound like being buried is such an amazing thing.  It makes it sound so fantastic in away that people might actually believe it (Bryant).  I really have never thought of being buried as an amazing thing, so I do not know where this is coming from.  It also states that you should not fear dying and being buried.  You can be buried with all the other lonely bodies out there, and it will not just be you (Bryant).  I do not find comfort in this as well.

My internet just came up.  Sorry it is late.

Bryant, William Cullen. "16. Thanatopsis." Bartleby.com. Web. 23 Nov. 2011.

Huff, Randall. "'Thanatopsis'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 23 Nov. 2011.

Journal 19

The cycle of life is something that is pretty basic, but we all live through it.  Life is an amazing thing that we have the privilege to go through.  We do not relish the fact that our life is so good.  We do not start thinking about the things that we need to do to get into ultimate life which is heaven.  Spiritituality is so important if you want to go into heaven.  You need to believe in God and believe that he is the one and only.  That is not the only thing that you need to do, but it helps if you are spiritual in your life.  The cycle of life is usually thought of as you are born, you life your life, and than you die. I think of it as that and than a little more.  After you die, I believe the circle of life continues, in two separate ways.  One way is that you go to hell.  You can get to this point, which I do not advise, by not believing in God and by going against him.  The other path that you can go down is the good one in my opinion.  It is the heaven path.  You can continue on your cycle by going down this path.  It is not easy to get there but it definitely is possible if you try to go down here.  You have to try and be like God.  The circle of life, continues in the way you want.  You make your future by how you live your life in the circle of life.
A good reference of nature is the Lion King.  I remember that there is a song call The Circle of life.  This is a good movie that references the circle of life.  Living your life is considered being apart of nature because you are living in the world.  I think that the spiritual part of the circle of life is more important, just because it can continue your life.

Fireside Poets

The first style of writing we had was the Puritan style of writing.  This was probably my least favorite stories to read just because I thought they were not as good as stories as the rationalists was, but that is my opinion. This style of writng was based on God, and he was the base for everything.  Any explanation that was needed was all based on God.  You can see how this could lead into some problems, but this is whow the Puritanistic writings were.  Any problem, they based their punishment with God.  It was a weird way to do things just because it does not necessarily sound like it is the right way to do things, even though it can be true.
The last rationalist writer that we covered was Benjamin Franklin.  He may have been the most famous rationalist writer ever, and definitely the most famous rationalist writer that our class has covered.  Franklin wrote something that clearly shows he was a rationalist my staiting that he was a deist.  It was clear that he was, but I can not seem to find the exact quote.  The quote was a characteristic of a rationalist writer, and it lead to Frankin's virtues, which we all know were very thought out and based on logic and facts.  These thirteen virtues are what Ben Franklin based his life on, so you know, him being a rationalistic writer, would have used his reason on how to life his life.
Going from a rationalist style of writing to a romanticism style of writing is a big change.  You may not know all the details or characteristics of each style, but you would definitely be able to tell which was which if two writings were put in front of you.  The headings are very telling though.  Anybody could probably figure them out.  If you were to tell somebody with no knowledge of what we were doing, they could still probably do it.  Rationalist:  This would be a little tougher, but if they had any sense or knowledge at all they would know that they are being rational.  They are being smart with the decisions that they are making.  Romanticism:  When you think of romantic, you most likely think of love, or something to do with that.  They are going to use more heart with their decisions rather than God or their brain.  They will go with their gut.  It is just what most people will put if you were to tell them to explain what each one is.
I read the Old Ironsides story and something that backs up the romantic style is this quote..."Her deck, once red with heroes' blood," (Holmes).  When you read something like this it is like a girl fantasizing about her want to be husband or something, in saying that heroes were here.  It will be like dramatic plays that we will be reading, so I hope they go well.  I have a feeling that the girls will like them more than the boys.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autoboigraphy of Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895. PDF.

Holmes, Oliver Wendel. "Old Ironsides." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 211. Print.

Journal 18

A beautiful autumn day in my opinion is where the leaves are almost off the tree, so that you can see them on the ground, but you can also see them falling off of the tree.  Not only is it nice to see the leaves falling off the tree but it is beautiful when the leaves are different colors.  That would be included on my perfect autumn day.  The colors would be green, yellow, red, and orange and they would be mixed up like it was a bag of skittles, or a  rainbow.
The day would start up by me being able to sleep in and than I would wake up to a great breakfast with hot chocolate.  I could look out the window and see the leaves flying away due to the slight breeze in the air.  College football would be playing on the television and Illinois would be winning.a  At halftime, I would go outside.  It would not be too cold, but it would not  be hot, it would be comfortable, and I would get a bunch of kids together and we would play a game of football.  After the game, my dad would be grilling some sort of meat on the grill, for lunch.  After that I would watch more football and relax for the rest of the day.  It would not only be a great autumn day, but it would be a great overall day.
When I think of an autumn day, I think of the times that I had at my grandparents house, when I was younger.  We always had fun playing in the leaves or playing football.  I made some adjustments to make the day better, but I got my background from the times I had as a child there. My favorite season is summer, but I always have a great time in the autumn.  It stinks if the weather is too cold, but if it is somewhat comfortable, it always makes for a good day.

Journal 17

When I was younger, my family, a few friends and I went blueberry picking.  I was excited to go because I was younger and it sounded like it would be so much fun.  I was really excited it was going to be fun.  I was younger so things like that sounded fun and they interested me.  So we went out and it was like a half an hour away so it made me so anxious to get out of the car and start picking.  When we finally got there, being the competitive person that I am, I set the goal for myself to pick the most blueberries out of everybody there.  I would do anything and everything to get me the most blueberries.  So right when we got out of the car, I dashed right to the bushes or whatever they are to start picking.  I was going to win.  As I kept picking, I knew I was going to win because everybody else was complaining and starting to take break, but I kept going steady and soon, I had filled up almost all of my bag.  When we were there, there was a lady from the newspaper taking pictures.  She was taking pictures of people picking blueberries.  She took one of me but I had no idea of what was to come.  The next day my picture of me picking blueberries was in the paper!  I was so excited not only had I picked the most blueberries but a picture of me was in the paper.  Right away I bragged that my picture was in the paper and not my sisters.  Going out and picking blueberries was a great time.  I will always remember it because of the picture in the paper, but it really was a fun time to pick blueberries.  They were pretty good to, and my mom made blueberry pie because we had a ton of blueberries.  It was a fun time that I had with nature.

