Change

“A Small, Good Thing” was an interesting short story to read. The story was written close to the end of Raymond Carver life so he wanted to make it special. The story contains some religious aspects even though Carver wasn’t really a religious man. The innocent boy was struck by a car on his way to school. The boy was representation of death to the innocence just like Christ. He arose from his comma three days later just like Christ arose from death. The story also involves a sense of rebirth which the author himself went through. Raymond Carver was a serious alcoholic and stopped years later and focused more on writing. The parents of Scotty where reborn because everything in their life seem to be going perfect and a huge issue could have possible ruined everything for the couple but it actually brought them together. The old grumpy baker also experiences a rebirth because the incident caused him to once again gain human emotions and learn how to socialize with people. The baker being grumpy is also ironic because his occupation makes people happy so something earlier in his life had to happen to cause him to become antisocial

Sula

Sula by Toni Morrison is the story of two best friends Sula and Nel. These two girls were complete opposites; Nel was a very quiet girl while Sula was very spontaneous and aggressive. This part of Morrison’s story began with the girls walking to the ice cream parlor and as they walked by a group of men they were called pig meat. You would think that this would be a rude and unflattering comment but at that time it was a great compliment. As the story progresses they walk by a group of white boys that are always harassing the black girls and Nel pulls out a knife and tells them to stop bothering her. She then cut the tip of her finger off, which showed that if she would do that to herself what she would do to them. Since that day they left them alone. They went to the river later on in the story and saw Chicken Little and Sula started picking on him while Nel defended him. They then climbed a tree and when it was time to get down from the tree Chicken Little said he didn’t want to ever come down. When he finally came down Sula was swinging him around and let go of him by mistake and he fell in the river and drowned. No one ever found out what happened to Chicken Little nor was it investigated which I find a bit odd.

Separating

The short story, by John Updike, "Separating" is a story that occurs in regular day life for many families. The Maple family is starting to see how their parents react to each other as they age. The parents, seem to be going throught the mid-life crisis phase. Richard the father is thought to be seeing another woman and is wanting a separation from his wife. Richard decides not to face his four kids in telling them of the separation. Instead he has his wife tell the kids, to make out as she is the bad guy. At the reaction from the kids, the reader assumes that, the kids have already been expecting the separation. Richard's remark to his son Richard Jr. "Life is to short to miserable." about his bad year at school. It gives the reader an understanding that Richard is unhappy with his life and marriage, so he wants to make a change in his life. In some ways the main problem of the Maple family in the story is that Richard is trying to be young again and does not want any ties or strings to be holding him back.

Ironic?

“A Small Good Thing” by Raymond Carver, explores the pain and anxiety that a family goes through who has a family member ill or in the hospital. This tragedy brings the mother and father closer together, but it is also an ironic case of the death of innocence. Scotty was a happy little boy who was supposed to be having fun at his birthday party, not laying unconscious at a hospital fighting for his life. At the end when he dies it made me wonder why the title of the story was “A Small Good Thing”? There was nothing about the story that seemed good, the young boy died, this seemed very strange and ironic. The story also started and ended on the bakery, in the beginning the mother was excited and ordering her son a birthday cake, unaware of the events that were about to take place. Then at the end the mother and father were at the bakery eating cinnamon rolls and seemed to be coming to grips with the past events and hardships that they had gone through. Through this rough time the parents come closer together as they are both losing the most important thing in their lives, which is their son. And at the end we see hope of them moving on and getting their lives back together.

Big Two-Hearted River

Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest Hemingway is told by the narrator Nick Adams who is going back to his old fishing terrain after the war. As he walk by realizes that the terrain is burnt the town of Seney was gone. As he looks at the river he realizes that at least the trout’s are still there and gave him that old feeling how things used to be before the war. He starts to think how his old desires for writing, reading and just the things he used to do are not there anymore and as he is thinking and smoking he sees a black grasshopper. This makes him wonder why that grasshopper is black and realize that is all because the forest was burnt out. As the sun goes down he keep moving towards the river and sets up a camp and put blankets and a tent up. As he decides to settle down and grab a bite he eats a can of pork and beans and spaghetti. As he is cooking he thinks about an old wealthy friend Hopkins who gave him a gun and they were supposed to go fishing the next summer but he never saw him again. Nick is an example of how veterans of war come back home and feel as they get used to their old lives and the issues that they confront.

Separating

Separating by John Updike is a short story based on the marriage of Richard and Joan Maple. The Maples were married for several years and had just entered the mid-life stage and had four children. The source of the divorce comes from Richard’s strong desire to get away and rediscover his youth. It is apparent that Richard is courting another woman, and thinks about telling his children of his actions, while he describes them as ‘four knifelike walls’. Richard and Joan announce that they will be separating, and the eldest daughter, Judith, states that it is ‘silly’ to separate, saying they should either be together or get divorced. This story is a reflection of today’s society and the past ones. Updike is characterized for writing about his own personal experiences and to talk about sex, art and religion. This story is a real good source to see the consequences of what divorces can cause and what really goes on behind the scene and the real motivations that cause them. The children do not have the fault for it but they sure are the main ones affected.

Daddy

Sylvia Plath is pretty crazy about her stuff in her poems talking about killing her father. In the poem “Daddy” Plath talks about killing her father but she missed the chanced to do that. He died when she was younger it tells you this in lines 6-7 stated that she wanted to kill him ,but he died before her time. Then the poem goes on describing how her father was to her using allusion relating back to the holocaust. She says that she is like a Jew and that she starts to like a Jew she say this after she named off a few concentration camps .I believe Plath was trying to get out why she wanted to kill herself or maybe trying to get people to save her. Later on in the poem that if she killed one she killed two, which means she might be talking about her husband. He didn’t make happy so what happen apparently is she did kill herself in real life by gassing herself and the baby in the apartment. She might have been foreshadowing that she wanted to kill both her father and her husband for the way they treated her. In my opinion though I think she was crazy but no one was there to help out of her problem.

The Evening Sun

The Evening Sun by William Faulkner is a real interesting story which teaches us and shows us how things used to be earlier in the days when there were no equal opportunities depending on your race and social class. At the same time it makes us realize how hard things used to be and how the man used to care so much about their pride and honor to the point that they were willing to kill for it. In the story the protagonist Nancy was a servant that used to go every Monday to the river to wash clothes. The family that she worked for was very good with her they even let her stayed on the house once she started to have problems with her husband. One day she came to her house and her husband Jesus sees that she was pregnant and he knew it was not from him which made him furious. She was pregnant from a white man which she used to have sexual relations for money which makes us see the point of prostitution in the story. After Jesus found out she was scared for her life as for the white man’s life too to the point that she would not go home by herself. She was so scared that Jesus would off appear from nowhere that the man of the family which she used to work for had to walk her home and that brought conflict with the lady of the house which got jealous for her husband having those attentions with Nancy.

Evening Sun

The Evening sun depicts how it used to be back in the day where there supposedly equal rights. The true was that the white males still oppressed the African Americans. Is this truly right to judge someone by the color of skin or because of the language they speak. Nancy a young black female who is married to a young Black male Jesus is scared to be killed by her husband. Nancy is pregnant from a white male priest. Jesus found out about what happen and Nancy is scared from it so she tries to stay at the Stovall house. Can you really blame her for being this way, she had to so she can live and the family can survive. The priest though hadn’t paid her the last few time and when she came to ask him for the money that he had owed her. Instead of giving her any money her deiced to beat her down and kick while she is down. How can someone really do something like that especially someone of that position? If someone like could do something like that can we really trust people. I guess that is how it really was back in the day all that craziness.

Blame it On the Al Al Alcohol!!

