Howl vs. Leafs of Grass 5/18/11

The major shocking similarity I see almost immediately is that the formatting is very much the same in both of these works. It gives an initial idea, and then lists sentence-long blurbs to give examples. That's pretty standard for both of them. However, the ideas contained within are very different. Leaves of Grass speaks of a good America (I think), an America that is becoming a world leader. While in Howl, the perspective has changed immensely; now, the idea is that America is falling apart. The new generation is a failure. they are to busy with sex and drugs to understand anything, and America suffers.

The Petrified Man 5/16/11

There are some stories that you just find to be useless and of no purpose. Granted, there are some excellent fictional novels out there that serve no greater purpose than to entertain, but they usually are elongated stories that have many different plot elements and ideas to explore. The Petrified Man, though in the same category of literature, serves no such purpose. It is a very short work that serves as simply a window into the life of these people; I find that it almost seems realist in a way. As for the reliance on dialog, I can say that I rather enjoyed it. It made the story more interesting and further opened the window into the character's world, but it did nothing to add meaning to the story.

The Love Song 5/10/11

After the initial thought of "what in the world are these rambling words trying to say," I actually started to understand this poem a little better. I have to admit, it was through a mixture of you and Jeanette telling me what was going on, but still, I think I understand. While this poem appears to have nothing to do with love on the surface, it is only when you start to really look into it that you see those hidden elements. And I think, once you have figured out what it is actually talking about, this poem definitely portrays a love story. It speaks of this wonderful place "where women speak of Michaelangelo," a place that the man really wants to reach (presumably the heart of is "girlfriend"). However, this destination is so thoroughly surrounded by nasty 'deterrents' that the man can find no way to his (again, quotations) "girlfriend." In a way, this is a situation really easy to relate to. A man really wants to kick things up a notch with his "girlfriend," but can find no way to do it without destroying his relationship with her. I think I have hit upon what you were wanted in this blog entry, if not, yell at me/comment that I need to look at it again. I do wish that poets would just say what they want to say and stop talking. The whole extra frivolous blah is so hard to get through. Personal opinion/vendetta against complicated poetry.

Fuller Project 5/9/11

Well, I now have successfully completed the first two paragraphs of my essay, and I am not feeling as unprepared as I thought I would. I have spoken about Fuller's early life and the influences she had on her as she was growing up, and I am planning on using the next paragraph to dive into her "great radical dualism." If you can find some extras time (though I know none of us has any of it), I would appreciate if you can go through and look at my second paragraph and make sure that I am still on target. Thanks

Project 5/3/11

Ok Mr. Cook, so here's the deal. I'm probably not going to be working much on this project this week due to the AP exams and the enormous amount of stress they're putting on me. I should be able to work on it a little bit on Wednesday night, but I have nothing written for today and won't be writing anything tomorrow most likely. I will take full advantage of the class time we have tomorrow and jump off from there, but my homework time is filled. I will have a paper to hand in to you next Tuesday. Just trust that.

Fuller Project 5/1/11

I think I am pretty much ready to start writing my paper. I have spoken with you enough to have a general outline to follow in my head, and I have read enough to know most of what I need to about Fuller and her work. I have finished reading the two sources that I will be relying most heavily upon, so the next step is just sitting down to write. I will do my best to get the paper written up this week so you can have a rough draft to look at before it is do next Tuesday, but with my AP exams weighing upon me, I'm not sure how much time I will be able to devote to it. I will do my best though and keep you updated with where I am. I was not able to work this past weekend because I had a track meet Friday night and then a Boy Scout backpacking trip Saturday and half of Sunday. I will work to make up that lost time though.

Fuller 4/27/11

So let me tell you what I have come up with as my project based on what we have talked about. A brief outline;

1. Intro
2. Background/early influences
3. Beliefs as from The Great Lawsuit
4. Analysis of beliefs and their implications? maybe
5. Conclusion

It's the fourth segment that I'm not too sure what to do with. I am going to spend tonight doing some more research, and then hopefully I will be pretty close to writing. If you have suggestions based on that fourth segment, let me know. I will probably be by to talk about all of this again pretty soon.

