The Minister's Black Veil

When some one is to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil, it is easy for them to tell how much it relates to the writing style of Dark Romanticism. One very obvious statement that can be said about the story is the whole thing is shrouded in darkness and death. Within the story we are told of how the black veil had such an effect on people. The darkness it said would fill people's souls with guiltiness whether or not they had done anything wrong. It then says, "Once, during Governor Belcher's administration, Mr. Hooper was appointed to preach the election sermon. Covered with his black veil, he stood before the chief magistrate, the council, and the representatives, and wrought so deep an impression, that the legislative measures of that year were characterized by all the gloom and piety of our earliest ancestral sway" (Hawthorne). This whole statement is just depressing. He was saying that because of the black veil, the term of the governor, which I assume was four years because that is what it normally is, was characterized by all of the suffering all of our ancestors have been through. So thinking about that there are plagues, wars, feuds, starving, droughts, all the times that are tough to get through and all of the suffering that people went through were like the governor's term. That is a depressing term of four years. So darkness is quite a large characteristic of Dark Romanticism and can be seen quite frequently within Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil.

Another thing that is easily noticed is the effect of the black veil of which Mr. Hopper wears has on the people around him. Here is a good example from the story, "From that time no attempts were made to remove Mr. Hopper's black veil, or, by a direct appeal, to discover the secret which it was supposed to hide. By persons who claimed a superiority to popular prejudice, it was reckoned merely an eccentric whim, such as often mingles with the sober actions of men otherwise rational, and tinges them all with its own semblance of insanity. But with multitude, good Mr. Hooper was irreparably a bugbear. He could not walk the street with any peace of mind, so conscious was he that the gentle and timid would turn aside to avoid him, and that others would make it a point of hardihood to throw themselves in his way.....It grieved him, to the very depth of his kind heart, to observe how the children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his melancholy figure was yet afar off" (Hawthorne). To read about how the people took in the whole situation is shocking. To think that the mere putting of dark cloth over someone's face has such an effect on every one around him, and I mean every one around him. His wife to be even left him because of the dark cloth over his face. You would never think it would have a huge effect on people yet every body around him would make sure to avoid him at all costs. Mr. Hopper lost everything just to keep the veil on his face because it was a symbol he said, yet no one respected that and they merely criticized him for it. It is sad to think about but I suppose that is what Hawthorne intended for his readers to see.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister's Black Veil.” In American Literature. Willhelm, Jeffory, comp. McGraw Hill. Columbus, 2009. Print.

Journal 25 - Masking

One time I knew a guy wearing a mask. Some called him a devil. Some called him a ghost. But I knew him as the phantom. This phantom was not evil, although many people thought he was. He had no parents and so he lived underneath an opera house. He was hiding from the people because people wanted to be separated from him because he was seen as a walking skeleton and often wore a mask over his face to hide the scarring and the ugliness. He fell in love with this girl who was soon to be the star of the latest opera. But soon he was discovered for it and many people hated him and tried to run him out of the village. He was known as the Phantom of the Opera, even though his name was actually Erik. All Erik wanted to do was to be understood by the fellow opera lovers, so he would send roses to the girl he loved and charge rent to the owner. He was just criticized more and his feelings were hurt even more. He one time took the girl he loved down to the dungeons and she fell asleep after some sweet sweet singing and then he just kind of watched her sleep, which was a little creepy. Then the owner of the opera house does not pay the rent to him so he gets really angry and cuts down a chandelier hanging above the play. This makes the whole place go mad and he soon is basically banished form the rest of the town, like he basically already was. Erik just wanted to be loved by Christine and understood by the town. But was he? No. Because he was very scary looking and wore a creepy mask and was all sketchy throughout the whole movie. I would have understood you Erik. I know you really were just a scary looking guy with a heart of gold who loved operas, which is a totally normal thing for guys to love.

