Partner Reflection

“Arcturus is his other name” is the poem that was chosen for this reflection blog because it had to do with stars. First off, for a little bit of background information, Arcturus comes from Greek and can be translated into “Guardian of the Bear.” The star is so named because it is close to both Ursa Major (Larger Bear) and Ursa Minor (Lesser Bear). It is also the third brightest individual star in the night sky after Sirius and Canopus. This fits well into the Nature section of her collection of poems because it is something anyone can go outside and see on any given night, given that the sky is both clear enough and there is not too much light pollution to see it. Also, this poem would most definitely fit into the transcendentalist writing section because in it, Dickenson is complaining about how science is taking away the beauty of nature by classifying it and giving things scientific names. 

In the beginning of the poem, it seems as if Dickenson is just complaining about how the scientists of the time were classifying everything and turning it into numbers and classification rather than what it really was. From flowers to butterflies to the sky, everything was laid out in a specific order that many transcendentalists, and evidently Dickenson, did not appreciate. 

Towards the end of the poem, however, Dickenson shifted the focus from a personal disliking of science for the sake of the compromised beauty to the religious aspect of why she did not like what was happening to the world because of the scientists and their classifying. One reason that she gives is that the night sky used to be reserved for the thoughts about Heaven and now it “is mapped, and chartered too” (Dickenson 16). At the beginning of that same stanza, she states that “What once was Heaven, now is Zenith” which supports the aforestated quote because “zenith” is a scientific term that describes straight up into the sky from a person’s point of view (Dickenson 13). Dickenson despairs at the thought that the place she “proposed to go when time’s brief masquerade was done” might be changed too by the “curse” the scientists have released upon the beauty of the world (Dickenson 14, 15). She hopes that “the children there won’t be new-fashioned” because she fears that if they are like the scientists she left behind, they might “laugh at me, and stare!” (Dickenson 22 – 24). 

This picture of Heaven contradicts the way that many people look at the idea of Heaven or how they visualize it in their heads. Most people see it as perfect and a place where there is only happiness and joy. Yet, in this poem, Dickenson portrays it as a place capable of ridicule and sadness for the people who are “old fashioned, naughty, everything” (Dickenson 27). One other important thing to note is that Dickenson see’s heaven and earth on the same plane, just separated by some kind of fence because in the last line, she says “over the pearly stile” which refers back to her wish that when she dies, God will take her to heaven (Dickenson 28).

Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000.

The Lost Beautifulness

Job Shadowing

For job shadowing yesterday, I shadowed two different dieticians at Memorial Hospital. I am interested in nutrition and helping people with their diets so it was interesting to see what being a dietician in a hospital was like, but I do not think that after seeing their jobs, dietician is the right job for me. The first dietician that I shadowed working in the ICU and helped patients who had trauma and very bad injuries. Some of the patients in that unit had been through car accidents, been burnt very badly, and one man had fallen off of the top of a ladder. The dietician in this unit helped these patients by figuring out what kind of diets their body would require so that it could heal. Mostly they just had to add a lot of protein to their diets so that any broken bones could heal and it also helped them get stronger and wounds heal faster. That dietician mostly just walked around the unit, talked to patients and informed them on what kind of food and nutrients their bodies needed to heal. The other dietician that I shadowed worked in the oncology unit of the hospital and sometimes with dialysis patients. Her job was mostly to make sure that patients were eating while they were in the hospital because usually these patients lose their appetites. She said that she was not strict on their diets, she just had to make sure that they were eating. I learned a lot by job shadowing and I thought that their jobs were very interesting, but it was not what I imagined that it would be and I do not think that it is something that I would want as a career. These two dieticians did more in patient work and I think that I would enjoy out patient work more. Job shadowing really helped me to realize what I really want to do in the future.  

Journal #30

http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/194

My favorite poem by Walt Whitman is the poem “O Captain! My Captain!”. This poem written by Walt Whitman is one of the most famous poems that he has written and it is also my favorite.

