Journal 31

For career day I went to Lanphier Park, for the Springfield Sliders organization.  I can't recall what I put as the career category, but I believe it had something to do with tickets sales, sales advertising, or something like that. I had a really good time there and I enjoyed my experience.  I was a little nervous to go but I went in and met Denny something and he was a real nice guy.  The day started off with him showing me a tour of the stadium.  Although, I have played in the stadium, I didn't really care, I got to go into places where I normally would not have gone into.  After that I met the General Manager and another worker in the front office.  I then went with Denny to make a deposit at the bank.  After coming back, I got to sit in on a few phone calls, for tickets and advertising.  I got to see what it was like and the constant negotiating that went on in the process during a sales call.  I was asked to do a press release about the three new signees from Tusculum college.  I wrote that and showed it to the GM and he read it.  He was very impressed with my writing skill, some of which I attribute to Mr. Langley, but he also said that two interns had written previous press releases and he said that he had to start all over.  I felt pretty good about myself after I heard that and I remember seeing one of the articles in the sports page, so I am looking forward to seeing if it makes the paper.  I did a little bit of dirty work after that by cleaning the trash.  I got the whole experience there.  We went out to lunch which was what I thought was going to be the best part of the day.  It was very good but my experience with the club was a lot better.  As I was about to leave, all three of the guys said that if I ever wanted an internship during college, I could call them up and they would be more than happy to have me.

Video Blog - Modernism

Journal 30

As I went for my search for my favorite poem by Walt Whitman, there were many to chose from. I looked at the titles to see if there were any that cought my mind and I found one that jumped out at me. It was the only one that I looked at and I am glad about that because I did not have to search for one that I liked.  The poem that I liked a lot is called I Hear America Singing, of course by Walt Whitman.

I liked the poem a lot because of the tone to the poem.  It has a very positive attitude and tone to the poem.  The poem seems to be very happy and easy going, which is always nice to read, whenevery you are reading anything.   I would much rather be reading something exciting and happy than something with a sad tone to it.  It is obvious that Walt Whitman has a love for America and the working class.  He brings up all of these occupations, such as a carpenter, mason, boatmaker, shoemaker, etc. and shows them with something that they have created.  They all have great pride in what they do for a living and it shows when the boatman says the boatman singing for what belongs to him.  Walt Whitman definitely respects the working class of America.  He is praising them in this poem by mentioning them, and he is mentioning them in a good way.  Whitman praises them for what they do for America and how hard they are working.  He also shows the blue collar workers.  He does not mention lawyers or the white collar worker which shows that he definitely appreciates the hard workers of the world.

I thought that this was a very good poem because I share the same feelings towards America as Walt Whitman did. I appreciate the hardworkers in life, not just as grownups but as kids as well.  I like to see people that are willing to work hard.  I also liked the tone of the poem as I previously mentioned.  Overall, I just thought that this was a tremendous poem and a very entertaining read.

http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/19

CHANTING THE SQUARE DEIFIC

Walt Whitman's, Chanting The Square Deific is a wonderful piece of writing.  God is usually thought of as the Son, the Father, and The Holy Spirit, but in this writing there is a fourth side, hints the square, that is also portrayed with God.  Each stanza takes one side of God.  “There are four stanzas, each presenting one of the four sides to Whitman's "Square Deific," and each told from the speaker's point of view, first God, then Christ, then Satan, and, finally, the Soul ("Santa Spirita")” (Oliver).


Walt Whitman has spirituality throughout the writing.  Whitman is writing as God.  This shows in the first stanza when Whitman writes, " Relentless I forgive no man, whoever sins dies, I will have that man’s life; Therefore let none expect mercy, have the season, gravitation, the appointed days, mercy? No more have I" (Whitman). The feeling that comes out of this stanza is that God is mercellus, and relentless.  The issue with that, is that every person sins.  God forgives us when we sin, and Whitman writes that the Lord has our life after sin.  Whitman is false in writing that God takes the lives of people because God gives every person multiple chances.


The second stanza is a very key stanza to the the work and it carries a message through today.  "But my charity has no death, my wisdom dies not, neither early nor late, and my sweet love bequeath’d here and elsewhere never dies" (Whitman).  The message that Whitman is trying to get through is that no matter what has happened, the Lord will live on.  "My wisdom dies not..." (Whitman), says that the knowledge of the Lord will be carried on forever.  Whitman shows a lot of spirituality in writing this, because Whitman understands the power of the Lord and his message.


The third stanza is written about Satan.  Whitman shows his knowledge in spirituality because Whitman knows that Satan will always exist.  “Defiant, I, Satan, still live, still utter words, in new lands duly appearing” (Whitman).  The knowledge of Whitman here is tremendous, because it is easy to try and say that everything will be fine, when it will not be.  Whitman knows the power of satan and says that he is defiant and will keep appearing.


The final stanza is the stanza that brings everything together.  The final stanza is the God part.  "Santa Spirita, breather, life" (Whitman).  Whitman knows that God holds everything together through the thick and thin.  Walt does a great job in saying that there will be difficult times that tear us apart.  Whitman knows that evil lingerers everywhere, but Whitman also knows the power of God.


Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 03 Apr. 2012.