I really enjoyed reading Babylon Revisited because it was really easy to understand and was about something that happens everyday in the world. Everyday children are taken away from their parents because of the abuse of alcohol or drugs. In Babylon Revisited, a father is visiting his daughter in Paris but he has bigger plans, and he wants to try to get full custody of her. Charlie's daughter is staying with his sister-in-law, but his wife died and his sister-in-law blames her death on him. Charlie had a drinking problem and finally got things right a began to limit himself to one drink a day and not a sip more. Charlie's request to gain full custody of his daughter is a struggle and not a very pretty thing. Many times this is the case in the world even today and it's really sad because noone ever knows if the parent has changed their ways for good or for just s short time. Charlie has gone through so much and still lives with the blam of his wife's death, all because he locked her out in the snow storm and she got sick. The cause of death was heart problems, but her sister feels that Charlie broke her heart as well. When it all comes down to it, in the end Charlie ends up having to wait longer to get custody. This must be devestating, but it seemed like he really wanted her in his life and that is a huge plus in itself and I believe it will keep him sober and doing all the right things to get her back.

Barn Burning

“Barn Burning” by Ernest Hemingway is a story about a man’s wrong doing. Abner Snopes is a man who believes that when someone does something wrong or unlawful to him he must burn something of theirs. In most cases he is burning there barn. The story begins at one of his trials but he is let go because they did not have any proof to prosecute him for the burning of Mr. Harris’ barn. He then takes his family and moves on to the next town in which he wishes to live in. As soon as they arrive he goes to Major de Spain’s house, and on his way to the house he steps on horse manure. When let into the house he smears the horse manure from his shoe all over the white rug in the house. Major de Spain insists that he cleans the rug and when he takes it back looking worse than it did before he is told that he has to pay ten bushels of corn for the rug. He refused to pay and was going to go after his barn because he thought this was ridiculous. His son Sarty interferes and goes and warns them about what his father is going to do, so he is stopped from burning his barn.

That Evening Sun

“That Evening Sun” is narrated by a nine-year-old boy named Quentin Compson, who doesn’t fully understand the adult world. Nancy is an African American woman who washes clothes for the town of Jefferson. Nancy has gotten pregnant by a white man. Her husband finds out, so Nancy fears walking home because she thinks that he will be hiding in a ditch waiting to murder her. Jesus Compson walks her home at night and his wife begins to wonder if something is going on between them, and feels insecure and jealous. Nancy talks the kids into walking her home and wants the kids to stay the night with her. Mr. Compson wouldn’t let them stay. Nancy is still worried about her husband coming and murdering her, she tells Mr. Compson to find another washerwoman.

"Barn Burning" - William Faulkner

In the story "Barn Burning", there is a family who don't have a lot of money or much of anything. The father is a criminal but can't prove what he's been doing. The younger son Sarty knows he's doing wrong but doesn't wanna go against family because his father tells him that's all you will ever have and can trust. In the story, when the father feels someone has done him wrong he will burn something valuable to them, which is usually barns. He has been to court before but no one has proof that he's the criminal. So they just order him to leave town and to not come back. Well with his new boss, he again felt he was done wrong. He was asked to clean a rug. But when he brought it back it was worse than before and he was ordered to give ten bushels of corn back to his boss to repay for the damages. The father felt this was unfair and was about to go do something drastic when the son realized this is wrong and he must stop his father no matter how hard it may be for him. So he runs and tells his dad's boss what's about to happen and helped stop him from doing something wrong. Well this was very courageous of the boy because he knew this would mean that he couldn't go back to his family because he went against them. This shows a lot of maturity from the boy even at his young age. So at the end he goes on with his own life and figures it out from there without any help. I think this story is trying to tell us that no matter how close you are to someone, if they're doing something wrong you need to stop them because it is effecting other people even if you don't agree.

Charlie and Paris

In “Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a definite parallel between Charlie, the main character, and the city of Paris, which is the setting of the story. Charlie years earlier was a party animal, he and his wife would go out and paint the town almost every night. They would through money around like it was candy because their stocks were doing well and they did not have a care in the world. Then his wife became ill and she eventually died leaving behind her husband and daughter. Charlie also lost all of his money with the stock market crash, he went into a depression and wasted his life away with the help of alcohol. Later at the point when the story is beginning he is recovering, he has limited himself to one drink a day, found himself a stable job, and has come back to Paris to get his daughter.
Paris like Charlie went through a period of prosperity, parties were constantly going on in the city and people were everywhere. Then when the stock market crashed the people could no longer afford to waste money and the city died. When Charlie comes back he notices how empty the city is, it is slowly coming back to life but it is still empty. Charlie also sees this in his life, he is slowly coming back and recovering but he is still empty and needs his daughter to complete him.

Babylon Revisited

In the story "Babylon Revisited", there is a main character, Charlie, who is a recovering alcoholic. This story hits me on a personal level having lived with an alcoholic father. I could not remember a time when i was a young boy that my father did not have a drink in his hand. He was almost always intoxicated, it didn't matter what we would be doing. In the story, Charlie has made the choice to either cut back or stop drinking completely. Much like my father, Charlie only has 1 drink a day, whether it serves as a reminder of the life he used to live or to remember what he lost because of the drink. Either way, whatever its for it seems to be working for him. He is on the track to get his life back and retrieve his daughter to make up for lost time. Also, the ideas of disipation and dissolution in the story help us to configure the thought of something turning into nothing...

sunday morning (EAH)

the woman sits on the porch and is suddenly reminded that she would have gone to church in the past but doesn't go any longer
she thinks of Christ's crucifixion and wonders why we give beauty to god when there is plenty of beauty pleasant in the Earth
Stevens says we should give up the idea of Heaven in order to actually appreciate what we have one earth and stop expecting something beyond the sky(heaven)
the girl says she can be content with the beauty of the earth but wonders what will happen when it is gone because then we will have no promise of heaven to look forward to
she feels as if she needs some form of bliss that will never end
Stevens states that we wouldn't have beauty without death because we need something negative to make us appreciate the positive
the girl wonders why we give heaven credit for all that we have here on earth and refers back to her thoughts of Jesus finally deciding that he did not amazingly rise from the grave and Palestine is just the location of his burial
she accepts the beauty of the earth and realizes that people will live on through nature and is content to simply appreciate the pigeons in the sky

fences (EAH)

I read this poem as a metaphor. In many religious traditions there are many "fences" or extra rules to make sure people never do anything that is actually forbidden. men and women should not even talk to each other or sit next to each other on the bus or be friends, lest they come to be attracted and have an affair... yes, the fences make us careful but they also make us miss out on a lot of human life, the learning and excitement we can feel from having another friend... I think the writer is poking fun at the serious neighbor who lives by all the rules around the rules- spring is making Frost mischievous enough to challenge the set laws and suggest maybe we can trust humans enough to make the right choices even if the rules are a bit more relaxed and only the fences that really need to be there, to keep out the cows ,the major and most likely misbehaviors, are left standing and constantly strengthened.

housewife (EAH)

The young house wife may seem like an easy read to some but important
tidbits about the poem are over passed if it not observed properly. This is
a very dark poem about the duality of lust. The first section is about his
dreams, it is how he sees this woman. He tells us she is behind the walls,
meaning he does not see her, so he fantasies about her and he sees her as a
loose woman. The description of the tone, also implies that she is trapped
in this house and is unreachable... except when she comes out to do the
normal chores, he now looks at her as woman who is begging for attention
and is desperate because she of the realization of time and beauty..not
because she is no longer attractive. These lines are written with anger and
show her as desperately vane. He compares her to a fallen leaf not because
of her physical nature, per-say but because of her soul. As time passes he lets go of
his obsession with her.

Dream Boogie (EAH)

In ``Dream Boogie ' Hughes writes about the frustrated African-American dream of self-creation and self-expression. These dreams are differed or not allowed to take place. The dreams cannot take place because during this time period American people shunned and wouldn't accept the African American way of life. The dream is never lost and remains inside the individual constantly looking for a way out. keeping Ideas and emotions inside you can never be good. In my opinion all these emotions that African Americans may have had built up came out in anger or in a form of art such as poems, the blues, or a new form of dance. The Harlem Renaissance shows an outlet that the African American culture found. Today we may not notice this outlet as much because we are more accepting of their culture, but rap and hip hop can be said to be the modern form of music they use for outlet.

