Civil Disobedience

Right away, the title jumps out at me.  Before I started reading the essay, (the novel), I thought about the conversations we have had and what the title meant.  The title means the society's wrong doings.  The things that the people in the society are maybe sinning, or doing wrong. (Not sure yet because I did this part before I read).  Anyways, what I am getting at is that the title of the essay, Civil Disobedience, can tell you what you are going to find in the story.  It tells the main point or topic that the essay will be pertaining to.

The Transcendentalism period of time was influenced greatly by the rebellion of religion and government (Barney). "Reacting against both the Puritanism and the rationalism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Transcendentalists adopted neither religious faith or radical skepticism but instead explored the spiritual and imagination and contact with nature" (Barney).

Transcendentalism is the new topic on the block, and I found a very long, but true quote that has a characteristic of the writing.  " How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle — the perception and the performance of right — changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine" (Thoreau Part 2).  The characteristic is that man is self reliant and independent.  If this is the case, a man is not going to wait for some one to pay back the money that is owed, he is going to go get it.  You are reliant upon yourself to do that.

Another characteristic of the trans. period is the God factor and that he is in us all.  "I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already" (Thoreau Part 2).  If you have God on your side than you are already off to a good start.  It is stating that no matter the situation that you are in, God is enough to get you over the hump and onto the good side.

Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. "Transcendentalism." Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience." The Thoreau Reader. Richard Lenat. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Journal 26

Yes, there are certain occasions that it is alright for you to break the law.  There are certain occasions that call for you to break the law.  If somebody is being hurt, you have nothing, or other things, but the one that I think that it would be alright to break the law is if your kid was being molested.  If you knew that it happened, how mad would you be?  I know that I would be very upset and angry and wanting some revenge.  If you knew who the person was that did this unthinkable act to someone that was very close to you, there would be no doubt in my mind that I would break the law and do something that is illegal to him.  I am not sure if I would kill the person that did this, but I know that I would hunt the person down and injure him or do something that will make him regret what he has done.  I know that there are a lot of what ifs, as to what could happen, but what if you would not get caught?  I than would for surely do something that I know I should not have, but I would do something so bad because you should not do that to anybody, and you will not get away with it.  I hope to never be in this situation and I do not wish this upon anything, but I am not for sure what I would do in order to get back at the person.

Another idea where I think that it would be acceptable to break the law is if you did not have enough food to feed your family.  I read a story where a boy at the age of seventeen was taking care of his younger sister who was always sick.  He would go to the store once a week and steal peanut butter, jelly, and bread just so that he could feed his sister and himself.  There are certain things that it is alright for somebody to break the rules.

The Minister's Black Veil

"The Minister's Black Veil", was a very good short story, but I found it kind of unique.  The story is all about a man wearing this black veil that covers his head.  "Swathed about his forehead, and hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil. On a nearer view it seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features, except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, further than to give a darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things" (Hawthorne 280-281)  You did not have to do much reading to find that one out, but I was wondering why this was.  Why would a story be put into place, by hiding a man's face.  Surely there are plenty of other ways to demonstrate the dark romanticism writing style.  I am not dissing the story at all, but I was confused a little bit.  I really did like the story because I could understand it, as to where some of the other poems that we have read for homework and in class have been hard to follow.

The story starts off and everybody is not knowing how to react to what Mr. Hooper was wearing.  They did not like it for the most part, but were questioning whether it was him or not behind the veil.  As Mr. Hooper went up and gave his speech or whatever the message is called, (for some reason I can not think of it right now), it then went in to the dark romanticism style of writing.  "The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them" (Hawthorne 282).  The black veil is starting to make a little more sense now.  It may be the fact to hide his sin and he wanted it to be portrayed in his message.  Just like I thought.  They wonder what "horrible sin Pastor Hooper hides" underneath the black veil, but because nobody asks Pastor Hooper, the secret died with him (Werlock).  In portraying his message with the veil, it is a great way to do this.  It shows that things are hidden, (sin) and he does so by hiding his face behind this veil.

