Wow, the power of words

Before I continue this specific post, I just want to give a heads up that the rest of my blog posts are probably going to comprise of talk about the readings we did in the last few weeks of class. I feel like I may not have discussed much of the literature we read earlier in the semester, but I just really connected with the last few weeks worth of studying.

Now back to the discussion of the literature. I'm dedicating this post to the poem by Gwendolyn Brooks called "the mother." This isn't a poem that we were technically assigned to read, but we discussed it in class and it really stuck with me.
I could probably sum up everything but these few words: wow, that's powerful. That's a simple statement but it's so true.This is a subject barely anyone will talk about, mainly for the fact that it's controversial and people are extremely passionate about whatever side he/she chooses to take. Most people aren't willing to change his/her opinion, no matter what that side is. This subject is abortion and Brooks takes the viewpoint of a woman who has had multiple abortions. This is such a extreme topic, especially for the fact that barely anyone talks about it. Abortion is one of those things that every person has an opinion, but most people choose not to share it. There's also the fact that is a more unfavorable opinion that some people don't kindly do. That opinion would be what we call "pro-choice."
While this poem doesn't necessarily take a pro-choice standpoint, it takes the view of someone who has had an abortion. A person doesn't understand how hard an abortion is to have until it happens to that person. It's easy for to give a woman crap for her choice to have an abortion when a person has never been in a situation where abortion was a possibility. When a person discovers the fact that a woman had an abortion, he/she can't get over the fact that the woman ended a baby's life. Yes, that's true, but that decision is not easy for any woman and a woman has her reasons for the abortion. No one ever thinks of the fact that the woman who had an abortion actually cared for the baby she was carrying inside her. That never seems to matter to anyone. But this poem takes a look at the case of a woman who has to get an abortion and her feelings towards it. Like I mentioned earlier, it is so powerful. This poem takes a step back from what actually happens in an abortion and takes a look at the emotion behind it. This woman in the poem loved all the children very much, but whatever reason was not able to have the children.
I find it kind of hard to accurately describe this poem or even come up with a response for it with words. All I can say over and over is how powerful it is. I guess it leaves me speechless a bit. This poem gives us a perspective that we didn't have before. It gives us a look into an experience most of us have never had before and feelings hopefully most of us will not have to experience.

There's More to a Pretty Face

Unlike most of my class it seemed, I enjoyed Blanche's character in A Streercar Named Desire. Maybe it was because I studied in character more in depth than most people in the class did. You had to look into her character and individually look at her actions and match those up with her stories that she tells. You have to follow the connections to really understand her and that's what makes it beautiful.
Blanche is extremely misunderstood. On the outside, most people did not like her character because she was ditzy and quite the drama queen. If you look further, you will find a really hurt woman who has no place in the world. Blanche has literally lost everything in her life. Her parents died, she lost the property she grew up on, her finance died very young after she found out he was gay, her sister moved away, and she lost her job. That is a lot for any person to handle, so can you really blame her for being a bit crazy? That woman has been through hell and back. Not to mention, she is homeless with no person in the world to care for her. We choose to fill our voids in different ways, and no one has any right to judge her for the way she chose to fill hers.
People just take her character face value and the way she acts. One doesn't ever stop to think about why she acts the way that she does.

It seems that I've abandoned this blog quite a lot through the semester, and I can honestly say I regret it a bit. Now it is the end of semester and we will no longer be meeting in class and I feel like I have so much more to say. 

As I was going to sleep the other night, I couldn't help but to think about how much I will miss this class. It was amazing to be able to share thoughts and opinions with other classmates, regardless if everyone shared the same thoughts, and have it respected and given consideration. That is not something you find easily in the adult world. 

