Walt Whitman

What an interesting person he was. I do not agree with his ideas on God though. God is someone that should be on our mind all the time. Should we try to squeeze him into a textbook? No but he is way more important than other people.

To be fair though his poetry is beautifully written. We can learn a lot from him. He wrote on whatever topic he wanted to and that took guts. As we discussed in class some of his poetry is very sexually elicit. Some even challenged the ideas of what "normal" relationships should be as he discussed homosexuality. He challenged the conventions and beliefs of his time and I respect him for that.

Edgar Allan Poe

I really enjoy reading Poe's works. I am not a big fan of poetry but I love reading his poems. I especially like the poem, "Annabel Lee." I always feel so sad when I read this poem. I can't help but think that it was written for his young wife that died. I have never been married but I can't imagine losing a spouse. The grief and pain that comes with it is unbearable. There are so many emotions that run through you as in the poem. There is blame that one has. In the poem Poe blames the "heavens". He claims that they were jealous of their happiness together and that they took her. He is a grief-stricken widow and sometimes it is good just to get your frustration out. Poe's poetry can still speak to us 150 years later and that is why they should be studied.

Here is a link to a great video of the poem, "Annabel Lee"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRhIJB6YD-4&feature=related

Herman Melville

This was quite an interesting story. I pretty much enjoyed reading it. I guess I am a little confused on what Melville was trying to tell us though. Bartleby is a weird loner guy who eats nuts, lives in his place of work, dosen't listen to his boss, and says "prefer" a lot. Oh yeah, he also dies in the end. What? It is an interesting, entertaining story but why are we still reading it 150 years later? I look forword to the class discussion today because I am sure there is some meaning to all this. I am usually the last one to get a joke so I will probably be the last one to go, "oh yeah, I get it now."

Uncle Tom's Cabin

What a wonderful book this was! I had boughten it about 5 years ago and planned to read it then but never did because I thought it was going to be an old boring book. How I was wrong! I would have to say this is one of my new favorite books. It was very entertaining but it also touched your emotions. It really makes a person think and reflect on their own life and what they believe in.

There are many injustices in the world that I see and that I think are wrong. I think the sex trade is horrible. I think it is aweful that there are millions of people in the world without clean, safe water to drink. I think it is aweful that there is child abuse. I can go on and on. But what am I doing about any of this? Am I helping these people at all? No, I am not. If I have means to help someone I should. Does this mean I should feel like I should help everyone in the world? I do not think so. That would be impossible. Not one person can save the world, but one person can impact their community and help their neighbors in need. I am going to pray for the injustices I see in the world but then I want to help people that I meet everyday. I want to go out of my way to do something nice for them. On campus, if I see someone lost, I can stop and help them find their way. Little things like that can make a person's day. Also I can volunteer at local agencies and help that way.

Here is a little video about the book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gLVulWa4s&feature=related

Here are some volunteering opportunities in Sioux Falls

Angel food ministires: https://www.angelfoodministries.com/hosts.asp?name=&city=&state=SD&zip=&miles=20&B1=Search&search=search

American Red Cross:
http://www.redcross.org/

Habitat for Humanity: http://www.habitat.org/cd/local/affiliate.aspx?zip=57101

Jaycee's: http://www.usjaycees.org/index.php?option=com_sobi2&catid=2&Itemid=63

Meals-on -wheels: http://www.mowaa.org/Page.aspx?pid=480

The Salvation Army: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf

There are many more opportunites just do a google search.

Nathaniel Hawthorne 3

Wow! What a conclusion to this romance. I was totally not expecting Dimesdale to die. I was really rooting that the three of them would spend the rest of their lives together. I was hoping for a fairytale ending. I guess that is how life is though; rarely does anything go the way it was planned. Sometimes life can be cruel.

Also, I guess I am a little confused on the moral of the story. Is it that when your sin gets found out to live as a "saint" the rest of your life? Is it not to hide your sin from others because it will only bring harm to yourself and might kill you? Is it about if you try to run away from the consequences of your sin, God is going to strike you down? I don't really know. Maybe my thoughts about what the moral is is all wrong. I do know that I really enjoyed the last 3/4 of the novel. I want to reread the novel now so I can pay more attention to the beginning details of the novel. Maybe that will help me understand what the significance of the morals of this romance are.

Nathaniel Hawthorne part 2

Now that I am over half way done with the book I can see why it is one of the top American novels of all time, but I can also see why kids get bored of it. As Tasia said in class today, Nathaniel Hawthorne takes two paragraphs to say something that he could have said in one sentence. I find myself lost in some parts of the novel especially the "Leech and His Patient" chapter. Hawthorne was going on and on and he was describing things too in depth that I lost focus on what he was originally describing.



