Edward Said: "States"

          In "States" Edward Said writes about his own homeland Palestine and how his people were exiled from their homeland. "Exile is a series of portraits without names, without context", it takes peoples pride away from them and they feel like aliens to their own country. This is an awful thing to feel since ones country becomes part of who they are, where they grew up, and means something to them. "The colors of the Palestinian flag are outlawed by Israeli military law". This shows how they were under tight restrictions and being treated as aliens in their own country. Things that these people hope and pray for are things that we take advantage of everyday; like being able to use the colors red white and blue.
            Said uses pictures to show his emotion of how the Palestinians are affected. This relates to Berger's essay "Ways of Seeing". He uses pictures to support his claim because seeing comes before believing, and our sight is affected by our beliefs. These images isolate and preserve a particular moment he is trying to express to us through his essay. "Ways of Seeing" supports the idea of seeing before believing and that our beliefs are affected by what we see.
Question: what does he en exile is a series of portraits without context?

Du Bois: "The Souls of Black Folk"

          Du Bois writes "The Souls of Black Folk" discussing the discrimination still on the black community even though society is "integrated". He describes the black history as a "longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge himself into a better and truer self. He wishes that a man could both be a Negro and an American, because when he tries, he feels put down and cursed upon. However, Du Bois claims that Negro blood has a message for this world and will not bleach their soul to Americanism. He is seeking to be an free individual living in a world who shuts doors in his face. He seeks freedom to love, think, and live.
          This essay is a very enlightenment way of thinking. During the enlightenment people started to think for themselves, and straying from the norm. People also became less oppressed because they took a stand for their own beliefs instead of being told from the priest what to believe. More people became free during the enlightenment. Du Bois is taking a stand for his beliefs weather or not the majority agree with him. He is legally free but is taking a stand against harsh treatment from oppressors.
Question: What was the seventh thing he was talking about?

 

Orwell George: "Shooting an Elephant"

          In the twentieth century, the narrator explains how he is a British police officer in Burma where there Europeans were greatly looked down upon and treated with disrespect. The officer receives a call that an elephant is on the loose and needs to be tamed, so he grabs his gun intentionally for his own protection. He follows where people tell him to go and finds that a man has been killed by the elephant. Soon he runs into the beast and has to make the decision weather or not he is going to shoot the animal. He does not want to look like a fool, so he shoots the elephant, barley making an impact on the large animal, shooting him a few more times till he falls on the ground barely breathing. While walking away he thinks that it was legal to shoot the animal and it made him not look like a fool, however he feels that he has murdered the elephant.
          This story is a metaphor for British imperialism at this time. The elephant was a good example that when he turns tyrant, he destroys his own freedom. tyrant. Wild and untamed is the same way he views imperialism which causes an end to freedom. He uses the British officer to symbolize imperial country, and he uses the elephant to symbolize the victims of imperialist having their freedom taken from them.

Question: Why didn't he stand up for his beliefs?

Stephen Crane: "The Open Boat"

          "The Open Boat" is a short story about four men who whose ship wrecked. The oiler, the captain, the correspondent and the cook where all trying to survive the fierce water on a small life boat. When they see land, they also see a light house and realize that there is civilization up ahead, however the water is so rough that they do not think that they can make it to the shore. They then see people on the shore who signal for the men to come to shore. Finally, after a few weakening days with no attempt of a rescue, the men decide they need to try to get to shore. They swim to shore and the waves become so rough that they are banged around, washed up onto the shore where the people then help them. Once they reached shore, they saw the oilers body washed up face down. Even though the oiler was the strongest man out of the bunch, the sea took his life.
          It is ironic how the sea took the strongest mans life. This shows how powerful nature can be. This relates to the naturalistic belief that man is not better that nature. It shows that nature can in fact conquer man. These men were fighting for their lives against the universe who does not care weather they live or die which is exactly a naturalists view on life.

Question: How closely does this relate to his own shipwreck experience?

Stephen Crane: "A Man Said to the Universe"

          Steven Crane's short poem "A Man Said to the Universe" starts of with a proud man yelling to the universe. He lets the universe know that he is in fact existent. He does this in a forthright manner saying firmly "sir! I exist!". However, in reply the universe says that he is not moved by the fact the the man exists. Untimely, the world does not care that we exist and does not owe us anything. The world shuts down the man and lets the man know that he is not as important as he thinks he is.
          This poem relates to the naturalists thoughts the world, God and life. The would compare the universe to God. Both being huge and powerful, naturalists believe that there is in fact a God that exists who is big and capable of a lot of things. However their deist mindset leads them to believe that God does not care about them at all. The universe is not affected by man, nor does he care, as well as Crane and naturalists believing God not being affected by man and nor does he care.