The Pit and the Pendulem Relating to Romanticism

Dark Romanticism is a very dark style of writing that includes details of individuals being prone to sin and self-destruction. It also is very spiritual, meaning there are things like the devil, Satan, ghosts, vampires, ghouls, things like that. Another characteristic is they believe that nature is a very spiritual force. The world is seen as dark and very mysterious. When we look at The Pit and the Pendulum written by Edgar Allan Poe, we instantly see a dark effect upon the main character. The main character is a prisoner during the Spanish Inquisition. The whole story is about him being tortured and what it felt like. Thinking about being tortured the way he describes it, it fills me with fear because of how descriptive it is. Here is an example from the story; "It was not that I feared to look upon things horrible, but that I grew aghast lest there should be nothing to see. At length, with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes. My worst thoughts, then, were confirmed. The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled for breath. The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me. The atmosphere was intolerably close. I still lay quietly, and made effort to exercise my reason. I brought to mind the inquisitorial proceedings, and attempted from that point to deduce my real condition. The sentence had passed; and it appeared to me that a very long interval of time had since elapsed. Yet not for a moment did I suppose myself actually dead. Such a supposition, notwithstanding what we read in fiction, is altogether inconsistent with real existence;—but where and in what state was I? The condemned to death, I knew, perished usually at the autos-da-fe, and one of these had been held on the very night of the day of my trial. Had I been remanded to my dungeon, to await the next sacrifice, which would not take place for many months? This I at once saw could not be. Victims had been in immediate demand. Moreover, my dungeon, as well as all the condemned cells at Toledo, had stone floors, and light was not altogether excluded" (Poe). This statement and description is just so evil. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to think you are going to die from a sacrifice or the terrible torturing which is taking place. Then also, when Poe describes the dungeon as dark, it just sets up the creepiness of the whole scene.

"And now, as I still continued to step cautiously onward, there came thronging upon my recollection a thousand vague rumors of the horrors of Toledo. Of the dungeons there had been strange things narrated—fables I had always deemed them—but yet strange, and too ghastly to repeat, save in a whisper. Was I left to perish of starvation in this subterranean world of darkness; or what fate, perhaps even more fearful, awaited me? That the result would be death, and a death of more than customary bitterness, I knew too well the character of my judges to doubt. The mode and the hour were all that occupied or distracted me" (Poe). This is very stylish of Dark Romanticism. You see the talk of torturing the human soul, there is a dark dungeon. Then there are talks of death which is very dark. This story is just full of qualities of Dark Romanticism.



Poe, Edger Allan. “The Pit and the Pendulum” In American Literature. Willhelm, Jeffory, comp. McGraw Hill. Columbus, 2009. Print.

The Raven Criticism

When reading the criticism written by Harold Bloom on Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, something that Bloom wrote really caught my eye; "From the beginning, the poem addresses a problem of interpretation: the speaker's first response is apprehensive, but he quickly denies the importance of the sound he hears" (Bloom). That is of course referring to this line from the Raven, "
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door........`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -This it is, and nothing more," (Grave). I found this connection intriguing so I read the lines a couple more times and I then realized what Bloom said was true. You can tell the speaker has a tough time interpreting everything throughout the poem. There could be many reasons for this; One: the most likely explanation is the speaker is very tired considering it is in the middle of the night, two: less likely, the speaker may be mentally slow and it is challenging for him to accept everything throughout the course of this poem, and a third, which could be likely; it is difficult to take in a talking bird, let alone a raven who are not considered one of the "talkative" birds and have a serious conversation. Anyways, that is just one of the things that stuck out to me in the criticism.

Here is another thing of which I was intrigued by. Bloom writes, "The raven appears. It is a creature out of old mythologies, the "saintly days of yore," and makes an irreverent entrance, awkwardly humanized with an attitude of nobility. It perches "upon a bust of Pallas" (a name for the goddess Athena), an appropriate object for the scholar's room, representing learning and wisdom. The speaker immediately attempts to interpret the bird's presence, to "read into" the ostensibly natural occurrence, and in doing so supplies the "meaning" of what the bird croaks. Poe explains that he chose the word "nevermore" to evoke a melancholy tone in a single non-human utterance. The word has "little meaning—little relevancy" until the speaker interprets its answer as a meaningful answer" (Bloom). I like how Bloom included Poe's actual reasoning for choosing the word which causes so much confusion to both the speaker in the poem and the readers. Then it is nice that Poe explains how the speaker interprets the raven's statements of the word, "nevermore."