"How strange," said a lady, "that a simple black veil, such as any woman might wear on her bonnet, should become such a terrible thing on Mr. Hooper's face!"

"Something must surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper's intellects," observed her husband, the physician of the village. "But the strangest part of the affair is the effect of this vagary, even on a sober-minded man like myself. The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot. Do you not feel it so?" (Hawthorne 283).  Here, I find this very funny because they are acting as if the man has gone crazy and they have never seen anything like it, and this is different from the rest of the stories, because there were no funny things that were happening.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." 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. 22 Jan. 2012.

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

Journal 25

Fear is something that everybody goes through.  It is something that I wish you did not have to go through it, but things happen that makes you go through them.  My dad told me never to fear anything.  I like this way of life because if you go through things and you are fearing them, you are not going to live life to the fullest.  I think for me sports are a good example of not fearing something.  If you go into a game and are fearing the opposing team, or an opposing player you are not going to play to your best potential.  If you know that you can get past your fears, you will be able to play better and compete to your fullest potential.

The thing that I most feared when I was younger and it will probably be my greatest fear of all time is kidnapping.  I always thought of kidnappers coming to get me. (This was the time before my dad told me not to fear anything.)  I always saw things on the news, t.v., or in the paper about somebody being kidnapped.  I always thought that I would be kidnapped.  The times that I remember were when I was young and in my old house.  My good friend lived four houses down from me, and I always would go to his house.  Every time I went to his house I would look down the streets and make sure there were no cars coming.  I thought that if there were no cars that I would be safe, so that is what I did.  So I would look down the street and if I saw a car, I would hide in my garage, and if I did not see a car than I would be safe and I would sprint as fast as I could down to his house.  The night time trips were the scariest though, because anybody could be outside and I always thought there was a kidnapper.

As I look back on this, I realize how over the top my thoughts were.  Sure there could have been a kidnapper, but the probability was not likely.  To this day I have gotten over it, for the most part, but I still fear for my sisters safety because she is still young.

The Pit and the Pendulum

"The Pit and the Pendulum" is (present) a very unique story.  It is(present) kind of weird as to how many times the man has been facing(present perfect progressive) death.  It is(present) odd that he has been waking (present perfect progressive) up and he has seemed(present perfect) to be dying( a different death every time he woke(past0 up.  It is (present) being buried alive, in a pit, and a few more, but I have found(present perfect) it very weird that every time he has woken (present perfect) up he thought he was dying(past progressive), just in a different manner than before.  He has been going(present perfect progressive)through many different types of death including buried(present) alive, falling(present) into a deep pit, being burned(present) alive in an autos-da-fé ceremony, or later being chopped(past)up (Poe 263-266).   He has woken(present perfect) up and survives them all somehow.  The only possible explanation as to what happened is(present) that he has been drugged(present perfect progressive) somehow, at least that is(present) what I think as to what is going on.  The other thing that I did not quite get is(present) the water and he has woken(present perfect progressive) up the first two times or whatever it is(present).

One thing that sticks(present) out to me that definitely reflects(present) the Dark Romaticism style of writing has ben focusing(present perfect progressive) on death.  It is(progressive) dark romanticism, so it must focus(present) on dark things.  "I was sick(past), sick unto death, with that long agony, and when they at length unbound(past) me, and I was permitted(past) to sit, I felt(past) that my senses were leaving(past) me. The sentence, the dread sentence of death, was(past) the last of distinct accentuation which reached(past) my ears" (Poe 262).  Unfortunately this is(present) the opening of the story.  I may say(present) that in a bad way only because I really do not want(present) to be talking(present) about death, but unfortunately that is(present) what the whole background of this story seems(present) to be. It comes(present) up again when he is(present) unbound.  " I dreaded(past) the first glance at objects around me. It was (past)not that I feared(past) to look(present) upon things horrible, but that I grew(present) aghast lest there should be nothing to see. At length, with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed(past) my eyes. My worst thoughts then, were confirmed(past). The blackness of eternal night encompassed(past) me. I struggled(past) for breath." (Poe 264).  When the author says(present) the blackness of eternal night, I immediatly think(present) death.  How could you not?