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

Journal 29

I am Ben Sprague.  That is my name not who I am.  There is not really a correct answer to this question, but I think that who I am, what I do, what I like and things like that make me who I am. I am seventeen years.  I am a junior at Pleasant Plains High School.  I am the son the of Keith and Keely Sprague.  I enjoy being around my friends, playing all sorts of sports, going and enjoying the outdoors, and cheering on my sports teams.  I am a hardworking individual who does whatever he can to do the best at whatever I am working on.  I consider myself to be smart, but I look a lot smarter because of my work ethic.  I am a nice and sympathetic young man.  I treat others with respect because I want to be treated the same way.  I am a caring individual.  I care about how others feel and want them to be happy.  I do not like to see people feeling sad or crying because that makes me feel sad, so I do whatever I can to cheer them up.  I am an honest person.  I stick to the truth and do not fall away into lying.  The most important one to me is that I am a Christian and I believe that God is my Lord and Savior.  I believe that this makes me who I am because the Lord lives through me. I believe in the Lord and I believe that he has a purpose for me.  This being said I think that the Lord makes me who I am.

All of these things contribute to the essential question that we are trying to answer.  I am all of these things because they are traits of me.  They make me who I am.  It is a hard question to answer, but I feel that I did it in the right way because these characteristics contribute to who I am.

Partner Blog

When I first read this poem, once again me and Benjamin got a little confused as to what the story was talking about. We read and analyzed this poem at least several times and yet we still could not get the grasp of it. What me and Benjamin finally got out of it was that everyone knows that a mother is caring and very loving. Me and Benjamin believe that a Emily Dickinson used Nature as a mother in this story.You think of a mother and a child and you immediately think of the bond that they share. They have such a great bond and when Dickinson says this it says that nature is like a mother. I guess that if you think about it like saying when the sun comes up, your mother gets you up and when the sun goes down, she puts you to bed. The little things in the middle of this poem may be the things that she does for you to reward you. Nature is doing the same things for us that a mother does. She treats us with love and care just like the warm summer day that the poem refers to, and when it is dark nature puts us in our beds and cools us down. Here is a quote from the story that shows how Emily Dickinson referred to a motherly sense in the story, "When all the children sleep She turns as long away As will suffice to light her lamps; Then, bending from the sky" (Dickinson). This is showing that you think of a mother putting her children away for the night, and the nature outside is calm and seemingly very caring. Dickinson also gives out a positive vibe towards by writing nature as a soothing and relaxing topic. She does this by saying things like "summer afternoon" (Dickinson). When one thinks about a summer afternoon, you think of a sunny day, not too hot, but with a perfect breeze, and being outside for this is like nothing other in the world. I love these kinds of days where it is a perfect day to play outside and chill out. Dickinson does a great job with explaining this and this is when me and Ben started to get ideas.

During a few classes we have looked at the literal meaning of the poem. After looking at the first stanza the literal meaning that we got out of this was that nature is gentle and patient to all children. Some of the words were hard to understand and we had to look them up, which made the literal meaning harder. The last part of the stanzas literal meaning comes out to be, she still gives advice to the weak and the improper. Overall, through the way me and Ben analyzing and looking at this poem, I think we did a good job with looking at how Dickinson wrote this poem and what she did to show us how she wrote all her stories.

Bibliography

Dickinson, Emily. "1. “Nature, the Gentlest Mother.” Part Two: Nature. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems." 1. “Nature, the Gentlest Mother.” Part Two: Nature. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Journal 28

Emily Dickinson's poem, I heard a fly buzz has a very disheartening and depressing mood.  It is definitely not something you would want to read if you are looking to get into a good move.  Although the mood is not a optimistic one, it is still a very well written poem that has a good message through it. 

Emily Dickinso writes this poem and she come to the fact that she is going to die.  I think that this would be a very hard thing to come to terms with.  You only get to live once and you want to take all the advantages of the time that you have.  I do not want to die any time soon and to come to terms and accept that I am going to die.  Emily, no matter what she is feeling, has accepted this.  The part that I find somewhat funny is the fly.  Why does she write about a fly?  If you think about it, what purpose does a fly have in life?  Nobody really likes them and I find them very annoying.  They always find a way to get into your house or around you and you just want to kill them.  I think that Emily wrote like this because she pictured herself as the fly.  If you think about Emily and what she was like, she never got out and nobody really wanted to be around her.  She may have seemed as annoying to other people and her family.  I think she wrote about the fly because she wanted to say that everything in life has a purpose.  No matter what you are, how annoying you may be, there is always a purpose for you.  I think that this is a great message that Emily is trying to send.  She is trying to reach out to the people that were like her and show them that people can make a difference in life just like she did with her writing.

Amazing Grace - Emily Dickinson

I think that Emily Dickinson used this song as a background in so many of her poems because it has a Godly message to it.  I have heard this on in the car before on the Christian channel, WIBI, and Emily Dickinson used it a lot because she was taugh as a child to have a God filled background in her life.  Anyways, she uses it a lot because she had that background.  Emily Dickinson never actually became affiliated with the church, but her family was.  Since she never got out much and rarely if at all had visitors her family played a huge role in her.  Since she never became a member of the church, I think that this song has a lot do with her life.  When it says, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see, I believe that she was glad that she had the grace of God.  She never went out and did all the Godly things that one should do and she was so happy because she had the grace of God that could save her.