It is strange to read everything of which Bloom has written and think about everything that actually goes into a poem. The Raven has a lot of different interpretations for the meaning; even in our class, a class of what? 13 kids, we had about four or five different ways people took the meaning in. The symbolism is immense and it is just a keen thing to think about.



Bloom, Harold, ed. "'The Raven'." Edgar Allan Poe, Bloom's Major Poets. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Accessed November 22, 2010.

Grave, By The. "Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven." Heise Online - IT-News, C't, IX, Technology Review, Telepolis. Web. 22 Nov. 2010. .

RAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LITERAL MEANING:
One boring night while I thought of interesting legends and while I was almost falling asleep again some one came knocking on my bedroom door and said, "it is a visitor knocking on my door and nothing else.
I remember it clearly in a desolate December and each ember fell like a ghost upon the floor. I wanted it to be the next day and I wanted to take book from the bookshelves that were sad, sad about Lenore for the rare times I hear the name Lenore, which is nameless here evermore.
And the purple curtain thrilled me with terrors I never knew before so that now I was keeping on saying, "there is someone at my door."
My soul grew stronger and I finally said, "Sir or Ma'am, I was napping I am sorry. You knocked so softly and somehow I heard you" Then I opened the door and there was nothing but darkness.
I stared into the darkness for a long time thinking and fearing, doubting and dreaming dreams no man ever dared to dream before; but the silence remained and it was still. Then I whispered, "Lenore! and it echoed back, nothing more.
I turned back to my bedroom and my soul was burning, then I heard a stronger tap on the door. I said, "Surely it is in the window, let me look what is there and explore this mystery. It is the wind and nothing more!"
Then I closed the shutter when I jumped and a Raven came in. Not the least gesture he made not a second stopped but with the expression of a lord or lady was resting above my door. The raven was on a statue of Pallas Athena above my door, he sat and nothing more.
Then the bird tricked me into smiling by the stern look on its face. Then I said, "Though your crest is strong, you are an old Raven wandering around the night's shore, tell me what your name is on the Pluto shore!" The Raven said Nevermore.
I wondered if I had actually had heard this bird, though its answer meant nothing we cannot help but to agree that no living human has seen such a bird above their door with such a name as, Nevermore.
But the Raven sitting on the peaceful statue spoke only that word as if it what his soul wanted to say. Nothing more he uttered nor a feather fluttered until I said, "Other friends have been here before, and in the morning he will leave me as my hopes have flown before. Then the bird said Nevermore.
I was scared by this outbreak and so I said, "Doubtless, what it says is only its stock and store caught from some unhappy master who was struck with misfortune until his hope bore, NO MORE.
But the raven still charming all my smiling and I moved a seat in front of the bird and then I thought about what this bird meant when it said, Nevermore.
I sat and guessed but nothing could come up to those fiery eyes which were now deep in me. This and more was I thinking about with my head resting on the seat lining the headlamp and expressing She shall press nevermore!
Then I thought and the air seemed to grow thicker brought by angels whose foot-falls tinkled on the floor. I said, "Darn! your god has lent you, by these angels he has seen you rest and drug me from my memories of Lenore, I will drink to this kind drug and forget my lost Lenore" The Raven said Nevermore.
"This bird is the devil, prophet! Whether the devil tempts me here in my house, in my land, tell me!" The Raven said nevermore.
Prophet! This bird is evil! By heaven that bends above us tell this sorry soul within the distant Eden it shall grab a saint lady whom the angels call Lenore." The Raven said nevermore.
"That is my last word bird! Go back to hell and Pluto Leave nothing and leave me alone! Take my broken heart and go away form the door! The Raven said Nevermore.
And the raven did not move from the statue. His eyes have those of demons and the map throws shadows on the floor. My soul from those shadows on the floor will be lifted nevermore.