Rivers

In Langston Hughes poem “The Negro speaks of River” He is basically building up the African American civilization and their impact on history in the different times and places they establish their civilization just in the first line “I’ve known rivers ancient and older than the flow of human blood in human veins” This line also is a call for equality because he is making a point that he his ancestors been on this world just as long as the Caucasians. Hughes then point out that his soul is as deep as the rivers drawing a comparison that the African American race has been through so much hardship and still have manage to make a major impact in society just like a river carving its way through hills and mountains making itself wider and stronger to become a bigger part of the world. Langston decided to used rivers become rivers played a major role in the upcoming of civilizations because everything needed water for survival

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I chose to critique “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes. I was moved by this poem because it tells of adventure and the timeless, ageless, mystery of the rivers in our world. It is a very interesting poem right from the start. One is brought to wonder how a simple man can know rivers older than time or older than the flow of human blood. This is to say he's known rivers before man was ever considered. He moves on to say that his “soul has grown deep like the rivers” and then recalls adventures he has had on a few of our world's major rivers and their impact on him. The speaker talks of having been lulled to sleep by the Nile and raising the pyramids over the Nile. These things are almost serene to imagine because of the remarkable experience it would provide to anyone who witnessed such an event. The speaker describes the next lines in much the same way and I was able to connect with him in the adventurous lifestyle he lived and how being on and near these rivers set him apart from the rest of civilization. I very much enjoyed this poem and look forward to reading more in the coming weeks.

Langston Hughs wrote mostly about the lives and culture of black American during the Harlem Renaissance era. One poem that we read got my attention, this was “Dream Boogie”. This poem has a young child who is speaking to a father, the child speaks about “the boogie-woogie rumble of a dream deferred”. The dream could be many different things, it may be that they could feel something coming a situation that would change and hopefully get better. Whatever troubles they may have been having will soon be over, they can see they dream coming true.

The poem also mentions the beat and asks “you think it's a happy beat?” this gives an impression that maybe the boogie-woogie has an underlining hardship attached with it. That possibly this is a cover-up for the true feelings and trials of life. It is also showing that the character is an optimist, because they refuse to even mention any negatives, this is the idea that you should always hope for the best and do not jinx it with any negative ideas.

Harlem Shadows

"Harlem Shadows" written by Claude McKay is a similar poem to another one of his works called "The Harlem Dancer". This poem is mainly about the prostitutes way of life at night in Harlem. "To bend and barter at desire's call", is an example of how these young women, do whatever they can to earn a type of living. Changing their times around to make the money that they need to survive in the world. They work all nights and long nights which normally do not end "until the silver break". This poem is an overall view of the nights that prostitutes work and how the world around them looks down upon them. My question is if they are full of the "poverty, dishonor and disgrace," then why do people still "use" them in that manner? Obviously, they are just trying to make a living, by going from street to street. These young women are a type of victim and are worn out by the society around them. Their feet are tired and worn by all of the walking and standing they have to endure. Physically and emotional worn by the stress and the long nights. Overall this poem just tells a story about the prostitutes in Harlem and what they go thru during the nights that they work. In a sense it could state that to get where you want to go in the future, you may do things you never believed you would or that its a long tough road to achieve what you want in life.

"The Harlem Dancer"

"The Harlem Dancer" written by Langston Hughes has a lot of emotion, not just from the poet but also the charcter in the poem. It's about a woman who dances to earn a living and make money. But you can tell she doesn't enjoy dancing because it says, "but looking at her falsley-smiling face". But just because her emotion isn't happy, Langston Hughes put in the emotion of other people. For instance, "Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes". This is saying the young boys and girls watching her were having a good time laughing and enjoying themselves. There are two very opposite emotions portrayed here with just one story. Also, I think Hughes uses imagery very well here. Like when it says, "The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls, devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze". It paints a picture in your head what they are seeing and their reactions to it. I liked Langston Hughes poems because you could actually understand them. There weren't any hidden messages. It was straight to the point he was trying to make. He was an African American writer, writing his thoughts during the Harlem Renaisance and exressed his feeling through his poems which made him a fantastic poet.

Dream Boogie

In the poem “Dream Boogie” by Langston Hughes a little girl is talking to her dad about the boogie- woogie. At this point in time music and dancing was a big part of their heritage and who they were. The little girl is trying to show how happy the music makes them feel. She explains how their feet are moving and going beat by beat. She also tries to explain how underneath the dancing it is like words are trying to come out. I think that what she means by that is, that the feeling of the people show through their dancing, their music, and their actions. They don’t have to say what they are thinking because it is displayed throughout their motions. She also keeps asking if it is a happy beat, but from what I got out of the poem I believe it is. Seeing as how at the end she said, “I’m happy! Now take it away!” and then went on to sing and dance. I believe that our society should be like that as well. And no matter the hard times just let loose and let is all go sometimes through the music. It is their place to get away!

Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town

Anyone lived in a Pretty How Town by E. E. Cumming tells us about the life cycle of the townspeople and some ignored couple. This poem is written down in nine short stanzas. Cummings uses reverse word order and we can even say that he employs reverse word order and almost sentences that does not make sense, play with words and repetitions. Make us visualize the coming and going of the seasons leading lives and circumscribe them and sometimes even be monotonous. In this poem we can see how people dream, get marry, have children and are joyful and full of hope. As we read the poem at first we cannot realize the true meaning, after actually getting deep in the poem we can say that the description of the townsfolk is like a tale about a man and a woman. This man and woman were falling in love. Time goes by and they both die and as a curious fact they get buried right next to each other. As for that we can say that they became one and part of the earth. This was a weird poem as for the plot and the resolution were not that good and clear. Too much love between them and they did not got to live that up and enjoy it.

america

"America" was written during the Harlem renaissance and portrays the negative and positive aspects of the country. The first half of the poems seems to show the negative aspects of America because of the choice of direction we have chosen. The two key words bitterness and stealing are harsh words that show disgust and painfulness to the country. However the line "I love this culture hell that tests my youth" shows that the speaker appreciates America. To me this means that America has a lot of challenges it has to deal with, but in the end our leaders handle them well. At the end of the poem I get the impression that the speaker doesn't have confidence in the direction the country in going. He believes that the future for America may be dark and downfall from where they currently sit.

The Weary Blues

The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes has a very depressing tone to it. This man playing the piano is sad and lonley and talks about how he doesn't have anyone but himself anymore. It's really sad that he can't be satisfied anymore, and I can't stop thinking about what brought this man to feel this way. I can picture him going to sleep and still playing the tunes in his head, much like me when I can't get Poker Face by Lady Gaga out of my head after hearing it on the radio. I picture a very sad, lonely man just sitting in a dark room each day sobbing about something in his past. The Blues have become a part of his everyday life and it's very depressing. Langston Hughes writes in a way I have never seen, and it's very interesting. I really enjoyed the poem.

Weary Blues

The speaker of Langston Hughes “The Weary Blues” describes an evening of listening to a blues musician in Harlem. The repetition of lines and its inclusion of blues lyrics, the poem sets the tone and tempo of blues music. The poem gives readers appreciation of the blues musician. Hughes is singing about how, even though he’s miserable, he’s going to put his worries aside. Even though something has happened in your life, you just can’t give up, like Hughes says, you have to put all your worries aside. You have to keep on fighting if you ever want to get stronger.
The tone of this poem is sad and depressing. Hughes not only expresses his feelings but he represents all African Americans in his poems. He talks about people suffering and racial discrimination. He describes life as if you don’t have freedom than it is better to just die. I like the way he writes his poems, they have rhythm and rhyme to them and it seems easier to read.

