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.