Journal 4- Traveling

I have not traveled very much in my life, really the only place that I've been to that is more than like three hours away from home is Florida. I have been to Florida three times. Twice I have gone with my friends and one time I went with my family. I went twice with my friends. We went with a group of people from my church for a church camp thing. It was at Panama City Beach. The beach was beautiful and we had some very good weather. We went swimming in the ocean every day and it was really fun. The only part that wasn't very fun was the drive over. We took some big buses, and it took us forever to get there. It took us about two days to drive down to Panama City Beach but it was worth it when we got there. The other time that I went to Florida was with my family. We took a plane down to Florida and then did a bunch of fun stuff when we were there. Taking a plane was way faster than driving down to Florida. It only took us a few hours while driving took us two days. I think that paying a little extra for a plane is definitely worth it because it was more comfortable and I do not like sitting for a very long time. Plus driving gets boring and flying is more exciting. The downside to flying is that it takes a lot more preparing. You have to buy tickets for the flight and you have to make sure all your suitcases will be the right size and weight. You have to make sure that you have a car to rent when you get to your destination and you also have to be sure that you are on time for your flight. When you fly, you are on somebody else's schedule. You have to be at the airport on time and you have to do everything by their schedule. When you drive, you have a lot more freedom because you can make stops whenever you want and sometimes that can make the trip more interesting. You can stop at some cool places or just take breaks from the driving whenever you want. So I guess there are the goods and bad sides about any way of traveling, but I prefer flying over driving.

Of Plymouth Plantation- Puritan Writing

The short story "Of Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford is about the Pilgrims journey to the United States. It describes the voyage down to the US by ship and the struggles that the Pilgrims endured when they arrived here, trying to adjust. They had to try to make a friendship with the Native Americans who were not at first very friendly to the strangers. This story, like the poem "Upon the Burning of our House", by Anne Bradstreet and the short story, "A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson", by Mary Rowlandson is a classic piece of Puritan writing. These three writings have a lot of things in common in regards to the style and influences that are used throughout all of them. In all of these writings, the style of the writing is very simple and plain. This was very common in a lot of puritan writing. Not a lot of details were used in their stories, which I think makes them kind of boring. Another very common thing in puritan writing is a religious influence. The puritans were very religious people. They were catholic and they believed that whether we go to Heaven or Hell has already been decided. They believed that some people have been chosen to go to Heaven, while others are damned to Hell. Even though they believed this, they thought that sometimes, even if you were one of the people destined to go to Hell, if you lived a really good christian life, God may change his mind or something and allow you into the pearly gates of Heaven. They also believed that if you were one of the lucky people who God chose to come to Heaven, that you could ruin your chances by sinning and God would not let you in to Heaven. Since religion was so important to the puritans, it makes sense that religion would be a big influence on their writing. For example, in, "Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, Bradford makes a lot of references to his religion and to God.

Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. (Bradford 65)

"Squanto continued with thwm and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation." (Bradford p. 67). In both of these passages from "Of Plymouth Plantation", the author refers to his religion. In the first one, he is writing about how the Pilgrims thank God for helping them on their journey to America. They praise him for keeping them alive and healthy and for delivering them there. In the second passage, the author says that Squanto was a gift sent from God unto the Pilgrims. He believes that Squanto is a blessing to them because without Squanto to translate, the Pilgrims and Native Americans would have a hard time communicating and therefore, they might not get along very well. In conclusion, Puritans had a very unique writing style and religion influenced their writing very much. I think that William Bradford used these techniques in his writing.


Bibliography
Bradford, William. "Of Plymouth Plantation." Glencoe Literature. Columbus: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 62-67. Print.

Journal 3-Hostage

If I was being held in a hostage situation, I would probably just do what ever the person holding me hostage tells me to do. I would be scared out of my mind in this situation. Being held hostage is like one of my top fears in my life. Which I realize it is kind of a weird thing for me to be so afraid of, because it is not very likely for me to be held hostage since no one I know has a bunch of money or anything valuable that anybody would want to receive for ransom. Regardless, it has always been a big fear of mine.

Any who, I think that if I were ever put in to a situation like that of Mary Rowlandson, I would be the most obedient hostage ever. I would be too afraid to stand up against who ever was holding me hostage, because I have seen a lot of scary movies like this and even though in many of these movies, when the person being held hostage stands up to the person holding them hostage, they get away, some times it does not work in the hostage's favor, and I think that with my luck and size/strenght, I would probably not win a battle against someone like that.

If I were held hostage, instead of trying to stand up against whoever was holding me hostage, I would try to find a way to get away secretly. I would find a way to escape from them or, if there was no way to escape, and if I still had my phone, I would call the police.