I also thought about how much of an impact that class had on me. This is my first year from college, and it was also my first year away from home. I just moved to Dayton in August, and all my family lives closer to Cleveland. Needless to say, this year was a little rough for me as I transitioned into the adult world. There were often times this semester that I would lose my way and I would lose sight for what I was trying to achieve. My education often fell behind, while what I thought were more important things took more of my focus and energy. It took me quite a while to pull myself back in and remind myself that education means everything to me. Most my passion comes from learning and intelligent conversations. In our world now, that isn't something that always happens frequently. It wasn't until this class was over, that I realized just how much I was getting from the class. My other classes didn't have that stimulating conversation and thought provoking material. It was mostly just classes for the grade and that was all my peers cared about in those classes. But as I reflect back on this class, I cherish it so much. And it made me realize that English is the perfect degree for me to seek because I surround myself with the same essence that I received from this class.

So now I am here, realizing that I have so much to say. Of course, throughout the day there will be multiple blog posts from me. There is also a good chance that I will continue this blog, because like Christina said in her presentation, we all have a voice and I often feel like I have something to say.

I realize now that I'm rambling, so in short I just want to thank all my classmates so much for a great semester. I gained so much from this class and I hope all of you did. And honestly, I hope a lot of you continue with your blogs because you all have wonderful things to say as well. I really enjoy reading your posts, especially when you connect to your own life. It's amazing how literature connects us all. 

I vs. We

I have a lot of problems sometimes with poems. I absolutely love them. I love the way the words stream together to become beautiful music. I love the combinations of words that just seems to flow effortlessly together. That doesn't mean I always understand what the poet is trying to say. That was definitely the case with the short poem "The Death of the Ball Turrent Gunner" by Randall Jarrell.
On the first few readings, all I thought of it was that it was the death of the ball turrent gunner. I didn't think anything more of it than the title basically. It wasn't until almost the end of the class and everyone had been discussing it that I had a huge realization of the meaning. It was an I vs. We thing. This poem was making an individual out of something that was never really thought of in that way. The military is usually talked about as a whole. We someone dies, you don't really care unless you know that person specifically. This poem was talking about an individual death, which I thought was really powerful. It illustrates this one man last moments of life and his death. So many people in the military die, you don't really take the time to consider how scary it is for each individual person right as he/she knows he/she is about to die. As the reader, you see the instance this person is about to die and how as soon as he dies, his remains are washed out like it's nothing. Your individuality means nothing in the military. As soon as the remains were washed out, the next person probably went in.I thought it was kind of sad. Sure, you become part of bigger force in the military, but your life becomes so meaningless and unimportant. You don't matter as person anymore. The only thing that matters is the greater good which is decided by some other person.

Guilt and Blame

Compared to the last story, I really enjoyed Ernest Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Which is really weird the more I think about it because it does the same thing that I didn't like in "To Build a Fire." This story also points out a flaw in humans. But in this one focuses on one, rather than multiple. This story brings into light the fact that, as humans, we are always blaming the people around us for our flaws.
The man in this story is very bitter over the fact that he is dying and doesn't have time to write all the things he has been putting off. I can definitely relate to that, because it's actually a big fear of mine. The man in this story blames his wife for the fact that he is dying. He blames her for the fact that he stopped writing. He also blames her for the fact that his talent was dwindling away. He basically blames his wife for everything bad in his life.
I thought it was terrible that he was treating his wife like that. He said so many nasty things to her as he was dying. He called her names and he told her he never loved her. Of course I was appalled that he could treat his wife like that. Why, if he never loved her, why did he ever marry her? I was filled with disgust for how he treated her. The sad thing though, it's so true. We blame the people around us for our flaws. We don't always realize we are doing it though. We can never blame ourselves. We can never come outright and say that we are the reason that things aren't going the way we want in life. It always has to be someone else's fault. Of course, his case was more extreme. We don't always go to the extremes that Harry did. He became really nasty and was outright about it. Sometimes we don't even realize that we are doing it. But we do do it. And I think that's why I liked this story so much. It made me realize this one human flaw.

