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.