Journal 16

I accidentally switched up journal fifteen and sixteen, by putting the tools for journal fifteen instead of what are some obstacles.  So this blog will be the obstacles.
There are many obstacles that we have to overcome in doing this project with kids that are not in our class, and that is the first obstacle.   Our group members are not in our class.  If we have a question or a problem that we can not figure out, we can not get up and go to our partner because they are not in our class.  It makes working on the project a little more stressful.
The other thing that goes along with this is that we have members from a different school.  We do not even get to mee them and it makes it harder because we do not know who we are working with, and what type of people they are.  We do not know what their specialty is and what they are not.  There are ways to figure that out, but people can lie, so it just makes it more difficult to find out what type of person they are.
I think that we will be able to get this blog done, but it will be hard because we are going to have to work on it by ourself a lot and then find ways to translate it to our partners.  We are going to have to work together and each person will have to do their role.  This is another dilemma that could come up.  Group members may not want to do anything.  Usually there is always one person in a group that does this, and I hate it when it happens because it puts more work on yourself.
I hope that this blog goes well and everybody does their share.  There will be problems that arise, but as a group we have to work past the differnces and just get the project done.

Journal 15

There are multiple ways to overcome the obstacle of not being by your partner or group.  It will definitely be a lot harder to get through the project, but if you work together with your group and find ways to communicate, it will make it a lot easier to get along with your partners and to get a good grade on your project.
I think that the most obvious way to get through the obstacle is to email them.  Everybody has an email, which make communication very easy.  It is just like a text but it is on the computer, therefore, you can just send it to everybody else's email.  It may not be the most fashionable way to communicate, but it is definitely the msot easy way, in my opinion
It was kind of hard to say that emailing was the easiest way, when there is facebook, but I am not sure if everybody has a facebook, or if everybody uses facebook.  If they do, it is great, but if not the data will not get through to everybody in the group, because everybody has an email.  Facebook would work great though just because so many peopl are using facebook.  It would be a real easy way to communicate with your group.  Along with this, is twitter.  I would say that more people have facebook than twitter.  I do not have a twitter that could help communicate, but if it would help the group, I would get one.
The last way that I can think of to help us work together is to text and call.  It would be easy to get each other's numbers, and once we did that we could go back and forth more quickly.  Texting or calling would definitely be the quickest way to get information across, but it might be hard to do in class, because we are not supposed to have our phones in class.  However, I think that you, Mr. Langley, would be generous enough to let us use our phones to help us with our projects.

Ben Franklin Virtues

There are some things that you admire anybody for doing.  Benjamin Franklin started a task and than finished that task.  His task was not a one minute, one hour, or even one day task, his task was around a year.  It took him so long to finish what he was trying to do but he focused and finished the job.  His task to me sounded pretty boring too.  Sitting there and working on thirteen virtues each day for who knows how many hours does not sound fun to me.  Franklin worked so hard to figure out how he should treat each virtue and how that related to God and his daily life.  For that I respect him.  You see so many people start a job and never finish it.  I fall under this category, we all probably do, and our tasks are probably easier and more fun, but Ben Franklin perservered through the difficulties and finished the task on hand.
"Its fame, however, had become so thoroughly identified with American institutions and life, that an artistic memorial is far more important as a tribute of gratitude and reverence, than as a method of keeping his example before our minds or his image in our hearts. Yet it is, on all accounts, a subject of congratulation, that at length we have, in the city of Franklin's birth, and from the hands of one of her own sons, a statue of the patriot and philospher worthy of the man and the place" (Tuckerman 1).  Tuckerman right here shows his feelings for Franklin.  He really enjoyed reading what Franklin had to say. The thirteen virtues were really cool to see.  You got to see how an intelligent man viewed each one and you got to see ways to relate that to how you live your life.  The thirteen virtues are temperance, silence, resolution, order, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility (Franklin 149).  I do not know if he put any in front of the other, but there are some that I think may be a little more important to me than some of the others. Resolution: "Resolution is the firm determination to accomplish what you set out to do. In this post, we looked at the story of Alexander the Great conquering the island of Tyre as an example of manly resolution. From Alexander’s conquest at Tyre, we extracted four ways to help improve your resolve in life" (Mckay).  I like this one because it basically says do what you have set out to do.  This also goes, with Franklin because he set out to make the thirteen virtues and he did.  It applies to myself with this blog.  I really do not want to do it, but I set out to do it so I must finish.
The next one that probably is my favorit is frugality: "American’s savings rate is negative. That’s right, Americans are spending more than they’re saving. With the sluggish economy and soaring gas prices, practicing frugality is quickly coming back into style. While there are countless blogs that go into detail about how to live frugally, it all comes down to one principle: spend less than you earn."  People are spending money on things that they do not need, and it is especially bad time to do this in this economy, but people do it.  They are so worried that they will not be cool if they do not have the newest and hottest item, that it forces them to spend money on something they really do not need.  Sometimes I do this, but I try not to.  People need to be happy with what they have!  There are more that I like but those are my two favorite.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Henry Altemus, 1895. Print.

"Being Virtuous: Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues of Life | The Art of Manliness." The Art of Manliness | Men’s Interests and Lifestyle. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. <http://artofmanliness.com/2008/06/01/the-virtuous-life-wrap-up/>.

Tuckerman, Henry T. "The Character of Franklin." Facts on File. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.

