Uncle Tom's Cabin-Stowe

I like how the characters in UTC were made to make a point. Stowe definitely made her point about how bad slavery was and I feel she was able to portray slavery well enough to get readers to be appalled at what was happening. It was very brave, but necessary, for Stowe to write this in order for their to be a change for the better within slavery and America itself.

Emily Dickinson

One reason I like to read Emily Dickinson is because her poems are so very short! Dickinson is intriguing because she writes about the good and the bad. A reader can tell that she struggles with her faith and she was not afraid to write about it, which makes her more human and relatable. She is relatable because everyone has some struggle through their lives with their faith and if someone does not I think that is rather odd. Dickinson questions things about her faith through her poems as she wrestles with them.

Whitman

Another aspect in Whitman's preface that I liked was "The poet sees for a certainty how one not a great artist may be just as sacred and perfect as the greatest artist" (999). I think this is striking because every person is important and has something meaningful to give to the world. There is a reason every person is put on this planet and just because everyone is not the greatest artist of any kind does not make them less important than the best artist.
I also think the following line to the one above is important as well. "The power to destroy or remould is freely used by him but never the power of attack" (999) is significant also because "the poet" or any other person has the power to hurt or destroy another but it is good when that power is not used to attack people who may seem not as important as the next.

Walt Whitman

On page 1000 of Whitman's preface, I found it interesting how he wrote, "dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body." I really like this part of the preface because it shows how the body is a beautiful thing and that if a person I guess "forgives" the things that have happened that insult of offend them (or their soul) then the body will be like a poem. I like how Whitman says how the body does not even have to use words but just the silent beauty of the human body is miraculous and great.

UTC-Sinclair

I believe that Sinclair's character could also be considered submissive because he did not do much to change slavery. Yes, he wanted things to change and he did not have the means to actually do something substantial about it so he did as best he could. Sinclair was actually half way decent to the slaves he owned and did not treat them like savage animals. He did not believe that slavery was right and did what he could.

I think Sinclair's character can relate to a lot of people and situations today. When some people witness bullying for instance, they do not do anything about it or just turn the other cheek and pretend that it did not happen. Those people may not believe in bullying but they did nothing to help the person being bullied or try to stop the situation. This happens with a lot of things today and I think that it would be great if people could stand up for what is right and actually take action against a wrong.

Uncle Tom's Cabin-Submissive

In class we had a discussion about Uncle Tom, the character and when someone is called Uncle Tom, and whether or not  the character was too submissive. I think that Uncle Tom was doing as best as he could and he was actually being treated fairly, so why would he try to change things when his situation is way better than it could have actually been. Had he been at any other plantation in the South, he probably would have been whipped, beaten, and treated very poorly for even the littlest mistakes. I think people today should not say that Uncle Tom was too submissive because they have no idea what it was like to personally be a slave and what they would have done had they been in an Uncle Tom situation or one that had more dire of outcomes.

The Scarlet Letter-A

It is intriguing how the meaning of Hester Prynne's 'A' had changed through her time of wearing it. Instead of taking it off or somewhat concealing it, she continues to wear it. She continued to punish herself for her transgressions, which is very brave and commendable of her and shows, I feel, that she is a good person at heart and had a weak moment that inevitably produced a child that cannot exactly be hidden from the townspeople. I find it interesting that people were changing their view of the A and their perceptions of her. Hester was so caring of the sick and needy, and also being a great mender and sewer that people started to think that maybe the A meant able because she was so kind and creative. This shows that after time people do forget things that happen in the past and they also do not find them as big of a deal as they once had; the transgressions lose their incredulity and the fact of how 'bad' it had once been.