“O Captain! My Captain!” is my favorite poem of Walt Whitman because it has a couple different meanings and I think that they are both very interesting. One of the views of what this poem is about is that it is about The Civil War and Abraham Lincoln is the captain that Walt Whitman is talking about in the poem. The other idea is that the captain of the poem is God. I think it is interesting how the poem can be interpreted in two very different ways. I like to think that this poem is about Abraham Lincoln and The Civil War. I think this because it makes more sense for it to be about Lincoln since in the poem it says "our fearful trip is done” (Whitman) and “the prize we sought is won” (Whitman). The “fearful trip” that Whitman talks about is probably the fighting that took place in The Civil War and the “prize” is probably the Union. Walt Whitman wrote this poem to show his appreciation to Abraham Lincoln and I think that it is a very good way for him to show it to him. The lines “fallen cold and dead” show up a lot in the poem “O Captain! My Captain!”. Whitman wrote this after Lincoln died so that makes me think that this poem was about Lincoln as well.

I think that this poem is my favorite out of all of Whitman’s poems because you can tell that he really cared about what he was writing about in this poem. Abraham Lincoln was very important to Walt Whitman, so when he died, Whitman wanted to show his appreciation for Lincoln and his efforts during the war. I think that this poem has a lot of emotion in it and that is why it is my favorite.

self

The journal for today is kind of a complicated topic to write about. The topic is to write about what you think that your transcendental Self is. There are three parts to your transcendental Self. The three parts of your transcendental Self are your Soul, which is your spiritual self; your Self, which is your personality and how you see yourself; and then there is your Real Self, which is how everyone else perceives you. When you think about it this way, it is a lot easier to understand how you can write about your Self.

I think that my spiritual self, personality, and the way that other people perceive me are all very different, but at the same time, they are kind of the same. It is kind of weird to try to think about and define my spiritual self, because I do not think that I am a very spiritual person. The only way that I can really define my spiritual self is that I am a Christian. I go to church sometimes, but not all the time. I am not the most religious or spiritual person ever.

My Self, or personality, and my Real Self, or the way that everyone else perceives me, are very different from each other, but sometimes they are the same. My personality or self, which is the way that I percieve myself is that I am easy to get a long with and I am a pretty calm person. I think that pretty much everyone else probably thinks the same thing about me so I think that my real self and my self are kind of the same thing. Some people may perceive me differently than others because my personality changes depending on who I am with. When I am with people that I am more comfortable with, I am more outgoing and talkative than when I am with people that I do not know very well. I see my self as the more outgoing person, but some may see me as the shy person. It all depends on who you ask I guess.

Chanting the Spirit Deific

"Chanting the Spirit Deific" is a short poem written by Walt Whitman. In this poem, Whitman describes God as four parts, instead of the usual trinity that God is normally thought to be. Whitman wrote the poem in four stanzas and each stanza counts as one of the four sides. The first stanza is from the point of view of God. The second stanza is from the point of view of Christ, which is more of the Christian God, or Jesus. The third stanza is Satan, and the fourth stanza is the Soul or Santa Spirita.

The first stanza is about God. In the first stanza, the speaker states that he is Jehovah, but also says that he is Brahm, Saturnius, and Kronos. These are gods from different kinds of mythology. Whitman uses these specific gods because they all have specific jobs that are related to each other. Each of these gods are relentless. That is the reason that he used these gods specifically. The God that is the speaker in the first stanza describes himself as "relentless". "I expense from this side judgments inexorable without the least remorse." (Whitman). The God that is the speaker in the first stanza says that he does not feel bad for the judgments that he casts onto people. He also says, "Therefore let none expect mercy" (Whitman). This God is different than what you would normally think of the Christian God as because the Christian God is merciful and forgiving. 


The speaker of the second stanza is Christ. This side of God is a much more caring and comforting God. he describes himself as "Consolator most mild" (Whitman) and "with gentler hand extended" (Whitman). This is the softer side of God that is nicer and more calm. Christ is kind to everyone, not just specific types of people. "Wending my way through the homes of men, rich or poor, with the kiss of affection". Christ is affectionate towards all people. This side of  God also like weaker than the first one, but is described as more mighty, which is a contradiction. "Many times have I been rejected, taunted, put in prison, and crucified, and many times shall be again" (Whitman). This makes Christ seem weak, because he is ridiculed and overpowered by mortal people. In another part of the poem however, Christ describes himself as "The mightier God am I". These two lines show that while Christ is very mighty, he is also humble because he can take the taunting from those who are clearly weaker than he. 