POETIC DEVICES:
There are quite a few poetic devices use in the poem, "The Raven". The allusions in this poem are those of the Raven being a person and having human-esque qualities. There is a lot of imagery about spiritual things, like the ember ghosts or heaven and hell. There are not very many metaphors in this poem. A lot of what this poem is is just saying how he was doing this, then he did this, then he did this. He says the word "while" a lot in this poem. Similes are pretty rare as well in this poem. There is a rhyme scheme as a lot of the end words rhyme.

FIGURAL MEANING:
The figural meaning of this poem is that the author is sleeping then something wakes him up so he goes and checks it out and soon enough he finds a raven on top of his door. He starts talking to it and the only word the Raven says is Nevermore. This confuses the author and he drives himself mad trying to figure out what it means. Then He tells it to leave and it does not so he asks the raven when he will meet with his love Lenore in heaven and he realizes it will be nevermore.

Journal 24 - Scared

I get scared quite a lot because my mind plays many many tricks on me. I tend to make my mind believe things that are not any where close to true. I see something and then I just make my mind gradually start to believe it until all of a sudden something that was a really small, or maybe something that was not even about me in the first place into all of a sudden being this huge thing that I am afraid of and do not want any part to do with. Then my heart starts beating really fast and it will skip beats and my mind just goes blank and I get really freaked out. The other day I was eavesdropping in a conversation that I could have sworn was about me. Then I kind of made myself believe that the conversation did involve myself and I was kind of afraid that it involved something bad about me. Then I asked what the conversation was about then I found out it had nothing to do with me at all and it was really quite the opposite of what I thought it was about. I do not know what happens with my mind and why it thinks this way. I just make myself self conscious and I just get really freaked out. It sucks. Another thing that I am afraid with is getting pulled over by a cop. I am a typical teenage driver and yes, I do indeed tend to speed quite a bit, especially at night. So when I am driving home and it is dark, and lets say I am going 60 in a 50, and I see lights in the distance, I make myself believe that the other car is a cop and I slow down a lot and quite frankly lose a lot of time because I will go down to like forty five and I am usually late at night because of undisclosed reasons.

Walden Literary Criticism

In one literary criticism which I read called Walden by Tiffany K. Wayne seemed like it was trying to get a point across. It seemed as if Wayne was trying to tell us that Thoreau's trip to Walden Pond was just a search to become better connected with nature for an indefinite period of time. In the criticism, she tells us Henry David Thoreau would frequently be ridiculed when he got back from the two year, two month trip; "Contrary to contemporary criticisms of Thoreau that he removed himself from society to live as a hermit during his "two years and two months" stay at the pond, Thoreau had no desire to live completely apart from human society" (Wayne). I thought it seemed pretty cool of Tiffany K. Wayne to tell us about how Henry David Thoreau was the first to tell us about measuring the depth of Walden Pond, "Walden Pond itself served as the best example of Henry David Thoreau's dual perspective of nature as having both physical and spiritual aspects, but also of having both knowable and unknown qualities. The pond itself is the symbolic center of the text, a place that Thoreau had known as a child and thus was, in a sense, part of his own self that he had come to learn about in new ways. The pond symbolized for Thoreau the human spirit or soul. Local legend was that the pond was bottomless, but Thoreau had set out first to measure the pond's depth—which he found to be more than 100 feet—and then to see that not as a limitation but as representative of holding specific identifiable truths that just have not yet been fully comprehended or mined" (Wayne). It was pretty cool to read about how a pond which Thoreau moved to and lived by could represent so much. Then having this person, Thoreau, telling us all of this information about this pond, and to find out that this pond had never been measured for its depth. Then this person who has been telling us all of the information, to be the one who measured and find that a small pond was not quite so small after all. This means almost there were parts of his soul to be discovered. This tends to make me think about my own soul and what I mean to the world and what I an do, and how I am connected to nature. Sometimes it seems hard to be connected to nature and I now understand why Henry David Thoreau wanted to get away from civilization and get in touch with nature and his self. It would be pretty cool to live by yourself for a couple of years by a pond and just have that time to think about everything. I would think it would be relaxing. According to Wayne, Thoreau only documented four seasons while he lived at Walden Pond in his story, Walden. Maybe the reason Thoreau only documented one half of his stay was because he was too busy enjoying himself and relaxing, being away form everybody else.