America

In this poem it talks about how America feeds the black man “bread of bitterness” meaning that America kills the people hopes and that kills their dreams. It also says that it slowly steals the breath of life away from them. This is the time before the movement for equal rights. So, a lot of the minorities had no dreams and just threw a lot of crap at them because of their color of skin. Even though they get picked on they still pushed though and look for hope. In the poem it states “her vigor flows like tides into my blood” meaning that it gets them excited for new and crazy things. Even though they get beat down all the time they still love it here in America it gives them strength to move forward to someday be equal to the majority. They see America to be a priceless treasures sinking in the sand meaning that might be sinking in the sand but someone can still find it and polished it off. So that America can shine again but if a new people need to take lead then let it be. Now a day the white population is steadily decreasing as the majority and it is now going to another race.

Gone by Carl Sandburg

This poem could be easily read and interpreted by almost every level reader from sixth grade on. It is a simple type of poem to read because the language is not hard to understand. This is another way to keep the reader intrigued because they do not feel like it is a "hassle" to read. It is the one person in your city or town that everyone likes and cares about. The one that chases her dreams regardless of what she might leave behind. Her aspirations of a dancer and singer are clearly stated within the poem on line 13. In my opinion that strong willed passion that she posses’ draws people to her, like a moth to a flame. The men that are hunting and left with broken hearts are all because Chick left. Whether it is something you once had, or something you longed for, when it is gone, you want that something a million times more than you would normally. This poem’s references has the reader imagining their own type of Chick Lorimer in one way or another. Overall, this poem can help the reader relate to the situation proposed in the poem, making it a short and enjoyable selection to read.

Frost

Robert Frost’s the road not taken is a lot like all of our lives in the way that we came to Marion Military Institute. He talks about his decision to choose the right path to take which I view as our choice on where we want to attend college to ultimately reach our end goal, whatever that may be. It says in the first stanza “And sorry I could not travel both”. Assuming that both roads lead to the same end destination, Frost decides to choose the road that is less traveled. This is a perfect way to describe most people’s reasoning to come to MMI, it is simply the choice that most college students would never chose and it is that experience that makes it worthwhile. Frost will not know what he could have experienced if he had taken the other route, just as we would not know what would have happened to us if we were to go about the first two years of our college lives at a regular party school. The end goal/destination would end up being the same, be it a degree or literally a destination of travel. The last line of the poem “And that has made all the difference”. That is where Frost lets me know that he does not regret his choice of taking the road less traveled as he has enjoyed the experience along the way.

Proof of a Rock

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot is a story about a man's failure to balance himself in the world, and his ultimate rejection of his circumstance and the resulting excuses. Prufrock wanders through life aimlessly, wandering around the possibly the seedier parts of town to reestablish himself in a world he has inadvertently cut himself off from, possibly from too many bad experiences. This has led Prufrock to begin doubting himself, those around him, and even the legitimacy of characters made up in his own mind, like the mermaids. He talks about how they are merely dilletantes to art, not seeing deep into the subject, possibly a reflection about how he thinks people view himself (They think only of his bald spots and skinny limbs). This eventually leads to him being doubtful of every move he makes, measuring his life in “coffee spoons” rather than taking the full measures he wishes he could. This self doubt leads to suicide, whether physically, or mentally, of Prufrock at the end of the poem that leaves the reader a little out in the cold. Prufrock’s detachment from reality leaves the reader wondering where exactly Prufrock was headed, what these thoughts actually are, whether the reader is on the inside of his mind or merely listening in on a conversation. In the end, Prufrock leaves the reader a little sad with the results.

T.S. Eliot

Prufrock is his own worst enemy in the fact that he lacks the confidence he needs to be successful. He is too concerned with what others will think of him and that conversations with other people are worthless. He wants to engage in conversations but Before he does he talks to himself and convinces himself that they will just play along then when he leaves they will talk about aspects that he can't control; such as his bald spot and his arms and legs being too skinny.
I think that T.S. Eliot is trying to point out that if you worry too much about what others will think of you, then you will get nowhere. We can all learn from Prufrocks example and we should all be spontaneous and do what we want to a point. Stop worrying about what people might say about you and just do. most the time you will find that it all works out in the end.

The Road Not Taken

“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is the story of one man’s journey through life and the decisions he has to make. He comes up to two roads diverged and had to make a choice that he would once look back at. He would either regret or love the decision for the rest of his life. Not knowing where either road will take him he looks down both and makes a decision. I believe that the message behind this poem is that one day in everyone’s life we are going to have to make a decision not knowing where it may lead us. Choosing that road isn’t meant to be easy, and isn’t meant to be the right decision. Sometimes the hardest things in life are the things that matter most. A good example of having to decide which rode to take is when you are going to college and do not know which one to attend. And another may be when you have multiple job offers and one may be away from home so you don’t know what will be best for you. I believe that sometimes you just have to go with the flow of things because you cannot decide how everything in life is supposed to be it just has to play out and the beginning of that is making a decision, and not having a clue of where it will lead you.

Adventure

In the Adventure the girl Alice Hindman is sixteen years old and has a affair with a young name Ned Currie. Alice Hindman was really pretty and she knew it. I think this story shows how our generation is now and how everything goes. Alice’s falls in love with Ned but Ned wants to leave the town and go to the big city. Alice wants to follow Ned to the big city but Ned doesn’t want her to leave her family and doesn’t want her out in the big city. Ned leaves and Alice writes letters to him and he would response back. Their love lasted for about a year but Ned’s letters went from day to day to weeks and then to months. Alice thought didn’t really believe that Ned doesn’t love her no more and that he would come back for her. This never happen Alice lives the rest of the live like this and just waits for Ned until he comes back. She just works and tries to save up money, so she can go to the big city and fins him, but that fails to. I believe this is a show of Realism and Romanticism because this is how it is but the main character wants something else. The story is mostly though about Realism and how it really happens to people.

The Waste Land

Section III “The Fire Sermon” of The Waste Land by Eliot talks about how this is taken from a sermon that Buddha in which he encourages people to give up earthly passion and how to seek freedom from earthly things. This leads to sexual encounters and a religious confrontation. The section starts up in a scene in which rats and garbage are surrounding the speaker who was fishing. The speaker as the poem tells us is then propositioned by Mr. Eugenides, the one-eyed merchant of Madame Sosostris’s tarot pack. Eugenides invites the speaker to go with him to a hotel known as a meeting place for homosexual trysts. Later on in the story the speaker proclaims himself to be Tiresias, which was a figure from classical mythology which had both female and male features that at the same time is blinded but can “see” into the future. The speaker is observing a young typist who is waiting for her lover a dull and some type of arrogant clerk. The woman allows the clerk to have something with her. After the clerk leaves the typist thinks the whole thing between them was over. There are some moments of tranquility in the poem such as the description of the interior of the church, the Thames.

Wishing

“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is a poem that can apply to everyone as they journey through life. When decisions in life come upon us we find ourselves standing at a fork in the road and at that point we must make a choice that will have a permanent affect on our lives. I can personally relate to this poem right know and many of my peers can as well, because we are approaching graduation and must decide which road we will take to our futures. We must decide what school we will go to, what we will major in, and what careers we wish to pursue, and many other choices. Our decisions on these choices will affect how the rest of our lives will play out from this point on. And as it appeared in the poem some of us may look back and wish we could go back in time and change our decision, that maybe if we could just go back to one instance in time that our lives would be somehow better. But that is impossible, we all must live and die by the choices that we make or fail to make.

The Waste Land

The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot takes his name by an Anglican service and is composed of four vignettes each one from a different speaker. The first one is an autobiographical one from an aristocratic woman’s childhood, where she recalls sledding and claims that she is German, not Russian which in that moment was a big deal. The second section is a prophetic, apocalyptic invitation to journey into a desert waste, where the speaker tries to show the reader something different from the shadow in the morning and the one at evening. The third episode in this section describes an imaginative tarot reading, in which some of the cards Eliot includes in the reading are not part of an actual tarot deck. The final episode of the section is the most surreal. The speaker walks through a populated by ghosts of the dead. And he confronts a figure with whom he once fought in a battle that seems to conflate the clashes of World War I with the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. The speaker asks the ghostly figure, Stetson, about the fate of a corpse planted in his garden. The episode concludes with a famous line, accusing the reader of sharing in the poet’s sins.