Project 4/25/11

So I have finished up reading the short blurb of The Great Lawsuit from the Anthology and also the synopsis of the book on JSTOR. My next step will be to talk to you in study hall tomorrow about where to go from here. It would have been nice to have been able to talk about it today, but I was not yet ready. Now I am though. In reading Fuller's stuff, I basically got a sense that she was saying pretty much the same thing over and over again intermixed with a bunch of blah. There really don't appear to be that many different thoughts involved in this work. Something to ponder.

Margaret Fuller 4/24/11

I have not been very successful over the past couple of days in getting a whole lot done, especially in class. I still have a good bit of The Great Lawsuit to read in the Anthology, and I am planning on doing that in study hall tomorrow. Then hopefully I will be able to competently talk to you about my project. Also, tonight (Sunday) I have been reading an article that I looked briefly at about a week ago. It is on JSTOR and is titled Margaret Fuller and the Transcendental Ethos: Women in the Nineteenth Century.  It is actually a very good synopsis of the book once you get into chapter 4, and I picked out a couple of quotes that I thought were especially significant.I have them listed at the end of this blog. Those that contain a number in parenthses are straight from The Great Lawsuit. If you find any of them that you like or think I should write about when you read over this, just let me know. Also, I was a bit frustrated because I would have really liked to use Diigo in my reading, but it won't let me do it in JSTOR because it is not actually hi-lightable text. If there is a way around this problem, I would really like to know. 

• "'We must have units before we can have union' (150). The development as woman as individuals--that is, their cultivation of self--therefore takes on primary importance."
• "Fuller understood, intuitively at the beginning, that the emancipation of women depended on a redefinition of the terms 'female' and 'male' and a reevaluation that the bearing that both these terms had on the culture of the self."
• "'The especial genius of woman I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency'" (161).
• "'Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens into solid, solid rushes into fluid.There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman'" (161).
• "She [Fuller] thus attempts to preserve the ultimate primacy of intuition over rationalism and to face the immediate need to stress the intellectual potential of women."

Project 4/21/11

So I spent class time today reading from The Great Lawsuit in the Norton book. I expect to finish reading through it tomorrow in class, and then we can talk about where I want to go with it. I wanted to read the book, but it was way more work than I had time to do; therefore, I'm really happy to be able to read an abridged version. I feel a little bit better now after talking about my project, and I hope that I will have a better idea of what I want to do when I finish. So, immediate goal is finish the story in class tomorrow. Long term goal...we shall see.

Fuller 4/19/11

I spent pretty much all of class yesterday doing more research on Fuller. I specifically looked up a JSTOR article that was a synopsis of Fuller and Women in the nineteenth century. I also read a little bit of her book itself. I would like to talk with you soon. I have been doing some thinking into my project and I have pretty much decided to stick with Women in the nineteenth century as my main source. I'm not really sure what I specifically want to approach in my essay though. I have considered a couple of ideas including contrasting the fights for rights of different types of people, including prisoners along with men and women. Another idea was to look at different aspects of only her beliefs of rights between men and women. I would like to have some discussion before I go off in some direction I'm going to regret later

Margaret Fuller Project 4/18/11

So today I spent the period just doing background research on Margaret Fuller. I read the majority of the Wikipedia section on here and read her portion of the Norton Anthology as well. I decided rather than blindly diving into her works, it would be better for me to work on narrowing down my field or research by working on a thesis. I really wanted to look more at her contribution to the Transcendentalists rather than her Feminism, but I need to research more. I hope to have some concrete discussion points by the end of the day tomorrow.

1/14/11

So, as I have done nothing further on my project since the last blog, this is going to be short. Like I said, I have an idea and we worked out that I should look at Fuller's thoughts on the interaction between Men and Women. So, yeah. I will try to have picked out and started one of her books by monday. And honestly, you don't need to waste your time commenting on this one. There won't be much to say.