Question: Why did they think that he didn't care?

          

Kate Chopin: "The Story of an Hour"

           "The Story of an Hour" is a story about a woman who found out that her husband has just died. Her immediate reaction was to cry and grieve over the loss of her husband; and she did this while her friend supported her. However, as time went on, she started to think more about what it meant that her husband was gone and she had a 'light bulb moment'. She yells "free, free, free!" because she realizes that she no longer has to succumb to her husband, instead she can live for herself. He was at peace with her husbands death and very relaxed knowing what her life would now look like. Unfortunately, her husband was not killed in an accident and Mrs. Mallard dies "of the joy that kills her". This short story shows how the women during this time period were being oppressed by their husbands.
          "The Story of an Hour" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" both relate in that wives become unhappy and depressed with their lives because all they can do is listen to society, and obey their husbands orders. Women stayed at home all day and became very depressed even though they had a lot. This is what happened in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the husband thought that his wife was acting very strange and needed help, while the doctor side of him saw nothing seriously wrong with her, she was simply depressed and going crazy from it. Furthermore, I am glad that marriage do not currently strictly operate with the ruling husband and obedient depressed wife.

Question: When did marriage start to change (become less strict).

William Dean Howells: "Critcism and Fiction"

           In William Dean Howell's "Criticism and Fiction", he argues his opinion of good literature. Howells idea of good literature is the honest truth. Simple truthful literature is without sugar coating and without being mystified. He says that authors are conforming to fame, and 'whats hot' instead of being original ."If the truth could become a fad it would be accepted by all their 'smart people', but truth is something rather too large for that; and we must await the gradual advance of civilization among them." He also says that authors are being taught to think that what they think is good instead of first finding the good and thinking it. However, he does commend Jane Austen because she was forthright, honest, and  created "material with entire truthfulness." Furthermore, Howells claims that literature needs to convey the simple truth instead of a distorted truth that looks pleasing to the eye.
          This connects to Annie Dillard and her essay "Total Eclipse", Berger, and Freire. These all explain or show examples of mystification. Mystification is someone telling you what to see. Howell explains that if you are writing while being mystified, then this is bad literature. Meaning that if you write something that someone else already told you is the truth, it is bad literature. Instead you should write your own thoughts and speak the simple straight forward truth.

Question: Hasn't everyone been 'mystified', making everything bad literature?

Jonathan Franzen: "Liking is for Cowards. Go for what Hurts"

         Jonathan Franzen starts off his essay by talking about his relationship with his phone. Franzen was very impressed in how far technology had advanced in three years when he got his new phone. He says that a phone and a person have a very unique relationship in that the beloved phone asks for nothing, and gives everything making us feel more powerful. The goal of technology is to "replace a natural world that is indifferent to our wished- a world of hurricanes and hardships and breakable hearts, a world of resistance- with a world so responsive to our wished as to be effectively, a mere extension of the self". He goes on then to talk about how "technology is troubled by real love and it has no choice but to trouble love in return".  Our lives through technology are filtered because we often seem different than who we truly are on the internet. He challenges one to expose your whole self not just the things people would "like" on Facebook, and if these things are rejected, it will be painful. Furthermore his goal in this essay is to contrast real love and narcissistic tendencies of technology.
          This essay relates to the "Is Google Making us Stupid" essay. Franzen talks about the artificial love in technology, and the artificial "liking" on Facebook, while Carr talks about technology building an artificial intelligence. Staying in your room simply gloating around on technology all day is a completely different thing than living life in the real world. On the internet you could fall in artificial love with things that will treat you with everything instantly and in the real world you could fall in actual love with things, and who knows what could happen to you there.

Question: Does he think this is a bad thing?

Nicholas Carr: "Is Google Making us Stupid?"

Nicholas Carr starts off his essay by examining how the habits of concentrations has started to change over the decades. Many years ago he would be able to easily immerse himself into a book or lengthy article , spending hours at a time trying to understand a text. However, nowadays he feels that his concentration is not as good as it used to be, drifting after about two or three pages, looking for something else to do. He also talks to some of his friends, and they too are struggling with the same problem. He infers that research on the Web (Google search) is now done in nearly minutes, as it used to take days looking through books. He says "the more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focussed on a long piece of writing". Researches have found that we are now seeing a change in the way we read and think.  They say that "our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged." Meaning that we are not engaging in texts enough, simply reading summaries and easy-to-browse information, and it is effecting the way we think. Google is "really trying to build an artificial intelligence and do it on a large scale". This suggests that Google's economic interest is puting intelligence under the rug and driving us to distraction.

