After reading the two poems by Francis Harper (1230-33) and the two by John Greenleaf Whittier (1220-24), skim over chapter 5 in Gardner's _Writing about Literature_. Choose one of the elements of poetry (speaker, listener, imagery, sound and sense) to analyze in one of the poems.
All the poems are narrative (they tell a story) but they also are advocating social reform, specifically the abolition of slavery. In your journal analyze how one element of poetry persuades the audience to action. Write 200-300 words, citing specific evidence from the poem itself
After I spent time looking at the difference between speaker, listener, imagery, sound and sense; I really felt as if imagery could get a person to want to join the abolition movement. When someone uses strong imagery you can really invoke the emotion you are trying to convey from your poem. After carefully reading all 4 of the poems, John Greenleaf Whittier's "The Hunters of Men" really gave me a strong feeling of wanting to go abolish slavery, even if though it has already been done! You can feel the emotion in this writing. "Oh, goodly and grand is our hunting to see, In this "land of the brave and this home of the free." Priest, warrior, statesman, from Georgia to Maine, All mounting the saddle, all grasping the rein; Right merrily hunting the black man" this quote from the poem really explains the feelings Whittier's has towards slavery. As a Quaker abolitionist he adds in the part of "land of the free and the brave" but then continues to go on and show they are hunting the black man, therefore explaining that not all men are free on this land. The title it self is paints a huge piece of imagery used in this poem "The Hunters of Men" since in this time abolitionists are trying to get people to join this movement titling a poem about how men are being hunted really explains how men are not something to be hunting.
While reading this poem I had images of white males riding horses through the woods searching for black men running on foot, I do not believe that is an image that any one should be able to imagine. I believe that Whittier purposefully made this his image of the poem to evoke the emotion of disbelief in people that this is actually happening and no man should free being hunted by his fellow man. The opening lines of the poem "Have ye heard of our hunting, o'er mountain and glen, Through cane-breake and forest,- the hunting of men?" Paints the picture of black men running from white men so perfectly. Opening with these lines are perfect to give you that image I previously explained.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
"Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl" 9/22
1. Class: How does membership in a social class affect the characters' choices and their successes or failures? How does class affect the way characters view-- or are viewed by-- others? What do economic struggles reveal about power relationships in the society being depicted?
Even the title gives away the class and struggles of the main character. Linda Brant was born a slave and knew no difference in her life. She struggled from the beginning with the feeling of inferiority to her white counterparts, beside from the couple of years she had a mistress who cared for her and treated her with kindness. Eventually, Linda fell in love with a free black man but her status of slave or class she was born into forbade her from marrying this man. When she went to ask her master for his permission he would not allow it because she was his "property." How can a person be someones property any way? Her master explains she can marry one of his slaves. She interjects and wonders if he even realizes that she herself could have some preference in who she wants to marry. When asked if she loves this free man she replies with a simple yes and she struck because of it. She is affected by her class because she cannot even explain how she loves someone to her master without fear of being hit. Can you imagine telling someone that you are in love and then being struck for it? I sure cannot. But, even this free black man she wants to marry and he, himself, is in love with her would have to purchase her from her master to even marry her. Another class side effect that has plagued this poor young women. Her master begins to sexually harass this poor women, but because she comes from the slaves class, her mistress blames her for the unimaginable choices her husband is making. How can someone be blamed for something they did not want nor ask for. How can a women herself hate another women because she is being harassed by her own husband. Both of these happen because she is a slave and has no power. For this slave, her entire life was a struggle because she was born into the bottom class. Even when she became free she had to run and hide because her old master wanted her back.
I still see some of these struggles within different classes today that people have to struggle and over come. Being born into and economically disadvantaged family can affect your entire life. In school, children make fun you, you struggle to get to college and you struggle after trying to make something of yourself and not fall into the low SES you came from. It is an uphill battle your entire life to overcome any struggle you faced at a point in your life.
Even the title gives away the class and struggles of the main character. Linda Brant was born a slave and knew no difference in her life. She struggled from the beginning with the feeling of inferiority to her white counterparts, beside from the couple of years she had a mistress who cared for her and treated her with kindness. Eventually, Linda fell in love with a free black man but her status of slave or class she was born into forbade her from marrying this man. When she went to ask her master for his permission he would not allow it because she was his "property." How can a person be someones property any way? Her master explains she can marry one of his slaves. She interjects and wonders if he even realizes that she herself could have some preference in who she wants to marry. When asked if she loves this free man she replies with a simple yes and she struck because of it. She is affected by her class because she cannot even explain how she loves someone to her master without fear of being hit. Can you imagine telling someone that you are in love and then being struck for it? I sure cannot. But, even this free black man she wants to marry and he, himself, is in love with her would have to purchase her from her master to even marry her. Another class side effect that has plagued this poor young women. Her master begins to sexually harass this poor women, but because she comes from the slaves class, her mistress blames her for the unimaginable choices her husband is making. How can someone be blamed for something they did not want nor ask for. How can a women herself hate another women because she is being harassed by her own husband. Both of these happen because she is a slave and has no power. For this slave, her entire life was a struggle because she was born into the bottom class. Even when she became free she had to run and hide because her old master wanted her back.
I still see some of these struggles within different classes today that people have to struggle and over come. Being born into and economically disadvantaged family can affect your entire life. In school, children make fun you, you struggle to get to college and you struggle after trying to make something of yourself and not fall into the low SES you came from. It is an uphill battle your entire life to overcome any struggle you faced at a point in your life.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Theme "The Tenth of January" (Sept/13)
Use your journal entry to explain or describe an element of fiction (See ch 4 in Gardner's Writing about Literature)-- plot, character, point of view, setting, theme, symbol, and style in the story, "The Tenth of January" by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. For example. you could identify a symbol and explain its potential meanings; explain a figure of speech and its significance in the tale; note the presence of irony and how it shapes your reading; try to distinguish the narrator and point of view of the selection and how that affects the text.
