Last Blog

So after reading "Roman Fever" and "Soft Hearted Sioux" I had a lot of thoughts. "Roman Fever" was a story that I almost want to call fun. I loved the ending, even after the analysis today in class, I still feel as though it was a huge surprise ending. The analysis we had in class today was fun as well, and makes me have not that much to say here. Same with "Soft Hearted Sioux" it was really helpful to have talked about the story ahead of time when we discussed Zitkala Sa in class, it helped me become better involved in the story and learn and remember it better. This class was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed all of the readings we have done. Thank you so much for the great class everyone!

Precis..and more

I figured for this weeks blog post, that I would put my Precis assignment on here, and tell you all a little about it. I decided to write my paper on works that include relgious aspects during our time period, and then look at other works from the same time as well as the journals the works from class were published in, in order to see if they were considered mainstream or if they were extraordinary. At the end of my precis, I asked some questions that are essentially the main focus of my paper and need much more research to figure out, research that I am doing in order to finish my paper and in order to learn more about the past world that we live in.

“Devil’s Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy” by David Roberts is about the migration of Mormon followers from Iowa to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1856. It goes into the details of Brigham Young’s movement to get his 3,000 followers to pack up their belongings and travel 1,300 miles to Utah. These followers were too poor to pay for wagons or horse teams so they were instructed by Brigham Young to use handcarts instead.
The first chapter of this book, titled “Patience” introduces the story through the true-life character named Patience. Patience’s family is described and the trek they have completed so far— as well as the many miles to come—is discussed. The Handcart itself is then discussed, its light easy use, along with the rickety fragility that made the vehicles something that constantly needed to be fixed, and a bane to the emigrants existence as four to five emigrants pushed or pulled a single handcart at a time.
Throughout the story, there are journal entries written by another member of their group, Joseph Beecroft told his story right away unlike Patience, who waited until 30 years after to write her story. There are references to Patience’s journal as well and a description of her and her life before this event. After the background of Patience, the story goes into more detail from her memoir and a summary of the beginning of their journey west.
Looking at the background of this story, I learned that emigrants were destitute immigrants from northern Europe who, if outspoken against the trip west, were publicly humiliated by church elders and coerced into participating.

This book gives you a look at the feelings, pain, and anger that the people who lived through this, and the ones that didn’t, must have felt. By using the real-life memoirs of people who completed the journey, it is easier to see how people felt about what was happening to them. It was also easier to feel as those people felt who where there to hear about events like these.
Many works at this time, that involve religion, all seem to be looking at the negative side of that religion, and the story focuses on the plight of the people fighting the yoke of their faith. Whether they come out in the end triumphant over that religion or they have learned what they were missing and have a stronger faith because of it, the public seems to enjoy reading about it.
Some strengths that this chapter has, in correlation with my paper, if the up-close look at how many people viewed religion during this time, and how they were treated if they did not accept that religion. It also connects well with one of the works I chose to use, being of the same subject matter.
A weakness that the chapter had is that I am still in the dark about how the ideas in this book and other ideas like this were received by those not part of the religion. How did the neighbors of those making this trek feel about the friends going west with handcarts in the winter? How did non-member family members take it?

presentations

I thought that the presentations where really intersting today. It was a new way to learn the subject matter we have been studying, and even though the assignments got mixed up, I almost thought that our presentations where more interesting because of the connections between them and we all did a good job not saying the exact same things. We had different aspects of the topic, which made it even more interesting.
I really liked how the presentations broke up the class schedule and gave a new voice to the things we are learning, like the Chesnutt lessons! Not that I have any problem with Prof. Campbell's teaching, I actually find it more interesting than most.
I actually think Jack London is a great author and I love his work, sad, but good. So it was interesting to me to learn about Jack London not only in my own research but in his background and some of the things he did in his life.
I am excited for more presentations.

Chesnuut's Nuttiness!

After reading "The Goophered Grapevine" by myself, I honestly had no investment in the story, and wasn't sure of what I had even just read. The dialect in this writing made it hard to read and so, hard to understand. But, after the talk we had in class about the story, I not only understand the story better, but I actually like it and want to read the next one, out loud of course. :-)The discussion about the second story made it sound really interesting and I went and read it even though it was no longer required.
I found it really interesting that the stories became more and more "preachy" as time went on. As big things began happening in the US, Chesnutt used hidden humor and underlying actions between the characters that shows the overall northern sympathy for southern blacks.

visit to the MASC

Today, we visited the MASC and I became really excited about looking at older works and studying the works in their original form and seeing original things on those works. I am really interested in religious studies in general. I like to see how people react to different religions at different times and what I can look at in this class for the next paper will help me research more into those topics. Everything we have read so far either seems to address religion or is influenced by the authors religious feelings. Finally getting to look deeper into that religious influence and see if it accepted at the times, if it is mainstream, and if it has a negative effect on the authors writing. I need to find a specific topic to focus on for the paper, and still need to decide which works I am going to use and such, but I am finally really excited by a paper and have gotten a lot of ideas!