The third stanza is from the point of view of Satan. Satan is much different from the previous sides of the square. Satan is evil. "Aloof, dissatisfied, plotting revolt, Comrade of criminals... Crafty, despised, a drudge, ignorant" (Whitman). Although Satan is evil, he has a kind of a soft spot for the "downtrodden" (Oliver). In the third stanza, Satan describes himself as "brother of slaves". This shows that he has a kind of respect for people who have had a hard time. Satan is as opposite from Christ as he can be. This shows that Whitman believed that their needed to be a balance between good and evil (Oliver). Satan describes himself as "permanent" saying that "nor time nor change shall ever change me of my words" (Oliver). 


The speaker of the last stanza is Santa Spirita, or the Soul. The Soul is a collection of all three other sides of the  square. It is "Including all life on earth, touching, including God, including Saviour and Satan." (Whitman). The Soul unifies all the other sides of the square and is in everything. "pervading all, (for without me what were all?)" (Whitman). Santa Spirita is in everything. It is the "general soul" and is all life. "Life of the great round world, the sun and stars, and of man, I, the general soul" (Whitman). The Soul completes the square tying everything together and unifying all parts of the square deific.


Whitman used a very specific technique to write this poem. He chose to use one stanza per each side of the square to make everything flow better and much easier to understand. His idea of God being a quaternity instead of a trinity was very creative and it was interesting to see how all the different sides tied together and balanced each other out.  


Bibliography
Whitman, Walt. "The Walt Whitman Archive." Chanting The Square Deific. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892]) -. Web. 04 Apr. 2012. <http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/247>.


Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW082&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 4, 2012).

I heard a fly buzz when I died Journal

Emily Dickinson’s poem “I heard a fly buzz when I died” is about a person who is lying on their death bed, dying peacefully, when suddenly their death is interrupted by the buzzing of a fly. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker is surrounded by his or her family. They are all surrounding him or her in complete silence. “The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm” (Dickinson). “The stillness round my form” refers to all the people standing around the speaker as he or she is dying. By using the word “stillness” to describe the speaker’s surroundings, the speaker shows that the setting is very still and quiet. Everyone in the room is quiet because they are all waiting and are anticipating what is going to happen next. “Between the heaves of storm” refers to the speakers breathing. The speaker is breathing very loudly and slowly, and since the speaker says that everything is calm in between the “heaves of storm” the speaker must be struggling with every breath. “The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And breaths were gathering sure For that last onset,” (Dickinson). The people who are surrounding the speaker in his or her last moments are watching quietly as the speaker is struggling to breath. Everyone’s eyes “had wrung them dry”, meaning that everyone has cried a lot and they can no longer cry, or they no longer feel the need to cry because they have come to terms with what is going to happen.“I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me I Could make assignable,-and then There interposed a fly, With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, Between the light and me; And then the windows failed, and then I could not see to see.” (Dickinson). The speaker has already assigned away all of their belongings meaning that they are ready to die and have accepted it already. They are ready for their death when suddenly a fly interrupts everything.  

bibliography
Dickinson, Emily. "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." Web. 02 Apr. 2012. <http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/fly.html>.

Journal 27

A lot of Emily Dickinson’s poems can be sung to the tune of the song “Amazing Grace”. They can also be sung to the tune of a lot of other folk songs and old songs that were sang back in her time. I think that the reason that her poems can be sung to these songs is that they were familiar to her and she liked to write her poems to the tune of songs that she knew. I think that the reason that many of them can be sung to “Amazing Grace” specifically is that “Amazing Grace” is a hymnal and was very popular during her time. Emily Dickinson was religious so she probably knew this song very well. Her whole family attended the Congregational Church. Emily Dickinson was not a very social person and she did not go out in public very much. A lot of people thought that Emily Dickinson was weird because she did not like to go out in public much and she preferred to stay inside and be alone. I think that Emily Dickinson liked to make her poems go to the tune of “Amazing Grace” because it was her way of making sure that other people could relate to her poetry. By making her poems go to the tune of these songs, other people would be able to kind of relate to them and maybe even understand them more. Another possible reason that Emily Dickinson chose to write a lot of her poems to the tune of this song was that she was probably inspired by it. “Amazing Grace” is a very inspirational song, and it probably had an impact on her life. She probably felt that it was very deep and maybe it even inspired her to write some of her poems. The song “Amazing Grace” is very emotional and she probably felt that she wanted to write poetry that was as emotional and inspiring as that song. 

