Paper #3 Choice

I choose to do paper topic number 1 for my third essay. This will be about a situation that I witnessed at proctor that was handled poorly.

Huck Finn #4

“I didn’t do him no more mean tricks, I wouldn’t done that if I’d ‘a’ knowed it would make him feel that way.”

Here, Huck feels bad about messing with Jim’s head. Huck is truly sorry for making Jim feel this way. This shows Huck’s compassion toward Jim, and Jim, being a slave, this also symbolizes Huck’s compassion toward all slaves. Here, Huck is treating Jim as an equal unlike everyone else in his society treats slaves. Most other people in Huck’s society would treat Jim like an animal and not even think about Jim’s feelings.

Huck Finn #3

“Jim said he reckoned the widow was partly right and pap was partly right”—p. 73

In this quote, Huck and Jim were debating weather or not to ‘borrow’ the fruits. Huck can’t decide if it’s morally right to borrow from this stranger. To help make up his mind Huck gives the points of view of his two mentors, Pap and the Widow. He makes his decision based on finding a happy medium between the two beliefs. This shows how Huck’s morals were affected by being raised by both a psycho drunk and a god-fearing widow. The two extreme personalities that helped raise Huck sort of cancel each other out. In the end, he decides to not borrow all of the fruits and to leave some behind.

Huck Finn #2

“I think they are a pack of flat-heads for not keeping the palace themselves ’stead of fooling them away like that…”
Here Huck is arguing with Tom about genies. Tom was telling Huck how if you rub a bottle and a genie comes out he has to do anything you say, even build u a castle made out of diamonds before the next sunrise. Huck thought this was stupid how the genies didn’t keep the castles and do favors to themselves. Twain could be speaking out about slavery, and how we make people do all of our work for us without any compensation. The role of the slaves and the genies are the same. Huck feels that tits unfair for the genies to do all the work. This shows is a metaphor that tells me Huck thinks slavery is unfair, possibly this could come up later in the story.

Huck Finn #1

“And she took snuff, too; of course that was alright, because she’d done it herself”

Here Huck is talking about how much he wanted to smoke from his pipe at that moment. He wanted to but the widow told him that its an unclean practice and she should stop. Huck notices that she is contradicting herself because she takes snuff. He doesn’t say this out loud because he didn’t want a flogging but he doesn’t like how people can tell you what to do and what not to do regardless of whether they know anything about it or actually experienced it themselves.

Emily Dickinson: The Transcendentalist

Would you label Emily Dickinson as a Transcendentalist, why or why not?

After reading the poems from our reading assignment that were written by Emily Dickenson it became clear to me that she shared many transcendental beliefs with Emerson and Thoreau and other Transcendentalists. In the first poem I read by her (XX) she was discussing being drunk off of nature, which ties in with the love of nature aspect of transcendentalism. In the second poem labeled XXI, she described her letter to the world, which was to promote the “news that Nature told”, she told people to love nature in that poem. These are just a few of the Transcendental aspects found in Dickinson’s poems.

Essay #2

I choose essay question #3 about Hawthorne's tone in his stories and how he goes about achieving this tone.

Walt Whitman #2

"The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I to am untranslateable , I sound my barbaric yaws over the roofs of the world" (Whitman 83)

Here, Whitman is explaining that he has not become domesticated, and dependant on industry and society. He is responding to the accusations of the spotted hawk. The spotted hawk is a metaphor for Emerson and Thoreau's Transendental beliefs, which tells him to get outside and enjoy nature and not confrom to society through gabbing and loitering. He too, is wild just as nature is and he is also capable of experienceing it.

Walt Whitman #1

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) " (Whitman 83)

Here, Walt Whitman is relating himself to Ralph Waldo Emerson's beliefs that were portrayed in "Self-Reliance". Whitman admits that he contradicts himself, but he feels that it is ok. This is similar to Emerson's statements in "Self Reliance" such as "To be great is to be misunderstood" (Emerson 19). Whitman follows Emerson's advice and writes today what he feels. And writes to-morrow write what he thinks then, even if it contradicts what he said today.

Black Veil #2

““How strange,” said a lady, “that a simple black veil, such as any woman might wear on her bonnet, should become such a terrible thing on Mr. Hooper’s face!””

Here, Hawthorne is pointing out that a simple black veil commonly seen on women can create such a controversy. It’s not as big a scandal as everyone makes it out to be, it is just a little bit strange. People don’t understand that he is trying to convey a message. The message is that all people are wearing a veil to hide their secrets.

Black Veil #1

“I look around me, and, lo! On every visage a Black Veil!” (Hawthorne 62)

In this quote Hawthorne is talking about the Metaphorical veil that everyone wears. Hooper says that everyone wears this veil to hide their secret sins. He thinks that people forget that god sees everything. People think that if no one witnesses their sins on earth then they will be fine in heaven, which just isn’t the case.

Hawthorne Post # 2

““That old woman taught me my catechism,” said the young man; and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment.” (Hawthorne 67)

This sentence illustrates Brown’s whole world, as he knew it, being turned upside down. The people who had raised him and taught him how to live his life had not been practicing what they preached. His whole upbringing under the church was all a big hoax put on by people who worship evil. All of Brown’s roll models, growing up, were in fact the opposite of what he had admired them for. Even though Goodman Brown may not have realized it, this statement proves the illegitimacy of his entire life.

Hawthorne Post #1

“My Faith is gone!” (Hawthorne 69)

When Hawthorne wrote this in Young Goodman Brown he was using a literary technique called a double entendre. This means that this statement means two separate things. By capitalizing the word Faith, Hawthorn was referring to Brown’s beloved wife. Faith was gone in that Brown had lost his wife to the evil forces. The other meaning of this statement was referring to Brown’s religious faith. He had lost faith in the church because he had witnessed all the members of his church community on their way to go worship the devil.