Psychology:  The psychological view comes(present) in in this perspective.  When he has been stumbling(present perfect progressive) around and not knowing where he is(present) or what he is(present) doing, that is where it is.  That psychological state is(present) an unstable one, which explains why the narrator keeps having(present progressive) mirage like visions and is(present) sometimes unable to distinguish what actually is happening(present progressive) (Sova).  Once being in a psychology class, it definitely shows(present) that this person is in a unique state of mind.  I know(present) that the writer has written(present perfect) this and it is(present) not any one specific persons fault, but he has been drunk(present perfect progressive) it seemed like.  He has been sleeping(present perfect progressive), falling(present perfect progressive) asleep and it is(past) very funny because that is(present) what it hasreminded(present perfect) me of.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 263-273. Print.

Sova, Dawn B. "'The Pit and the Pendulum'." Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

Journal 24

I have been really spooked a lot of times.  It can be somebody scaring me, somebody showing me something, or just watching something scary.  Anything can spook somebody if they are our are not expecting something spooky.  The thing that probably spooked me the most was when I went to my first haunted house.  I was scared because it was this year, and everybody else that I went with had gone to the one and many others, so I was a little behind on what to expect, but I did not want to mention it.
I went to my friends house and we were getting ready to go and I was not very nervous at all.  I was thinking how bad could this actually be?  As we were getting closer and closer to the house, I was beginning to become a little nervous and started worrying about it.  It was Terror on the Square and I heard that it was the scariest thing, so that is what was going through my head.  I was scared, but when we got there, there was a huge line, so I began to calm down again.  We were waiting and I was not really thinking about it at all.  The line got shorter and shorter.  We were the next ones in line and I was the first one in our group.  Now, I was spooked.  There was no way I could chicken out of it now, so I had to go through with it.  The thing began, and I was about to pee my pants.  There were things that were popping out at me that I did not expect, and it spooked me.  As it began to go on, I really enjoyed it.  I was not as scared as I was when I entered the place.  People were with me and I found it easier to laugh it off, so I did.  We finished and I had a lot of fun and wanted to go again, but we did not.  I was very spooked out but than I began to relax and have fun.

Edgar Allen Poe Reflection

When I was in junior high, we always read poems or some sort of literature from a different time period.  We always did something on Edgar Allen.  He was a very weird guy.  He seemed like he was depressed in his writing, because he wrote about depressing things like death.  The poem that I most remember from this time period was "The Raven".  I had to read it again to get caught up on what went on, but in reading this poem, it definitely shades to the dark romanticism.

The Dark Romanticism was a branch off of the Romanticism with means that it needs to be descriptive and have elements of nature but with the dark side they added mystery and tragedy to the story (Whiteman).  I was kind of wondering how you could have different kind of romanticisms, but than I thought of it like this... There are a lot of different types of cheeses.  Sharp, cheddar, pepper jack, havarti, and the list goes on, but they all are cheeses, they just happen to be different types of them.  The poem starts out right away in a sense of darkness. "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,.." (Poe)  First of all, you get the darkness right away from it.  Midnight dreary, why would anyone want to talk about that?  Than it says weak and weary.  It is just a very depressing start right away.  If you look closer at it though, it definitely is romanticism, not only dark romanticism, but romanticism.   It is descriptive in the status of the person walking and how it is depressing outside.  That can be overlooked by the darkness that the poem starts out with.  " And the lamp light o'ver him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;/ And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor/ Shall be lifted -- nevermore!" ( Poe)  Poe, himself, feels that he is that Raven.  He thinks that he is that dark and tragic thing on the inside.  I can not help to think the same way.  In my opinion, you have to be messed up in order to write this tragically.  I think he was.  Poe reflects a lot on the inner conflict and psychological state of his main character and what they feel inside and how that pain, usually affects them (Whiteman).  I can see how it affects Poe.