In eighth grade, I went to a Christian school and we watched a movie in literature class about slavery and the reason that I bring this up is that Amazing Grace was the song that was played in it, and it may have been the title of the movie.  Anyways, the song was written because of slavery, I can't think who wrote it, but it was written from this point.

Although Emily Dickinson never came out about God much, I think that she had a great relationship with the Lord.  She came from a strong Christian household which raised her, but the party where I know that I am right about this comes from her writing of poems with Amazing Grace as it goes along with the poem.  No one does that just to do it, so she had to have a motive for doing it and I believe that it was because she loved the Lord.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson, just like Walt Whitman, is one of those writers whose works will be carried on forever.  She had a great influence to the individual style of writing and wrote many great poems.  Emily Dickinson was a unique girl though.  She went to school away from home and than became homesick.   She could not stand being away from home, making her have to come back and be home.  After this, she rarely left the house and seldomly would visitors ever come stop by and see her.  After seeing all of this about Emily, one can only imagine all the works that she must have on individualism.  She was by herself all of the time so she would not be writing about others, it would just be about herself.

I'm nobody! Who are you? This is a poem that Emily Dickinson wrote is about having that person that will care for you and watch out for you.  In it, two "nobody's" meet and they begin talking to each other and they form a close relationship.
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
 I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

They soon realize that now they are not a nobody because they have each other.  That is the message of the poem.  It is trying to tell you that it is more important to have one person closely admire you, rather than a whole group of people doing it just to fit in.  I think that Emily wrote about this because she did not have that person outside of her family feel this way about her.  "Under the law, she was, indeed, a Nobody. Her revered, patriarchal father, Edward Dickinson, believed that, while women should be educated, a "proper woman" would maintain a low profile, confining her influence to the private sphere" (Leiter).   Emily Dickinson really had no life outside writing and her family, and it must have been tough for her to write this because she probably dreamed of having friends, but she never got the opportunity to have them.


I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading -- treading -- till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through --

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum --
Kept beating -- beating -- till I thought
My Mind was going numb --

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space -- began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here -- (Dickinson)

The individual thoughts on Emily's writings come out here because she feels like she is losing everything now.  She has writing and to write you have to think therefore if she loses writing she will have nothing left.  It is sad to see this, but in writing this she regains her swagger and keeps going.

Leiter, Sharon. "'I'm Nobody! Who are you?'." Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCED064&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 20, 2012).

"I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain, - Poem by Emily Dickinson." Famous Poets and Poems. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/emily_dickinson/poems/5399.

"1f. "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" by Emily Dickinson [Beyond Books - Reading Between the Lines]." Beyond Books. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://www.beyondbooks.com/lit71/1f.asp>.

Walt Whitman

To this day, Walt Whitman is one of the most historical writers to walk the face of the earth.  He will always be remembered for what he contributed to the various writng styles.  Walt Whitman was a writer during the 1800's.  Walt Whitman was considered a tweener because he did not necesarily fall into one specific style of writing.  He was inbetween, hints the tween, the modernism style of writing and the realism style of writing.

The first type of writing is Modernism, which is about the modern growth in industry and many popular Modernism poems/stories were about the World War 1. Also a huge part of modernism was that the author will write a lot about individualism and the idea of equality.  In the poem, Song of Myself, it comes out a lot on the individualism about the story.  " I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass (Whitman).

Throughout this story, it refers the I and me, which takes on a huge characteristic of the modernism style of writing.  The celebration of ones self is very important to basically every one.  It has carried into the world that we live in today and plays a huge part in everybody's life, whether they want to admit it or not.  "One would expect, therefore, the democratization of the sublime in Leaves of Grass, certainly in Song of Myself, where the announced subject is, one first supposes, limited to the body, emotions, experiences, and apprehensions of a single man. Greater directness, and a greater radicalization of traditional poetic tone, can scarcely be imagined than that found in the blunt opening lines, "I celebrate myself, and sing myself." In many definitions of the sublime, "commonness"—even commonness transfigured—can have no part at all, but a reader of Whitman is soon accustomed to his practice of refocusing the visionary mode, wherein the small is made the courtyard of the vast and the squalid is the guise that the holy puts on to enter squalid environs" (Hopes).  This shows that Whitman was impressed with the mind as a sense of power.

The other style of writing that Walt Whitman found himself between was realism.  Realism is the portraying of how something actually is.  It is not the ideal society but the real society, to give you an idea of what I am talking about.  An example of this is Calvary crossing a Ford.  Whitman talked about how what the men did when they were not fighting in the war (when they were doing nothing).
"Behold the brown-faced, each group, each person a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles." (Whitman).  This is realism writing because it is portraying these men as they actually are, or what they are doing.  Obviously they are tan from being outside and they are sitting down.  This style of writing takes a simple approach becaue there are no tricks behind it, it is just how it really is.

Hopes, David Brendan. "The Sublime Self: Whitman's Sense of the Sublime in Song of Myself." Asheville: University of North Carolina. Quoted as "The Sublime Self: Whitman's Sense of the Sublime in Song of Myself" in Bloom, Harold, ed. The Sublime, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BLTS018&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 20, 2012).
Whitman, Walt. "Calvary Crossing a Ford." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.

Whitman, Walt. "from song of Myself." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.

Walt Whitman

I chose Give me the Splendid, Silent Sun by Walt Whitman.  I find it easier to do these blogs when you know that they are talking about nature because both Emerson and Thoreau loved nature and it is always better to write on two writers that agree on things, rather than to disagree.  This is the last blog of the third quarter which is exciting, so I picked this poem because it is exciting and it is what I am wishing for right now.