To Build a Fire

I honestly can not stand stories like Jack London's "To Build a Fire." It has nothing to do with who the author is. It's just the fact that the story line is the same. Some hot shot thinks he is going to be original and go out into the wilderness. He thinks he's going to be different and somehow have the ability to control the wilderness despite what everyone else tells him. He's arrogant and some weird God complex. He ignores what everyone tells him and that ends up being the death of him. It doesn't matter who the character is, or how well written the piece is, I still can't stand these stories. Because they all end the same and happen the same.
I'm not going to deny that Jack London hasn't done a beautiful job of writing this piece. There were quite a few things that I thought were brilliant in this story. But that doesn't stop the fact that I really don't like the story line, and I think that's the point.
I don't even know the main character's name and I hate him. I hate his arrogance. I hate how stupid he is. I hate how he thinks he can conquer pure wilderness despite all the warnings. I hate how he treats the dog. I think the thing I hate the most is the terrible name he gives to humans.
There is a huge comparison between the dog and this unknown man in this story. The dog through the whole thing is loyal to the man, but knows that in order to survive they need to keep warm. The dog knows the importance of fire. "The dog had learned fire, and it wanted fire, or else to brrow under the snow and cuddle its warmth away from the air" (652). The man, on the other hand, just continually thinks about how cold it is. The man doesn't have any other thoughts other than getting to his guy friends as quickly as possible and the mere fact that it is cold. "Once in a while the thought reiterated itself that it was very cold and that he had never experienced such cold" (652). He doesn't think about fire until it's too late.
He doesn't show any compassion to the dog at all. I'm not even sure why he brought it along in the first place. "[T]here was no keen intimacy between the dog and the man. The one was the toil-slave of the other, and the only caresses it had ever received were the caresses of the whip-lash and of harsh and menacing throat-sounds that threatened the whip-lash" (654). The only time he thinks about the dog is when he knows he's going to die and is going to kill the dog in order to try to save himself. That part made me really mad. It was the human's dumb fault for getting himself in this situation. He doesn't listen to any of the warning signs, or even the dog. If he would have took the time and the precautions, he probably would have lived. Or, if he would have even been a bit nicer to the dog, the dog would have put in an effort to try to save the man.
The man in this piece gives such a bad light to humans. It shows all our bad qualities, especially compared to the dog. It shows our selfishness, our arrogance, our ideal that we are better than everything.

Poor Alice

When I first read "The Other Two" by Edith Wharton, I had a different response than any of the ones we discussed in class. I was initially a bit mad after reading it. I'll explain why, but first I just want to state that I didn't think of any of the social aspects. I didn't think of any of the characters social rank or how that plays in society. My reaction came purely from the interaction between the characters themselves, and needless to say, I wasn't fond of it. 

What made angered me was how Mr. Waythorn treated his wife, Alice. He talks about her in a really creepy way, and it only gets worse after everything that is going on with her ex-husbands. He's very possessive over her. He acts as if she is his object to show off rather than his partner in marriage. “Waythorn felt himself yielding again to the joy of possessorship. They were his, those white hands with their flitting motions. His the light haze of hair, the lips and eyes. . . .”(526). No woman should be treated as an object. Mr. Waythorn becomes nastier after Alice’s two ex-husbands become a part of their life. When Mr. Waythorn married Alice he knew that she had two previous marriages. In the beginning, he seems to be relatively okay with that. He realizes that she’s made mistakes in her past, but the past is done and over with. All that matters is that they are married now. But that’s not the truth. Mr. Waythorn just wants Alice to be that perfect, obedient trophy wife. He can’t stand to think that she was previously another man’s wife. His overall language and demeanor towards her changes when he is constantly being reminded of her previous husbands. He acts if she’s some dirty creature who is so below him, when she really should be his equal. I understand that it was a different time period and woman were treated differently, but it still made me mad.

What is literature?

I should probably start saying hello and welcome to new semester. The second part of this will be dedicated to American Lit II.

I'm sure literature is very different to everyone. Being an English major, literature is extremely important to me. It's a connection to everyone in the world. It's a way to express our own personal thoughts and feelings. It helps us to feel less alone in the world. It helps us to understand our surroundings. It's an escape from the dullness of human routine. To you, it may be something completely different from any of the things that just happened to cross my mind.