On the other hand, I do love the plot of this story. Who would of thought that Pearl's father was Arthur Dimesdale, the priest? He is preaching every week about purity and all that and he and Hester slept together. Wow! Stuff like this in the novel keeps me wanting to continue reading the novel to see what else is going to happen next.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

I really enjoyed reading the first couple chapters of the Scarlet Letter. I had heard of the book but I never read it before. In High School other English classes had to read it but I never had to. Fellow students who were reading it told me how boring it was and how they could not understand Hawthorne. I completley disagree. He is not boring at all. He keeps the reader entertained the whole time, (except the Custom House introduction. I did find that boring). I also found him very easy to follow along with. I was able to comprehend what I was reading these first few pages. From this short first reading of this novel I now understand why it is considered one of the greatest American novels. I am excited for tomorow's class discussion and am interested in what others thought of the novel.

Nature

I confess that after class I did not go and sit outside and observe nature. I knew that I was going to the other side of this state and that I could observe the changing landscape of South Dakota.

I love South Dakota! I was born in Sioux Falls and lived here until I was 5, then I moved to Spearfish and lived there for 2 years. I then moved 10 miles North to Belle Fourche and lived there for another 2 years. After that I returned to Sioux Falls and have been living here ever since. How different the people and the landscape is in South Dakota.

East River you have the typical praire. We have nice green grass and you can see for miles around because of how flat we are. We are very beautiful though. It also gets pretty humid here, so it can get mighty hot. There are also many lakes and many places to go fishing and swimming.

West River we see a big change. There are the beautiful Black Hills, or "paha sappa" to the Native Americans. This forest is very beautiful. There are many pine trees that line the landscape that make the mountains look "black" hence their name. Around Deadwood and also down by Keystone, you can see the damage of wildfires. There are whole sections of forrest with burnt pine trees for miles. It is very saddening to see this because of how long it took for the black hills to form and then how quickly they can be destroyed.

Drive 10 miles North of Spearfish, which is the ending of the Black Hills National Forrest, and you will be in Butte County. The landscape there looks almost like the wild west. There are tumble weeds blowing in the wind, rattlesnakes singing in the wind, and small butes all around. It is also very dry, with little to no grass in some places. I think Butte County is the most beautiful county in the state.

South Daktoa has everything: great, diverse landscape; wonderful, caring people; great attractions and things to do with the family; it just has everything. I always wonder why we still have a small population for this great state. I know many people that have moved here from other parts of the country and have never left because they like it here so much.

Henry David Thoreau

I enjoyed reading Henry David Thoreau More than Emerson. Thoreau just seemed more understandable and more reasonable. Instead of just "talking, the talk" he also "walked the walk". He actually lived in a cabin built by him and took care of himself for two years. He grew his own food and everything.

Another reason why he appealed to me was his stand on "The American Dream". Everyone wants to live in a nice, two story house with a white picket fence and have a two car garage. Everyone wants to try to make the most money possible so they can achieve a greater status. Is this really the way we should think though? As we discussed in class yesterday, what are we giving up to obtain our "American Dream?" Are we sacrificing time with our children and family to make sure they get the most valuable possessions? Are we taking time away from our own personal health by not getting the right amount of sleep or skipping meals because we are too busy to eat?

Thoreau really makes a person think about what really is important in life. Are material possessions really as great as everyone thinks they are?

Here is a great song with a great message:

"I don't want to gain the whole world, and loose my soul" by Tobymac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBZSFhOsyDk

Ralph Waldo Emerson 2

The class discussions didn't go over too well. I don't think many people really read Emerson. I don't know if this means that you guys are not really into him and the whole Transendentalism idea either.

Of what I did read I though that it was interesting how he was always talking about how great nature was and how we are all nature. I would say that humans are a part of nature, and that trees are. I wouldn't go as far as to say a pencil is nature. I think once nature creates something out of nature, than it is no longer nature.

I hope I am not dissin' on Emerson. If anybody really likes him and understands him, fell free to comment on my blog. That would be great actually. I could gain a better understanding of him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As in my last blog, I was not too happy when I found out that we had to read Emerson. I knew it was coming, because he is considered a "great" American writer. His introductory biography was four pages, longer than anyone else's so far. For class we are spending two days on him. Obviously people think he is an important American to know.

Personally, I do not see why he is that "great" of a writer. In no means am I saying that his moral character was bad. He seemed like a nice guy. He was married twice, but only because his first wife died. He spoke out about slavery and women suffrage. The thing I am most concerned about is his faith. He went from being a minister, to believing in a "higher power" but not necessarily God. I think that is sad. How can someone who appreciates and sees the beauty in nature not believe that there is a God who created it all and who is in control of it?