There are two parts to the poem.  The first one being loving nature.  It says give me this and give me that (Whitman).  It is saying these things that all come out of a beautiful sunny day. It goes on and one about what they want to be given to them and things like fruit, a wife, an open field, and unending crops come up (Whitman).  I think that this can be good and bad.  For the good, I think that it can be good because they want the warm weather and the things that come with that.  Who does not want these things?  Thoreau would have loved this poem because it says of all the pros that come along with a beautiful day.  Thoreau saw it as manifest destiny (Grant).  I think that is where we can go wrong to because we are not relying on ourself to bring us all these wonderful things, we are asking and demanding for them.  We are not relying on ourselves to do the job.  In a sense we are being lazy and just sitting back and begging for these things to come to us.  In the second part of this poem, it is kind of the same way because it is saying give me this and give me that.  We are not being self-reliant upon ourselves to go out there and get what we need, we are relying on something else, where we should be doing it ourselves.

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 January

30, 2012).

"130. Give Me the Splendid, Silent Sun. Whitman, Walt. 1900. Leaves of Grass." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Bartletby Bookstore. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www.bartleby.com/142/130.html>.

Emily Dickinson

The poem I selected and chose to read was call Nature, The Gentlest Mother, of course by Emily Dickinson.  After seeing a long line of poems to chose from, I immediately went under the "n's" to see if there was anything about nature, because of Thoreau's and Emerson's views on those two topics.  Anyways Emily Dickinson compares nature to a mother, hints the title.  She expresses positive attitudes towards nature inferring that nature is like a mother (Dickinson).  Dickinson also gives out a positive vibe towards by writing nature as a soothing and relaxing topic.  She does this by saying things like "summer afternoon" (Dickinson).  When one thinks about a summer afternoon, you think of a sunny day, not too hot, but with a perfect breeze, and being outside for this is like nothing other in the world.  Dickinson.  It compares to Thoreau's love for nature when he said that nature was like an artistic model (Grant).  I think than Dickinson is trying to prove the same thing when she talks about a summer afternoon because she is giving the reader a visual image of what a summer afternoon may look like.

Emily Dickinson also gives the reader a clear image of how she thinks nature is like a mother.  When she says this:

"all the children sleep
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light her lamps;
Then, bending from the sky

With infinite affection
And infiniter care,
Her golden finger on her lip,
Wills silence everywhere" (Dickinson)

You think of a mother and a child and you immediately think of the bond that they share.  They have such a great bond and when Dickinson says this it says that nature is like a mother.  I guess that if you think about it like saying when the sun comes up, your mother gets you up and when the sun goes down, she puts you to bed.  The little things in the middle of this poem may be the things that she does for you to reward you.  Nature is doing the same things for us that a mother does.  She treats us with love and care just like the warm summer day that the poem refers to, and when it is dark nature puts us in our beds and cools us down.

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 January

30, 2012).

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson." Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. University of Maryland. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://mith.umd.edu//WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinson/nature-the-gentlest-mother>.

To Build A Fire

To Build A Fire, written by Jack London is about a man who travels in Yukon, Alaska.  This man is walking with him and his dog.  He is going to meet up with his friends at a place at six o'clock, so he figures that he should get a head start and start walking (London 604).  Just like every other person in this world, he thinks that he can do something that he can not.  He becomes a little cocky when he thinks that he can walk by himself to meet up with his friends.  As a traveler, you should never travel alone especially if you are new and in freezing cold weather.  If you get lost you are basically done for, or if you somehow manage to hurt yourself or get caught in a predicament like this man did.  He was in freezing weather all by himself (London 604-605). 

The man who was “quick and alert in the things in life, but only the things, and not in the significances” learned that there are forces outside of his control (London 604).  This man respected nothing.  He had no respect for his friends who gave him advice as to what to wear.  He thinks that he is better and knows more than this man when he clearly has no idea what he is doing.  Most importantly he has no respect for nature.  Thoreau respected nature to a great extent.  This man did not treat nature very well and in return, he got what he deserved back.  If you treat nature, or really anything badly, you should not expect something good or something that will benefit you in return. 

Thoreau said that in nature, material items are just a bonus if you have them because nature itself can provide you with all the material things that you need.  It can provide you with food, shelter, water, and a lot more (Grant).  Unfortunately this man did not realize what the outdoors provided for him and instead of this he went off and killed his dog for warmth and relied on what he had.

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

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 January

30, 2012).

Richard Cory

Richard Cory, written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, is a poem that takes a unique spin at the end.  Richard Cory is portrayed as a very rich, nice, elegant man who seems that his life is perfect and that he has everything that he could dream of (Robinson 575).  It seems that everyone in the town wishes that they could have the life of Richard Cory.  Although Cory knew that he was rich - and he acted like it some times - he was still human in saying good morning to everyone that he came in contact with (Robinson 575).  The poem goes on saying that the people were struggling during this time period, and than it says that Cory killed himself, by putting a gun to his head. 