Dickinson and Wilderness

I did a bit of research on this poem because it wasn’t really clicking with me and I saw a website use the term “wilderness of the mind.” I think that describes this poem perfectly. To me, it sounds like Dickinson was struggling with something mentally and has finally overcome it. The wilderness that she was going through in her mind, created something more beautiful, a better wilderness. She doesn’t mean the physical place of wilderness. This contrast with my idea of wilderness. I thought of wilderness as a way to escape, but to Dickinson, the wilderness was what she was trying to escape from. She had to make something out of her wilderness, while I think that wilderness should be something that just is. This also contrasts with Whitman’s ideas of wilderness. He views wilderness as a way to escape society. You need it to remain sane. It was just the opposite for Dickinson. She was trapped within her own wilderness. She had to see the “Sun” for everything to change for her. She had to escape from the wilderness not escape to the wilderness. 

Whitman and Wilderness

Walt Whitman considers wilderness an escape from the troubles of society. He uses it as a simple way to enjoy life. There are countless instances where Whitman is just sitting back and enjoying life and he is doing it while being surrounded by nature. Take part 5 for example, he is enjoying while going on and wilderness is contributing to that. He feels like he is away from the pressures of society. Wilderness also shows that we are all equal through the use of wilderness. He does it with the question “what is grass?”. He points out that he doesn’t know any more than a child would. Society forgets that we are all the same but wilderness will quickly remind us that we are. You can also see why he likes to separate from society and be with wilderness in part 32. He doesn’t have to deal with other human beings in nature. It is his escape.

His definition matches up pretty well with my own. Just like Whitman, I think of wilderness as an escape. It allows us to be away from society. We can just be where everything is free and uncontrolled. Sometimes we need that escape.

Fuller and Jacobs/Douglass

To a certain degree, I agree with Fuller’s statement. Women were definitely not high up on the totem pole in society, but the slaves were still a good ways under them. Women didn’t have as many rights or freedoms as men do, but they had a lot more privileges than slaves. If you look at Jacobs’s narrative, all she wanted was to be with her kids but she was denied even that simple thing. Women are able to be with their kids and have a roof over their heads, for the most part. Jacobs had to spend quite a few years in extremely terrible living conditions. She had to crawl around for exercise, there was no sunlight, and there were bugs that ate her up. At least most women had better living conditions than that. Women were able to live in a certain peace of mind, they at least didn’t live in constant fear for their life like Douglass did. Douglass watched as his own brother was murdered. There wasn’t a second thought about it. His brother didn’t have the justice he deserved. At least women were considered human beings. Slaves were not. Women didn’t have as much freedom, but they definitely had more than slaves.

Rip Van Winkle and Fuller and Wilderness

I think that Fuller would disagree with Rip Van Winkle’s idea about wilderness. Van Winkle uses wilderness as a way to escape his wife because he didn’t like her nagging. Fuller would say that he didn’t understand his wife. She would probably say something about him not even consider what she’s saying or how she’s feeling. He’s only thinking about himself when he escapes into the wilderness. By doing that, he’s only reinforcing Fuller’s idea that women are the same as slaves. He just expects her to do all the duties of a wife without thinking about her as a person. Van Winkle is only thinking about himself and not about his wife. When he discovers that he’s slept for a hundred years, he is actually relieved that his wife would be dead. That is no way to treat your wife. Fuller would probably be disgusted with Van Winkle’s actions and thoughts.

Ironies and Contradictions

There were countless instances of ironies and contradictions within this semesters reading. I think a good portion of these results in everyone battling within themselves about ideas. We read things as the time was changing and people had a new way of thinking. Ones writing isn’t going to be consistent always because his/her own thinking isn’t consistent. Everyone was trying to decide what exactly they believed in.

A big example of someone contradicting themselves is Anne Bradstreet. You could see it when you look at her two distinctive voices that we talked about. In certain poems, like “In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August , 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old,” you could clearly see her Puritan beliefs and up holdings. There were other poems, like “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” that strayed away from those beliefs.

You could probably find ironies in all the rest of the readings from this semester. There was also contradicting views that made it ironic as well. Look at the two captivity narratives for example. In Rowlandson’s, she referred to the Native people as “savages” while Cabeza de Vaca considered them friends. Similar things happened to both of them, but they have such contradicting views.