Dickinson Writing Style

The writing style of Emily Dickinson was very original and different from other poets of her time. She was definitely influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and she read a lot of his work (Wayne). He was a very strong influence on her poetry. Emily Dickinson had a lot of characteristics from the romanticism time period in her writing. She wrote about her appreciation for nature a lot and she wrote about the value of individualism (Wayne).

Emily Dickinson lived a large period of her life in solitude. She did not communicate with the outside world very much, so writing poetry was her way of still being a part of the outside world and her way of communicating with it as well. She said that she enjoyed living in solitude, probably because she liked being independent. She said that living her life the way that she did- in solitude, made her feel liberated instead of trapped like many people believe that she may have felt (Kort).

Emily Dickinson was praised for her writing style. Many of her poems were very short and at first glance seemed to be very simple. She was praised for her originality in her poetry and for her imagery and “stylistic complexity” (Kort). Her poems were very witty, even though they contained some very dark themes, such as death. She always had a way of keeping her poems witty and light. Her ideas came from very simple things. She was inspired by everyday items, such as a blade of grass or a birds song (Kort). When she would be doing her daily chores and inspiration would strike, she would jot down ideas very quickly, and finish writing and perfecting the poem late at night.

Many of Dickinson’s poems were short and light. One very popular poem by Emily Dickinson is called “I am Nobody! Who are You?”. Dickinson kept her poems upbeat sounding by using different punctuation. For example, in this poem, she uses exclamation marks to keep the poem having a happy sort of feel to it. This poem is also very short. The entire poem is composed of only two verses which are four lines each. This is like most of her poems which are very short. In this poem she talks about how she enjoys being a “nobody” she writes “How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!” (Dickinson). This poem shows that she appreciates her privacy and she values living in solitude. She would rather be an individual and live her life in peace and quiet alone, than to be a “somebody” and have people admiring her all day with no privacy in her life. This view is probably different than other poets of her time who value being famous and having their poetry read. They wanted to be recognized for their talent, but Emily Dickinson would rather write for her own enjoyment than to have everybody up in her grill.

Bibliography

Kort, Carol. "Dickinson, Emily Elizabeth." A to Z of American Women Writers, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= ffazwmwr0036&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 21, 2012).

Wayne, Tiffany K. "Dickinson, Emily." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= ETRA104&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 21, 2012).

Dickinson, Emily. "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" By Emily Dickinson. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/448/>.

Whitman writing style

The writing style of Walt Whitman was very different than other poets during his time period. He believed that the poets of his time were very unoriginal. He called their poetry “copious dribble” meaning that it did not really mean anything (Connors). He thought that their poetry was boring because it was all the same with the same rhyme schemes and stanzas. He wanted to change the way that Americans viewed poetry. Walt Whitman set out to change the writing of other poets during his time. He thought that poetry of his time had little creativity and that the writing did not represent the America that he knew (Connors). He wanted to create a “new American poetry” (Connors) that could better represent his country. Whitman wanted to replace the normal exaggerated style and subject of poets in the mid- 1800’s with genuineness and honesty in the way things really are. Another thing that Whitman wanted was for Americans to become more literate. He wanted more Americans to be able to read and be literate in that sense, but mainly, he wanted Americans to be able to digest what they just read and to be able to understand and “absorb what they were experiencing” (Connors).

Walt Whitman’s poetry was revolutionary. He used expressive language when writing and he also used free verse which was new and interesting to readers. The most unordinary thing about his writing during that time was his intensity of his emotions in his poetry, especially when he was discussing love and democracy, both individual and for a whole country. He thought that what America needed was a type of poetry that was more relatable for the reader and that embraced more people. He believed that this was something that only he could accomplish.