To Build A Fire

“To Build A Fire” is, in my opinion, Jack’s greatest works. It is a wonderful tale of life and adventure in the vicinity of the Yukon Trail and one man’s fight with mother- nature to stay alive and make his journey to the next town. The story beings with a general description of the current town our traveler is in and the townspeople he interacts with. As the man began to map out his route further north, he failed to take into account the awful weather and the advice of an old weary traveler who told him the weather was entirely unfit for anyone to travel in. The story progresses and the man makes a few mistakes that almost cost him his life. He steps onto a warm spring where the ice is soft and his feet slip into the icy waters below. He hurries to make a fire and once it is lit, warms himself. However, failing to use situational awareness, his fire was made under an evergreen tree covered in snow. The snow melts, falls on his fire, and he is once again “left out in the cold”. This story was intriguing for me because I am an adventurer at heart and felt a connection with the man in the story. Excellent work by Mr. London and one that has struck my senses on every account.

Dare Devil

“How to Build a Fire” was an interesting story about a newcomer who has to the Klondike in search of gold. He decides to travel alone with a dog to meet up with his companions in camp. He was warn not to travel alone in temperatures lower than 30 but he goes anyway and the temperature is below 70 therefore causing the battle of man vs. natural. This writing falls in the realism and naturalism category because the writing can actually be compared to a believable situation. The man is determine like a high percentage of people today who like to show people they can things that other people say should not be done for either logic or safety reasons that is why the world is full of daredevils and the advance of mankind continue to increase because people taking risk. Nothing positive happens for this man as he have to pay the consequences for his behavior. The story tells how even the dog realize they shouldn’t be travelling in this temperature but the man refuses to turn back and luck turns against him and he wet his feet, and is unable to unthaw them so the story ends in a realism way with the man dying and the dog finding another master.

To build a Fire and its Themes

“To Build a Fire” is about an unnamed man who embarks on a nine-hour trek across the Klondike’s harsh winter landscape to meet his companions at a mining camp. Against the advice of an old-timer, the man makes the journey alone, except for a dog, and as a result of a series of disasters, he freezes to death before reaching camp. The man’s behavior and his ultimate fate highlight the story’s themes of survival in the wilderness, the individual versus nature, and death. Early in the story, it becomes clear that the odds are against the man’s chances of surviving in the Klondike wilderness. He is a chechaquo, or newcomer to the region, and has never before experienced its extreme winters. Further, he is “traveling light” on foot rather than by sled and carrying only a bacon sandwich, tobacco, matches, and some birch-bark kindling. What is more, he is outdoors in temperatures well below minus fifty degrees Fahrenheit. Although he has been warned never to travel “after fifty below” without a partner who can help him in emergencies, the man’s only companion on this trek is a half-wild husky a “toil-slave” who has no affection for him. At the best of times the Klondike wilderness would seem alien to the newcomer because of its vast stretches of snow “as far as his eye could see it was unbroken white” except for the trail. As it is, the man travels with few supplies and without a partner in extreme cold. Under such conditions, it doesn’t matter that he is both quick and alert to his surroundings, for without someone to help him, his “bad luck”,which is how the man refers to his fall into the icy river and “mistake”, which is how he describes the blotting out of his second fire by snow falling from a tree become full-fledged catastrophes and destroy the man’s chances of survival. Closely related to the issue of survival in the wilderness is “To Build a Fire”’s theme of the individual versus nature. According to the story, the “trouble” with the man is that he is “without imagination” and therefore never speculates about “man’s place in the universe,” his “frailty in general,” or the fact that people are “able only to live within certain narrow limits of temperature.” Yet during his trek the man is confronted again and again by his weakness as a lone individual against the formidable power of nature in the form of the brutal cold. Each time he removes his gloves, the man is surprised at how quickly his fingers are numbed. He is also startled at how fast his nose and cheeks freeze, and he is amazed when his spittle freezes in midair before it ever hits the snow. When the man stops for lunch, his feet go numb almost as soon as he sits still, a fact that finally begins to frighten him. Even the dog who is half wild and thus closer to nature feels “depressed” by the cold. Thanks to its natural instincts and its dense winter coat, the dog survives the extreme temperature long enough to head for camp, where it knows it will find food and warmth. Without fur or instinct, the man is too frail on his own to withstand nature or “the cold of space,"as it presents itself in the Klondike: “The cold of space smote the unprotected tip of the planet, and he, being on that unprotected tip, received the full force of the blow.”Once his fire is blotted out by snow and his body is threatened by hypothermia, the man must come to terms with death. His first reaction is to acknowledge calmly that the advice given to him by the old-timer was accurate: “If he had only had a trail-mate he would have been in no danger now.” This thought occurs to him again as he fails in his effort to rebuild the fire. From there he moves to “controlled despair”; next, to apathy; and then to panic as he makes a last, futile effort to save his life by frantically running on his frozen feet in hopes of making it to camp. The man’s ultimate response to death is to try “meeting [it] with dignity.” His final words — “You were right, old hoss; you were right” are part of a conversation that he imagines having with the old-timer who had warned him not to travel alone. They are also an acknowledgment of nature’s power over the individual.

The Open Boat

"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane is a story of survival of the fittest. In many stories of suvival of the fittest the strongest survives but in "The Open Boat" the strongest dies. As the group jumps in the icy water the oiler, the stronget, leads the group in to getting to the shore. The oiler jumps in, followed by the cook and correspondent swimming slowly and the captain holding onto the dinghy. The oiler lead the group to safety but did not make it. This story is in some ways opposite of survival of the fittest, because normally the strongest person of the group survives. The strongest person is the one who leads the others and keeps control. The oiler in this story did lead the group and stayed calm throughtout their troubles at sea but in the groups attempt to shore he does not make it but the others do. This story shows how the strongest person does take control of the group but does not always turn out the best for him. The oiler did his best to lead the group to shore and he was the one who died in the attempt.

"The Passing of Grandison"

This story is about a man in slavery and his family. This man is trying to win over his lady friend and she wants him to do something impressive and more with his life than just live off his dad's money and go hunting every once in a while. So he tries to find something that he think will really impress her. He decides to take one of his father's prized slaves and take him to freedom to make it look like he helped him escape. Grandison, the slave, seems very loyal and knows that he a has a great thing going where he lives now. His slave owner is very nice to him and rewards him for doing well, and also gives him a nice place to stay for him and his family. When the son tries to get him to runaway to Candada he does everything to stay so it seems as if he doesn't want a new life. Eventually the son just leaves Grandison and makes up a story as to what happened to him to his father. A few days later Grandison returns with a far- fetched story as to what happened to him. That he was starved and beaten and he escaped death by the skin of his teeth. He was rewarded for his bravery and tricked people in to thinking he really wanted to stay there and was loyal to his life there. But that all changed when Grandison escaped with his family back to Canada, he really just came back for his family. This story teaches you that you won't be happy unless you surround youself with the people who love you most and the ones you love the most, your family and friends. And you won't be satisfied till you know everyone is safe and you don't have to worry anymore and you are free. It also teaches not to think just about yourself, and you need to take risks to get what you want out of life sometimes.

The Open Boat

“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane is a story about four men being stranded on a row boat after a tragic ship accident. There was the captain, the correspondent, the oiler, and the cook. The correspondent and the oiler would switch off rowing whenever the other would get tired and needed to rest. The whole story all the cook would do was speak about food and sleep, while the captain was injured and hurt his arm during the accident and would help and guide the others. The captain was very motivational to the others so that they would not quit on him and would make it all the way through the end of the journey. They get near to land and then cannot reach it because of the tide and the waves. The boat is so weak and small that just by getting hit in the wrong way by a wave they would all be done. At the end the begin moving in the direction of the shore and the boat flips over as they all fall out of the boat. The all make it except for the oiler, which throughout the story was the strongest of the bunch. Stephen Crane writes about survival of the fittest, which usually means that the strongest will survive, but in this case all but the strongest survive.