The Project 4/13/11

I feel pretty confidant with my plans to do this project, I think. My current schedule only leaves me about 8 days from the time that I finish with all of my preliminary work to the time that the finished product is due. But knowing myself, I know that I am going to have to give myself a lot of time; otherwise, I'm afraid I won't be motivated enough to hold to my calender. As for the project itself, I feel fairly content working with Margaret Fuller, but I am not sure in which direction to take it. I am going to try to get up with you soon so we can talk about a direction that I can go in.

Macbeth 3/31/11

I find Macbeth interesting for one main reason, and that is that it is so easy to relate to the feelings expressed by the characters. For Macbeth, he knew what he was going to do was wrong, yet driven by greed and against his best judgement, he went on to kill the king and guards anyway. This is a common theme that appears in everyday life; though not on as large a scale, people are faced with scenarios where they do something that they know is morally wrong, yet out of greed they do it anyway and feel horrible about it afterwards. Lady Macbeth plays the role of the instigator, the one who is really pushing to do a bad thing out of greed, but doesn't wish to get her own hands dirty. And the list goes on. I don't think I would be nearly as interested in this play if it did not have this modern day connection.

Research project schedule 3/30/11

So this is the plan that I'm going to work with, I think. I would like to have my "guiding questions" done by Friday April 15. By that point I will have confirmed what I am working on and will have a clear direction to work towards. By the following Friday, April 22, I want to have all or at least most of my sources identified and started on. By Monday, May 2, I want to be completely finished reading and taking notes on my sources. By that day or soon thereafter, I should be able to create my outline. I am going to put all of this on a calender that I have shared with you.

Thus the research project begins 3/28/11

So after today and the brief discussion that we had, I think I am have a workable topic for the project. I found that the transcendentalists were a bit of an enigma for me, and I would really love to understand them more. For English honors, we had to read The Metaphysical Club, which was all about that movement, and I didn't understand a word of it at the time. I think that it can become a really useful resource for me though now that I understand the implications of the movement. I don't know how much of the book talks about Margaret Fuller, or if she's even mentioned at all, but I can at least use it as a umping off point. I don't really know what I want to study about her yet, but I think I will be able to choose a more focused field once I have done more research. At this point though, it is all about Fuller

Macbeth Act 1 3/27/11 (late)

        This is my blog for last Friday just so that you know. I am finding the reading and annotating of Macbeth to be very confusing actually; it is not an easy story at all to follow, as it just seems to jump right into something that we know little about. Also, I'm a bit confused honestly why we are reading this in American Lit. It's not really American at all. Not a complaint, just a curious observation. The annotation of the story is marginally useful. Most of the work that my group, myself included, have been doing is just defining words with the stick notes, which isn't really needed when you can just double-click for a definition of a word.
        I'm somewhat anxious about this project that we are going to be doing. I think I understand, but it is really hard to find a start-off point. I think it would be really helpful to have a day of class time to ask questions and formulate what we want to do in terms of our projects and schedules.

3/23/11

So since I was not in class this past Tuesday, I will tell you about our wonderful trip to WCU. It was only 11 of us who went, plus Madame Shook, and we had to leave at 7:30, which wasn't fun. The day itself was a blast though; we did a skit that we put together and also an impromptu musical. We were the first up in the skit category, and there were four schools in total. We were doing a murder mystery in the Catacombs of Paris. The skit went well, and in the end we took second for it. That was the only thing that we had planned for the day, but we noticed that there were only two entries in the French Music category, so we did an impromptu song that we had sand for Café Night and actually took second out of three for that too :) It was a really fun day, and I think we represented Rabun Gap well. And, my personally favorite part, we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home.

Diigo 3/20/11

I think Diigo could prove to be a very useful tool, especially if we use it collaboratively. I personally found that it made me analyze the work that I was reading a little more in depth, since I was looking for places to comment. I think it would be easier to use if you were to specifically say, "find passages that discuss naturalism," or whatever it might be. It makes it more difficult to know what to look for when you just say "go forth and highlight." I do think that it has a lot of potential for our needs, and I think we will be able to use it to its fullest when we work collaboratively.