Ben Franklin and Deism

I can never remember what Deism is for some reason, so I keep having to look up the meanin of it.  " Deism is knowledge of God based on the application of our reason on the designs/laws found throughout Nature. The designs presuppose a Designer. Deism is therefore a natural religion and is not a "revealed" religion."  Deism is the belief in God through facts or evidence, rather than just saying I believe in God because I think he is always there.
"This library afforded me the means of improvement by constant study, for which I set apart an hour or two each day and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me" (Franklin 143).  Say you were in the Puritan community.  You would not need a library or any sense of that kind of education, because you would believe that God had given you all the education that you would need.  Here, Benjamin Franklin loved the library.  It gave him an oppurtunity to learn new information.   Another thing that was different to Pilgrim and similar to deism is that Franklin took Sunday as his day to honor the Lord, but yet he studied and tried to learn more.  He wanted to find more knowledge and facts about God (Franklin 144-145).  This goes back to the deistic approach, Benjamin Franklin is applying himself to learn more facts and knowledge about God.  "Though I seldom attended any worship..." (Franklin, 145).  This would be unheard of in the Puritan age, but things were different now.  You did not have to go to church to say you were a believer in God.  Franklin was actually researching things that applied to God.  Franklin later on said that he would bo by the facts and not feel sorry for them (Franklin 147).  He did not care what some people thought were right or wrong, he just cared about having the facts and that is what Franklin was going to go off of.
Real quick, I know this blog is about how it relates to Deism, but when Ben Franklin says that he will not speak bad about any man, no matter what they have done wrong, it is the exact opposite of what the Puritans did (Franklin 148).  If they ever heard anybody did something wrong that went against their beliefs they would come at that person, really until they were dead or out of the community.
Also, the thirteen virtues go along with deism.  Like I said, deism is the wanting to know facts about God and striving to get them.  The thirteen virtues go along with this because Benjamin Franklin was striving to get better at learning about God.  He wanted to know everything that he could, and so by creating these thirteen virtues, he tried his best to go by these, and he knew that it would help him with striving towards excellence.  Everytday he worked very hard at learning these.  It is not like he tok one day for all of them, he took weeks for a just one single virtue, which shows that he was applying himself.

"Deism Defined, Welcome to Deism, Deist Glossary and Frequently Asked Questions." Welcome To The    Deism Site! Web. 25 Oct. 2011. http://www.deism.com/deism_defined.htm.

Franklin, Benjamin, and Leonard Woods Labaree. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale UP, 1964. Print.

Journal 14

If I were Benjamin Franklin's apprentice for the day, it would be kind of cool, but it would also be a lot of hard work.  Benjamin Franklin is one of the smartest men to ever come across the face of the earth.  Being his assistant would be a lot of hard work.  You would have to be pretty smart, not make mistakes, and be able to understand what Benjamin Franklin was trying to do.
If I were Ben Franklin's assistant here is how I think my day would go... I would wake up at 7:00 o'clock every morning.  At that time I would make Ben's breakfast, on his Franklin Stove that he would have.  I would than bring it up to him and be like his butler.  Since he did create the Franklin Stove I think it would be cool if I cooked on it, and I am just assuming he has one.  Anyways after that we would get started on our day that is planned ahead of us.  We would start off by looking at his thirteen virtues.  Each day we would spend about six hours on one virtue and that virtue would change from week to week.  We would go into detail and get into a big converstation over the understanding of a virtue.  After our conversation and research was done we would take a break for a while and than work on the electricity topic.  Each day it was different but we would find more and more data.  After a long day of hardwork we would come home and again use his stove to make a meal and finish the day off with a nice hot meal.  It would be really weird being his "assistant".  You would have to wear funky clothes and it would be a lot different than what life is like today, but in a way I think that it would be kind of fun to live during Franklin's time and to help him out.

Journal 13

Today’s American Dream is a lot different than it was twenty years ago and especially fifty to hundred years ago.   I really do not know what the typical “American Dream” is because it can vary from person to person.  I am going to give my opinion on what I think the American dream is.

The American Dream is having a good life.  I think that most people think that the American Dream is having plenty of money, a big house, a nice car, and a beautiful family.  This may not be the typical dream of some people and there may be more things that are on the list, but I think this is what most people see it as.  People want to have money galore.  People get caught up in saying that if they have money they will be happy.  That is true to an extent, because money can get you a few things that will make you happy, but if that is all you care about, it will make your life miserable.  I think having a family is definitely the most important.  If you have a family that is beautiful, loving, and nice than I think that will make you the most happy.  The American Dream is different for a lot of people, but this in my opinion is the most popular.

For me, it is kind of hard to describe the American Dream.  I am a kid and I do not have all the privileges an adult has, but there are some things that every kid wants that is my age.  I think that most kids want a car, that can get them out of the house.  As long as they can leave whenever they want I think most kids are happy.  Having a loving family, I think is what I would include, and the last thing is having a little money to spend for yourself.  Not relying on your parents is a big deal, and if you can buy things with your money, that can make you happy.

Benjamin Franklin

In the Benjamin Franklin writing, he uses more of the rationalist way of writing.  He is more involved with data, facts, and what the rationalists wrote with.  Whereas, the Pilgrims and the Puritans wrote with more of a religious background.  So I just want to say that there will be more differences.
One comparison of writers is with Mary Rowlandson and her story.  They are both set up in a diary format, which was often seen in the Puritan writing style.  As they are both set up the same, what is in them is completely different.  Mary Rowlandson believes that God will help her, and will lead the way for her.  "I repaired under these thoughts to my Bible (my great comforter in that time) and that scripture came to my hand, Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee" (Rowlandson 85).  As her mindset is completely focused on the Providence of God, Franklin's story is different.  In his story, the people do not put God as what they need to get through everything.  They may still believe in him, but he is not the answer for everything like in Mary Rowlandson's story.  The other comparison is with William Bradford.  Both Fanklin, and Bradford were leaders.  They were looked up by everybody else, but how they led was way different.  Bradford, coming from the Puritans style of writing, led people through God. He saw signs of God everywhere he went: the sailor's death, the six "elect" people taking care of the contagious sick people (Bradford 15, 65). Bradford led with his heart (basically Jesus).  Whereas, Benjamin Franklin led with his mind and knowledge.  It seems like the same thing, but they can differ in a lot of different situations.  I am trying to think of a good example... Alright, I really can not think of a good one off the top of my head so I am going to exagerate it.  Say you have to get to point A.  There are two rodes to take.  One is the road less traveled and the other is where everybody travels, and it is safe it just takes a lot longer.  Road A( the dangerous one) is what God wants you to do, because it is less traveled, but Road B is safe.  Franklin most likely goes on Route B whereas, Bradford, goes on Route A (This is an awful example.  I am sorry and I do not think God would say go down the dangerous road, but I needed an example).
I kind of wonder what is the correct way of writing.  I think one way and then think that I am doing it wrong.  If I think that the Puritan style is right, than I am going to Gods' side, which is good because you want to be on Gods' side, but what about the rationalist writing.  If you can back up what you are saying than you are correct, but you are having God take the back seat. So what is the right way?