Being put in a hostage situation would not be a good feeling. I would feel scared, and alone. I would also feel hopeful, though. I would be hopeful that my family would help me get out of this situation and that the cops would catch this smooth criminal who decided to hold little old me for ransom.
Now that I am done writing this blog about being held hostage, I think I will go buy some pepper spray, just to be safe.

Puritan Writing Techniques- Mary Rowlandson and Anne Bradstreet

The two short works, “A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson and “Upon the Burning of Our House” By Anne Bradstreet were two typical Puritan style writings. These two writings show many techniques that were commonly used in a lot of Puritan writings. In these two short stories, the author describes a sort of tough time or struggle that they had gone through. In both of these stories, they wrote about how God helped them through their difficult situation. I think this is probably very typical of a lot of Puritan writings from the time because they were a very religious people. Religion was a very big part of the society for Puritan people, so they incorporated God and bible verses into a lot of the writing that they did. “But God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail.” (Rowlandson p. 83 par. 1). In this quote from “A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”, Rowlandson speaks about how God helped her get through her tough time. She says that he lifted her spirit. In this part of the excerpt, she is very low on hope. She has been traveling for a long time and she is very exhausted. She writes about how God helped her push through this time in her life and helped her persevere through this tough time. Religion is also referenced in the short poem “Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet. “And to my God my heart did cry; To strengthen me in my distress; and not to leave me succorless” (Bradstreeet line 8-10). In this passage, the author is praying to God to help her when her home burned down. Everything that she had was gone, but she had not lost hope. She was faithful to God and it helped her have a better outlook on her situation in the end. Towards the end of her poem, she says “There’s wealth enough, I need no more; Farewell my pelf, farewell my store; The world no longer let me love, My hope and treasure lies above.” Here the author is saying that none of the wealth that she used to have in this world matter to her anymore. This is not because it was all burned, but because she was faithful and had remained faithful to God through this whole situation and she believed that all the wealth that mattered to her was above, in heaven waiting for her. Other than religion being a main focus of the literature, another common factor in Puritan writing was a very unique grammar and sentence structure. I noticed that the writing style back then was more formal, but some of the words that were included in these stories were words that would not be considered “correct” if they were used today. Some examples are in Rowlandson’s writing the words “spake” and “pleasanter”. If these words were used today they would be considered bad grammar. The word “spake” would be changed to “spoke” and the word “pleasanter” would be “more pleasant”. It was strange to see these words used in a writing that seemed more formal, but I think that was probably common in a lot of Puritan writing, because that was probably the language back then. In conclusion, in the two short stories that I read, I noticed a lot of things that were distinct in the Puritan style of writing.

Bibliography

Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of Our House." Glencoe Literature. Columbus: McGraw- Hill, 2009. 91. Print. American Literature.

Rowlandson, Mary. "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 82-85. Print.

journal 2

Once upon a time, there was a chipmunk named Charlie. Charlie was known around the woods as being very rude. When he would visit the houses of his friends, he did not know how to behave! One day, his friend Terry the turtle invited Charlie over to his home. Charlie walked into Terry's home without taking off his shoes. Charlie tracked mud and dirt all over Terry's brand new carpet!! Next Charlie walked to the kitchen. He looked through Terry's refrigerator and ate all of his food! Charlie wanted to watch tv now. He went into the family room and plopped down on the couch. He put his feet, shoes and all, up on the coffee table. Terry's coffee table was all dirty from the mud on Charlie's shoes. By the time Charlie left Terry's home, it was a mess. Terry said that he would never invite Charlie over again after that day. Word of Charlie's behavior spread across the woods very quickly. It was all everyone spoke about. One day, Charlie's mother was in the hair salon getting a new hair do. She was talking with her friend Sandy the squirrel. They were gossiping about all the animals living in the woods when Sandy mentioned that she had heard some news about Charlie. Sandy told Charlie's mother all about Charlie's behavior and what she had heard of Charlie's visit to Terry's house. Charlie's mother was very embarassed of Charlie's behavior. She made Charlie come home right away. She decided that it was time for her to teach Charlie some manners. She taught Charlie all the basic hospitality rules and manners. She taught Charlie that when some one invites you into their home, you have to be respectful of their home and not make a mess of their stuff. She taught him that when you walk into somebody's house, you should take off your shoes so that you do not track mud onto their carpet and you should ask before you get something to eat. She also told him that you should be respectful of their things and not just make yourself right at home by putting your feet up on the coffee table. Charlie apologized to his friend Terry and never made those mistakes again.