TO BUILD AN AWEESOMMEE FIRE

What a beautifully constructed story this was. I felt as if I was experiencing life in the horrible conditions as the main character. Unfortunately, the story did not end happily, for I would have chose to read of survival. But this is not Hollywood. There are many literary terms that could be used to describe this poem, as discussed in valuable class time. The ideas of Realism, which as described by an undisclosed internet source, is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. The term also describes works of art which, in revealing a truth, may emphasize the ugly or sordid. The world is harsh and unforgiving, and unfortunately the character was unable to live a life post-story. This is a classic example of survival of the fittest at its best, and the main character was not the fittest. I believe that he was fighting hard to live, but deep inside his intuition told him he would not be so fortunate. Also presented deep inside the lines of the story, the uses of naturalism are consistently expressed. Naturalism was an extreme literary movement that shaped the lives and minds of writers and other literary figures. Naturalism, described by an online source, used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. The uses of naturalism and realism are vivid. If I could change the story, I would have written to see him survive and live to tell his grandchildren his story.

To Build A Fire

Jack London’s To Build a Fire tells us about a man that goes off to Yukon on an extremely cold morning. The cold weather does not scare him since he rarely translates hard facts, such as the extreme coldness, into significant ideas, such as man's mortality. While he is traveling he only carries a sack of lunch in which he carries biscuits which he puts inside his jacket, for the purpose of warming them with his skin. He also has a husky dog that follows him. The man also has a lack of imagination. In this story the main motivations of the man is survival and to prove others that it is possible to go by yourself and travel under really cold temperatures and survive. There is a point in where the man sends the dog first after seeing the thin ice, the dog falls but as part of his instincts he comes out. The man takes his gloves off and as soon as he does that his fingers freeze. A little bit after that the man falls and gets soaking wet after, he tries to get out of the river and tries to start a fire but he could not light the matches and could not use his knife because his fingers were too numb for that. The man freezes to death because he did not have the proper knowledge, instincts and survival skills required in these cases. On the other hand the dog's instincts prevail and he survives. The dog may not have the intellectual capacity to create fire and food for himself, but he does know where the providers of these necessities are.

To Buuild a Fire

To Build a Fire by Jack London tells us the story of a man who is traveling across Canada. This man seems like an ignorant person, because he does not have the knowledge on how to survive in such weather conditions, but he was used to think about life and death so he was not really afraid of anything. At the same time he had a lack of imagination which at the end leads him into disaster. This whole time he is traveling by foot and for the purpose of go and meet up with his companions and for this whole trip he only carries a sack of lunch. At the same time the story tells us that he is traveling with a husky. Even though he lacks of imagination on the point that he was about to cross some hidden river he sends the dog first. The dog falls but immediately comes out the man tries to help the dog but as soon as he takes his glove his hands freeze. He decides to build a fire before he settles to eat his lunch. Soon he breaks in the ice and gets soaked and tries to build another fire to keep his numb toes unfroze. He remembers when that someone told him that it was not safe to travel by themselves on temperatures less than fifty. At the end he dies and the dog survives.

Just Think About It!

In Jack London's “To Build a Fire” the man never assumes the worst and because of this, he is not prepared for the worst when it comes. When nature first challenges him and he falls through the ice he immediately begins to build a fire, but his first thought was that this accident was going to put him stall his journey for an hour or so. He never thinks of the fact that this minor slip up could end with his death until it is too late and he is already too frozen to save himself. He also had previous advise from an old timer, but he decided to ignore this advice which may have saved his life. This again shows that the man did not use his head to think ahead in the situations, or as London put it “But all this...the tremendous cold,and the strangeness and weirdness of it all – made no impression on the man”(1395). This story was depressing to read because the whole time I wanted to go into the story and tell him to watch out and think about all possibilities, but I had to continue to read and watch him fall because of his own ignorance.

apple picking

In Robert Frost poem " After Apple Picking" he talks about how he is tired of all the work he is doing and decides to rest for a moment. I can relate this to hoe life works. Everybody gets tired of all the work they have to do and when they try to rest for just a little while more and more work backs up. The apples are the work that frost has to do, while the apples that have fallen to the ground when he decides to rest are the past deadlines he has missed and work he has not done. Eventually it became overwhelming for him just like it does in life. The better we can keep going with our task at hand the less work is missed and you won't fall behind which will just create more work for you to do.

Frost Death

Jack London's, To Build a Fire, was interesting in some areas. It imediately reminded me of a few scences from Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford as the main character. The big difference between these two characters is that, the character in To Build a Fire, lacked imagination and refused to take advice and went out into the dreadful cold without anyone to accompany him. Jeremiah however, was unskilled but was a quick learner and had imagination and that kept him alive. To Build a Fire is a great story to read when one is looking for what not to do when it's below freezing and one decides to go alone in the wilderness. The dog in this story is very smart and I am impressed by his instincts. Sadly the main character freezes to death after he gets wet and francically starts a fire which is then put out by the snow above it in the trees. This character was not very smart at all.

Life on the Mississippi

“Life on the Mississippi” by Mark Twain is an adventurous journey of life through the eyes of a young male living on the Mississippi river. I think that anyone who reads this story will be able to relate to it, because most people when they are young dream of being just like the superhero role model that they look up to. For Twain it was the steam boatman, not just the workmen on the boat but the man that got to drive it. A lot of people no days hit a point in their lives where they decide that it is time to “grow up” which to them means giving up all their childhood fantasies or dreams and going with a choice or career that is considered more reliable or safer. In this story Twain shows us that you can grow up and still live your dream. This story was especially interesting for me because I am at that point in my life right now when I must decide which path to take and which career to pursue.

The Past Two Weeks

Romanticism is out, Realism is in. Over the past two weeks in our review of American Literature we have witnessed a very abrupt transition between two contrasting styles. Over a span of approximately thirty years American Literature transformed from a style that used grand alliterations and exaggeration into a style that let allowed it's authors freedom to embody the natural beauty of life just by the style of imagery they used. Realism not only yields a different style of poetic writing, but also some of the greatest names in American Literature such as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Henry James. In contrast with the Romantic era writers such as Poe, Emerson, and Thoreau, these authors glorified the natural American citizen rather than grandiose heroes of both glory and infamy. For example, Twain's Life on the Mississippi is an epic detailing a trip on a steam boat. Twain uses cultural vernacular and visual imagery to glorify a rather mundane American job where as Poe and Hawthorne were forced to imagine great heroes and villains in order to draw American's to their writings.

Realism pwns.

Outcast of Poker Flat

The Outcast of Poker Flat by Bret Harte is a story of 4 citizens of Poker Flat that are recognized as a threat to the town. Each of the outcast have a different reason why they have been thrown out of town. The main character Mr John Oakhurst is a big time gambler that wins most of the towns peoples money. The reason for his exile from time was mainly that the town had lost several thousand dollars of money and the towns people thought it best he were one of the people to go. Mr Oakhurst was or seemed to be the strongest individual of the group at the beginning of the story. When the group was exiled he said nothing and showed no emotion while the other members were crying, cursing, and hollering. Mr Oakhurst was calm and collective he had his mind set on the journey to Sandy Bar the next town. He knew that the group was not equipped for delay. Mr Oakhurst was strong in the story until the end. In the end of the story he left the shack back to Poker Flat and was found with a bullet in his heart. Mr Oakhurst took the easy way out and shot himself. He took the cowardly way of doing things. It all turned out that in actuality he was the weakest of the group. He did not fight it out to the end he just gave up.

life in the mississippi by Mark Twain

In the passage Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain describes his dream of being a steamboat man. Mark Twain and his friends wanted to grown up to be pirates and clowns. In all their ambitions faded out and there weren’t allowed to be pirates or clowns. So, all that was left was the “ambition to be a steamboat man” (Mark Twain page 1) which leads to the authors telling this story. This passage makes a lot of sense to me because it is like how we were little kid and we wanted to be everything. When I was a little I always wanted to be a ninja or a panda. Well I am very satisfied to make one of my ambitions to (inside joke). Well during the story Mark Twain lives the live as a steam boat man and becomes a pilot of the boat with another man. The other man is like a god on the ship for his expertise of the river. Mr. Bixby is the name of this amazing man. He navigated through the river with ease leaving everyone in awe of his accomplishment. For, he did this in complete darkness going through the Mississippi river and he told everyone what they needed to do.

