My 2nd essay preview

I think I am going to dive into the first prompt, that is the real skinny textbook debate. I think for the romantic period I am going to use Mark Twain's, "Letters From The Earth". I think I will be able to go through the listed objectives and show clearly why this author should be represented for the romantic period. Twain's obvious imagination clearly paints pictures that display the emotion he is trying to get out of the reader. He is clearly against the rules or customs that go along with the Catholic church that prevailed in his time period. In the modernist period I decided that I was going to go with Chandler's, "Red Wind". I will try to show you how Chandler breaks away from the morals of right and wrong and puts a light on a person of darker nature. In his time period he steps away from the rules of conduct and shows the reader that each one of us could and does to some degree have a darker side to ourselves. The way he uses film noir definitely was "outside" the box. Once again I will take you though the objectives and make a strong case for why he she be represented in the modernist period.

Short Lived Dreams

a song in the front yard pg 2412

I think the first line of the poem says a lot about not only her, but how a lot of people feel. Kids who do not want to make their parents upset at them tend to walk the so called "straight and narrow." They play by the rules 95% of the time but every once in a while thy turn around to look and be envious about what they think is freedom from everything that keeps them bound to their lifestyle. When your a bad boy or girl, it is expected that if you screw up, it is blamed on your characteristics. But when you strive to be good and do the right thing, you are a failure or there must be something not right in the head if you make a mistake. The straight and narrow people have enormous amounts of pressure resting on their shoulders. They scream deep inside their minds to just let it go!

In the first stanza, Brooks wants to go to the back yard were the weeds grow. The weeds are bad for a lawn, so the weeds represented in this poem are the immoral, tough, rough, and free people and they could be the children whose parents don't really care what their kids are doing or were they are at. These people are free from everyday obligations in life. Brooks is tired of doing the right thing. It is a lot to deal with when you are a child. "Do this", "Don't do that", "Go to your room", "Take out the garbage", "Clean the kitchen", and don't even think about talking back are some of the typical things most children hear during the course of a 24 hour period. Looking at this through an an adults eyes is easy to, you don't have to report to a butt hole boss everyday, you can just do what you want, when you want.

In the third stanza, Brooks makes it very clear that she is talking about a child's life or possibly her own. She tells her mother that the kids have some wonderful fun. They don't have to go to bed by nine and they do not report to anyone. Brooks is just admiring the freedom that the kids seem to have. She even takes it a step further in the fourth stanza to say that she wants to walk the streets with the black-lace stockings and put paint on her face. Through a child's eyes this might look appealing from the everyday routine that they go through but as children get older they realize that if they don't play by a set of rules, life can get really hard. I think it is safe to say that most kids go through this and grow out of it.

Can you tell that I have been here and thought of that? We all have short lived dreams.

Three mystifing WHAT????

Tradition and the individual Talent, pgs 1583-1584

Just when I think I can really critically think through an essay or a poem I get slammed with T.S. Eliot. What are they trying to do to my mind? This whole paragraph about emotion is mumbo-jumbo. How can anyone write about an emotion that they have never experienced? T.S. Eliot is basically saying that a good poet writes about the escape of his or her reality. Well, I might have wished upon a star to, but I live in the here and now! Someone needs to tell T.S Eliot to pull his head out of his you know what and realize that emotion and personality is what makes us individuals. If we as a society did not write or talk about or produce movies with emotion, we might as well kill ourselves because then we would all be robots programmed to just "Live". Stop and think about the last movie that you watched, the emotion of the individual was what made the movie progress forward. The old saying, "if there is an action, there is a re-action", is how the world is made.

The Waste Land

What and where is he going with this? I read T.S. Eliot's biography and understand that there is an underlying tone of religion to this poem, but why on earth did he make this so confusing to read. I now that poets don't have t make a point but you would think that if you were going to write more than, oh, lets say three stanza's, that you would be trying to say something to the reader. In A Game of Chess, Eliot jumps from one subject to another and does not tie them together. He paints this picture of a room that is burning up to a man coming home from the army wanting to have sex. I am so lost in this I need someone to make heads or tails of this poem.