Before Whitman was a poet, he was a journalist. He was not very popular as a journalist. He wrote about many things from politics, to crimes, to slavery and fires. His journalism coverage was described as “solid, but forgettable” (Connors). Whitman also wrote some short stories, but those too went undistinguished. Even when Whitman was a poet, he was not very appreciated. He was ignored by other poets and was often “chastised, criticized, and dismissed”(Connors).

            The subject matter that Walt Whitman used was bolder and contained a lot of nature, something that other poets of his time did not write about as much. This is represented in his poem On the Beach at Night Alone. This poem has a lot of references in it to nature and it displays Walt Whitman’s appreciation to nature. “As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future” (Whitman). In this poem, Whitman shows the importance that he puts on nature by connecting a piece of nature- the stars- to pretty much everything else in the universe. Whitman had a huge appreciation of nature and even though not many other poets of his time wrote about nature, he did anyways because it was something that he enjoyed.

Bibliography

Connors, Judith. "Whitman, Walt." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BCWWh02&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 21, 2012).

Whitman, Walt. "On the Beach at Night Alone, by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://www.poetry-archive.com/w/on_the_beach_at_night_alone.html>.

Blog 18- LAST ONE :)

The poem that I chose to read by Walt Whitman was “O Captain! My Captain!”. This poem is about Walt Whitman’s hero, Abraham Lincoln. Walt Whitman admired Abraham Lincoln a lot and thought that he was a great president. He wrote this poem after Lincoln died.  (Lorcher)  “My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;” (Whitman). In this passage of the poem, Whitman writes about how they had won the victory of the war, but when he looks at his captain, he is “pale and still”. I think that Abraham Lincoln’s death affected Whitman a lot because Lincoln was such a hero to Whitman.  I think that Walt Whitman was very proud of Abraham Lincoln and thought that he was a great leader, because in one part of the poem, he says, “Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;” (Whitman). I think that here Whitman is giving Abraham Lincoln credit for the victory in the Civil War. He is saying that everyone is cheering for him and the flag is flying just for him and the bugles are sounding for him.

I believe that Walt Whitman was against slavery. Abraham Lincoln spent a lot of his presidency trying to abolish slavery. He is the president that declared war and ended slavery for good. Since Walt Whitman was such a huge supporter of Abraham Lincoln, I think that he probably held the same views on slavery that Abraham Lincoln held. Walt Whitman was against slavery and so were Emerson and Thoreau. Emerson and Thoreau fought in the Civil War to end slavery. They both believed that the individual was very important and that slavery should not exist. I think that this is the biggest similarity between Walt Whitman and Thoreau and Emerson.

Bibliography

Lorcher, Trent. ""O Captain! My Captain!" Analysis: The Meaning Behind Walkt Whitman's Famous Poem." Bright Hub Education. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. 

Whitman, Walt. "O Captain! My Captain!" By Walt Whitman : The Poetry Foundation. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

Blog 17

The poem that I read by Emily Dickenson was “I Measure Every Greif I Meet”. This poem is about the grief that Emily Dickinson faces in her life. In the poem, she basically says that she has a lot of grief in her life and she feels that other people’s grieves cannot be worse than her own. She says that they can only be equal or less than hers.  “I wonder if it hurts to live – And if They have to try – And whether – could They choose between – It would not be – to die –“ (Dickinson). In this passage, Dickinson wonders whether people who have a lot of grief would prefer to be dead rather than to face their greives. I think that if Dickinson is thinking of this, I think that her grieves must be pretty bad. If her grieves were not that bad, she would not be thinking of death as an alternative. A lot of people have grieves, but I think that the grieves that Dickinson is talking about are much worse than what a lot of people go through. Some grieves that Dickinson mentions in her poem are Death, Want, and Cold, or Despair. 