Yellow Wallpaper 3/15/11

-John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.

-I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before, and we all know how much expression they have! I used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture than most children could find in a toy-store.

-I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wall-paper. Perhaps because of the wall-paper.

-And I know John would think it absurd. But must say what I feel and think in some way -- it is such a relief!

-Of course I never mention it to them any more -- I am too wise, -- but I keep watch of it all the same. There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day.

-At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.

-Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!

          These are just some of the quotes that I found over the course of the story that best explain this poor woman's transition from a semi-sane person to one of complete and utter insanity. I think that there was honestly nothing that peculiar about the wallpaper; that was just the one thing that she chose in which to manifest her insanity. If not the wallpaper, then perhaps the window would have been her obsession. I found a good majority of the things that she began to say at the end legitimately disturbing. I read her "reasons" for writing this, but I think only someone who is presently mentally insane could even have the potential to. Unless. perhaps, if she was like Poe, who was in a permanent state of insanity. In all honestly, I found no greater moral behind this story, and if there is any, then I would love to know about it.

MLK Jr. related to other authors we have been studying 3/14/11

-On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations.

-My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture.

-There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience

- have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist.

-I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

       These are my five quotes. The first four are those that relate to the material that we've been reading, but the last is one that I found personally interesting. I'll do that one last though. I was surprised by the amount of similarity that was in the work of MLK's compared to the other writers we have been working with. It is not, however, specifically similar to only one of them, but shares elements of all of the. As can be especially well seen in the first quote, MLK had adopted the push-and-pull mentality of Washington. He was willing to negotiate, but when that failed, he went further. While he believed in pacifism, he was certainly not shy about breaking the law for what he believed was right. He understood the anger of the negros, and like DuBois and Douglass, he was willing to acknowledge it and move forward with it. I think by incorporating elements from both sides, MLK was more easily liked and supported by those he was fighting for.
        As for the final quote, I was amazed the MLK was showing disappointment towards the church. As a member of a long line of ministers, you would think the he would support the church no matter what it did. It really surprised me that he would revert to this.

Washington's speech 3/13/11

        This whole movement is starting to become a convoluted mess in my head. With two different leaders coming forth at the same time, and then DuBois following later with criticism, it's hard to keep it all straight. I bet the negro people at the time were very confused. Reading chapter 13 of Washington's book helps to explain a lot of things. It is almost as though he realized he must stifle his race's ambition in order to move forward quickly if they were to move forward at all. Washington realized that if he pushed to hard against the whites, then they would shut down the whole movement and the negros would be where they where when they started. By feeding to whites what they wanted to hear and offering praise towards them, he was able to push for his race's continuing rights, just at a slower pace.
       The reason that Douglass and DuBois (and probably many other blacks) were upset with Washington is that they weren't able to look into the motives for what he said. They didn't understand the repercussions that would ensue if they offended the whites. Had they understood, it might have tempered their fury somewhat.
       As for your question about the conflict between the races being created by the wealthy, I can understand this, I think. This is just my initial reaction, so I may be missing the point, but it was the wealthy who were most used to the negros as slaves. There is a direct proportion between the amount of money a family had and the number of slaves they would have, and thus the more slaves they have, the less work they have to do, and the more the slaves start to look like inhuman property. By instantly taking away all of the slaves, it is the wealthy, not the poor, that are going to be most affected, and the wealthy are going to be the ones who miss having free servants to run their life for them. Therefore, the wealthy would be the most likely to advocate that the negros should be repressed back into slavery as to serve the wealthy again.