Franklin, Benjamin. "from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 104-108. Print.

Rowlandson, Mary. "A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 82-85. Print.

Bradford, William. "from of Plymouth Plantation." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 15, 62-67. Print.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine had every right to be upset at the English for imposing their taxes on them.  The American colonies were going on with their lives and the English were not bothering them.  The English pretty much just ignored them, which right or wrong is what they did.  So when England began to lose more and more money, they began to in a way panic and went out and tried to find ways to make money.  The easiest way to make money, although you can not do it without argument, is to make people give you their money.  It does not require as much work as many other ways do, in trying to get money.  So what do the English do?  They taxed the American colonies, in order to get their money back.  I am sure nobody in the colonies would be very happy with that.  Here the English do not really treat you with much respect, and they ignore you.  They do not interact whatsoever with you, but then all of the sudden they come and tax you.  It is definitely a rude thing to do, looking from the colonies perspective.  It is kind of like a person who never talks to you and is always somewhat rude to you.  They think they are so much above you that it will hurt their reputation to interact with you.  So they never talk to you, but than one day, they decide to come up and tell you to help them with their homework.  They are not asking you, they are making you help.  Although you may be mad, most people are going to go along (angrily) with what they said, and this is kind of like what happened with the English and the colonies.  Thomas Paine agreed that they had to do something and they "lay their shoulders to the wheel... when so great an object is at stake" (Paine 136).  It goes along with the rationalist period because, you need to stand up for what you believe in and what is right.  Paine was not going to let the English walk all over them so he did something about it.
I think that Paine was not writing to a specific group.  I think he was writing to anybody that could get ahold of what he had written. He wanted to show people that what the English were doing was not right, and by writing this, he could not only get to the people on his side, but also to the people who were unsure or on the other side of what Paine believed.  He was trying to write this to change the other sides view, and to show them that they must fight for what they believe is true.  I believe that Paine did an excellent job in writing this, because he used a rationalist way of writing.  He told them what was wrong with evidence and than said what they should do to solve the situation going on between the two sides.

Paine, Thomas. "The Crisis, No. 1." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 132-136. Print.

Journal 12

This is kind of an open ended question, because I do not really know what the rules are implying to.  I am just going to say rules that I think should be in my house, applying to me.  The "right" rules are that each member of our family must respect, support, and love one another.  We must be there for one another when we have our ups and downs.  I am kind of struggling just because our family does not necessarily have rules, we just know between right and wrong.  "Wrongs" would be that there is to be no anger that lingers between one another.  A family will have times where they are not happy with each other, but we have to do our best to work past those times.  There is to be no causing, smoking, or drinking at any times (unless you are older than twenty one to drink). 
Those were the rules for my family, but now I am going to make a few rules applying to everybody in the world.  I would make a rule that there is to be no war.  There are better ways to settle disputes, than to go to war.  Each person should be treated equally no matter what age, color, religion, or wealth status.  I would make a rule that every person has to have a job.  I do not care how hard this would be to imply, but if you are (twenty one or older) you must have a job.  Work somewhere and do something to make money.  I hate seeing homeless people on the side of the streets just because they do not have money. Go somewhere and apply.  Keep applying until someone finally accepts you, because there are plenty of jobs out there, you just have to get up off your feet and find it.  I thought this was kind of hard to do because, I am fine with a lot of the rules that are in place now, in my life.

Journal 11

The one aphorism that I remember and I hear most frequently is do not count your eggs before they hatch.  I really like this, because it is so true.  I hear people all the time say things that will happen and then they never do.  I like to think of this in sports terms.  This year the cardinals were ten and a half games out of the playoffs with less than a month left.  Braves fans were guaranteeing a playoff berth and most cardinal fans were saying goodbye to the season.  There was a month left, but they were so far out of the playoffs you would have been crazy to think anything was going to happen.  The cardinals came back and made the playoffs.  This is an example of not counting your blessings until they have completely finished.  Most people don't really go by this rule because everybody thinks of either the best or the worst.  They think that if it is almost over than it is over, and it is just human nature to do that, but you should think things through and wait until it actually happens, before you say anything.
I hear my mom say it all the time to me and I never listen to her because who cares, I am going to think what I think will happen.  I think that something you can do if this saying implies to you and something that you are working on is to work even harder at it.  Work hard so that it does come true and than you can actually say something because it is finished.  It is like if you have an A in a class, you can not do anything about it and risk losing it, or guarantee an A by working harder and learning more about something.  It is something that every person in the world should go by, but not enough people do.  Work hard and do not think things will happen before they actually do.

Declaration of Independence

With this website that shows us what is acceptable and unnacceptable in a story, it shows us how we should write our stories.  It gives us ideas as to why we should not give somebody a negative name calling.  It does not help and there are a lot of helpfultips in this website.  Definitely the easiest topic that should not go into writings is name calling.  It is not the you are stupid, but it gives somebody a negative name that does not help the story. ", "He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation" (Jefferson 124).  He is calling the king a tyrant, which is definitely not helping him with what he is trying to get acrossed. He is not showing the proper respect to the king, and is in a way saying that he himself, would make a much better king.  I understand why he is saying what he said though, because he was frustrated and anytime you get angry at somebody or something, you have a tendency to express your feelings about it.  We all have done it, and it is human nature of us to do it, but when you are trying to prove a point, it is not the wisest thing to say.  Another technique that should not have been used was the bandwagon technique.   "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men..." (Jefferson 122).  If all men are created equal than why do they keep acting as if the king is nothing.  Sure he is the king, and you would think that if he was not to be treated equally, he would be treated better than everybody else, but he is being called names.  Not only was it not true in this case, but it really has never been true.  Here is why. No matter when you look back on the world, you will find many people who were treated like garbage.  There are many, but the first group were the Jews during the Holocaust.  They were treated awfully, and sure it may just pertain to the U.S. but it is a rule that should be conducted throughout the world.  The next group is the African Americans when they were slaves for white people.  They were whipped and had no rights, but you still mean to say that they were treated equally, I do not think so.  Even today, people are not treated equally.  We look at people and either think they are poor middle class or rich.  If they are poor, most people do not like them.  Do not ask me why, but this seems to be the case a lot of the times.