Emily Dickinson lived a lot of her life in isolation. She lived with her family, so she was not completely alone, but she did not leave the house a lot. She got homesick very easily so she did not leave a lot. There were also not many visitors that came to her house. ("Emily Dickinson- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More.")  I think that the fact that Emily Dickinson lived a lot of her life in isolation shaped her writing a lot. I think that this is what makes her similar to Emerson and Thoreau. Emerson and Thoreau also lived their life in isolation from society. They both left society to live their lives in isolation in the woods and that is when they wrote a lot of their more popular pieces of writing.

Biography

"Emily Dickinson- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More." Poets.org. Poets.org. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155>.

Dickinson, Emily. "I Measure Every Grief I Meet (561)- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More." Poets.org. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. 

Blog 16

“To Build a Fire” is a short story by Jack London about a man traveling through the Yukon Peninsula in freezing weather. Throughout the story, the man faces death multiple times. He seems like he does not think that he will die on his journey because he does not really pack a lot of supplies. The only thing extra thing that the man actually brought was his lunch. The man is traveling through the Yukon all alone except for his husky dog who travels with him. He has to be very careful while he is traveling because in some areas, there are places of very thin ice with water under it. He has to be careful because if he breaks the ice and falls through and gets wet, then he will probably get frost bite. In one area, the man did not want to walk over some ice because he was not sure if it was thick enough for him to walk over, so he pushed his dog forward to test it out. His dog reluctantly walks over the ice and it breaks. His paws got wet, but he did not get frost bite because he kept biting off the ice that was forming between his toes. In the end of the story, the man ends up dying in the middle of the night. The dog was not very attached to the man so he just leaves him when he knows that he is dead. I thought that this story was kind of messed up. The man should have prepared more for his journey. If I was going to go on this journey, I definitely would have packed more than just my lunch to bring with me. I also thought it was messed up how many times the man tried to sacrifice his dog in order to keep himself alive. He tried to push him in the cold water so he did not have to risk it.

This story had a lot of nature in it. It reminded me of Thoreau and Emerson because both of them wrote about nature a lot probably because they lived in nature when they left society. I think that the subject of nature is what made these authors similar.

Bibliography

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire, by Jack London." The World of Jack London 2012®. Web. 08 Mar. 2012.

blog 15

Anton Chekov’s short story “The Darling” is a story about a girl named Olga. The story talks about a young girl, who is always looking for a new man to fall in love with. Throughout the story, Olga falls in love with many different men. The first man that Olga falls in love with is her father. After her father passes away, he leaves her their house and she marries a man named Kukin. Kukin is a theater owner. Him and Olga get married and they are both very happy but they both know that there is something wrong with their marriage. Olga helps Kukin with his business while they are married until one night when Kukin was gone on a business trip, Olga is awoken in the middle of the night with news that Kukin had died. After only three months, Olga gets over Kukin and marries another man, Vasily Pustovalov who is a merchant at a local timber yard. Olga works in her new husband’s office and starts to think and act like him. She even begins to share all of the same opinions as him and she completely forgets about her old husband, Kukin. Olga and Vasily lived married very happily until one day, Vasily got sick and died. Soon after, Olga forms a friendship with a man named Smirnin, who, earlier in the story, Olga had advised him to forgive his adulterous wife for the sake of his son. Olga and Smirnin quickly become lovers, until Smirnin decides to reunite with his wife. Olga invites Smirnin and his wife to move in with her in her home. When the couple and their son are living with Olga, Olga falls in love with the son, Sasha.

I think it is very sad that Olga goes her whole life never thinking for herself, always just adopting the thoughts and opinions of the men that she falls in love with. I think that the author, Chekov was trying to express the importance of thinking for yourself and trying to be an individual when he wrote this. Olga was never truly happy with herself and therefore, she always had to have somebody else telling her how to feel. I think that this goes along with Emerson’s philosophy of individualism. Emerson valued being an individual a lot. He thought it was very important to think for yourself. “Emerson states that the strong individual is the result of strong, personal truths, and that strong individuals are necessary for a strong society. The danger, he warns, is in conformity because through conformity, the individual is lost.” (Brugman). I think the importance of individualism is a value that both Emerson and Chekov share.

Bibliography

Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed.

Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. (accessed March 6, 2012).

Chekov, Anton. "Short Stories: The Darling by Anton Chekhov." East of the Web. Web. 06 Mar. 2012.