Wayne, Tiffany K. "Walden." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. accessed November 16, 2010.

Journal 23 - Unplugging

I think if some one were to "unplug" their life from all of their electrical things in their life it would be a really good thing for them. In my opinion you do not really need things that function on electricity. Back in my day we did not have no fancy schmancy electrical thingy mabobbers like those fancy cellular devices and radios. In my day we men were tough, we did not need no feminine mechanisms like those palm pads to accomplish things we men can do with our hands and the number one tool - our brains. Anyway, back to the subject. I would probably go to the middle of the back land woods in West Virginia where the cannibals from the Wrong Turn movies are supposed to be residing at. I think that it would be very relaxing just to be camping maybe with two or three of my best friends and just chill out in the woods for a day, a week, however long. It would be like the movie Without a Paddle and we would jsut be three guys facing the world and possibly hunting for DB's treasure. But being unconnected form the world and have no worries about anything in the world like stress from school, a job, whatever is causing problems in your life. I love having no worries, like the week of RAGBRAI I basically am just hanging out with two of my best friends for a whole week and the only thing I have to worry about is riding my bike seventy miles in something like fourteen hours. I think that someday I might do something like go away for a week and have no electronic devices. It would be nice and relaxing. It would be a little challenging yes, as I have to admit I am quite addicted to multiple electronic things like my computer (because of this class), my guitar (because I love playing music and I play the electric bass all the time), and my phone (because of my girlfriend but I do not mind being addicted to my phone because it is worth it to talk to her). It might start some good habits if I got away from civilization and "unplugged" my life.

Gandhi to Thoreau

Mahatma Gandhi's speech On the Eve of the Historic Dandi March and Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience have many similarities and even more differenced. They both are talking about, or their talking is based upon a ridiculous tax that neither of them want to pay. Mahatma Gandhi is talking about his refusal to accept a salt tax and Henry David Thoreau is talking about a poll tax that he does not want to pay. I think they both have very good reasons to angry about their taxes because both of the taxes were asinine. The salt tax which Mahatma Gandhi was mad about was ridiculous because it is salt. The British have no right to put a tax on a necessity at the time and place. The Indian people were not very wealthy at the time, well they still are not generally, but at the time they could not afford to be paying a lot of extra money for something that keeps their food fresh. Then Henry David Thoreau had a good point with his. The poll tax, or a poll tax I should say, is absolutely ridiculous. Yes, it is true that it is better for the wealthy people and it might raise more money for the government, but what about the poor? There is no way that the less fortunate people of the country could afford any poll tax because they simply just did not have the money. They can barely and in some cases cannot keep themselves living a healthy life. So I believe Henry David Thoreau had justification in his refusal to pay the poll tax.

There is one big difference in the two different writings. The time they write the essay, or speech. Henry David Thoreau write his essay, Civil Disobedience, after he had refused to pay the tax and he talked about what had happened to him when he was in jail and what happened before that and after jail. Mahatma Gandhi wrote his speech, On the Eve of the Historic Dandi March, before anything had happened to him. Gandhi says, "You may take it as my will. It was the message that I desired to impart to you before starting on the march or for the jail. I wish that there should be no suspension or abandonment of the war that commences tomorrow morning or earlier, if I am arrested before that time" (). He says he will probably and it is his goal to get arrested. He also says, "Today I shall confine myself to what you should do after my companions and I are arrested" (). He knows he is going to arrested so he just is telling the crowd what to do after he is taken away.