"Dark Film"

Red Wind pgs 1541-1574

I would have to say that Chandler had quite a knack for keeping people in suspense. I found it interesting that he would dangle you like a fish on a hook just when you think you knew what was going on. Once I started to read this it was everything I could do to put the book down. Chandler does a fantastic job in every detail of the book. The whole drama took place in late afternoon all the way through the night into the next day. Chandler's use of descriptive detail makes the pictures in your head just come to life. When he describes the brunette in the beginning of the story, he gives you this image of a beautiful women. Chandler describes her as, "Tall, pretty, brown hair, in a print bolero jacket over a blue crepe silk dress. Wearing a wide brimmed straw hat with a velvet band". As you read, there is really no where in the book were he is not descriptive. When the man in the bar gets killed, he describes the shooter as "lightly" touching the bar door with his shoulder to give to give you the picture that the shooter was very cautious about his movements when he left the bar. Not only does Chandler paint in great detail his characters but he also paints the landscape for you. A great example of this would be on page 1563 when Dalmus meets Mr. Barsaly and has a discussion in Mr. Barsaly's home. Chandler describes the living room as having in it a fireplace, baby grand, Chinese screen, a tall Chinese lantern on a teakwood pedestal and gold net curtains on a lattice window. He also tells you that there is a tree outside with the trunk white washed, blowing in the hot breeze. Chandler paints this awesome picture that makes this book come to life. Chandler's use of shadows to make his characters mysterious is done with great care and perfect timing. A good example of this would be on page 1556 when John Dalmus gets back from the police station and tries to get into his apartment building and hears a low quiet voice say, "Please". Dalmus states that he knew the voice so he got into her car. This is perfect timing because you now have a picture in your head of this tall beautiful women who you thought you knew but now she is doing something out of the ordinary. You think you have her pinned down as a loose woman but this appearance makes you wonder what she is really up to. I think the way Chandler keeps you guessing, for instance when Dalmus is telling his lies, or the detective taking the credit for the shooter being caught even though he did not really catch him, or the way he keeps a dark shadow over all his characters, keeps the reader interested. I have to say that I really enjoyed this read!

The Death of Innocence!

Feminist Manifesto, pg 1502-1505

WOW!!! First of all you must understand the conditions that women were living in in the early 1900's. The old saying that women need to be "in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant" obviously came from this era. I had wished there was more to her small biography to explain and give a bigger and more vivid picture of her life. This woman was definitely a woman scorned. I believe that she must of had some kind of tragedy created by a man just by the way she emphasizes some of her words. Mina says on page 1503 that, "Leave off looking to men to find out what you are NOT" tells me that she is upset for giving so much of her life for what, her suppression by a man. Mina Loy was definitely "outside the box" per say because of the era that she wrote this in. That is probably why it was never published during her lifetime. She takes the time to let women know that just because you like sex does not make you a whore, women should embrace sex. She states this on page 1503 when she basically says that there is no division between the mistress and the mother. This point also comes full circle when she says on page 1504, that you have to get ride of your morale excellence. I believe that when Mina says that women need to have their virginity surgically removed, she was telling young women to express themselves through what God has givin them. Mina was upset because women in this era were to live like the Bible states. Unfortunately, the whole, women are sub-servant to men issue in the Bible was mis-interpreted. Both men and women are equal but have their special skills for life in general. What Mina stood for has come full circle because in this day and age, virginity is something that is "a bonus" when a man and a women get married. The sexual revolution has brought on abortion at an all time rate, not to mention all the std's that our teenagers now live with the rest of their lives. Mina was absolutely right in trying to break the suppression of women. I wonder, if she believed in this so much to write it down on paper, then why did she not try to get it published?

Life at mach speed!

Robert Frost, The Wood-Pile


Ah to live in such beautiful country and not desert! The imagery that Robert Frost portrays is amazing and peaceful. The first image that I get in my head is a walk in the forest to get some me time and taking in the awe and beauty that nature provides for free. At this point you could literally hear the flap of the wing of a bird it was so quiet. As he walks through this frozen swamp to put his mind at ease here comes a little piece of what he is trying to escape. LIFE. The bird, I believe is the general public that is always suspicious of everyone and everything. It says in his small biography at the beginning that he stays away from the cities and prefers the country. That tells me that he finds people at times to be repulsive. He despises some of what the city offers. As he walks in the swamp and meets and greets his friend, his eyes are drawn to the misplaced wood-pile that had been there for years. Here again this paints a picture in my head that the wood-pile represents how people get to caught up in life that they forget the simple things. I think this reflects again Roberts idea about city life.


Robert Frost, Neither Out Far, Nor In Deep

Robert was trying to show how people look abroad for answers to their problems in life but don't realize that they are right in front of them. The analogy of standing along the sand and watching the sea all day, tells me that people are trying to find the meaning of happenings in life. Then he goes on to sat that "But wherever the truth may be- The water comes ashore." This is saying that while you waste time looking abroad for answers, the answers are right in front of you. The water comes ashore. The tone in this piece is direct. In the first and second stanza, Robert basically points out that people are always pointing the blame, per say, to someone or something else. In the third stanza, Robert says that what you are looking for is right there in front of you. By the fourth stanza, Robert comes out and says that people can be so oblivious that they forget to look at themselves. This poem could tie in with The Wood-Pile because here again people need to slow down and smell the roses.