Blog 14

“Richard Cory” by Edwin Robinson was a short poem written about a very rich man who everyone liked. Richard Cory was young, rich, and likeable. He was very popular in his town, everyone knew him and admired him. Everyone in the town wanted to be him. In the poem it says “he was always human when he talked.” (Robinson).  I think this means that he was always nice to people and treated everybody nice. He was the richest person in the town and a lot of people in the town could not even afford to eat meat. Everyone in the town thought that since Richard had so much money, and could afford nice things, that he would also be the happiest man in the town, but that was not true. Apparently, Richard was not very happy with his life, because he ends up killing himself at the end of the poem. I was very surprised when I read this because he seemed like he was very happy. The way that he was described in the poem, he sounded like he had a very good life. He was popular and everyone loved him. The fact that Richard Cory shot and killed himself means that he probably was not very happy with his life after all. I think that he just appeared to be happy on the outside to hold his reputation. I feel bad for Richard Cory because he was so focused on having a lot of material goods and being rich that he missed out on the good things in life that you can not buy with money.

The poem “Richard Cory” reminds me of Thoreau. I think that since Edwin Robinson made Richard Cory end up committing suicide, it shows that Edwin Robinson did not value money and material items very much and that he believed that there are other things in life that can make you happy. This is definitely something that Thoreau believed in as well. He believed that “America has been ‘ruined by luxury and heedless expense’” (Grant) and he accuses American men “of being obsessed with acquiring material goods; and of having a mistaken

conception of work, which exists only to feed artificial needs.” (Grant). I think that Thoreau and Robinson had some like philosophies on wealth and material items.

Bibliography

Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of

Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. (accessed March 6, 2012).

Robinson, Edwin. "45. Richard Corey. Edwin Arlington Robinson. Modern American Poetry." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 06 Mar. 2012.

Blog 13

Spoon River Anthology is a story written by Edgar Lee Masters. It is a collection of poems written as epitaphs for all the people living in a small town called Spoon River. This book was very interesting because since it was about a small town, it had a lot of gossip about people in it and you could trace the gossip and read what everybody thought of each other. I read one about a man named Harold Arnett. Harold was a man who was living in Spoon River. He was very unhappy and he wrote his poem about his suicide. He describes his wife yelling at him for burning some potatoes and then he shoots himself.  I thought that him killing himself over that was a little crazy. After he shoots himself, I think that he regrets it. He says that it is “too late” and he cannot go back. He also says “Of what use is it to rid one’s self of the world, When no soul may ever escape the eternal destiny of life?”  (Masters).This makes me think that Harold regrets committing suicide. Another poem that I read was one about Archibald Higbie. Higbie hated the town Spoon River. I think that he traveled a lot and he was the kind of person who would rather live in a large town full of people and a lot of culture. He says that he “loathed” Spoon River and he liked when he would go far away to places like Rome, Italy, and France because they made him forget about the small town that he came from. I think that Higbie probably did not fit in very well in Spoon River. He probably looked down on the people there because they did not value culture like he did. 

I think that the kind of small gossipy town that Edgar Lee Masters wrote about is the kind of thing that Thoreau and Emerson were trying to escape when they left society and lived in the woods. I think that is how this story relates to Emerson and Thoreau.

Bibliography

 

Masters, Edgar L. "Masters, Edgar Lee. 1916. Spoon River Anthology." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Bartleby. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. 

Blog 12

“I Will Fight No More Forever” was a speech written by Chief Joseph in 1877. Chief Joseph’s tribe were in a war with the U.S army. The  U.S. wanted Chief Joseph’s tribe, the Nez Perce to move into a reservation. They did not want to go there, so they tried to move to Canada instead.  They crossed through Idaho and Montana having to fight the United States Army the entire way. Many of Chief Joseph’s people died and he did not believe that it was worth all of his people dying. His speech “I Will Fight No More Forever” was actually Chief Joseph’s surrender speech. He gave it on October 5^th, 1877. In his speech, he says that he is “tired of fighting”. He does not like to see his friends from his tribe dying in this war. He has seen so many people die and he says that it is up to the young people to make it stop. He knows that if they move on, they will die because they do not have blankets and they will probably freeze.  In his speech, he says that he wants to see his children. He thinks that his children may be in trouble or in danger. He is afraid that they may be freezing to death.