Maybe I am being too hard on him or may not fully comprehend his writing? I don't know. We will see what others think in our class discussion tomorrow.

Washington Irving

I have to say, I wasn't too excited when I found out that we had to read Irving's "Rip Van Winkle." I was hoping we could read, "Sleepy Hollow" instead. But after reading this story again I gained a better understanding of it. I think part of the reason for it is because of the introductory biographical information provided at the beginning of each selection in our anthology.

As I was reading Rip Van Winkle I couldn't help but notice the similarities between Mr. Irving and Mr. Van Winkle. Irving was engaged to be married to Matilda but she died. I am sure that Irving was very sadden and grief stricken by her death. Van Winkle slept for 20 years than woke up to find out that his wife died. He was happy because he was relieved of the burden of raising a family. He was free to pursue whatever he wanted. Since Matilda died Irving was relieved of the responsibility of becoming a judge, as Matilda's father was and he was expected to also become one. He was also free to pursue whatever he wanted. The introductory biography said that he was a life long bachelor. It also said that he was the first American to support himself fully on his writings. With a family Irving probably would not have been able to do this.

I think that by studying an author's life, one can gain better insight into the author's stories and works. I find the introductory biographies very helpful. Also through them I better understood the story we read for class and am glad that we were assigned to read it.

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley just blows me away! I cannot believe under all her circumstances, she published such phenomenal poetry. She was a female African American slave and was only 19 years old when her book of poetry was published! I am 20 and haven't even written a poem good enough to be published into a magazine, let alone a whole book of poems. He circumstances under which she wrote her poems is just amazing. We are still reading her poems 300 years later. What a feat!

Another thing that is amazing is about her is her attitude. Her poetry is not bitter but is optimistic. She is making the best out of her situation. Even though she was captured and taken from her homeland she rejoices about it. If it wasn't for her being captured she would never have found Christ. How inspiring to hear her story. She takes the bad things that happened to her in life and turns them into good. She is just an amazing woman!

Olaudah Equiano

This is the second time that I have read part of Olaudah Equiano's narrative. The first time was when I was a junior in highschool. We just read the part where he describes the foul smells on the ship coming to the Americas. It was very difficult reading because of all the sorrow I felt for the slaves. It is so sad that this happened.

Another reason why this is sad is because people who called themselves "christians" held slaves. Many times through Equiano's narrative he mentions christians many times. One part he says they were singing hymns right next to where the slaves were being auctioned off. How ironic is that? Chrisianity is about God's grace that we can be free from sin and here they are practicing bondage of other human beings. I think it is sad when people use the name of Jesus to do bad things.

Benjamin Franklin

Growing up as a child, I have always heard that our "Founding Fathers" were Christian and that our government was based upon Christian morals. God is mentioned in almost every document of our country, but did the writers really mean the Christian God?

In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin he writes on page 232 of our anthology, "And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all Humility to acknowledge, that I owe the mention'd Happiness of my past Life to his kind Providence, which led me to the means I us'd and gave them Success." In this passage he is thanking God for allowing himself to be successful. Later on in a letter to Franklin from Benjamin Vaghan, he writes , ..." will show that you are ashamed of no origin; a thing the more important, as you prove how little necessary all origin is to happiness, virtue, or greatness." Mr. Vaghan is saying that Benjamin Franklin does not believe in the Christian view of "the fall", or when sin entered into humanity and because of one person's sin, everyone else is born a sinner. That is why we need God. We depend on everything from him. What Benjamin Franklin wrote at the beginning of his autobiography just contradicted what his friend wrote to him. Was our country really founded on Christian values? I am not sure. What do you think?

Jonathan Edwards

I enjoyed reading the Personal Narrative of Jonathan Edwards. It really changed my perspective of him. In high school we had to read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". I remember my teacher kind of slandering him and saying how mean and heartless he was. I kind of agreed with her because I was not well informed. I only read one sermon of his and nothing else by him. I've been in college for almost two years now and one thing I have learned is to be well informed. Never be satisfied with one part of the story. This is a prime example of why this is true. Had I read his personal narrative along with his sermon my opinion of him would have been drastically different.

After reading his personal narrative I really have a lot more respect for the guy. I believe that he was filled with the Holy Spirit and that he was trying to help further God's kingdom. His writing sounded so humble to be not to have been from the Holy Spirit. As for his sermon, "Sinners in the hand of an angry God" sometimes people hate to hear the truth. There is going to be a judgment day and only the believers of God are going to live eternally with Him. We need to wake up and start living for God and stop sinning and hurting Him.

