Friday, February 19, 2010

"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.

6 comments:

  1. Miss Rossi seems to hava a great understanding of this story and shows this through her great summary. Rossi explains all the main points of the story clearly and makes it easy to understand what it going on with this Grandison fellow. I completely agree with her thoughts about not being happy unless you are with the people you love the most family and friends. Without knowing your loved ones are safe or happy, you too are unhappy. To truly be free, you must be free of worry and regret. I also agree with her thoughts about taking risks for the things you want in life.. If Grandison had not taken the risk to get back to his slave owners home he may have never lived in happiness because his loved ones were still there. Sometimes you gotta go against the grain.

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  2. Cadet Rossi gives a detailed summary of “The Passing of Grandison”. I couldn’t have said it any better. Cadet Rossi says that you wont be happy unless you surround yourself with the people you love and who love you the most. Your family and friends are the ones who you care about the most. You can pretend to be happy but you can only do it for so long. She also says you need to take risk in life in order to get what you want. Things in life wont just be handed to you, you have to work for what you want. Grandison goes back save his family and brings them back to Canada.

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  3. Rachel does a great job on showing us and brings us that story. It makes you wish you could have been there and presence all that determinism, love and valor that Grandison had to overcome all those obstacles just for his family. It makes us really visualize how people would give anything even their freedom just for the wealth of their family. Today’s society really needs to look at these things and realize that family should be the number one priority and that you should be thankful for what you have. Love is something that you should treasure and make it count and not let it go like the wind.

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  4. After realizing that this blog had already accumulated three posts, I made the assumption that it was a great blog and had numerous opions that many wished to comment on. Once I read the post by cadet Rachel Rossi I understand why it's popularity was so high. Nonetheless this was a fantastic writing on "The Passing of Grandison". I had an overall understanding of the blog and opions that were formed by cadet Rossi. In closing I wanted to point out one statement by Rachel that says you must think of others and not yourself. I try to live my life everyday by these standards and enjoyed reading it in her blog.

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  5. While on the surface the responses to Rachel's summary seems as if it is on point, the fact of the matter is that it couldn't be further from the truth. The Passing of Grandison is a great satire on just THAT, people only seeing the surface and not looking deeper. The slave fooled the Colonel and everyone else just when they thought they had him fooled to think that life was so much better on the plantation than having freedom. Charles Chestnutt wrote this story to show how foolish people could be in making the assumption that their way is the best way, even if it means slavery. The story is to show the reader the thought process of slave owners, but to also show you that the slaves weren't dumb and content with their current status. Chestnutt does this in a hilariously satiric way.

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