Jefferson, Thomas. "Declaration of Independence." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 122-124. Print.

"Recognizing Propaganda Techniques and Errors of Faulty Logic." Cuesta College. 06 Mar. 2011. Web. 3 Oct. 2011

Patrick Henry

Here is my blog about Patrick Henry.  Sorry that it is a little late.
Patrick Henry gives a very passionate speech as to what he thinks should happen with his people.  He gets into a lot of detail as to why he thinks what he thinks is right.  I believe that he is true in what he is saying because he does give a lot of data and facts to back up his ideas.  It is like what we have been talking about in class, if you can back up what you believe to be true than your statements or beliefs are true.  He goes on a long speech as to why they should go to war.  He says what they have done that has not worked and then says that they must fight. "Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!" (Henry 119).  He states they have done everything possible and it is still not workin so the only thing left for them to do is to go to war.  Some people may not agree with what he is saying, but he tells them cleary why they should, and that God has left them. "
Deism is not a specific religion but rather a particular perspective on the nature of God. Deists believe that a creator god does exist, but that after the motions of the universe were set in place he retreated, having no further interaction with the created universe or the beings within it. As such, there are a variety of common religious beliefs that deists do not accept. Because the deist god is entirely removed from involvement, he has neither need nor want of worship. Indeed, deists commonly hold that God does not even care if humanity believes in him." (Beyer).  I do not agree with what they believe.  Why would a God create such an amazing world and then not care what happens. To me it does not make any sense.

Beyer, Catherine. "Deism - What Is Deism? - Beliefs of Deists." Alternative Religions. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. http://altreligion.about.com/od/alternativereligionsaz/p/Deism.htm.

Henry, Patrick. "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention". Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 116-119. Print.

Journal 10

We should have our vocabulary assignment set back to Wednesday.   I believe that the assignment should be moved because most of the students in our English class are not caught up on their blogs.  I have heard numerous people say that they are not caught up, and I took a look at a few of the students blogs and realized that a lot of the blogs that were assigned  are no where to be found.  The feeling of getting more homework, and not being done with the previous homework is not a good feeling.  It is like being held back by your homework, and you can not move on until you complete what  has been assigned.  If you are constantly behind, you are doing previous homework, and you are being assigned homework, and once you get done with previous assignment, you are still held back by the assignments that were assigned when you were making up the previous assignments.  The other reason I have for suspending our homework for Wednesday is that, it gives us more time to finish our homework.  I heard some students saying that they did not want to delay the homework.  Well, if it was delayed, than we have until Friday to get the assignment finished.  That gives us flexibility because if we were swamped with homework, which is likely, we do not have to get English done.  If we do not have homework, which is possible, than we can do the homework soon as possible, so that we get the assignment out of the way. It gives us flexibility to when we have to get our assignment done.  It is nice to because we do not have to stress about it until Thursday night or we do not have to stress about it at all.  Now I know that our assignment will be moved to Wednesday, so I will try to get the assignment done before so that on Wednesday I do not get as much homework.

Journal 9

Well, when people get emotional I tend to try and stay away because I just do not want to say anything that will offend anybody.  If I know the person pretty well, than I will try and cheer them up but saying something.
Last night, my old schools baseball team lost in the regional championship.  I go to the games because my dad coaches and I enjoy being around some of the kids, and my friend is also there.  They  lost the game when they should have won.  They were playing very well throughout the whole game and they were winning two to one in the sixth inning.  The other team scored two runs in the inning and we never got the runs back.  We had our best hitter on deck when the last out was made and I guarantee we would have at least tied the score.
There are two players that I am pretty close to.  One of the kids name is Michael, and he is the brother of my best friend who also comes to the game.  It was really hard to see them lose, because I will not be able to see them as much.  It was also hard for them because it was the last game for them.  They did not show as much emotion as I thought, but they were still disappointed when they lost.  I gave them each nucks, and told them that they had a great year.  It was hard for me to be rational because I was just as emotional as them.  I wanted to see them go to state, but that did not happen.  I told them that it was nice to be around them and  it was going to be hard to not have them around anymore.  They kind of helped me out by saying they would come to the practices and game next year, so I will still be able to see them and I go to Michaels house a lot so I will still be able to hang out with him.

Journal 8

Autumn, or fall as some people like to call it is a beautiful season.  It is pretty when all the leaves fall of the trees and you begin to get those orange, red, and all the different colors on the ground.  It is kind of bittersweet because when fall comes, summer goes.  You begin to see the hot weather disappear and the colder weather starts to creep in.  I love summer that is why it is kind of hard for me to realize that it is fall.  I like the warm weather and that leaves.  However when fall comes you know that it is football time, and postseason time for baseball.  Those are things that I always look forward too.
One story that I always remember about the season of autumn, is that my family would always go to my grandparents house.  When we were there we would rake all the leaves into one big pile, which took about an hour because one, it was such a big yard and two my sisters and I took a lot of breaks.  However, it was so much fun when we got all the leaves into one big pile and then we would jump into the leaf pile.    One game that we always played was, I would bring my football and throw it into the leaf pile and then two people would jump in and try and find the football.  Whoever found it first and ran back to the house won.  We would rake the leaves back up and do it over and over.  I am not going to lie, I was probably the best, but I am not going to gloat about it.
The season of autumn, like I said earlier is very bittersweet.  Cold weather and school are in session, but with autumn comes the beautiful sites and football season.  It is probably tied for second on my favorite season, behind summer and tied with spring.