Mary Rowlandson

I really enjoyed reading about Mary Rowlandson. I felt that while what happened to her was terrible, what she went though can help others. Her writings inspired me to trust God because he knows what is best for me.

There are some that say that she was just expirincing "survivor's syndrome" which is what the article I read for today's class was about. I do not believe that theory. I believe that she was under a lot of stress and trauma, (she watched her niece, and her young child die), but that she was trusting God throughout it all. I believe that when she wrote her account after she was rescued that she did not just write God in as an afterthought to please her culutre, the Puritains.

I believe that this expirience did help her grow with her walk with God. In the begining of her narrative she talks about how she was starting to stray from her walk with God. She was not taking the act of devotion and worship that seriously. But through this horrible expirience her relationship with God grew stronger.

Carnival Post

The first few weeks of this class was a time of discovery. Not only were we reading about the new settlers to America who were also discovering things, the students in the class were discovering new things they did not know about these first Americans.
There was a discovery that these early American writers were not so hard to understand. It was possible to read and comprehend what they were talking about. The language was a little different and more beautiful than today's English but it was still very readable. It can be so enjoyable too. Hannah wrote how Bradstreet's word's were inspiring to her. She can relate to Bradstreet and her poems. I think it is wonderful how poetry so old can still be understood and can touch people's lives.

There was a heightened awareness that we, people living in the 21st century can relate to people in the 16th and 17th centuries. We still face the struggle with trying to do the right thing, with trying to make a living. In Aubri's blog she made the point of stem-cell research. Do we take away a unborn Babbie's life to save another person's life? We can save a diseased person's life by research done with stem cells. This is great. Someone can get a chance to extend their life. Who wouldn't want that? But then again, we are taking away a life that could have the cure to some of these diseases or someone who could be the next president. It is a hard question that does not have an easy answer to it. This is just like the colonists contemplating on moving to a new homeland to escape poverty. It is a good thing for the European settlers, but then again you take away land and a way of life of the Native Americans already living here. It is a hard choice to decide on to save one, and not the other.

Here is a link to Aubri's blog: http://aubrifrey.blogspot.com/

Cotton Mather

Today's reading was quite interesting. The Salem Witch Trials are usually something Americans try to forget happened. In school it is barely mentioned. I have never actually read any literature on it until now.
I found it quite interesting that in the beginning Cotton Mather said he was going to "report matters not as an advocate, but as an historian." His intention was to write an UN-biased account of the trials but I don't know if he stuck to his plan.
First of all, all of the evidence at the trial was here say. It was only "eyewitness" testimony, and it wasn't even like they actually saw her do any physical harm to anyone. They talked about how she would say something bad about them and then one of their cows, of they themselves got some kind of physical ailment. In the court system today, these witnesses would not "hold water". Now days, eyewitness testimony is not going to win you a case. Eyewitness testimony is not reliable in today's court. People forget things, or think they saw or heard something they didn't. Also just because something bad happens to an animal or person, doesn't mean that someone is responsible for that. Maybe it was just that cow's time to die.
Another thing that makes me think that Mr. Mather was not UN-biased was at the end. He called Martha carrier, a "rampant hag". If a person was truly sticking to the facts and not letting their emotions get into the way they would have just stated the person's name and that they were guilty and not slander them.

Anne Bradstreet

I am not much of a poetry person but I do enjoy reading Anne Bradstreet. I love the language that she uses. I love the Enlglish of this time period. It is so beautiful, especially the hymns. I love the way that she is so humble when she writes. She mentions many times that she is not worthy enough to even be writing, which is entirely false because we still study her writing 300 years later. I just love people who are humble and do not put themselves up on a pedistal.

One particular poem I love of hers is Poem 33. It just reminds us of how we are nothing compared to God. We have statues of "great" kings of old, but eventually those things will be no more. Erosion happens. But with God we have an everlasting hope. He is our true, only wise king. With him we can have life everlasting. If our names are "graved in the white stone" we will live forever.

John Smith

While I was reading this selection I couldn't help but notice how many times the word, "savage" kept reappearing. I counted 15 but I probably missed some. It is interesting that the writer of this narrative, which is probably not John smith, chooses to use such a word as "savage" instead of using their Native American name. By what the narrator is telling us the Native American people are being extremely civil. The Natives brought them so much food that, "no man wanted". Isn't giving and sharing what you have a good, civil thing to do? Granted they did attack and kill some of John Smith's men but they were just defeding their homeland and their people. They were doing what they had to do to survive.