Douglas and Washington 3/10/11

        I was able to look at this in a new light when you brought to my attention that both of these abolitionist leaders were trying to come forth at roughly the same time. On one hand, you have Washington, who believes in staying in a more repressed position in society and working up to full equality slowly (which is really what happened). Douglas, on the other end of the spectrum, is filled with anger toward the long years of repression and injustice that his race had endured. He was ready to have full equality, and he was willing to do it by force if necessary.
       It should be pretty interesting to see as we go along in the course the battle for superiority between these to minds. Or was there no battle at all, a simple fizzle out or perhaps the rise of another leader. I was thinking that perhaps the conditions that the two grew up in would have some effect on their views, but it sounds like they grew up in pretty similar conditions: slaves under masters from the south. I'm thinking age might have something to do with it too though. Washington, still relatively young when freedom was announced, was most likely prone to have a far different perspective on the matter than Douglas, who had lived over 60 or 70 years in slavery. This, I'm guessing, is one of the main reasons for the differences.
       When it comes to the actual philosophies of the two, I think I would be more apt to put my faith in Washington. While it is difficult to ignore the apparent dislike of freedom that he portrays, his policy of gradual integration is sound. Having to incorporate 8 million people into society is not an easy task, and it certainly can't be done in a day.

Triple Paradox 3/9/11

1. The disfranchisement of the Negro.

2. The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro.

3. The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro.

I assume that the above portion is what you were referring to when you asked us to analyze the triple paradox, and so I will give it my best shot. While the slaves are all at this point free, one of the first claims of Washington's is that the Negroes truly are an inferior  race and are willing to be subservient to the Whites, just so long as they are able to get dome sort of educations. It is almost as if Washington is encouraging the kind of deep-seeded segregation that was about to become reality given a few more years. And then on top of that he goes on to propose "The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro," as said above. It is almost as if he is trying to put his race back as far a possible.. I suppose there is a method to the madness, but I can't say that I understand it. Also, as for the quote that talks about 'no race should be given rights if they aren't willing to fight for them' (or something like that), I support it. I think that this is true. I don't know that much about how things turned out for Booker yet in the end, but I would have definitely been fighting for what I believed in. 

Class 3-3-11

        I guess in all honesty I don't really have a whole lot to say about class today. The presentation was marginally interesting, and I especially liked the opinions and comments that Eunji made. As for the overall presentation, it isn't something that warrants its own paragraph in this entry.
        I am excited to move into this next group of authors that we are going to talk about. I enjoyed reading the few chapters that were assigned due today. While I can't honestly say I found them moving, I did find them very interesting. I'm not sure if we are moving into this next set of authors because of our naturalism work, but it sure seems to me like there are naturalistic elements involved, especially in the story we had for last nights reading. It took the perspective of the lowest of the low and treated him and had him act as the stereotypical slave would have.

Naturalism Project 3-1-11

       I actually found today in class to be quite enjoyable. At least with my group's presentation anyways. I'm sure that everyone else in class would have other things to say about our 40 minute long presentation, but I found it really interesting to dive that deeply into the topic of Naturalism. None of us knew exactly what the others were doing or had researched, therefore it was very cool to be able to hear Naturalism from 4 very different viewpoints, at least for me, being in the group. Jungsoo's whole speech about how Naturalism was derived from the Industrial Revolution and strongly influenced by Marx, Darwin and Freud. While I personally believe that is a stretch, I still find the viewpoint fascinating.
        That was another cool thing; because we had each done independent research and developed our ideas separate from each other, we were able to point out to each other things that we had missed. Such as when Jungsoo pointed out that he strongly disbelieved that Beethoven was a naturalistic composer. And yet surprisingly, none of us contradicted each other during the presentations, which was great. I personally can't say much for the second report, as I was definitely into the word search that Lydia gave us :) Overall, I found this to be an excellent project, and hope that we are able to do more similar to this before the year is over. And by allowing us to pick groups, we subconsciously aligned ourselves by level of work. My group for example, chose to do some very rigorous work and thrived.

Naturalism Project 2-28-11

I had forgotten that you said blog everyday about what we were doing in class, so here is the basic rundown. I am working on the subject of Naturalism in areas other than literature. I actually found a good number of works to support the claim that Naturalism is not specifically in Literature. For example, Naturalism is also found in music, art, and philosophy. And that is what I've been doing.