It makes you wonder what could make a man kill himself, when he seems to have everything imaginable?  Why would someone do that to themselves if they lived in a great life.  Thoreau believes that social reform must begin with one's self (Grant).  Thoreau also states that America has been ruined by luxury (Grant).  It makes sense to say that luxury ruined Richard Cory's life.  The audience sees what one has and thinks that must make them happy.  The man who lives that life, may totally think a different thing.  He may feel like that "stuff" does not make him happy and he would do anything to be happy.  No one can tell what makes someone happy and people are deceived by the riches in life, like Thoreau said.  Henry David Thoreau was not a believer of material wealth as "wealth can not buy freedom" (Cisco).  Emerson must have the same feelings to, because he states that harmony between man and nature will bring delight, and, since nature cannot be bought and is not a material item, Emerson must believe that money can not buy happiness.   All three writers, Emerson Thoreau, and Robinson all share the same feelings in that happiness must come from one's self and not from material things or money.

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

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

Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society 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=ETL1133&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).Cisco, Michael. "Henry David Thoreau: Bachelor of Thought and Nature." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 04 Mar. 2012.

The Darling

The Darling written by Anton Chekhov is a compelling story of the life of a woman named Olga Plemyannikov.  Olga seems to always be in love with someone during this story.  It is quite weird because love should not happen everytime you meet someone knew and that is what happened with Olga (Chekhov 558).  She would be in love with one guy and than that person would somehow leave her life, whether it would be by death or departure of someone. When Mr. Mallard dies, Mrs. Mallard is ecstatic about her new found "freedom" that comes with the news (Chopin 555). This goes with how can you say you were in love with someone if you were happy that they died?  The point that a lot of people agree with is that love is a word that is thrown out too much.  People say they are in love and they really are not, they just think they are.  Olga could not be in love that many times.  She was sitting on her porch steps and saw her neighbor Mr. Kukin at his house complaining about the weather (Chekhov 558).  She begins to fall in love with him and than they come up with the idea to get married (Chekhov 558).

The Darling and Richard Cory are similar in so many ways.  They both share the same idea about happiness.  In the Darling, Olga found her happiness in falling in love with some man.  This would continue to happen every time after something happened with the previous man.  She relied on someone else for her happiness.  It is not saying that you are the only way to make yourself happy, but you can not have someone make you feel that way.  Thoreau said it himself that happiness must come from one's self (Grant).  Thoreau also said that luxury is causing all of the problems (Grant).  The luxury in this story was Olga's relationships and her falling in love with other men.  Men were the luxury that caused Olga's distress.  Emerson also said that happiness can not be bought by one thing.

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

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

Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society 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=ETL1133&SingleRecord=True (accessed January

30, 2012).

I Will Fight No More Forever

The short story, I Will Fight No More Forever, written by Chief Justice is a very sad story that tells the lives of the Native Americans during this time period.  In Miss Radliffe's history class, we just learned about this time period and what was going on.  The white Americans thought that God had given them the western land for them to go to and settle.  I can not remember what this was called, but they thought that they received that land from God, in some sort of message.  This was when California was also in their gold rush and people were looking for a quick way to get rich.  So now even more and more people were wanting to come west and see what was there.  Native Americans habited this land and now there was a problem on what to do with them.  This time period brought out racism.  The white men decided to say that this is our land and you either will go to our reservation or you will be killed.  In this story, the Native Americans decided to fight back it appears.  This decision turns out to be fatal.  Everybody is dying or is freezing to death (Chief Joseph 533).  It is cold out, they have no blankets, no food, and people are freezing to death (Chief Joseph 533).  They have decided that they regret their decision and that they will fight no more (Chief Joseph). 

Thoreau definitely would have liked the Indians because he was a big man about nature.  He was one of those guys that felt like he was a part of nature.  He even said things like, is not my body made up of leaves (Grant).  As a reader, you can almost imagine Thoreau in person.  He was definitely one of those guys that wanted to be outside.  He was getting his hands dirty trying to find worms, or things like that. Those are the things that I envision about Thoreau.  There is nothing wrong about that, it is kind of funny how much he loved nature.

Chief Joseph. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 531-533. Print.

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 January

30, 2012).

Spoon River Anthology

The Hill, an exerpt from the Spoon River Anthology is a very well written poem that describes the life of five men (Masters).  They all have one characteristic associated with them and each one is different from the other.  Some of the men that are described in this poem do not have great characteristics.  The five characteristics, each referring to a different person are:  weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, and the fighter (Masters).  Maybe there are two good characteristics in here.  There is definitely one, but the fighter could go either way depending on how you put it in real life.  The other three are not characteristics that I wish to attain one day.  Each dies how you would imagine, the figher dies by fighting, and the rest you can put two and two together to figure out what caused them to die.  No matter the life, no matter the death, Masters is trying to get one point across and that is that you will be buried by a total stranger just like these five men were buried in the same hill.  No matter the life, it leads to one ending.  Masters is also trying to say that each of these death goes back to the person.  It is pretty easy to assume that and recognize, but Masters is trying to tell us to watch out for our roblems.  If we are a boozer, as the man in the story was than the chances of us dying of some alcohol related incident is likely.

Thoreau goes along with the ideal that we as a society need to fix our problems (Grant).  In this he states that the society has been so obsessed with trying to get everything that we do not need but the things that make us feel good.  In order to solve this, Thoreau states that the only way to overcome this is to start by going through ones self (Grant).  This relates with Masters ideas because we all have our problems and the only way to overcome them is to take it upon yourself.

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 January

30, 2012).