An obvious difference between the two writings is Mahatma Gandhi is addressing the people directly as it is a speech to a population of people who is there in front of him. Henry Davis Thoreau is just writing for a general population, no one in particular. He is just writing for himself and if someone were to pick it up and read it, then that is just fabulous for him.

"Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau." The Transcendentalists - including Ralph Waldo Emerson - Henry David Thoreau - Others - Dial Magazine. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. .

"Famous Speeches Of Gandhiji : On The Eve Of Historic Dandi March." Mani Bhavan - Gandhi Sangrahalaya: Mahatma Gandhi Museum & Reference Library. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. .

Journal 22 - Breaking the Law

So there is this crazy new thing called Romanticism where it is okay to break the law sometimes. Now if you are a criminal and think you can get away with whatever crimes you can because you are a Romanticist, YOU ARE WRONG!!!!!! There are some Romanticism philosophies that basically say it is okay to break the law. There is the philosophy of doing the wrong thing for the right reason.

So there was this one guy in history with the last name of Hood. His first name was pretty like a bird and it was Robin. So Robin was this cool guy that thought he should steal money from the rich people in his village and give the money he stole to the poor people. So he ran around burning our women and raping our churches to steal the money from the rich. Then he would give all of the money he stole from the wealthy people and gave it to the poor people so they could actually survive and not be in poverty. This is a case of breaking the law worse than Judas Priest. Yet according to the philosophies of Romanticism this was okay because he was stealing for the right reason, even though it may have seemed wrong, but really it was right, even though it was a bad thing, but it was for a good cause even though he was doing something bad, but really it was a good thing even though it seemed wrong.

Another Romanticism philosophy is putting yourself before the big picture of everything in the world. You are supposed to look at the things around you and decide what to do to make your life as good as you want it to be. So say if you want to steal something because you believe it will make you a better person and happy, then you can steal it wiht no consequence, according to Romanticism. The end.

Emerson and the work of Melancholia

I found it very interesting how Edmundson brings up the fact of why Ralph Waldo Emerson began to write his Romanticism writings. He talks about how he refused to mourn when his wife died in 1831 and then shortly after that Edmundson says that Emerson lost his best friend and brother, Charles. Then he tells us of James Cox telling Emerson it is okay to be sad in his The Circles of the Eye, "Getting over the deaths of loved ones is no tired or traditional 'spiritual' vision for Emerson precisely because it is a literal breathing in, or inspiration, of the death in life" ("Emerson and the Work of Melancholia."). I think when Emerson read that line he probably got the most inspiration he had ever gotten because he probably actually did begin to mourn the death of the two closest to him. Then from that mourning Emerson probably got this huge wave of new emotions coming at him and a bunch of them so he expressed this in his writing. Later in the Criticism we read an excerpt found in Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Compensation, "Every soul is by … intrinsic necessity quitting its whole system of things, its friends, and home, and laws, and faith, as the shell-fish crawls out of its beautiful but stony case, because it no longer admits of its growth, and slowly forms a new house. In proportion to the vigor of the individual, these revolutions are frequent, until in some happier mind they are incessant…. And such should be the outward biography of man in time, a putting off of dead circumstances day by day…. But to us, in our lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not cooperating with the divine expansion, this growth comes by shocks" ("Emerson and the Work of Melancholia."). That is a really deep statement almost about how he handled his whole situation with the deaths. He tells of how he put it off and put it off then he got used to having that "shell" on his back and by not facing this problem it would not allow him to grow.

I think the reason Emerson rejected Romanticism in the later years of his life was because he had finally moved on from the deaths that had happened earlier. When you think about it, and read everything I had written above it all makes sense. The whole reason he had started to write in the romanticist style was basically because he started to mourn the deaths of two loved ones earlier in his life. This was his whole reason seemingly that he started to write in the deeper style of Romanticism was because of these new emotions he was feeling. So as he grew older and he got more time to think to himself of these deaths he finally accepted them and embraced them. Then he looked at his writings from previous years and realized he did not have the same kind of compassion about that style of writing that he had had before. Then he just did not want to write in that style any more because he was past that stage in his life.

