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.

The Scarlet Letter- Pearl

I found it interesting that Pearl did not accept Dimmesdale until he publicly accepted her. She was so young and intelligent enough to realize that the person who was her father did not own up to being just that, her father. I feel that her doing this was almost very grown up for her age and it kind of showed Dimmesdale that she may be young but she is not stupid and wants respect and acknowledgement that she does exist. Maybe she even wanted acknowledgement that she was not a mistake?
I also find it sad that she did not get to know Dimmesdale very well before his demise. He was so close and I feel that even though he did not have anything to do with her because he was a coward and afraid for himself and what people would think of his preachings, he still cared about her in some way and he probably felt bad for not being a better father or maybe in his mind, not being "able" to be a better father.

The Scarlet Letter-Roger Chillingworth

Roger Chillingworth is very vengeful character. I find it interesting that he basically invested his life to finding out who sinned with Hester Prynne. He lost his own actual identity to the fake person he created in order to investigate. It is shocking how much he put into finding out who was the sinner; he made it his life goal. I find that his thinking and his actions are very despicable and low. Chillingworth was not heard from for two years; if someone went missing today, there would be an entire investigation of the disappearance and after two years have gone by the person would probably be considered dead.
I almost feel like what did he expect to find when he came for Hester, her knitting in a chair still waiting for him to show up on her doorstep? It is a little far-fetched for her to stick around for him, at some point she was going to have to move on with her life anyway. I think it is a waste to have stopped her life for that long in wait of him, even though she may have gone about the moving on part a little wrong.

The Scarlet Letter: The Punishment

I read the Scarlet Letter in high school and now that I am reading it again I am reminded of how much I had enjoyed it. I find it so interesting that Hester was allowed to make her own letter, I feel that since the clergy had decided on her punishment that they would also deliver in making some sort of hideous letter that was to go onto her clothing. Its almost worse that she made her own punishment because it was so well done and in such a vivid view for all to see that it stood out even more had someone else made it.
I find that in a way Hester was very brave to endure her punishment all on her own and to keep the man's name secret; she was protecting him and his position in the town. It would have been very hard and shameful to have to stand in front of that many people day after day with the scarlet 'A' on her chest and knowing the terrible things people were thinking of her; it would be hard every day of her life to wear it and walk through town and know she is being judged every time someone were to lay their eyes upon her.

Ralph Waldo Emerson-Nature

Emerson's thinking is different from ours today because he thinks that people should think for themselves and figure out our problems on our own. Today, people look to books to learn things or the internet probably even more since something can be searched for on Google and hundreds of different answers can show up. Not many people today like to think for themselves; it is like it is too hard to try to find their own solutions. People just do what others tell them or whatever they can find in their own research.
On page 499, Emerson wrote, "the beauty of the world may be viewed, namely, as it becomes an object of the intellect." This stood out to me because I have never really thought of the beauty of the world as intellect or having a "relation to thought."

Henry David Thoreau

In Thoreau's writing, I found it interesting how he talked about the necessities of life. He wrote that food is somewhat easy to come by and very much needed and then how clothing and shelter are two of the more unimportant things. It is definitely thought provoking in how food is only the really important thing that we really need and that everything else are just things that we have gotten used to. People just tend to follow everyone else and if they have something they want then they are going to get it. The material possessions become more important than anything and people tend to lose themselves in obtaining those kinds of things and allow themselves to be owned by their possessions or the new possessions they could end up buying. It is crazy how people think they need to one-up each other in material items or buy things they think might make them more likable.

Washington Irving-Rip Van Winkle

I enjoyed reading this story because it was very comedic and a somewhat magical short story; it is very fantastical. Rip Van Winkle was so trusting of the random strange man in the mountains and then also with the strangers friends. Irving even wrote that Van Winkle was apprehensive and uneasy when he heard the man yelling for him and saw him climbing over the rocks. It is almost as if he is saying that one should listen to their gut when it is saying something. Since he slept through so many years, I find it funny that he just fit right into the crazy old man of the town and how he was so well liked by the kids because of his story and how he told anyone who would listen.
I laughed when Van Winkle heard of his wife's death and, "There was a drop of comfort" (465). He was definitely a very unhappy man when he was married and seems that he could not be happier that she is now gone and he does not have to deal with her anymore.