Naturalism Challenge 2/16/11

       What I primarily worked on for this first day of the challenge was determining a more concrete definition of Naturalism. I found a very good book on the subject entitled American Literary Naturalism: A Divided Stream by Charles Child Walcutt. I spent a good portion of the period going though this book, and what I got from it (as well as a few other sources that I looked at) was that Naturalism contains a large amount of science in it. The quote that I find most useful is as follows: "It [naturalism] reflects at once our faith in science and our doubts about the modern scientific world." I have to say I was a bit confused when I started delving into this idea. I was thinking that naturalism was more of a philosophical movement not scientific. Anyways, that is where I stand in my research so far.

An Episode of War 2/14/11

        When I first read the book, my first impression was "wow, this is completely pointless. Why are we reading this..." I assumed that there was probably some important element that I was completely missing that would be addressed in class, and, surprise surprise, that is exactly what happened.
        I actually find this story to be very interesting when looking at the structure of it. The whole philosophy of Realism and Naturalism fascinates me. Realism is looking and describing. I was particularly fond of a description that someone used today where they described realism as almost a story in slow-motion. I find this to be an accurate description. It seems as though a story written with realism in mind does slow down. The author notes very small details and the reactions between people, but it does little in the form of dissecting the information that it so thoroughly states. This is where Naturalism enters the scene and the clarity on the matter disintegrates. Naturalism, in essence, describes the description that Realism presents. It is probably not a unfair assessment to say you cannot have naturalism without already having an aspect of realism already present. It's kind of like pancakes. You can eat pancakes on there own (realism), but you can't eat the syrup (naturalism) by itself. However, the syrup makes the pancakes much better when you add it to the pancakes.

Daisy Miller

Here are the two questions that you wanted us to address.
1. Describe daisy Miller- character description.

2. Why is Daisy Miller looked down on by the European family

1. Daisy Miller represents a very interesting idea in this book. She is an atypical woman in the world at the time. Unlike other women, she is not timid and shy to speak to strangers, yet she is not a particularly flirtatious person. She is simply a social person. She enjoys the company of others but doesn't subscribe to their world. She is very much her own person. I see Daisy Miller fitting into our modern world much better than in her own.

2. I find the reaction of Mrs. Costello to Daisy's family to be one of the most interesting parts of this story. Getting straight to it, I think that Winterbourne and his family might represent the typical upper class European family. This is along the same liens of what I said in class. Daisy's family represents the typical American family coming from the gilded age; They are ridiculously rich and in many ways are similar to the European families. However, These two families just do not approve of each other. Mrs. Costello verbally disapproves of the Americans, and Mrs. Miller's lack of acknowledgment of Winterbourne is a good indicator of her disapproval of European families. I think that that  mutual dislike might a symbol by the author of something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Any ideas?

Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge 2/7/11

        I found this to be a pretty thought-provoking story to say the least. As you touched upon in class, it gives a very interesting perspective to this common event. From day one, humans are trained to think of their "enemies" as simple beasts to be killed. They don't realize that their enemies are people too, and that they each share similar thoughts, emotions, and lives.

       This particular story puts us into the world of a wealthy plantation owner who decides to support the confederacy in his own way. The thing that struck me was that there is no escaping death. While perhaps this wasn't what the author wanting to portray at the time, it is the first thing that comes to my mind. Even the higher ups in society, the aristocracy, plantation owners, nobility, etc. cannot escape death. It is the one thing money cannot fix. With the Unions statement of "we will kill anyone near our bridge no matter who they are," they were basically saying that whether peasantry or gentry, everyone is to be held accountable, and no one is immune to death.

To The Person Sitting In Darkness 2/6/11

        I found this story to be pretty obvious in its intent. It may be satire, but if it is then Twain does not do a very good job with it as far as I am concerned. He is criticizing Imperialism as a whole and condemns America's participation in it. At first I thought that the phrase "A Person Sitting in Darkness" might refer to the blacks that inhabited Africa, the most imperialistically active place in the world. After reading a ways into the story however, I came to realize that he wasn't referring to blacks, but to all "uncivilized beings" be them in China or Africa.