Crucible Act 4

First of all I want to talk about how amusing reading the story Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" was.  I do not think that you (Mr. Langley) were there when we read this story, but we listened to the story on the big computer screen and it was so loud.  Jonathan Edwards was constantly yelling, practically throughout the whole story, and I could not help but to laugh.  It was like this man had woken up on the wrong side of the bad, and everybody around him was in danger of getting yelled at.  He was going on a rampage.
In both stories people were getting away from God in a way.  In "Sinners in the hands of an angry God", people were starting to lean away from God and the church, and by doing this, the church took the task of getting them back by the threat of fear.  They intimidated them in ways to come back to God.  In the Crucible, the characters started going astray from God and started dealing with witch craft.  In both stories, the people in each community began to go away from God and they tried things that they should not have, which ended up getting them in trouble, especially in the Crucible.  In both stories, they share the same message in that if you confess to your sins you will be saved from hell.  I would have to disagree with that though.  Just because you confess to what you have done wrong does not guarantee a path to heaven for you.  You have to believe that God is the one and only.  It does help to confess what you have done wrong, but that is not the only thing that you have to do to receive eternal life.
One quick resemblence in a character that I see, is that Jonathan Edwards and Abigail both scare people in order to try and get what they want.

Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down! She goes to Betty and roughly sits her up. Now, you-sit up and stop this! (Miller 18).

She is very demanding in the way she talks to Betty during this time.  It is understandable howerver, because she does not want to get in trouble.  Whereas, Jonathan Edwards is just blowing smoke because he is mad at everybody and he has nothing to hide, like Abigail does.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. Glencoe Literature. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2010. Print.

Journal 7

Bullying is something that goes on in every school.  It does not just happen in schools, it happens all around the world inside and outside of schools.  It is really unfortunate to have bullies, but it is real and it happens everyday.
Bullying has more an effect on the victim than it does on the   person doing the bullying.  You really do not see the bully crying or upset after he  gives someone a swirly.  I think that an affect on a bully is that he feels better about himself after he destroys a kids life.  For some reason, the bully has to beat someone up to make himself feel good.  I do not know why he has to do this, because I do not consider myself a bully, but for some reason by beating a kid up the bully feels like he is on top of the world.  It makes him feel like he is dominate.
Now on the opposite side of things, the victim is the one who is emotionally and physically destroyed by a bully.  You mostly think of bullying as someone getting a swirly, but bullying can be anything.  It can be as small as saying you are stupid, or something like that.  The victim is truly the one who is affected by the situation.  He not only gets the pain of whatever the bully does to him, but he also gets the embarrassment of people finding out.  It is really sad to think about how that person must feel.  I really have never had nothing traumatic ever happen, so I can not even imagine the pain he must go through.  He will never feel the same about himself for a long time, and possibly ever.  It is a scar that he will live with for the rest of his life.  Bullying does affect two people, both in different ways, but when people think about bullying they usually think of the victim getting victimized.

The Crucible-Human Nature

What is human nature?  I honestly have heard the word a million time, but I reall do not know what the true meaning of human-nature is.  So what did I do?  I looked it up online.  Human nature is the psychological and social qualities that characterize humankind, especially in contrast with other living things. For dummies like me, I still did not fully comprehend it, but the best explanation in simple terms is how we (I believe our mind, but I will just say we) react to certain situations.  It is like what we do on an everyday basis and how we react to comments good or bad that are thrown at us.
A major human nature "thing" is when something happens and the blame is put on you.  What is the first thing you do when something like this happen.  You try and find a way to put the blame on something or somebody else.  You always do it, you may not say it, but you always think of ways to get the blame off of you.  It is human nature to do that sort of thing, because nobody wants to get in trouble or to be at fault.
The first thing that pops up into my head was how people seemed to blame everything on witch craft.  It could have been the smallest thing, but people were always trying to find a way to put the blame on something else, in this case, it happens to be witch craft.  The first example of this was when the reader found out the news of Betty and how she is now ill.  "I'd not call it sick; the Devil's touch is heavier than sick.  It's death, y'know, it's death drivin' into them, forked and hoofed." (Miller 13).  Right away Mr. Putnam believes that it is witch craft that she is affected by.  It literally takes all but a few quotes from him to find out what he blames the situation on.  Going along with this, but in the other way is how Parris feels. "Thomas, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft.  I know that you-you least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me.  We cannot leap to witchcraft.  They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house." (Miller 14).  The first thing that I believe Parris thinks, is that he does not want his daughter to have this topic called upon her.  Then he realizes that his name will be affected by Betty, if indeed she is infected with witch craft.  It is like a parent watching over their kid.  A parent will do anything to protect their children.  Parris is a little selfish when he thinks about himself instead of Betty, but they watch out for their children.
Another instance, was when the doll had the needle stuck in the chest.  People did not know the facts, but were quick to jump on the situation, that they blamed on witch craft right away, and it seemed like everybody was going crazy (Miller 115-120).  People have tendencies to do this, which if you think about it, is pretty awful, but it is human nature.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 27 Sept. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/>.

Journal 6

Well, if you blame somebody for something he or she did not do, than a lot of things could come back to haunt you.  For one thing, that person will definitely not like you from now on.  If you say something that he or she did not do, than it would be telling them that they are the dumbest person ever.  What do you expect as a response to that?  If you expect them to like you still, than maybe you are the dumbest person, but you should expect them to hate you.  Another setback that could come with lying about someone else, is that your reputation could be affected by this in a negative way.  If somebody finds out that you lied about someone or something, than that could come back to hurt you.  Word will get around that you lied about someone, and people will begin calling you a liar and they will not believe you in the future.  There is nothing worse than not being trusted by other people.  Soon it is like people do not want to be around you and pretty soon you will not have any friends.
Another major problem about lying about another person is that one, that person will feel really bad that you just made something up about them.  Two, people may not know that the person is lying and they will take what they said for the truth and they will view the other person a lot differently.  That person that was lied about may never be able to regain what he had if people think that what was said was true, and they will be devastated by what happened.  Either way, if it is a lie it will hurt both people, so you may as well not make up a rumor that can be spread.  It will either come back to haunt you, or it will haunt the person possibly for the rest of their life, so just do not say it.