Ralph Waldo Emerson-American Scholar

I really enjoyed  section two of the American Scholar. On page 523, there is one line that really stood out to me, "Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst." I loved this line because I completely agree with Emerson. I read  all the time and I would rather have my nose in a book than do most things. I like how Emerson wrote how each generation has to write its own books in order for history and events to be remembered fully because the next generation would not be able to write them and that information could be lost or skewed.
Emerson wrote that writers forget that they need to write their own original ideas and not follow that of Cicero, Locke and Bacon. These people had to write on their own and not follow others, they wrote their own thoughts and ideas. Today if one genre is doing exceptionally well, such as paranormal romance, everyone follows suit and tries to write in that genre as well. The paranormal romance has grown tremendously since the Twilight series became so popular and profitable. People need to just write their own things and not follow other people.

Benjamin Franklin

It seems like he was very obsessed with his time management since he felt the need to plot out every minute of his day. I have enough trouble using my own time wisely and I cannot imagine trying to plan out my day to the minute of what I should be doing; even though to a certain extent I think it is a great idea. He had a good idea of keeping track of his sins, but I think after a certain point it would make a person feel like they are doing terrible in trying to be Christian and it would be very depressing I think as well. It would be a good idea to keep stock of the things one does wrong but not to tally up every single thing that is done wrong, which Franklin does and accepts that it is better to be a man with flaws than trying to be perfect. I liked how he wrote "I think I like a speckled Ax best" (288) after his realization of being perfect and that it is okay to not be.

Phillis Wheatley

I was intrigued by the contrast between Wheatley and Bradstreets' writing and how they did or did not make it known that they were women. If one was reading something from Bradstreet,  they would know immediately that she was a woman and would probably go into the reading with their own judgements just based on her gender. I like how when reading Wheatley, had the reader not known about her, they would not know her gender until the very end of "To the University of Cambridge, in New England" and they would not have those judgments before even reading the piece. I feel that it was very clever of her to do so.
She also was a big advocate of education and learning, and how students need to take the opportunities that come to them and to learn for an eternal purpose.

Olaudah Equiano

Equiano was very relatable throughout his text and he was determined enough to basically teach himself how to read and write and that is very inspirational; he craved education and knowledge so much. I do not think there are too many people who would work that hard to educate themselves.
I found it interesting how he became Christian through his captors; I would think one would not want anything to do with what their captors believed because of being taken and then the cruelty that he went through. I liked how he questioned the motives of his Christian captors and how they thought they could treat other people so terribly when they were Christians. He understood that if you were going to take the name of a Christian, your actions have to act like it; one cannot be Christian if they do not apply Christianity to their life.

John and Abigail Adams

I cannot imagine how hard it must have been for Abigail to not have her husband for the ten year span that he was out of the country even though it was for a good cause. From reading their lettters, it did not seem like they had much affection for each other but I guess how much affection can you show in a letter? It was very admirable that Abigail took on so much while John was away. She knew what he was doing was so very important to them and to the country; I wonder how hard it was for her to not have her husband there with her.

Jonathan Edwards

Even though Edwards was trying to evoke emotion out of his congregations, I feel that using the idea of "An Angry God" was a little overboard. I do not think it is right to scare someone into doing something, or scaring them to be better Christians. There are many ways to get people to be better Christians or to at least think about how they are living their lives instead of scaring them out of their wits. I am sure that this approach did have some success but I personally would not enjoy having someone preach to me about hell and brimestone all the time and how I would be going to hell if I were to make a mistake, which is only human. 

I feel that preaching about an angry God would just get old after a time and in my mind it would not be very motivating, but everyone is different. 

Carnival Post

Faith was a big theme throughout the class blogs and the class seemed struck by how they could connect with some of the writers' struggles with faith, keeping to what God would like from us and their own journey of life and faith.
A common topic wrote about for Anne Bradstreet was of how vulnerable she was through her writing and how her writing can be relatable to whoever reads it. The class seems to have gotten an honest vibe from her writings and how she is able to put all of her emotions into her poetry and is able to reach out to her audience through the use of her own humanity. It also seems that people have a newfound interest in poetry from the way that Bradstreet was able to grab some of the class' attention and by using her emotions, her struggles by how relatable they are to us.
For Mary Rowlandson, however, there were some doubts about a few things in her writing and how it may seem somewhat far-fetched. Some of the class also felt that her writing lacked an "honest struggle" and seemed to be the stereotypical Puritan.
John Smith has evoked from the class a sense of self-promoting and how some of the things in his piece of writing are a little unbelievable and seem to have been dramatized and how it seems unreal about how he did not take any lodgings for himself but made sure everyone else had somewhere to stay. As Crista wrote in her blog, "he milked his stories."
Esther asked some great questions when it came to John Winthrop: "Can America, or any nation, truly be a Christian nation? Is a government based on Biblical ideals even possible? Is seperation of church and state beneficial or harmful?" Throughout the blogs of Winthrop and Smith, I feel like a common theme seems to be that there needs to be a mixture of both Smith and Winthrop's ideas to make a country successful and thriving.
It seems that throughout these blogs people were intrigued by the somewhat differing views on all of the authors we have read. Overall, the class was struck by how relatable these writings are to our society today.