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more" (Poe)
To give the reader a sense of what I meant by depressing, I chose this stanza from the poem.  All it talks about is darkness.  It is mentioned a couple of times, but I got him looking and walking down a dark alley, and screaming a name.  It is messed up.

Whiteman, Terra. "Dark Romanticism in Literary Fiction: A Historical Look on the Concept of the Infamous ‘Love Curse’." 6 Nov. 2011. Web.

Poe, Edgar A. "Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven." Heise Online | IT-News, C't, IX, Technology Review, Telepolis. Heisi Online. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html>.

Journal 23

I have never really been into scary movies a whole lot.  I did not see the point of getting creeped out and not being able to sleep.  This year however, I started to watch more and more scary movies.  They were not the scariest movies out there, but they were still considered scary.  The first one that I think about it When a Stranger Calls.  What made it scary was the suspense of it.  You knew someting bad was going to happen, you just did not know when.  It kept you on the edge of the chair.  The other part about the movie that made it scary was the fact that you knew more than what the actress knew.  You knew that a bad guy was in the house and that it was not just your imgagination.  Knowing this information, makes you want to tell the actress what to do and when to do it, thinking that it would actually help.

My whole life, I have been interested in scary/mysterious books.  I classify them as scary because when I was younger, I wanted to hide when I slept because I thought something like that would happen to me.  I loved the Boxcar children books.  They were probably my favorite books of all time.  I stopped reading them when I was in third grade, but they were the only books that I read.  What made them scary was that things that are classified as bad, were happening in the world.  It was like my introduction to murderer, stealing, and everything else.  They were also very suspensful, which made you want to keep reading them.  I think that is a quality of not only a book, but a scary book that makes it more interesting and better.  I then grew out of those books and went into the Hardy Boy books.  They were a lot like the Boxcar children except that they were for a older audience.

Journal 22

It was a very cold and snowy day
Outside, the mountains asked to be plowed down.
The schools were out and kids were ready to play
Every kid went sledding from every town.

The hills were packed and the snow was very clean.
It was a dream, to go down the huge hill.
The hills looked fun but also very mean.
No matter the looks it would be a thrill.

Every kid was lining up to start
One kid was in fear but had a big smile.
They wanted their sled to be like a dart.
All he knew is that it would be worth while.

He was next and he was ready to sled,
The sheer joy that it would bring to his face
He was just hoping he would not be dead
He was acting like it would be a race.

He was up and started off like a bang
It was him, his sled, and the mountain now
He was racing kids like they were a gang
He beat the kids down and he took a bow.

He won and he was absolutely thrilled.
He had so much fun on that snowy day
He was excited that he was not killed
He wished that every day he could play.

Journal 21

It was a white, snowy afterrnoon.  The time had been mid-December.  Kids from school had been dying for snowday, dying for a chance to take a break from the long, strenous hours at school.  That day came, when all of the sudden, a blizard came out of nowhere and hit the midwest.  It was a blizard like no one had ever seen before.  The whole state seemed to be white.  Everywhere you went was all white.  You could not travel by car, the rodes were covered and unable to be driven on.  It was a dream come true for every kid.  The older kids got to sleep and the younger kids got more snow to play with than they ever could imagine.  Most kids could barely get outside without being swarmed with snow.  Once they did get everything situated and able to play with, the kids had a great time.  They built huge snowmen, with the crisp, flaky, white snow.  The snow was more beautiful that anything.  When you walked outside, it was like you were in a magic land (Narnia).  Everything was cold, white, and covered with snow.  Fresh footprints were everywhere.  Kids were scream, and the moment could not be more sureal.  Back to Narnia... When Lucy stepped into the closet and walked to the back of the closet and finally into Narnia, everything seemed like it was a movie.  When the kids walked out into the winter wonderland, everything seemed like it was a movie.  It seemed like it was to good to be true.  They were all excited that they had that much snow to play with though.  They were going to have a great time and could do whatever they wanted.  Sledding, building, or whatever was better than it ever had been.  It was a kids winter dream.  The feeling of having unlimited snow to use was a kids winter dream.  He could do whatever they wanted, with all the snow they could ever imagine.