Crucible Act 2

The true colors test was a test that we took in health when we were freshmen.  I remember I picked orange because all the other guys picked orange and I did not want to look stupid being different.  So when we took the test the other day I was not surprised to see that my color had changed.  I went from being orange to gold, and after reading and hearing what gold was, I knew that was where I belonged.  We gold, tend to be the organizers (My True Colors).  We keep everything going on track and provide a schedule for what needs to happen.  We also tend to have a little bid of the obsessive compulsive disorder, and that is truely where I fit under.  There are three other colors besides gold, there is green, blue, and orange, like I said earlier.  The green people tend to be the ones that know they are right.  They like to look at the facts of everything, and from that they get their knowledge.  Then there is the blue people, who tend to be the compassionate type of people.  They do not like when people get into arguments, and they want everybody to get along.  They also like to give hugs (just saying).  The last color is orange.  They tend to be the people that just go get the task done.  They are not shy and Caleb Harney is a perfect example of this color (My True Colors).  He fits the bill perfectly for the group of orange.
The first character that I am showing their colors is Abigail.  Abigail is a little confusing on which color is her dominate, but the two colors that I believe she possesses are blue and orange.  She is definitely orange because of when she was dancing, in the woods, the dancing was associated with witch craft, but she keeps on denying that it had nothing to do with witch craft.  "We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted.  And there's the whole of it." (Miller 10). Just like what you (Mr. Langley) said about Caleb.  They know that they are not right, but they argue with the other person for a long time period that they end up just giving up and that is how they win.  The other color associated with Abigail is blue.  I think blue is a love color.  Marry is head over heels for John Proctor. (Miller 150).  She loves him even though she is not loved back.
Mary Warren is a blue.  The one thing that I remember about when we were discussing the description of the characters is that blues wanted to make everything right.  They did not want to have any arguments or any enemies.  Mary did that in court, when Elizabeth was said to be doing witch craft.  Mary quickly jumped in and stopped all of that discussion, because she did not want Elizabeth mad at her, and because she knew that Elizabeth had nothing to do with witch craft.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

My True Colors. My True Colors, Inc. Web. 26 Sept. 2011. <http://www.mytruecolors.com/truecolormeaning.asp>.

Journal 5

Punishments tend to vary from household to household.  It really depends on the kid and the parents.  If the kid is an overall good kid than is it really a good idea to punish him severly.  You have to punish them for what they do but if he is a good kid, start small and then get bigger.  If it is a bad kid who tends to not follow the rules at any time, than you should punish them more severly.  I really think that it all depends on the kid and parents, going back to what I said earlier.
Punishment for overall good kid:  So say the kid is a good kid, who follows the rules, but somehow manages to slip up once.  I think that if it is the first time, a warning or a talk with parents about what he did is good.  If he keeps breaking the rules, than you can get into taking phones, no facebook, and no video games.
Punishment for overall bad kid:  If a kid is constantly screwing around and breaking the rules than you have already passed the warning stage.  You have given him the warning, so it is time to move on and get more serious.  I do think that taking phones, internet, video games, etc. is a fair punishment.  What do kids love most these days?  They love facebook, texting, and all of the technology types of things.  So to punish that kid take away what he loves.  If you punish him with things that are not very serious or things that he does not care about than what lesson are you teaching him?  You mess up, but we do not care is basically what you are telling him.  You have to get to what he loves, so that he will realize that what he is doing is not okay.  If you take away things he loves, than he will stop getting in trouble because he does not want to lose those belongings anymore.

Crucible Act 1

Before I get started on the blog, I want to say that I was very confused with all that was going on in the Crucible.  I followed a little bit of it, but when all the characters started coming in and talking at once, I got lost with what was saying.  So there may be some things that I interpreted a whole different way than what the actual meaning of a certain text, response, or quote was.
As it starts off, I understand that Mr. Parris is praying for Betty, his ten year old daughter.  She is supposedly deamed to have witch craft, but right away you can tell that it favors Puritan style writing, in that he was praying (Miller 7-8). If the Puritans took the Bible as the exact word of God, and followed it to a "T", than the Puritans would have prayed for help, just as Mr. Parris prayed for help on his daughter Betty. "Reverend Parris is praying now, and, though we cannot hear his words, a sense of his confusion hangs about him.  He mumbles, then seems about to weep; then he weeps, then prays again; but his daughter does not stir on the bed." (Miller 8).  Another quick thing that I noticed is that the government that the Crucible displays is a Theocracy, rule by God through some sort of religious officials.  Understanding that the Puritans wanted to simplify the word of God, they must have had the same type of government as the people and community have in this story.  God was the central focus in both the puritan community and the community of the story.  Everything they did revolved around the central aspect of God.
One thing that I did not quite understand was the whole witch craft topic.  I did not understand as to why they talked about witchcraft so much.  The Bible says not do have anything to do with witch craft and if the puritans took the Bible as how to follow God than surely they would not have had anything to do with this topic.  In Psalms 34:7 it says that "God's angels guard those who honor the Lord and rescues them from danger."  You do not need help from satan, or anything involved with satan, so the Puritans would not have associated themselves with witchcraft.  That is a difference from the people in this story.  Betty, Abigail, and the maid for Parris, and Tituba went out in the forest and associated themselves with witch craft.  That is what the Bible says not to do, therefore that is definitely a difference between them and the Puritans.  I am not sure if the Puritans called anybody for having witch craft, but they definitely did not "do" witch craft.
I was not real fond of Mr. Parris.  I did not like how he conducted himself.  He did not want to put his name at risk by letting everyone know that Betty could possibly be possessed with witch craft. He was focused on himself instead of the health of his daughter.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006. Print.

Journal Four

Traveling is something you have to do in order to get to your destination.  Wherever you are going, whether it be Florida, California, New York or wherever, you have to either get in the car or get on a plane to get to the place you want to go.  If you are taking a plane, it is not so bad, because I enjoy traveling via an airplane, but if you are traveling in a car for say over ten hours, well that is not so enjoyable.
When I was in eighth grade, our family took a vacation to St. Petersburg, Florida.  We were all excited to go, because we had not been to Florida for a few years, and we were excited to get out of the cold weather and into the warm weather.  Unfortunately, we had to travel in the car for sixteen hours or so, with three sister and two parents.  It got very cramped inside the car, because we had our luggage, and people need space.  So as we took off, we were very excited because we felt Florida was so close, but yet it was going to seem like forever until we got there.  So as we took off, we were making plans, what was the first thing we were going to do, are we going to the beach or pool first?  About an hour into the trip, we began asking the question, are we almost there yet?  The same answer for the next twelve hours, was no.  We began to get very tired, cramped, and angry at each other, because we were so tired of the being in the car, and we just wanted to be on the beach.  We finally got to Florida and we were all excited and it felt good to stretch your legs.  Traveling is not fun.  You get so excited about where you are going, that you forget that you have a long time until you get there.