Cotton Mather

In class we discussed how Mather just wanted to report on the trials, but the last line of his writing he began, "This rampant hag," (149). I feel that by him putting this into the writings showed that he was not just reporting the trials, but also slipping in his own views about the matter.

We also discussed how he was also not a direct part of the Salem Witch Trials but he was also not completely against it either. I find it odd how he found some of the happenings concerning but they were not large enough for him to do anything about them. Mather did not stand up when he thought something was wrong so the Trials just continued to go on. This is relatable because if someone sees something bad or wrong happening, people today will just act like nothing happened or rationalize or justify it. I feel this is a real problem because innocent people got hurt in the Trials and innocent people get hurt today as well. The Salem Witch Trials can be a great example of what can happen when nothing is done and it can blow up to be an even bigger deal.

Mary Rowlandson

Once again there are numerous trials to go through, this time Mary Rowlandson has to go through the loss of a child, not knowing where the rest of her family and husband are and having to live with the Indians. She believes that she is going through all of this heartbreak because she has not lived a pure Puritan path and she has had some missteps, not just because the Indians decided to raid her village and kill and kidnap whomever they wanted.
One thing I found interesting is in The Second Remove where the Indians showed compassion towards Rowlandson and allowed her to get onto one of the Indians' horses with her mortally wounded child after she fell down with it. I feel that this aspect showed how the Indians did have hearts and were not always completly savage as in other accounts. This happened again in The Third Remove when they sat Rowlandson and her child atop the horse behind one of the Indians.
In class we discussed how the Indians tried to comfort Rowlandson by saying "your master will knock your child in the head." I think this could also be a threat because they could have been annoyed by the moaning of the child and all the noise it was making and just wanted to make the child be quiet.

John Smith

There are definitely differences between Disney's Pocahontas and what actually happened in history but I feel that if all the details had been put into the movie it would have gotten too bogged down and became too long. John Smith was a great influence on the shaping of America. Some of the things that he writes seem a bit far-fetched; such as how he provided most of his men with houses or some type of lodgings but he did not bother to build one for himself. He makes himself out to be very generous to others, and I am sure that he was a generous man but I feel that he makes himself out to be much better than he actually was.
Through  the section from the third book, it seems that Smith made the first move to be violent towards the natives. Smith was the one who scared the 'savages' from their homes along the river in order to get supplies for him and his men, which led to the actual assault from the natives. Things could have been more civil had he not tried to steal what the natives had gotten for themselves; he should have thought things through more clearly than to "let fly his muskets, ran his boat on shore; whereat they all fled into the woods" (47). If only things had actually started more peacefully and not resort to scaring or being violent towards a new people.

Anne Bradstreet "Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666"

Anne Bradstreet was lucky to receive a higher education than most women of her time. I feel like she made such bounds through being able to be a women writer. Even with the Puritan beliefs that she believed, she kept with her writing as well as with the household duties of the Puritan age and I find that very admirable.
I find it very relatable that even though she was a very devout Puritan, even she struggled with the Scripture. It shows that even the most faithful followers of God have their doubts every now and then. People today even say they do not believe the stories of Scripture unless they are a witness to God's glory and miracles. It shows that even though there have been struggles and doubts throughout time for the most faithful and strict followers, if one keeps his or her faith, even through doubt, then the relationship they have will God will continue to grow and become stronger.

I was most entrigued by Bradstreet's poem of "The Burning of Our House" because of the emotions that it was able to evoke from me. She was able to get me to feel the fear and despair of the burning that she felt and how terrible it was. I think that by writing, "Let no man know is my desire" (line 6) Bradstreet would never wish something of that destruction on anyone else and hopes that no one else would ever have to go through it either. Even in this terrible time, she was able to keep her faith in God and continue with her Puritan beliefs; even after she had some moments of anger on why God would do something so terrible. I enjoyed how she showed through this writing her faith in God and continued to praise Him throughout. At the end of this poem she showed how materials items are not important and that what we will receive from God will be that much greater.