"Excerpt from." EReader.com:. A Barnes & Noble. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ereader.com/servlet/mw?t=book_excerpt>.

Two Views of the River

Two Views of the River, an excerpt of Life on the Mississippi written by Mark Twain, is a story written about the after effect.  What I mean by this is that when you are in the moment things, beauties and much more can seem so sureal and exciting.  Getting that new game that you wanted so bad is a perfect example.  You have been dying to play the game and you finally get the opportunity to play it and after a few days you beat the game.  The excitement is over.  You wish to have the feeling of the day that you received the game, but you can not go back to that time.  Mark Twain became a riverboat pilot.  Was it what he wanted, I do not know, but at first he loved the job.  He saw all the beauties that came with the job.  The beautiful sunset and the peaceful river made him fall in love with the job (Twain 504).  He had that experience that a little child does.  After a while things became dull for him.  He lost that feeling that he once had for the job.  He missed thinking of his job as the best thing and started seeing all the bad things that came with the job (Twain 505).  He started seeing the dangers that came along with it and could not think of what he had when he first started.  All he was now, was a pessimistic guy (Twain 505).

In Thoreau's Nature writing he expresses his feelings towards nature.  Just like in this one, where Mark Twain saw all of the good things about nature, as in the river and sunset.  Twain wanted us to learn from this by saying that you gain and lose something from every situation.  He gained and learned from the riverboating.  Thoreau expresses the same feeling in that he sees nature as a moral teacher (Grant).  Both Twain and Thoreau express the same ideas towards nature and both share many transcendentalist characteristics.

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 January

30, 2012).

Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River." Web. 29 Feb. 2012.

The Red Badge of Courage

In a sense, naturalism is a lot like realism.  they both share many of the same characteristics, but have a few differences between the two.  For one, realism focuses mainly on the individual and that person's struggles throughout his or her time.  Naturalism's problems that people face are from an outside driven "thing" or "things" (Docarmo).  These outside "things" for example are war, natural disaster, and a few other things but it goes with this story very well.  In this The Red Badge of Courage, the outside problem is the war and the effect that it is having on this man.  He says that he is beginning to feel the wrath of the war (Crane 493).  He now feels all the stress that is now coming into his life due to the presence of war.  The part that I am having a hard time with is the fact that he wants to put an end to it.  All of the sudden he feels this rage that goes into his body and he is so angry (Crane 493).  I guess that it is most likely how some people feel about war, they get upset about it and they want it to end.  I just do not see that as a characteristic of the naturalism writing style.  Granted there are more than I know, but what I have seen I do not see anything like the hatred that I saw in this man.  I almost got the feeling that he was going to kill himself, when it says the thing about his rifle.  He can only use it for one life at a time (Crane 493).

Henry David Thoreau is definitely classified as a naturalist.  He had a story about nature and nature is apart of naturalism.  The part that I got from it was that Thoreau wanted to learn from nature (Thoreau).  He wanted to seek out nature.  He will not be influenced by it, but he will learn from it.  They both share their same views when it comes to nature.

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.

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

Docarmo, Stephen N. "Realism and Naturalism." Dr. Stephen N. Docarmo. Bucks County Community College. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://faculty.bucks.edu/docarmos/RealismNaturalism.html>.

From The Awakening

From the Awakening, is a realism story and I now have a background of some of the characteristics of realism.  Realism is what is really happening in life.  It tries to present what it really is (Docarmo).  Realist do not write about some extraordinary situation that is occurring in life.  Realism writes more about simple people and the trials that are going on in their life (Docarmo). Realism tends to go along with an individual.  They usually take one individual and have them struggling with some moral thing.

The story is about a woman Mrs. Pontellier and she is going through a struggle in her life at the time (Chopin 491).  It does not say as to why she is going through this struggle, it just says that it is a mood.  Anyways it goes along with Docarmo because this story takes a lot of characteristics from Docarmo.  The story goes by saying that this woman is just crying for no apparent reason (Chopin 491).  There has to be a reason that we as the readers just do not know, but it goes with Docarmo because he said that it is about the struggle of an individual, the trials that go on in their life. When Emerson says to believe in your own thought, I think that it goes with this because it is the "you" and real part about it, which these two writers share.  I have a hard time finding out what the realism part of this is.  It is hard to sit down and ask yourself, what is real?  What is real about this story?  I do not know if I am right, but if I had to guess than I would say the real part of this story is the whole thing.  What is not real about it?  This woman wakes up to the world and their is the description of the environment and than she starts crying (Chopin).  It does not sound fake to me, but what I am trying to get at, is that none of the story is made up.  There are no fairy tales or anything that is made up about this story, which makes the story as real as it can get.

Docarmo, Stephen N. "Realism and Naturalism." Dr. Stephen N. Docarmo. Bucks County Community College. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://faculty.bucks.edu/docarmos/RealismNaturalism.html>.


Chopin, Kate. "from The Awakening." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 491. Print.

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

A Wagner Matinee

I was a little confused on the sudden jump to realism.  I do not recall going over the realism style of writing.  I guess it is not that hard to figure out, hints the title of the style, but I am not for sure on what characteristics go into play under this style.

