Modern World Thesis

When Jim and Huck’s raft is crushed by the steamboat, Mark Twain is showing the negative aspects of modernization. Because Mark Twain looks so fondly back on his childhood on the Mississippi he sees the sterilizing influence of the modern world as a threat to his former lifestyle.

Thier Eyes Thesis

Because Janie starts to follow her transcendentalist values, she is able to make decisions that truly make her happy because the same things that may make other female members of the Eatonville community happy are not the same things that make Janie happy.

Thier Eyes Quote #4

In Chapter seven, Janie finally gets sick of the way Joe verbally abuses her. Every chance Joe gets, he is always trying to point out how old Janie is getting when in reality, Janie is still somewhat young and still beautiful and Joe is the one getting fat and old. He’s insecure with himself so he tries to divert the attention to Janie. Joe has a huge ego and prides himself on the belief that every other man is jealous of his beautiful wife and his social status. One day Janie get fed up and reacts to one of Joe’s comments by pointing out how Joe’s fat and aging body. She cuts him down from his pedestal in front of a bunch of Joe’s friends and shatters his ego. This is a huge turning point in the relationship between Joe and Janie.

Thier Eyes Quote #3

There is a key turning point in Janie’s journey to self-reliance in chapter 4. The event that set this change in motion was the death of Janie’s grandmother. With the woman who had done all of the thinking for you gone, Janie was left to think for herself. The beginning of chapter four shows how unfair and dysfunctional Janie and Logan’s marriage. Then Joe Starks comes along and offers Janie a life of luxury. Janie decides to leave Logan, who symbolizes a life of abuse and unfairness/ unhappiness, and marry Joe Starks who will give Janie money and social status.

There Eyes Quote #2

"[Janie] was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid." (page 11).

Here, Hurston is showing the transcendental qualities that Janie has. The way Janie appreciates nature is just one example I have noticed so far. Janie also seems to have given up a life of luxury, to a life of poverty. Janie also said that "[The members of her black comunity] don't know if life isn't a mess of corn-meal dumplings, and if love is a bed-quilt". This shows that Janie, as opposed to the women of her community, tries to appreciate life for more than what she was tought growing up. When she admires the tree in full bloom in the same way that Thoreau admired different aspects of nature. Thoreau spoke about the epic battles that the ants took place in "Walden Pond". Janie referrs to the bee sucking the nector from a flower as a marrage between the flower and the bee. They are both greatly fascinated by these different aspects of nature, and they both appreciate the events in the same way that others may appreciate certain objects of luxury such as a brand new BMW.

1. "Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly." (page 1).

This quote talks about dreams, and how people choose to persue or not persue thier dreams. The begining of this quote says that all people can see theier dreams. The author then says that some people let thier dreams sail away, while others let thier dreams slip away from them. The author said that other people leave thier dreams un attained forever even though they are within reach. Then the author talks specifically about women and how they persue or dont persue thier dreams. Some women force themselves to forget about thier dreams because they care too muc habout what other people think about them. So women instead to do what they are soposed to. The author wants people to realize thier true dreams and to persue them untill they are trully happy.

Huck Finn #6

“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 #5

“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.

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.