While it is true that we rely on computers to "mediate our understanding of the world" and our intelligence is "flattened into artificial inteligence", the internet is also exrtemely helpful. The Internet helps society keep up with the fast pace current society. It is also very benificial giving us tons of information right at our fingertips. However, we should not simply listen to the Internet and all of its teachings, but we should expierience many things as well. Just as the narrator in 'When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" by Walt Whitman expierinced nature for himself instead of only listening to the professer; we should also experience things ourself, not simply relying on the Internet.

Question: How do you think this will effect life in say 200 years?

Foucault: "Panopticism"

          Foucault starts of "Panopticism"  by describing this town that has become full of disease under a quarantine. People are trapped inside their house, and if the leave it then they will be killed. Only the guards and officials are aloud to walk around, checking who has died and who is still alive. The people are watched like a hulk, having guards at the end of each street to make sure no one goes anywhere. He says that "the plague is met with order" meaning that first the chaos of the plague will bring purification throughout the town, and second it will result in a disciplined society. Foucault goes on to explain his utopia of the perfectly governed city. Jeremy Bentham creates the plan of the Panopticon, which is "a distinct power that bears in distinct way over over all individual bodies". Essentially it is the idea that of measuring, supervising, isolating, and correcting the individual. This idea says that one will be watched all the time, never being in communication with anyone. Furthermore, the inmate never knows exactly when he is being watched, so he must assume that he is always being watched . The benefits to Panopticon would be that there would be no more bars, chains, heavy locks, or physical punishment.

          This reading connects with an earlier unit, Unit 3, Colonial Literature. They relate in the way they want to build a community by purifying it. When the early Plymouth settlers came and settled, they first thing they had to do was build a wall, and establish what is and is not included in their settlement. They built of their "city on a hill" and completely disregarded/despised what was not in the community. This includes nature, and the Indians who were seen as evil. However the main thing that they believed was to purify the community from all of the outside evils. Furthermore, they both focus on purifying and resulting in a 'utopia'/'city on a hill' society.

Question: How would this ever work?

Walt Whitman: "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"

          When I Hear the Learn'd Astronomer is a poem about the narrators reaction to hearing one teach about astrology. He is in a lecture, being taught by a smart learn'd astronomer about complicated things. He teaches about proofs, figures, charts, diagrams, and how to add, divide and measure them. Finally after being taught these things he felt sick and tired, and took a walk outside. When he got outside he looked at the stars in the sky and realized how beautiful it is.
          This poem could mean many different things. However, the main lesson it is teaching that the best way to learn something is to experience it. The narrator was taught by a smart guy many useful things, however he was not at peace until he went outside and experienced the night sky for himself. Furthermore When I Hear the Learn'd Astronomer shows you that sometimes learning through professors, charts, lectures, and diagrams is not always the most effective way; rather learning through experience has more of an impact on one.This connects with Paulo Freire and his outlook on Problem Posing education, which says that teaching shouldn't just be about teachers telling you what you ought to know and think, but one thinking for themselves.

Question: Why did he become sick?

Walt Whitman- "The Wound-Dresser"

          The Wound Dresser written by Walt Whitman was in response to children (the youth), answering their questions they had for him about the Civil War. He goes on and talks about the war, his experiences and challenges. Hospitals were set up as tents, with a line of wounded people laying outside of it. Buckets of rags were filled with blood endless times over. He says that there are many wounded, bloodshed, and death. Sometimes he simply sat there and silently watched the dead. "Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death! In mercy come quickly"; he is saying that there is so much suffering that the most merciful way out is to die. Furthermore, the Civil War was full of suffering and bloodshed.
          In this poem it is I find it interesting that he does not talk about any of the joys that he experienced in war. Instead he told stories about his and others miserable suffering. He did this because it was in fact one of the bloodiest wars in American history. Common people saw the victories as the war,  but the soldiers lived it and he describes the suffering and death. This connects to William Wordsworth because Wordsworth says it is the job of the poet to show the truths and beauty that the common people are missing. Therefore, Whitman is doing the job of a poet by writing and expressing his truths to the youth about the Civil War.

Question: Why was he content with many hardship and few joys?

Thoreau: "Resistance to Civil Government"

          Henry David Thoreau believes that the government is no longer expressing the will of the people, but it has become "abused and perverted". He says that "the government is best which governs least". This means that the best government would be a government that barley even has to govern. I fact he says that the government has been the most useful when it just stood aside. He goes on to talk about many accomplishments in the country, and how they weren't really caused by the government, but by the people. Thoreau says that the government listens to the majority, which sometimes shouldn't always be the cause because in some instances the government should listen to the smarter and more thoughtful group. Another point he makes is that too much law can cause people to do a lot of stupid things. Thoreau's conclusion is hat we should avoid government all together and it is our duty to rebel.
          Thoreau writes all these things because he wants to stop slavery and the Mexican War. I think that he has a very strong claim with very supportive reasons. The back up for his claim are very persuasive because they seem appealing to men. However some would rebuttal that although there is room for improvement, the government is important to keep the structure and order in the United States. I think that all of his reasons are very logical and for a good cause (ending war and slavery), however we need a government to stabilize the country.