Puritans vs. Mayflower

So as I started to get going on the new story we had to read.  I recognized the title and remembered that I had read this story before.  It may not have been the exact story, but I remember reading this story at my old school, which helps me a little bit because at least I have a background of what is going on in the story.
This story is about the pilgrims, who wanted to separate from the Church of England.  At first I thought that they were the exact opposite of the puritans who wanted to purify the church.  Then I thought that to purify the Church of England, the puritans would have to separate from the church.  So I believe that these two groups were in common beliefs.
Last class we talked about the Providence of God (to provide), and I noticed that in this story they mentioned the Providence of God.  "...they resolved to bear up again for the Cape and thought themselves happy to get out of those dangers before night overtook them, as by God's good Providence they did." (Bradford 65).  We really went into detail about how Go provided so much for Mary Rowlandson, and now we begin to see the same things in this story.  I do not know much about sailing, but when there is a storm, the last place you want to be is in the ocean, and the pilgrims got out of it due to God's providence.  With this blessing that God gave them, they quickly began to thanks him.  "Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element." (Bradford 65).
When the Indians and Pilgrims began to meet each other they began to grow a close bond.  They were grateful for one another, and they made rules for each other (Bradford, 67). There were six rules, but it made me think of the ten commandments.  Even though the Indians and the pilgrims made six "commandments", and God had ten commandments, I believe that this is a reference from the Bible, in putting down guidelines to what you can and can not do.  One of the commandments that was similar to the rules, was do not steal.  That is how it is said in the Bible, but in the rules it is said that if anything is taken that it shall be restored.  The other one that I found is do not covet your neibors valuables.  In the story it is a little different, but I believe that the same meaning is implied.
One last thing that reminded me of the Puritans writing was that the story was similar to a journal.  It was like this in the last story, but it had headings as to what was going on which is very similar to how a journal would be.

Bradford, William. "from of Plymouth Plantation". Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 64-67. Print.

Journal Three

Yesterday, I went to the bank to make a deposit.  I am really not for sure why I went into the bank, because I could have gone through the drive-thru, but I went in instead.  What was to come was highly unfortunate.
So I was waiting in line to make my deposit.  It was a very long line and unfortunately the air-conditioning was out.  Finally, after a half an hour wait, I was next in line, when all the sudden I heart shots.  Boom! Boom! "Get on the ground."  There were about five guys with guns threatening to kill us if we did not do what they said.  They told us to give up our electronic devices and to sit along the wall.  Well, being the rebel I am, I told them I left my phone at home.  Stupid of them, they believed me.  They took all of us to a room upstairs, while they took the bank manager to the vault.  We were in the room for a while with a man watching us, so I could not take out my phone and call for help.  Right when everything was going right for them, a little setback came.  The manager was not giving them the combination to the vault, so the man that was watching us left, and a new guy came.  However, during this time, there was a thirty second time period that no one was watching us.  I immediately called 911, and told them we were being held hostage at the Illinois State bank.  I got the phone call done before the new man got into the room.  It was just a matter of time before the cops got here and we would all be saved.  The cops arrived but could not come in due to the fact that the men were armed.  So now it was the hostages time to shine.  We all ganged up on the man, knocked him out and took his weapon.  I fired the weapon at each mans leg and injured them.  The cops came in secured the man, and we were all safe.

Puritans vs. Literature

The Puritans were a group of people who were in the Catholic church in England.  As time went on the Church became more and more corrupt.  More and more problems seemed to be coming up in the church, and with that, the Puritans wanted to purify the church (there name came from what they wanted to do).  So the Puritans came on over to America.
Right away Mary Rowlandson is in a predicament.  Does she let the Indians take her captive or does she let them take her life.  "I had often before this said, that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive;..." (Rowlandson 82).  She ends up being taken captive by the Indians due to the fear of dying, but I have an opinion on this case.  If she would have let them kill her, in many ways it would be like taking your own life, but with somebody else doing it.  I am not sure if the Bible actually says that you shall not commit suicide, but there is a great debate about this situation.  If Mary believed that in taking your life, you will not be allowed into heaven than maybe that aided into her situation about being taken captive.
As the story went on I was looking for things that I recalled from Bible class or Sunday school and I remember that the Bible says to give thanks to God.  "Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done." (First Chronicles 16:8).  It says to give thanks to the Lord in many other situations, but this was the first verse that I found.  "It was in my thoughts that when I first put it into my mouth; that if I ever returned, I would tell the world what a blessing the Lord gave to such mean food." (Rowlandson 85).  At the time, Mary had not eaten for days and was on a journey (walk).  She reached into her pocket and found the cake that had been given to her by her daughter.  It had become crusty, hard, and moldy, and yet she still found pleasure in it.  If I were in that situation it would have been very difficult to give thanks to the Lord for moldy food, and yet she did.  It just goes to show you that whatever the situation, give thanks to the Lord for what he has given you. 
In the next story, Upon the Burning of our House, it was shorter, but I still managed to find recognition of the Lord.  "And to my God my heart did cry to strengthen me in my distress and not to leave my succorless." (Bradstreet 90).  I also found reference to the Lord as Him.  "By Him who..."  Yet by His gift..." (Bradstreet 90).  You may not think this is a very big, but in capitalizing the word Him, it is referring to God.  The Bible also refers to the Lord as Him.  The last line of the poem is, "My hope and treasure lies above."  I really like this quote because one it saying have faith in the Lord and it reminds me of the saying, let go, and let God.

Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning House." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.90-91. Print.

New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006. Print.

Rowlandson, Mary. "A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson."Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 82-85. Print.