Humble

Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington, pgs 665-687


First of all I have to admit that I find his "humbleness" to be very intriguing. As I read through the different chapters, Booker had every right to be angry with the white race. From the beginning of his life he did not even know the basics like the day and year he was born. As an adult I still think birthdays are a very special day for the people involved. Here is a boy who slept on a pile of rags when they had them, lived in a fourteen by sixteen square foot, pure air filled cabin with two other siblings and his mom. His "white" dad stopped by once a year around Christmas time. Not only did Booker have lousy living conditions he also had to work because he was a slave. Here is a young child who has to ride on top of a corn bag three miles down the road to the mill to get the corn ground. It sounds like More often than not, that bag of heavy corn fell off the horse as he did as well. Waiting for a stranger in a strange land for a little child is fear in its animated form. With bad living conditions, no stable source of food except for what they raised on the plantation, and having to wear a "Flax" shirt, Booker, I believe, had a strong foundation in the Bible even though he never comes out and says it. On page 671, Booker states,
"When people ask me in these days how, in the midst of what sometimes seem hopelessly discouraging conditions, I can have such faith in the future of my race in this country, I remind them of the wilderness though which and out of which, a good Providence has already led us."

The influence that his mother had on him was absolutely profound. From his homespun cap, to his understanding of the value of money or lack there of, not going into debt, and just the fact that under no circumstances do you complain about what you don't have, but be thankful for what you have been given. On page 677, Booker states that, "The lesson that my mother taught me in this has always remained with me, and I have tried as best I could to teach it to others." He was saying to live within your means, don't let the burden of debt weigh you down because there is bigger issues in life than consuming yourself with work.

There is so much to say about Booker that it is hard to get it down on paper. As I look through and think about the excepts that I read, I think about how one man with his back against the wall, could accomplish so much. Teaching himself how to read while working a full time job, to giving the speech of his lifetime. Overcoming great odds with such a positive outlook on life established by his loving mother. Booker knew from the start that overcoming the boundaries of his color was going to be a long and time consuming challenge that he was hitting head on with education mixed with a love for humanity. Like Martin Luther King, Booker knew that to make progress with racial issues arising you have to try to do it through peaceful solutions. Booker was well aware that there were racial problems by his statement on page 687, "they should be made to apply with equal and exact justice for both races." In his speech he tells his audience that it is going to take blacks and whites getting there hands dirty to make a better place for us all.

AS more thoughts come flooding out, I will try to edit my post.

American Ignorance

I am Alone, pgs 383-384, He has filled graves with our bones, pgs 385-387


I found both of these speeches to be very interesting. To tell you the truth I am not a big American history fan but the more I read, the more interested I get. As I read both of the speeches, you could sense the emotion that was spilling out of both the tribe leaders. I know both these speeches were written a time or two later but the emotion of the Indian leaders obviously made an impression.

As I read through both of the speeches, I got upset at how the white government thought that they deserved to acquire land and material objects at the cost of human life. I know that that idea has been around for centuries but to come to an unknown land and tell the inhabitants that they have to give it up "just because" was just ignorant. As I read "I am Alone" I felt for a man who had compassion, humility and kindness. On page 384 Cochise tells of his grandfather basically saying that all mankind be accepted with friendship. Here is the leader of a great and powerful tribe just opening his arms accepting all who pass by. I felt that Cochise was a very smart but broken Indian. As I read his speech, he talks of his people fighting in several wars. Here is a man who will fight for freedom to the point of annihilation but at the same time realize that if this war with the white government does not stop, not one of his people will be left. At the end of his speech I got the sense that this was a broken man just by his tone. Cochise is tired of the war, tired of the time it is taking to establish a treaty, tired of fighting, in a general sense, with the white man. Cochise knows he has lost not only the war but their freedom. So in the end he basically bows to the whites thanking them for what they are willing to give the tribe.

On the other hand you have Charlot, who is covered with anger and rage. I think that his speech tells it in a nutshell. White man came, took, and now wants to tax us. What Charlot knew was that the white man wanted to basically kill off the unknown foreigners that they could not control. Indians did not live by white mans rules so that made the white man afraid. Charlot wants to get his point acrossed to his people by giving them very descriptive imagery of what the white man did. Not only did the white man take our land by force after quiet threats of war, they kill our people for acts of kindness. White man knows nothing but greed and violence.