I think that Chief Joseph valued human life. He did not think that it was worth it to be losing so many of his men in the war. He would rather surrender the war than fight and have more of his men die. I think that Chief Joseph is similar to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in the ways that they all value human life. They all believe that each individual person in important. I think that Chief Joseph and Emerson and Thoreau also have some conflicting opinions. Emerson and Thoreau both believe in fighting for what they believe in. They both wanted to fight the civil war and win because they did not like slavery and they wanted it to end. Chief Joseph, on the other hand believed that preserving the lives of his men was more important than fighting in the war.

Bibliography

Chief Joseph. "Chief Joseph." Welcome to Georgia State University. Web. 05 Mar. 2012.

Blog 11

“Two Views of a River” by Mark Twain refers to Mark Twain’s life when he was living on the Mississippi River. He talks about how he felt about the river when he first lived there. He talks about how his view of the river has changed over time. He says that he used to think that the river was beautiful when he first started living there. He talks about how he remembers a time when he was on the river and there was a beautiful sunset. “I stood like one bewitched. I drank it in, in a speechless rapture. The world was new to me, and I had never seen anything like this at home.” (Twain).  When Twain saw this beautiful sunset, he was amazed at it and he could not believe it. As his life carried on living on the river, however, he realizes that his initial awe for the river starts to fade away after living there for a while. He describes how he just becomes accustomed to everything and he gets used to the way the river is. “I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river!” (Twain). Twain says that he had memorized every feature of the river and eventually, it stopped impressing him. The river itself had not changed, but his view of the river had. I understand what Mark Twain is saying when he says that he stops noticing the beauty of the river. He was working on the river and he began to focus so much on his job and his work on the river and he stopped thinking about how beautiful the river is. It’s like when you want something so badly and then when you get it, it turns out that it is not what you really wanted. Twain wanted to work on the river and it turns out when he got what he wanted he realized that he actually lost something very great.

“Two Views of a River” reminds me of Thoreau’s writing. Thoreau writes a lot about nature and this story by Mark Twain includes a lot of references to nature as he describes the river and the surrounding land.

Bibliography

Twain, Mark. "Two Ways of Seeing a River, by Mark Twain." About.com Grammar & Composition. Web. 05 Mar. 2012.

Blog 10

The short story "The Red Badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane is about a man who just joined in the military. He is fighting in the Civil War for the Union. The man’s name is Henry Fleming and the regiment that he has just joined has not done any fighting yet since he has joined. All that he has done so far is sit around and wait for the order to move. There have been rumors spreading that they are going to move soon and fight soon, but no official orders have been given. While he is sitting around Henry thinks about how good of a soldier he will be in battle and if he has the courage in him to fight. He fears that when the time comes, he will be a coward and run away. Finally, his regiment is called to fight. The first time that Henry fights, he feels like he is “ a cog in a machine”. He finds that even if he wanted to, he would not be able to run because he is packed in by all the other men in his regiment who are fighting alongside with him (Crane). The next time that his regiment is called to fight, Henry remembers the fear that he had in his last battle and he flees before it is too late. While he is running through the woods, he sees many wounded soldiers, even some who have familiar faces. He is jealous of these soldiers and their wounds because he feels that these wounds are “badges of courage” (Crane). He feels very guilty for leaving his regiment to fight without him, and regrets running. His regiment wins the battle without Henry and he is ashamed of himself. Henry watches the battle from a distance and when the other regiment is abandoning the battle, a soldier accidently hits Henry on the head with his gun, causing him to have a huge wound on his head. Henry pretends that his wound is a gunshot so that he does not feel like a coward. Stephen Crane and Ralph Waldo Emerson share the philosophy of freedom. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about freedom a lot and I think that Stephen Crane also liked the idea of freedom because he wrote about a regiment fighting for the Union, which is the side that wanted to abolish slavery.

Bibliography
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. London: Penguin, 1994. Print.