The story was about a man who got a letter in the mail saying that his aunt will be down to visit him (Cather 521).  The man seemed at shock for a second that his aunt was coming down to see him, but yet still very excited.  Anyways, I found it kind of funny how he reacted to the letter.  He was very excited but nervous in a way.  He seemed to have a great past with the aunt and wanted her to be impressed with how he lived and went around (Cather521-522).  I found it very weird because I guess you can grow close to just about anybody, but not many people fall close to their aunt, but he did.  I kind of related it to when someone is coming over ( I do not know who), but you want to make a good impression on them.  That is what he was doing when he found out that his aunt was coming.  To impress her he was going to go to the opera house with her (Cather 522).  The aunt, Aunt Georgiana, loved music growing up and was always doing something with music, so he decided to get tickets to the opera.

Emerson said “How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements” (Emerson).  In this story, Cather takes the element of music and brings a whole new meaning to it.  Emerson takes nature and shows the love toward that element. Aunt Georgian, (Cather), takes the element of music, which she loved in her childhood and creates the same affect in her adult life.  Two different elements, music and nature, but have the same meaning in both of these writers philosophies.


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.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

An occurrence at owl creek bridge was a very good but confusing story.  It looks ahead into the future and than comes back to the present.  It would have been way more confusing if you had not told us about this, but thankfully you did.  Anyways the story is broken up into different pieces.  The beginning part of the story is Far Car (that is how I pronounce his name) being held captive at the river and about to be hung (Bierce 390-391).  At this point you do not know as to why he is being hung but he is about to be.  The next part of the story is him being back with his wife and family (Bierce 392). You learn a little bit of background information as to what has happened.  He was not accepted into the Southern Army.  He than talks with a soldier and, Far car being the man who wants to help digs out info from the guy as to what he could do.  He learns this and plans to do it (Bierce 392-393).  It than jumps back to Far car eluding the people that were holding him captive.  He dodges all of the bullets and manages to get away from the Northern captors.  The story than goes and puts Far Car returning to his wife and home and just as that happens he dies (Bierce 396).  The reader knows that Far Car died by the rope and he dreamt the whole scenario (Bruccoli)  I was quite confused at this point and it was a very bad way to end a good story.  It is like one of those movies that is so good, but the ending absolutely sucks.

The first thing that I know is that this Far car guy would have been hated by Thoreau because Thoreau did not want slaves.  Far Car was for the South therefore, he must have had some sort of want for slaves.

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.

Bruccoli, Matthew J., and Judith S. Baugman. "Peyton Farquhar." Student's Encyclopedia of American Literary Characters. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 15 Feb. 12.

Letter to his Family

The Letter to his Family, in my view is a letter that is hoping and praying for the best.  They are praying that the states do not secede from the Union.  It is saying that the government that is in place right now, is not meant to make one state's rights different from another.  It is not trying to hurt anyone, it is only trying to help create a perfect union with a perfect government and sometimes you can not please every single person by doing that (Lee).  You have to do what is best for the majority and the majority is what is best for the Union.  Four states have already left and four more are most likely on their way (Lee).  They need to get everything back in order. Lee is saying that everybody needs to live by their principles, and go by their people.

A difference between Thoreaus beliefs and Lee's beliefs is that Thoreau does not like the government.  He is against every bit of it and believes that their should be no government (Thoreau).  Lee on the other hand is complementing the government in his letter because he is saying that the men worked so hard on the Constitution to try and make everything equal.  Another disagreement that Lee and Thoreau would have had was the fact of slavery.  Thoreau did not like slavery and wanted to abolish it (Harding).  He thought that the movement should be ended and that no man on earth should be a slave for another man.  Lee on the other hand was fighting for the south.  The south wanted slavery.  That is the reason they fought because they wanted slavery and the north did not.  Lee was fighting because he believed that slavery was needed for the south.  Therefore, the two sides would have gone back and forth on this for a long time.  Lee and Thoreau would have argued over this topic because Thoreau did not believe in slavery and Lee did.  In the end slavery did die so we could say that Thoreau won.

Harding, Walter. A Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding: pp. 131-173 (New York University Press, 1959). © 1959 by New York University Press. Quoted as "Thoreau's Ideas" in Harold Bloom, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 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.

And Ain't I A Woman?

The short story, And Ain't I A Woman is a completely sexist and racist story.  It is more sexist because the women of the story are being viewed as not important people who all they should do is bear children and cook the meals (Truth).  It is really unfortunate to hear this, because women are so important to the everyday life.  If you think about your family, how important is the wife to the family?  Where would you be without that person taking care of the children, the house, cooking the meals, and all the other things that women do (some do work as well which provide income for their respective houses).  Sojourner Truth recognizes the sexism that is being put her way.  All the guys are saying that women are not as equal  because God was a man, and men are better (Truth).  Fortunately nowadays women are respected much more than they were back than, but unfortunately some people still view them below where men are.

In Emerson's self-reliance, there is a little paragraph about what doing what you should do and not let those people who think they know everything bring you down (Emerson).  It relates to Sojourner truth's message because she argued this point.  She argued over the fact that she was not going to let men push her around and tell her what to do.  She was going to stand up because she knew that God had made her just as equal as every other man or woman on the earth. This message still goes today because people all the time are letting other people's voices get inside their head.  We should not let them and ignore them.  Emerson actually spoke at a women's rights conventions and voiced his opinion about the subject (Wayne).  Although Emerson would never speak on the matter again, he did believe that women had rights that men did as well.  Thoreau did not voice his opinion on the matter, unlike Emerson.