"Emerson and the Work of Melancholia." Raritan (Spring 1987). Quoted as "Emerson and the Work of Melancholia" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Updated Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. (accessed November 7, 2010).

Journal 21 - Emerson to Franklin

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Benjamin Franklin both believed in making themselves better people, in a sense. They both thought that if they could make themselves better they would make the world better. Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that an individual should believe in themselves and become their own individual and not be like any other person in the world. He believed that at the time when he was writing that the world was conforming too much and everyone was being to similar to everyone else. So you should be yourself so you are not like anybody else and you keep your individuality. Benjamin Franklin believed there should be this set of doctrines, well he used virtues to be that person. This set of virtues that he would use was a list of thirteen that attempted to make him a better person. It worked for a while but then it got old and he did not do those virtues anymore. I like turtles. I think Emerson's Self Reliance was better because by believing in yourself and becoming your own individual will last forever. I wish I was half of how good of writers Emerson and Franklin were because then I would have no problem with this class. Then it would be awesome and life would be easy because Franklin and Emerson were beasts at everything. I wish I had invented something like electricity. Maybe I will someday. Franklin and Emerson are just really awesome people and I would really like them. If only if only the woodpecker cries, I wish I could write more or else I will cry. I should be a rapper did you just read that rap? That was sick and off the chains. What if I started to speak in rhyme? That would probably the coolest thing since sliced bread. I should also invest in Brandon because he is hilarious and he has some great stories form the place that is Best Buy.

Journal 20 - Self Reflection and Taking a Break from Society

It is always a good idea to take some time away form the norm and get to to know yourself a little bit better. Take Bobby here for example, he used to be very sad about everything in his life and in the world around him. Bobby was kind of a loner. He was that person who did not have any family still around. He had had no friends for who knows how many years, and he just did not really like his life. One day he decided to go for a nice little walk in the woods. This was not just your casual walk through the woods in my backyards, he was walking through the woods in back country West Virginia. He just kept walking and soon enough it was night time. He just decided to camp out that night in a tree so he did. In the morning Bobby woke up and decided to go for another walk. So he walked all that day too. Once again he slept in the woods. He kept doing this every day and soon enough he was connected to the world. He was living on mother nature's nurturing. Soon enough he was in Georgia. He had walked through most of West Virginia and all of North Carolina until he was in Gainesville Georgia. You see, Bobby really liked Gainesville. He walked into the gas station at the town and he fell in love with the cashier, Rhonda. It seemed as if by spending a year in the woods Bobby had become more sociable and he knew his limits now; he had none. So Bobby and Rhonda fell in love. Soon enough Bobby became a public image for the town of Gainesville and he soon ran for mayor. He won in a landslide result and he made the society a perfect one all because he took a year break from civilized life. As in Bobby's case it was nice to take a break from society and reflect on himself.

Journal 19 - Ideal United States

The ideal picture of the United States would be led by the best President ever, Franklin D. Roosevelt. He had such a good image of the United States. The New Deal was a great idea that he had. It made the United States beautiful all the way around. Then it brought us out of the Depression. It was just genius of him to create a way to get people jobs and make the whole structure of the United States way better off. I am not sure how that would work out in today's society considering we do not really need any more public works constructed and we are very modernized now. I am sure Franklin D. Roosevelt could figure something out though to improve the economy of our nation. He was a great president during the war as well. I am sure he would have handled the whole war on terrorism much better than George Bush did. I think something that would improve our nation a lot would be to stop buying so many foreign products. That is what started the whole recession we went into. It also screwed over GM with everything that happened. If we just bought American goods and items it would boost our economy greatly. If only people could have realized this before everything happen. Another thing would be to make the states more independent and let them rule themselves more. I do not like the idea of states because they are like countries within a country, but the bigger country rules everything else while the other countries inside of that larger country have their own rules that are not really important. So maybe the ideal United States would be to just stop the federal government and just make all of the states their own countries considering they are just as big as countries in Europe. That is a little bit more debatable than just buying American goods, but hey you never know what could work considering our country is terrible with government anyway.