Benjamin Franklin’s ideas on going to Church contradict hugely with most other people’s. He didn’t think that you had to go to Church to be a good person and have good morals. If you didn’t go to Church, that meant you were going to Hell, at least according to the Puritans. He believed quite the opposite. Going to Church did not define you as a person. What you believed and your actions did. 

Franklin and Wilderness

I agree with the idea that Benjamin Franklin’s ideas about virtue are the antithesis of the ideas of wilderness. Wilderness is untamed, it’s freedom, and most importantly it’s imperfect. Franklin starts off talking about virtues by saying “[i]t was about time that I conceiv’d the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection” (284). By that first sentence alone, it contradicts everything that we have talked by in regards to wilderness. Perfection is not a term with associate with wilderness and you will never be able to make it perfect. It is completely fine that way it is without trying to be changed by mankind.

His virtues themselves also don’t line up with our definition of wilderness. One of the virtues is “Order” which says “[l]et all your Things have their places” (284). One of the beautiful things about wilderness is that there is no order to it. Another virtue is “Industry” which states “[r]esolve to  perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve” (284). We also talked about wilderness being a state of mind. It is freedom and time to just enjoy life. With this virtue, Franklin is saying that you should be making the most of your time and always do something productive. With wilderness as a state of mind, I take it as allowing yourself time to step back and enjoy the simple things in life. Franklin is completely going against that idea.

There are a few virtues that go along with our definition of wilderness. The ones that go against it though are too big to overlook. I think the biggest problem with Franklin’s ideas in regards to wilderness is he wants to make something perfect. You should never strive for perfection because it doesn’t exist. Wilderness is a prime example of that. Wilderness is in no way perfect, but it is beautiful and amazing the way it is.

Anne Bradstreet and Wilderness

I didn't notice a lot of wilderness is Anne Bradstreet's poems. Most of her poetry has to do with her relationship with God and the important people in her life. There was only one poem that I noticed wilderness being mentioned. That poem is "Contemplations." She uses wilderness to relate back to God. She’s amazed at the entire wilderness she sees in her life because it is all God’s work. Take the oak tree she sees for example. “Then on a stately oak I cast mine eye, / Whose ruffling top the clouds seemed to aspire; / How long since thou wast in thine infancy? / Thy strength, and stature, more thy years admire, / Hath hundred winters past since thou wast born?” (lines 15-19).

This is different than how the other writers we have read looked at wilderness. With  Cabeza de Vaca, Rowlandson, and Jewett wilderness shaped their view. Bradstreet uses wilderness to reinforce her beliefs though. God created all these wonderful things that Bradstreet sees like “ [the] leaves and fruits seemed painted, but was true, / Of green, of red, of yellow, mixed hue” (lines 5-6). Everything around her is so beautiful. She even talks about how amazing that wilderness goes on living and growing even when humans are dying. A year for humans is basically just a couple of days for wilderness. She thinks that’s amazing. “Shall I then praise the heavens, the trees, the earth / Because their beauty and their strength last longer?” (lines 134-135). While some people would be bitter because wilderness gets a so much longer life, Bradstreet is amazed. All of the things around her Is God’s work and it’s all truly amazing and beautiful how it all lives in different ways.

Differences with stories and wilderness

                I think there is a drastic difference in the way wilderness is portrayed in the captivity tales and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” In one of them wilderness is holding the people in a prison and will be the ultimate cause of their destruction. On the other hand, wilderness is the freedom that will lead one man to everything he loves.

                In the captivity narratives, wilderness is holding Rowlandson and Cabeza de Vaca back, especially in Cabeza’s case. In Rowlandson’s case, she is more focused about the acts of injustice that the Indians are committing to her than the harm the wilderness is doing. In both captivity narratives, the people have to fight to find food. When they do find food, it is often times things that today we would never in a million years imagine eating, like raw meat. These people are fighting with the land in order to just survive. After Cabeza de Vaca was released from his captivity, he says “The joy we felt can only be conjectured in terms of time, the suffering, and the peril we had endured in the land” (34). It wasn’t that he was glad to be away from the Indians, he was glad to be away from the land. Of course, Rowlandson would probably say differently, but the land was just as much her enemy as the Indians were.