The Outcast of Poker Flat

In The Outcast of Poker Flat, Bret Harte chooses to see the good in all people. While Bret Harte is a realist writer, he comes out in this writing as a romantic. Unlike the dark romantics like Poe, Harte demonstrates that bad people can have a good moral side to them. The main character in this piece is John Oakhurst. He is accompanied by Uncle Billy, the Duchess, and Mother Shipton. They have been exiled. Oakhurst was a gambler by trade. The town of Poker Flat decides to purge itself of undesirables. All these characters are evil in their own way. Gambling which can be percieved as a type of stealing, actual stealing (Uncle Billy), and prostitution (the Duchess and Mother Shipton). Along the way they meet Tom Simson and Piney Woods. They are an innocent couple that end up traveling with the rough group on their journey. As the story goes on it provides the undesirables opportunities to do good. Uncle Billy reverts to his old habits and steals supplies and the horses. I believe that Harte uses Uncle Billy's character to say that there are some people that can't change regardless of their circumstances. This one character presents the reader with a realistic view of society. It shines a negative outlook on criminals that the majority of society would agree with. The rest of the group, however, redeems itself through good deeds. These characters create a romatic approach in the story. In their travels they get stuck by a storm an seek shelter in a roofless cabin. Mother Shipton is already near death and realizes it. She rations her food and sacrifices her own life to prolong that of others. The Duchess shows affection and comforts Piney Woods. Oakhurst is presented with a difficult delima. He has the option of saving his own life by pressing on through the storm. Instead he remains with the group and tries to help them in their passage. He creates snow shoes that he gives to Tom Simson so he can survive the storm. This sacrifice puts a postive light on the fact that their is good in all people. Yet Oakhurst is still haunted by his past and the struck of bad luck he has come upon. He commits suicide. I believe that Harte is trying to tell the reader that regardless of the good things we do in life they can't outweigh the bad. Even though we try to rectify our wrongs, we will dwell on our past experiences.

free

What is being really free? In The passing of Grandison, Grandison was taken by Dick owens to the north so he could run away and be free from the slavery. Grandison kept being loyal saying that he liked being fed well and he could be with his friends back on the plantation. In this mind set he was happy to be where he was because he had his friends and family. Without them he didn't want to go anywhere. That is why he came back and was able to help all his family and some friends escape. As a single person in a free country Grandison did not feel free but when he was able to have his family with him in a free country he felt free. to me this shows that being "free" is more a mind set. if you can be happy in a place or with people you like then you are free. In a place with people you hate and a place you hate you feel like you are in prison.

The Passing of Grandison

Chesnutt’s short story The Passing of Grandison explains the story of a slave owner’s son and one of his best slaves. Dick Owens, son of Colonel Owens was trying to win Charity Lomax’s heart in the story. Everyone believed that Dick was handsome, intelligent, a gentlemen but none the less extremely lazy. So Charity declared that the only way that Dick would win over her heart was by actually doing something, and doing something that was meaningful. That same day Dick had attended the trial of a young white man from Ohio who had attempted to set a slave free that was not his property free and got convicted and ended up dying. Dick decided that the best way to win Charity’s heart was by doing the same with one of his father’s slaves. He then journeyed through New York, Boston, and finally Canada, but Grandison had no intention of escaping. When they arrive to Canada, Dick could not take it anymore and basically left Grandison behind. He lied to his father about the occurrences of the trip and married Charity. A couple of weeks later Grandison showed up at the house with an absurd story about what had occurred to him on the trip. The conclusion of the story was Grandison and a few of the other slaves escaping from the Colonel almost undetected. I believe that this story is trying to explain that the people that you care about are worth everything. Grandison risked everything he had just so that he could be with those people that mattered most to him, and in my opinion I believe that every person should be like him because there is nothing more important than being with the ones you love.

The Outcasts of Poker Flat

I felt “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” was a great story of morality and the different personalities described in each character that made them influential to the story. I love stories of adventure and this work was just such a story. I was able to relate well with John Oakhurst when he discussed continuing to move on to Sandy Bar instead of stopping for the night. It was obviously a bad decision to stop given the people who were in company. Had they kept moving, it is very likely everyone would have lived and all would be able to start anew with a clean slate. I enjoyed the read and I was able to connect well with this author because of the human nature described throughout the story.

The Outcast of Poker Flats

The Outcast of Poker Flats is a very interesting story which starts us of giving us the date and time the plot takes place. Tells us about the residents of Poker Flats which wanted to improve the town by expelling trouble makers or people not too good. The main character which is a professional gambler called John Oakhurts was one of the persons that they either wanted to leave town or hung him and kill him. He leaves town and find this group of people called the outcasts in which we find two prostitutes and a alcoholic and thief. They met each other and decide to camp outside town they did not had to many provisions to survive so they rationalize it after a couple of days there comes this young couple which just got married even against the will of Piney Wood’s dad. They join the outcast group after a couple of days being there they got snowed in and the food supplies were almost gone. One morning they woke up and uncle Billy one of the outcast has left the cabin, mother Shipton dies of starvation as well as Piney. Mr. Oakhurts gives Tom the innocent a pair of snow shoes after that they all go to sleep and mr. Oakhurts kills himself with a pistol.

Henry James- Daisy Miller

Daisy Miller is a young woman around the age of 18. It's setting is in the late 1800's in Switzerland/ Europe. She is a very pretty girl with an ill mother and a hyper little brother. Unfortunately she attracts negative attention to herself. She is alway seen with different men walking around by herself with them in the country. During this time that was unacceptable and looked down upon very much. Because of her actions, people didn't respect her or want to give her the time of day. There were only a certain few who truely cared for her. Her mother, brother, Mr. Winterbourne, and an older woman named Mrs. Costello. But she is very hard-headed and doesn't care what people think of her. So the more they tried to direct her, the more she rebelled. When comparing this story to today, you can see how much society has changed over time. Today, woman are seen as independent self-sufficient woman and can make their own decisions. In this story, even though Daisy Miller wouldn't listen, people would try to guide her what to do because they felt she couldn't make decisions for herself. Also, woman are seen as scandalous if seen walking with men, or have many different male friends. It's accepted. And I also feel that even though people still judge a lot today, it's not as bad as back in Daisy Miller's time.

Daisy Miller

In today’s society you don’t find many girls like Daisy Miller. Most girls care too much about what others think and say. Daisy could care less of what people said about her and what people thought of her. Daisy does some things that a typical girl her age wouldn’t do in this time period. Her mother is very ill and doesn’t pay too much about her children. Daisy runs around doing whatever she wants. She meets a young American guy, named Winterbourne. Winterbourne is visiting his aunt when he meets Daisy Miller. Since Daisy has no one really looking out for her, she seems a little rebellious. I like how Daisy and Winterbourne both don’t care what others think. They both know that Winterbourne’s aunt does not want to meet Daisy because she is too “common”. That still doesn’t stop them from seeing each other. A few days later Winterbourne takes Daisy to Chillon. Winterbourne tells Daisy that he must go back to Geneva in the morning. Daisy and Winterbourne then make a promise. Winterbourne says that he will take Daisy to Rome. I like the story because no matter what they try and work things out. Even though they are being split they know that they will one day see each other again.

The Road Most Likely Taken

The Outcast of Poker Flat isthe most interesting story I read this semester. It’s amazing how the author Brent Hart decided to take three outcasts and show the readers how people can change depending on the situation they in. As for Uncle Billy I guess a thief is always going to be a thief. It is hard to put this in the realism category because it’s hard to believe that Oakhurst would have really stopped and stayed with the group knowing it wasn’t a good idea besides it was a group of criminals. Also, that Mother Shipton would starve herself to death for the young girl she just met named Pinney could have more to eat. The reading seemed to be more of Romanticism because this is how we would like for the world to be making this reading more imaginary then real. The items included which I could compare to real world is Uncle Billy waiting for everyone to go to sleep and run off with all the mules leaving people he really didn’t know and care about stranded which led to three of his companions death. I understand that is cruel behavior but like people say life is not a bag of candy.