Question: What exactly would he want in place of a government to keep order?

Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Nature"

          In his eight chapters in 'Nature' by Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about his basic ideas of the harmony of mankind and nature. He says that nature and humans are linked, and that nature shows a deeper wisdom, happiness, and "always wears the colors of the spirit". Emerson expresses a commodity of nature and humans, saying that they work hand-in-hand with each other, complimenting each other. He gives an example that with a work of nature, animals get fed which feed humans. Beauty also provides a connection between man and nature, because they are both full of truth and beauty. Emerson says that language started off using symbols of nature to communicate between humans. He also states that discipline, idealism, and spirit connect humans and nature. He concludes with prospects. Nature, commodity, beauty, discipline, idealism, spirit, and prospects are Emerson's main points that connect nature and humans.
         Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson discusses  how our universe is made up of nature and the soul. This opposes what the first settlers would have said. They would have argued and said that nature is evil, bad, and people should stay away from it. However over time you see a change in perspective on nature. It slowly devolves from being the enemy to being good. John Edwards says that nature is actually good, it is just mad at humans.However among the years the relationship between nature and humans has developed into a harmonious liked relationship instead of a rivalry.

Question: Does he believe that nature and humans are on the same level?

Edgar Allan Poe- "The Tell-Tale Heart"

           "The Tell-Tale Heart" is another one of Edgar Allan Poe's odd, thrilling short stories. In this short story the narrator lives in a house with this extremely unattractive old man. Every single time the narrator looks at this old man, he cant take it because the man is so ugly and has this bulging eye that creeps him out. This eye makes the narrator so incredibly freaked out that he desperately wants to get rid of the old man. He finally decides he will get rid of the man by killing him. He tried many times while the man was asleep; however he could not bring himself to do it. But in the mornings when he sees the man with his eye open he wished he had killed him. Finally he sneaks into his room, kills him, cuts apart the body into pieces, and puts it under the wood floor. The police come because the neighbors reported a shriek. They inspect the house and find nothing, so they all sit in the very room in which the old man is buried. The narrator is haunted by the heart beat of the old man and finally goes mad, ripping the floor up, revealing the remains of the man.
          Again Poe has written another weird creepy short story that I have found very interesting and entertaining. This story shows guilt in an interesting way. The narrator did not go crazy because he was mad and rip up the floors revealing the man, however his guilt ate away at him so much that he could not take it any more.  Many people feel this way inside about guilt, and Poe shows what too much guilt will do to one; eating away at them. He uses the heartbeat of the man to represent the narrators guilty conscience.

Question: How did he know the 'old man'?

Edgar Allan Poe-"The Fall of the House of Usher"

          "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a thrilling short story about a man who goes to visit a childhood friend of his because his friend had written to him and told him that he was sick. The narrator goes to his old friend's- Roderick Usher- house and sees for himself that his friend is in fact sick. Roderick explains to him that he and his sister are the last of the Ushers, and she is about to die soon. She then does 'die', and they put her in the basement area in the house. One creepy night neither of them could sleep, and Roderick thinks he hears his sister and is scared that they buried her alive. They check downstairs; she was covered in blood standing in the doorway and throws herself at Roderick, and he eventually dies. The narrator runs away from the house.
           I enjoy Edgar Allan Poe short stories, especially The Fall of the House of Usher. This short story was weird and very entertaining. It kept you reading because you always wanted to know what was going to happen next. The spin at the end was great. In general I like Poes odd writing style.     

Question: Did she intentionally kill him?

Edgar Allan Poe- "The Raven"

          "The Raven", by Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most known short stories of Poe. It is known for its dramatic qualities, and its unique story. In this short story there is a man sitting in his house and he keeps hearing knocking noises and thinks it is the wind. Eventually he figures out that there is a bird tapping outside. He starts talking to the  bird and surprisingly he talks back, although he only says 'nevermore'. He keeps talking to the bird, and all he has to say is the same word; nevermore. Finally he gets aggravated and says the bird is from the devil.
          This was a nice story to read, and a good change up from the usual packets. Short stories are great because they are short and sweet. In this poem the main character is dwelling over an old lover named Lenore who has gone. He talks to the bird about it but the bird simply brings him down by saying nevermore. In conclusion I liked this short story because it was short, and to the point.

Question: Why does he choose the bird to be a raven?