I was very intrigued by the theme of this story because I found a bit dark for this time period but, the more I read the story the more I realized the problem being faced is similar to something that is still faced today. The feeling of loving someone and them not loving you back is a feeling that lasts today and apparently can be seen as far back as the beginning of the United States and possibly even farther. When this story began it's theme seemed to be a love story between Sene and Dick, "she is to be married this winter." Although, as this story seems to unfold and develop I feel as if a somber tone of revenge seeps out maybe not directly from the lines in the text but you can feel it if you read between the lines and take a step in Sene's shoes. Once Sene finds her best friend Del and her fiancé speaking by the river bank and night you automatically feel the pain that Sene feels but it's more then that, you feel the author was wanting to seek revenge for Sene. How could Del do this to her friend? At the moment Sene approaches Del the words seem to explain a sadness or jealousy but for me I saw revenge upon her "a fierce contempt for her pink-and-white, and tears and eyelashes and attitudes, come up her; then a sudden sickening jealousy that turned her faint where she sat." As more of the story unfolds even if Sene wants to tell Dick she cannot marry him or that she want Del to have him if she wants, you get this sense that Sene is happy and has come to terms with the fact that Dick will never love her in the way she would like, I still feel a sense of revenge coming from Sene. She is angry that God has given Del everything she wants but yet, Sene is faced with scars she is ashamed of, and now she cannot even have the life of her life fully. The morning of the mills collapse I finally felt a feeling of forgiveness, forgiveness of Del for loving her fiance and a forgive of Dick for betraying in such a way. She succumbs to the true love of Del and Dick and tells Del to be rescued from the rubble "go, Del, and tell him I sent you with my dear love, and that it's all right." To me, I feel like this story completes 3 distinct tones love, revenge and forgiveness. You see a love story completely unfold between the pages of this book and really become empathetic toward Sene. I agree that author developed this story in a very exquisite way, she completes the love story and all 3 tones she entered into the story. In the end, you feel as if Sene as received her revenge, just in a very different way then you would have foreshadowed it to end in the beginning.
I was very intrigued by the theme of this story because I found a bit dark for this time period but, the more I read the story the more I realized the problem being faced is similar to something that is still faced today. The feeling of loving someone and them not loving you back is a feeling that lasts today and apparently can be seen as far back as the beginning of the United States and possibly even farther. When this story began it's theme seemed to be a love story between Sene and Dick, "she is to be married this winter." Although, as this story seems to unfold and develop I feel as if a somber tone of revenge seeps out maybe not directly from the lines in the text but you can feel it if you read between the lines and take a step in Sene's shoes. Once Sene finds her best friend Del and her fiancé speaking by the river bank and night you automatically feel the pain that Sene feels but it's more then that, you feel the author was wanting to seek revenge for Sene. How could Del do this to her friend? At the moment Sene approaches Del the words seem to explain a sadness or jealousy but for me I saw revenge upon her "a fierce contempt for her pink-and-white, and tears and eyelashes and attitudes, come up her; then a sudden sickening jealousy that turned her faint where she sat." As more of the story unfolds even if Sene wants to tell Dick she cannot marry him or that she want Del to have him if she wants, you get this sense that Sene is happy and has come to terms with the fact that Dick will never love her in the way she would like, I still feel a sense of revenge coming from Sene. She is angry that God has given Del everything she wants but yet, Sene is faced with scars she is ashamed of, and now she cannot even have the life of her life fully. The morning of the mills collapse I finally felt a feeling of forgiveness, forgiveness of Del for loving her fiance and a forgive of Dick for betraying in such a way. She succumbs to the true love of Del and Dick and tells Del to be rescued from the rubble "go, Del, and tell him I sent you with my dear love, and that it's all right." To me, I feel like this story completes 3 distinct tones love, revenge and forgiveness. You see a love story completely unfold between the pages of this book and really become empathetic toward Sene. I agree that author developed this story in a very exquisite way, she completes the love story and all 3 tones she entered into the story. In the end, you feel as if Sene as received her revenge, just in a very different way then you would have foreshadowed it to end in the beginning.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
"The Wife" 9/6
1. What does Irving's short story, "The Wife," say about American values regarding marriage, women, and economics?
I believe that in Irving's short story "The Wife" he is explaining how women are less superior to men. He explains how his wife cannot live in poverty, that some how she does not know how. During this story it seems as if Irving believes a women cannot understand the concept of living without all the material possessions that she wants. But you can also see a ray of hope for women in this story because you see that she does not care if she has to live in poverty but that she would do anything for her husband and just wants to be with him. I think this still holds true today you hear such expressions as behind every strong man is an even stronger women. You get the sense that men need to be providers but without having a women behind him to make him feel better about the choices he has made then he will crumble.
I believe that in Irving's short story "The Wife" he is explaining how women are less superior to men. He explains how his wife cannot live in poverty, that some how she does not know how. During this story it seems as if Irving believes a women cannot understand the concept of living without all the material possessions that she wants. But you can also see a ray of hope for women in this story because you see that she does not care if she has to live in poverty but that she would do anything for her husband and just wants to be with him. I think this still holds true today you hear such expressions as behind every strong man is an even stronger women. You get the sense that men need to be providers but without having a women behind him to make him feel better about the choices he has made then he will crumble.
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