Miss Daring Daisy

I found the story of Daisy Miller very interesting. I feel like I can connect to Daisy Miller, in a way that I somewhat do what I want regardless of what others think of me. I played boys baseball untill my junior year of high school. This was not always accepted, and I went through a lot of bullcrap just to make the high school boys team. Although there was a lot of commotion and I faced some pain I stuck through it. Daisy is a strong willed girl and seems to do what she wants regardless of what society views is lady like or not. Daisy is a free spirit, and some of her actions may be a result of having no father figure and this causes her desire for male attention. I don't believe there is anything wrong with being a flirt, but I do believe there is a problem with going out on the town with strangers. Daisy's mother is a bit of a push over, and i wouldn't know what that feels like because my mother is a retired senior chief. Therefore, I don't know how it felt for Daisy to not have an authority figure at all in her life. Daisy is different and takes her behavior to a new level, one that not many agree with but she is unique and that is rare to find.

Daisy the mysterious Weed

Henry James's novella of this naive young American girl in Europe, narrated by an upstanding gentleman, illustrates a world centered on ettiquite and proper behavior instead of worth and true virtues. The character Winterbourne sees Daisy not for what she truely is. He is more or less an observer studying the behavior of a peculiar animal. When Winterbourne talks about her boring rhetoric and silly conversations she starts, this captures Winterbourne's true feelings about Daisy. Daisy's actions throughout the story are viewed only through what Winterbourne thinks and says. It almost seems as if Winterbourne's actions are more steps to observe her and are misinterpreted by Daisy as true affection. In reality he really only seems interested in her the way a scientist is interested in an experiment. To conclude Daisy's true nature is never actually revealed, but it is certain that Winterbourne is remorseful for her death. However, it took Daisy's death for him to feel anything real at all.

Cavalry Crossing a Ford

So in the story of "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" it shows how the true cavalry did things in the day. it makes me feel like i was with the cavalry that day. I can image the cavalry resting by the lake side and the horses are going to get a drink of water to quench their thirst.During the following part of the poem it shows how the men were relaxing. Also the men were having fun just joking around and just chilling.Also the men were "brown[ed]faced" from the long amount of time being on a mission. The last sence shows the guide on the "scarlet and blue and snowy white" which represents the honor that the cavalry have. My thoughts are that the cavalry back then were the best of the best and that have a weak side too. The guide on always "flutter gayly in the wind" which shows how proud the young cav. was once. The cavalry now a day's usually don't ride horses but some do. Now they are light armor units that travels for a long time really fast just like the old cav. did. The colors on the other hand have always remained the same through out history.

Collectng leaves to get a tree

The poem Dalliance of the Eagles is interesting because I can put myself in Walt Whitman shoes witnessing this personal as he just take a stroll and witness two eagles perform the dalliance ritual and say to himself this is amazing I should write about it. What I gained from the poem can relate to what my great aunt told me about how people you meet in life are either a tree are leaves. Walt Whitman writes about the people who are leaves. Because they are not present in your life long and seem to blow away with the wind but the impact they have on your life is important and helps in the search for the tree. I gained this from the two eagles meeting in the air which is the simple meet and greet next they become one which is the bond being made then they start on their cartwheel which can be compared to the obstacles faced in life then everything goes downhill and before it turns to a complete disaster they each depart they own way to continue they journey throughout life with more experience and with a better picture of what want in life to replace the leaves with a tree.

The Dalliance of the Eagles

The Dalliance of the Eagles, by Walt Whitman, he expresses how two eagles force his senses and imagination to a new pitch, where action, space, and time are all magnified to an intensity to the point of revelation. We are delivered to the world of nature and the world of art at once. For Whitman, it is love that the narrator metaphorically ascribes to these creatures of flight and grace “our love” because this is amorous dalliance and pursuit to us, but what to them? Surely, we will never know. They "skirt" the human road, and do not walk it as we do. Seen rightly and with human eyes, this is nothing but a revelation of what comes to us from existence and draws us to love, and love passionately.

The Dalliance Of The Eagles

After reading this poem by Walt Whitman and listening to the presentation, my interpretation of the poem alter a bit. Watching two bald eagles in their mating ritual is a magnificent sight to see. This magnificent ritual called cart-wheeling, is a rare sight. The two creatures lock claws and free-fall out of the sky. As quick as the moment you saw began it could stop. Just as they look like things will go for the worst they pull apart. Upward again separately they continue, pursuing, and again are dalliant eagles.
As easily as I read this poem, it was just as easy to relate it to a more humanistic side of life. Relating this free fall to a relationship is not a task, yet a easy comparison. The dalliance, rather flirtation, would be the first conversation or first attraction. Soon the close friendship turns into a relationship where the new couple is entering a level not known to them as one. I believe the cart-wheeling that the eagles experience can be the free fall in the relationships. Up, downs, spins, love, heartbreak, and the unknowing factor of what will happen next. Overall my view is to take life as a journey and follow whatever path you wonder upon. Free fall into life and love may stumble upon you.

Emily Dickinson Poem 67

This poem is about the value of success. Value is based strongly on the opinion of the beholder. Readers can relate to this poem. Emily Dickinson is able to connect with the average American. Success, for most people, is something that you have to fight or struggle for. It does not come naturally. It takes hard work and dedication to the task at hand. Dickinson describes how wonderful success is to those that fail on a normal basis. She must have been writing from experience. It is well known that she had relationship problems. With the exception of her relationship with a preacher, all of her significant others or crushes died. She never truly succeeded in a solid relationship. She pours out her heart into this poem exemplifying how amazing she felt when something did go well. The reader can assume that Dickinson has an opposite opinion of those who succeed all the time. People that always get what they want appear successful. It is hard to feel successful when you have no measure of its value. It comes to them to easy. The idea that money and success will solve all of you problems is extremely faulted. Many of today's rich and famous characters are not happy. Are they truly successful? They have everything they need except the feeling of success and happiness. They are left wanting more.

Vigil Strength I kept on the field one night

This poem brings a rush of deep emotion to you. It starts off with him being out in the battlefield at night, when one of his comrades fell by his side, dying. Then he brings you through some of the events that day. For instance, "Found you in death so cold dear comrade". This is wehre I feel his real amotions start coming out and he forgets about the battle around him. Like when he says, "I faithfully loved you, and cared for you living". This is wehre the poem starts turning towards a more sorrowful feeling. he then begins describing how he's burrying his fellow soldier. He "wrapt in his blanket" and "enveloped well his form". This part makes you really remember everything that's going on in todays world too. Soldiers dying, the heartache familes and friends have to endur. This poem can relate to any period in time even though it was written a long time ago. There is always some kind of war being fought and people knowing what it's like to lose loved ones. Many can see where Whittman is coming from.

The Dalliance of Eagles

Walt Whitman’s free verse poetry possesses qualities that other writing from his time does not. He uses imagery as one of his main components of work, which gives readers the sense that they are witnessing the event at that moment in time. In the poem “The Dalliance of Eagles”, Whitman writes about two eagles high in the sky coming together as one, as if they were dancing together. Just tumbling and falling as one because at that point nothing else matters, until they separate. The eagles fight for what they want until the receive it. I believe that this poem has great symbolism and has great meaning behind it. If you want something bad enough you should fight for it. No matter what gets in your way you need to find every way to be successful and accomplish your goal. People are too scared to follow their dreams or fight for something they want, but these eagles make it so easy and carefree that it makes you wonder why you just can’t make it as simple as they are making it. The point is that you need to stop over thinking and over planning how you are going to do something and just do it because it is the right and best thing to do. Live everyday as if it were your last, and accomplish every dream and goal you have ever had.