Even though both of these speeches were written well after the actual speeches had been presented, and that we are not sure of their accuracy, I have a new found respect for our native American Indians.

The more I think about these speeches the more I can relate them to todays enviroment. They are very parallel to each other. Back then the government was trying and forcing their will upon people that they did not understand. They needed to control them so that they could predict every move that the tribes would make. Today, I feel it is the same way with our so called diminishing middle class. The middle class makes this country what it is today. This country was built on the backs of the industrial age hence "Blue Collar Workers". I find it ironic that we get the crap taxed out of us and now we have to bear the burden of 12 trillion dollars. The only variables that changed are the people. Whether you are an indian or middle class joe, the government wants and will get the control they so desparately desire. Governments fear the unknown!!!!! Just a thought.

Foundation is a stronghold!

From letters from the Earth, Mark Twain, pgs 307 - 318

I found this article to be very interesting. Coming from a strong belief in Jesus Christ makes this article even that much more interesting. The reason I say that is because I wonder sometimes what the angels and archangels think about. How our Almighty Father in heaven handles the day to day business per say. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, have you ever wondered how Jesus deals with satan who is constantly knocking on his door, asking Jesus for permission to purposefully tempt and trap all of us humans? Satan wants to show Jesus how weak we humans are and that we really don't love Jesus at all. How far from the truth satan really is. If you know a little about satan, you know that all he wants is to kill, steal and destroy. He does not care about you personally or what you have done, he cares that you live an eternal misery just like him. As I read though the article, Twain's descriptive imagery of how satan sees humans, and also how Twain shows satan's hatred for God was remarkable. You cannot help but have this picture painted in your head. Mark Twain does a remarkable job of this. Just my opinion!

I don't know if Mark Twain was having a bad day or a bad year but we all go though season's in our life were we doubt things. It could be religion or something as simple as your job or marriage. Personally I think that when Mark wrote this he was going though a difficult time in his life and he just wanted to express himself on paper. He felt that was the most powerful way to communicate. I agree and take it a step further by saying that we all need to be careful what we say and what we write down, because if other people read what you were thinking that day, even though it was not really how you feel but rather just am impulsive thought, the reader could and sometimes do take it for truth. The last thing you want to do is lead someone down the wrong road. That could have been the underlying reason why Mark Twain's daughter, Clara, did not release this article to the public.

When you read this you get a sense that maybe Mark was not happy with God. But if you take a step back, I think that Mark was mad about something in his life but he was trying to show you that satan, under no circumstance, cares for you at all. Satan pretends to be friends with Micheal and Gabriel, but in essence, if satan hates God for making humans, then he hates everything that God is. God creates the laws of nature and humans out of love. He creates humans out of his own image. Satan is jealous, he wants all of Gods attention on him. God is and always will be the ultimate love. I think that Mark was trying to show us that we will doubt but the other road is laced with deceit and poison. We all have our trials and tribulations, we just need to lay them at the feet of Jesus. I give you all my eternal wisdom.

Are you ready?

Emily Dickinson, poem 479 and 591, p86-87

I found both of these poems to be interesting because so many of us dont think about death until there is a tragedy. Whether a loved one or friend or just maybe an earthly catastrophy, until then we all just go about our business everyday with no thought about the fact that as soon as you are born, your internal clock is ticking backwards so soon to hit 0. When we put that into perspective, we hopefully realize that life is short and that we need to make the most out of every minute. As I was reading each poem, I kept thinking of my family and how we have no idea when death will come knocking. Because we have no idea, I dont want to miss out on anything that my daughter does. I want to see her facial expressions as I ask her to eat trees and want to see her throw herself on the ground when she is mad. I want to hear her cry at 2:30 am and the laughter as I tickle her. I want to make the most out of every minute I have here on earth.

Emily's tone in both 479 and 591 were peaceful. In 479, Emily knew that death was inevitable but she did not wait for it. Her words in 479, "Because I could not stop for death - He kindly stopped for me" show that she was living in the moment. Even though this poem is about a person right after the moment of death, the bigger picture here is that life is very important and that we should make the most out of it, but not to put our riches in things that you cannot take but in their legacy whether that be their family or friends.

In poem 591 as you read though it you realize that there is no fear. That person has their affairs in order and that they are ready for that peace that they will feel when they see there "King" or maker.

I think there is a relation between poem 479 and poem 591. Obviouslly they are talking about death but more importantly the connection here is that death will come and wait for no one. Do you want to leave this world full of regrets or do you want to see your "King" knowing you did your best.

Death is coming!!!

What?

Hope
This
Works
Well
Enough
For
A
Start.