Word Cloud on Daisy Miller

http://tagcrowd.com/ ---doesnt work heres a link to the cloud after i printscreened it and then uploaded it to photobucket...http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e297/SammyRZ/daisymillerwordcloud.jpg

I made a word cloud for Daisy Miller because I was really interested to see if the word pretty really was one that was used a lot in this story. I was really interested to find that "Winterbourne" was the most used word in this story, especially considering the fact that the story really isn't about him. "Pretty" is used quite a bit though, not nearly as much as "Winterbourne" then "Daisy" then "Young" then "Mrs" then "Daisy". I find it very ineresting that "young" is a big word, considering the discussion we had today about what "pretty" meant in the terms of this story, and what it usually implies about the person being described. "Young" was one of the first words we used to decribe pretty and its used a lot.
"Girl", "Going", and "American are also really intersting words to have repeated in this story, based on the fact that the characters travel so much in the story and it is a story about a girl, and the main characters are all american. After finally finishing this story, I found it a little more intersting than I previously thought, but it still needs to get to the point much quicker in many, many cases. Beyond all of that though, I found it the most intersting of all that Winterbourne is the most used word in this story, especially since I thought he was essentially the narrator of the story.

Mark Twain is the first comedian!

More than anything I was struck by the hilarity of Mark Twain’s writing. I realize that he wrote serious pieces and parts of Huck Finn are serious as well, but everything that we have read so far has been so funny! The dry, sarcastic tone to most of the things he writes, and the fact that he makes so much fun of respected authors of the time without even a care. It’s funny that the people being made fun of and the people reading it don’t understand the fact that he is trying to be funny. The lack of understanding makes it even funnier to read after the fact.
Everything that Mark Twain writes that is supposed to be taken seriously as isn’t serious at all. He starts out his writing as though it is serious, maybe a brochure or a analysis of people and starts out like it is saying something good about the place or person and then he undercuts himself by saying something that comes across as negative. A good example of this is “A Visit to Niagara” where he describes Niagara Falls and its good features and almost immediately says something you would not want to see or hear about the place. Also when he makes fun of important people, the outrage and anger that people do in reaction is funny to readers of our time because its so easy for us to see that it is meant as a joke and obviously isn’t meant to be taken in complete seriousness. We can tell that it is a roast of that person. I love it, I love this type of sense of humor and it actually makes me want to read more by Mark Twain. I think that Mark Twain created the roast and was the first true comedian as we know comedians today.

Three Words on Emily Dickinson

It’s not a word but the use of the hyphen in Emily Dickinson’s writing is very significant, important, and intriguing. “They” is an important word in all of Dickinson’s writing, the connection she makes to the outside world even though she spends most of her adult life in seclusion is interesting. And “Me”.
The use of the hyphen is interesting in Dickinson’s writing because it adds so much emphasis to certain words, it adds voice to her writing, and it makes you notice the parts of her writing she wants noticed. It makes her point so much stronger, as she details her life and her feelings, her thoughts and her dreams, we are instructed to pause and digest as we read by each and every hyphen.
Every time she uses the word “They” it intrigues me based on the fact that Emily Dickinson spent her adult life as a recluse. After caring for her sick mother for the majority of her life before connecting to the outside world only through correspondence, she had to have experienced a good amount of life in order to connect so well with what everyone thinks. So many people consider her one of the greatest writers of all time, and most of her writing was done from memory, from vicarious living, from pretend. In her mind, she came up with these poems about herself and others, watching others live their lives.
The use of “Me” is interesting as an opposite to the word “They”. In her reclusive life, she has to keep inside her own head. Thinking about herself in terms of herself is really what her world must revolve around. Her poems become very introverted as time goes on, and you can see the change readily as her writing goes from reaching out to the outside world to reaching within herself alone.

Textual Studies and Emily

After working in the AML this week, I decided that what we are studying, and the connection to the internet is very interesting. Textual Studies is really cool. I have always been interested in the original writing of writers and comparing it to the finished product. I do the same thing with my own writing, going back and seeing what I changed, trying to remember why. It gives me a great deal of insight into what I was thinking at different times, something you can see when you go look at these writings online. In looking at different examples of the development of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickenson’s writing, I was excited to see that Emily would ask her sister about her writing. It makes her so much more real to know that she didn’t just come up with the amazing writing that we see today, and not only through her own revision did she come up with it, but also by asking others.
After reading some of Emily Dickinson’s writing, I found it so interesting that her lifestyle so goes against what her writing portrays. Her life as a recluse really makes her writing seem even better. The fact that she can connect to the outside world so well and describe feelings she may have never felt in her life. Everything that she wrote really touches some part of every reader. The fact that she connects to so many people, becoming probably one of the best writers of her and our time, makes her writing so much easier to appreciate. Her understanding of the world around her is so deep; her interpretation of the events going on around her is amazing.

Current Connections

After reading “A March in the Ranks Hard-prest and the Road Unknown” I felt a strong connection to today’s events with the many conflicts occurring all over the world, concerning the United States and many other countries.
Many of these countries are unknown to the people being sent to them to fight. They have never had to live in that type of climate and all of the sudden they are trained to live there for years at a time, following many “roads unknown”. Along with the unknown aspect, the fact that this narrator is observing crowds, people, all injured and fighting, trying to sleep when they can, dying all around him, its all very reminiscent of what’s going on, soldiers are dying everyday in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other places. Soldiers are also watching their comrades die, watching the enemy die, not knowing if they deserved to die or not, watching people they don’t even know die, and just continuing on. There is hardly a break for fighting soldiers, whenever they find a moment of rest, the time comes again to “fall in” and march out again, fighting the “good fight” and defending their country. There are also many soldiers fighting who have just barely reached the age where they are able to fight, or maybe even younger, “mere lads” in the warrior world and they are out fighting and dying. They fight their ways through, “wild red flame, and clouds of smoke” fighting to see each other and the people they are fighting. They are “ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks” on and on everyday, waiting for the conflict to end. They are on the “unknown road still marching”.

The Beginning

Test Blog for all those out there who are going to read this, I don't count this as my first, but now I know how!

~Sam