Truth, Sojourner. "And Ain‘t I a Woman?." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 368-370. Print.

Wayne, Tiffany K. "'Address at the Woman's Rights Convention'." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 12 Feb. 2012.


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

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Go Down, Moses", and "Keep Your Hands on the Plow"

First I will give my opinions on each of the three poems.  Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is very repetitive in what it is saying.  I like the message because what I got out of it is that God is coming to carry this person into heaven. Go Down Moses is very important to me.  At my old school, we learned a lot about Moses and he was my favorite Biblical guy.  I loved watching Prince of Egypt and I will always love hearing the story of Moses and Pharaoh.  This story is again very repetitive, but it is about letting the people go.  Keep your hands on the Plow is also repetitive just like the other two.  All three stories have a religious background to them, and I believe that is very important.


To Emerson, a person's inner voice is God-given, and one only need look to the simplest of humankind, a baby, to see the truth: "Infancy conforms to no one: all conform to it, so that one baby commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it" (Brugman).  He believed that somebody's voice was given to him by God and it relates a lot with the Moses story.  In the poem, it said that the Lord told Moses what to do and he did it ("Go Down" 347).    It is also relevant in the Keep your hands on the plow story.  Paul and Silas shouted and the doors came down ("Keep" 348).  God was the background of the voice and he led them to that point. Thoreau was a very religious man.  He believed that an individual must be self sufficient, but he believed that a little help from God could keep us balanced and on track (Harding).  By the grace of God we can all be saved and that is what the hold on part comes from in the keep your hands on the plow poem.  They were holding on to the fact that someday they will be free.  To go along with what Thoreau believed, I agree totally in what he thought.  As an individual, you need to learn to do things for yourself, but at the same time, it is always alright to lean on God for help.



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)



"Go Down, Moses." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 347. Print.

Harding, Walter. A Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding: pp. 131-173 (New York University Press, 1959). © 1959 by New York University Press. Quoted as "Thoreau's Ideas" in Harold Bloom, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 10 Feb. 2012.


"Keep Your Hands on the Plow." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 348. Print.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 6. Print.

Calvary Crossing a Ford

I am not going to lie, when I saw this poem I thought that I had the wrong one because of the length of it.  I am not complaining at all.  I was actually quite thrilled to see a really short story instead of the very long ones that we have been using practically the whole year.  It did not take half of an hour to read the story, so thank you very much.

At first I did not really know what was going on.  I was reading soldiers, or what the book called cavalry, were crossing a river (Whitman).  It makes sense now because the story was written sometime in the 1860's and this was around the time of the civil war.  Therefore, it must be a persons perspective from the civil war, of men crossing the River.  In comparison to Thoreau, there were more differences than there were similarities.    Thoreau wrote in one of his stories about an Army, but he went in a different way than what Whitman went with.  Walt Whitman went with the more happy approach to his style of writing as where Thoreau went with the more real, but he was not as happy with how he portrayed his style (Thoreau).  He took more of the pessimistic trail than Whitman did.  "He is morally insane, and incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, virtue and crime" (Nordau).  It explains why he did not go into the detail of things. Whitman went with more of an Emerson view of things.  I believe that Whitman kind of looked up to Emerson.  He wanted to be like him in some of the ways that he wrote.  It is like the younger sibling kind of thing.  All they want to do is be around you and do whatever you are doing.  Whitman began to take things that Emerson said and went and did them.  He went out to the battlefield and began observing what was going on and he went and wrote about it.  He just wanted to be like Emerson and he did a very good job of it.  He was also a very good follower because Emerson was a good guy to follow in the footsteps.

Thoreau, Henry D. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Richard Lenat, 2009. Web. 24 Jan. 2012. .

Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay, [c1900]; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/142/. [2/9/12


Nordau, Max. Degeneration, 1895: 230–32. Quoted as "On the Poetry of Walt Whitman" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVWaW040&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 9, 2012).

The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro

This story has an immediate kind of emotional impact on me and I would guess to a lot of other people.  The story is about what the world is like for African Americans now that they are free.  Now that the Declaration of Independence is signed, they are set free.  It truly is impactful to this day because it carries a heavy load of the backbone of this country.  We are all free!  Before African Americans were slaves and under the rule of somebody else, now they are all together united with everybody.  It is a great thing that the Declaration of Independence was signed.

When Douglass gave this speech he gave it to a crowd of white people who I am sure that some of them were not too happy about what was going on.  The point that Douglass clearly illustrates is that he believes that not only he but everybody else believes that slavery is wrong (Douglass).  Both Emerson and Thoreau believed that slavery was wrong and they expressed themselves.  Emerson said that you must either get rid of slavery or get rid of freedom (Emerson).  Thoreau said that if one man had a slave withdrew from the government, and went to jail, than it would be the abolition of slavery.  I agree with all three points of the different writers.  They all agreed slavery was a bad thing and they expressed themselves.  "If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own” (Riley).  Again I agree with where he is coming from.


Slavery was a different topic for Douglass than it was say Emerson or Thoreau.  Although Thoreau helped fugitives (Riley) and Emerson talked about it, the topic was on the top of the to do list for Douglass, because he was an African American.  He was trying to help his brothers out, in putting an end to slavery.  Emerson and Thoreau cared but Douglass had to do something about it because the topic of slavery effected his life everyday and he had to do something to end it.


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.