        I think the thing that infuriates Twain the most and is most responsible for his writing this story is not the fact that America was an Imperial power, but that they first claimed to liberate the prospective nation and then openly went against their word and put them back under foreign rule.

       So Twain refers to America as the Master of the game of imperialism (though I'm not sure why with the relatively few colonies they held), and he uses Great Britain (through the voice of Mr. Chamberlain) as the example that the US follows. I understand that Great Britain was the best at the capture of colonies, and everyone else at the time must have too. So why does Twain refer to America as the master of the game?

Emily Dickinson 2/2/11

        So far, Emily Dickinson wins the award for least interesting writer. It seems the majority of her poems are 3 lines long and more obscure than a Japanese haiku. As an isolated old hermit widow lady, she created some pretty strange stuff. I found a lot of her work to be depressing or lonely. Maybe this was specifically due to her situation in life as a hermit? To prove my point, I decided to pick an absolutely random Dickinson poem, guessing it would depress me. I was right. Here it is:

I REASON, earth is short, and anguish absolute. And many hurt; but what of that?  I reason, we could die: the best vitality cannot excel decay; but what of that?  I reason that in heaven somehow, it will be even, Some new equation given; but what of that?

Death, despair, anguish...That is Emily Dickinson.

Rappachini's daughter 1/31/11

        While I can't say that this story is "exciting," it does have some interesting points. Firstly, on the differences between the movie and the book, I was curious why they existed at all. But I guess that's Hollywood, nothing more. I found a couple of things worthy of note.
        The first is that the professor made no appearance at the end of the movie, while he had the very last line at the end of the movie. I found his whole character to be very mysterious. Why is it that he knows so much about Rappachini and his daughter, and how does he just happen to have an amphora of antidote lying around??? And that brings up another good point: did he know the effect that the "antidote" would have on Beatrice? He sure didn't seem to shocked when she died.
        The second thing that I was what is to happen from here? And if there were any antidote left in the amphora, would it kill Giovanni too? If that is the case, then the professor is hiding something big. I guess this blog entry has become a character analysis of this professor, but I really feel like he plays a vital role despite the few number of appearances he makes. If I happened to completely miss what you wanted me to discuss in this entry, let me know and I will do another, but this is the first thing that came to my mind.

Discussion about chapter 13 of Scarlet Letter

        Chapter 13 gives us a new definition of Hester in society. She is viewed less as a villainous sinner, and more of a reformed citizen. There are those who still scorn her, as there always will be, but many see her in a different light. Officially she is still a poor outcast, destined to be alone; The townspeople, however, see her as a good person. She helps the poor, cares for the sick, and is an all around good person.
        Dimmesdale is also becoming a bit of an issue to Hester. He is approaching insanity because of this secret that he is holding in, and it worries Hester. I think that she is also realizing that there are going to be some issues with Pearl as she grows up too. She will eventually inherent some of her mother's isolation.
        I think that's all. This was mostly a speculative chapter that was just analyzing the current state of the characters, so I don't think there is a whole lot more to talk about.

What I now understand about writing a thesis

While I feel I already had a good grasp on the things that needed to be in a thesis, I think that going over it in class was still very beneficial. I think the information that was the most helpful was the fact that theses need to be VERY specific. I have been one to give very vague theses in the past, so that was a good refresher. From my new definition, a thesis is a specific statement that addresses all parts of your paper, setting up a strong opinion.

Scarlet Letter chapter projects

My group consisted of Eunji, Nina, David, and myself, and we were responsible for chapters 6-11. Instead of doing the one at a time as a group, we split into two subgroups. I worked with Eunji and chapters 6, 9 and 10. Between the two of us, she was the one who was actually doing the physical drawing while I supplied the information. In other words, I managed and she worked. We made a good team though, and I felt that we were both important to the project.