                If you look at “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, wilderness is completely different. The wilderness is actually Farquhar’s freedom. The people are the ones that are imprisoning him while if he just makes it to the land then he will be free. “…the railroad ran straight away into a forest for a hundred yards, then, curving, was lost to view” (Bierce 1). He knows that if he can just make it into the forest, he will free and can find his family. Eventually he does make it into the water and to the forest. He travels all the way towards the forest where he finally reaches his house where his wife is. “He stands at the gate of his own home. All is as he left it, and all bright and beautiful in the morning sunshine” (Bierce 6). The wilderness is so beautiful because he is finally home. The wilderness was his gateway to freedom.

                In one case the wilderness  is a danger for its inhabitants while on another man’s case it’s his only hope for freedom.

Wilderness for the indigenous Americans

The indigenous people from the Americans use wilderness in their tales as a form of inspiration. They connect wilderness to their heritage. It helps to remind them of who they are and where they came from. When the white people starting making advances towards them, the Indians used this stories containing wilderness in order to remind the people of what is really important. They also consider wilderness as a gift. Just look at the creation tales for example. In the Pima's story, the creator was a great man who gave them all of wilderness. He gave them water, light, and everything that need to survive. To these people, wilderness is life. That's something we take for granted nowadays. We consider life to be our technology and cars and jobs. We don't consider the water we need or the land we rely on. That was the Indians' everything and they knew that. To the Indians, wilderness was everything good and pure in the world. That's still how I look at wilderness. In modern day, wilderness doesn't seem to have that beautiful appeal anymore.

Wilderness within religious text

I'll have to admit, that I am not a religious person in any way. I didn't grow up surrounded by religion so I'm not as familiar with it as some people may be. I've never read the Bible and I only really know what I learn in school. With that in mind, I struggle with religious text and have a time with prompts like these. I do have to say, from what I do know and have so far read, it seems like wilderness is almost a negative. One story that comes to find is Adam and Eve. I only know the basic story line and I may be missing something, but Eve was punished for reaching out for the apple. I know that she wasn't supposed to touch it though. Also in Rowlandson's captivity story, she seems to give wilderness a negative view too. She associates Indians with the term heathens. She thinks the way they like is absolutely barbaric. It's understandable with the way she was treated, but that seems to be a common theme among Rowlandson's people. They don't respect the Indians or anything they do. They prefer the structure of their towns and laws. They fear the unknown, which is the wilderness. That's completely different than how I view wilderness. It's the opposite from the freedom and peace that I associate with wilderness.

Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

In the story of "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", you see aspects of wilderness as Peyton Farquhar attempts to escape. We find out he's not really attempting to escape because it's really just a daydream all along though. During the daydream though, you see the water that he falls into to escape. He falls into the water and everything is dark.Then he sees a light. "He opened his eyes in the darkness and saw above him a gleam of light but how distant, how inaccessible"(3). While everything else is dark and gloomy, the wilderness is light and holds hope for him. After he manages to escape the water, he goes into the forest. Once he gets through the forest, he gets to his ultimate goal. The forest leads him to his family, which was the only thing he wanted. "All is as he left it, and all bright and beautiful in the morning sunshine. He must have traveled the entire night. As he pushes open the gate and passes up the wide white walk, he sees flutter of female garments; his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the veranda to meet him"(6). Again is that light from the wilderness. The wilderness for him holds freedom. It matches up perfectly with my definition. The wilderness doesn't hold him back. It's when he is surrounded by man made objects that he is held back.

Wilderness

To me, wilderness is not only a place but a state of mind. As a place, it's somewhere where everything is pure and away from all the bad things that go on in the world. In the wilderness, there is no unneeded murder, there is no war, there is no corrupt politics. Everything just flows smoothly together as it should. That physical place inspires a state of mind. It's a sense of freedom. It's become deattached from the world in a postive way. There are no rules or regulations, everything is free to just be as it simply is. Wilderness is something you can't control.