Thursday, February 23, 2012

Frost: The Road Not Taken

Honestly I have never read this poem.  I have heard about it and heard the line “The one less traveled” and I feel like my life is all about the paths we take.  Sometimes we take the correct path and other times we decided to take the wrong path.  I know I have taken the wrong path and have turn around and have made it on the correct path of success.  It’s hard to decide which road it right for you when you cannot see where the road takes you.  Life’s decision can be hard at times but ultimately the choice is yours, you might not know where the road will take you after the decision has been made.

The title of the poem fits perfectly.  If I could have picked the title I would have changed it to “The path taken” because it sounds more positive.  This poem is short but the words have been passing on by many people and they use it in their lives on a constant basis. 
Frost says “Had worn them really about the same…”  Is he saying they are the same but two different paths?  If in fact he is saying that then why does he go on to say “I took the one less traveled”?  Let’s say the roads both look the same and we are placed with two choices or decisions but which one is correct?  This could be a moral dilemma, both are correct but which one do you choose?  You cannot have both. 

Frost also says “Oh I kept the first for another day… I doubt if I should ever come back…” Is he writing this after the fact and now he wished he had taken the other road?  Or is his curiosity killing him?  What would it been like to take the other road?  This he will never know, just as we will never know because we cannot pause, rewind, or fast forward time.  Oh but if we could… would you go back and change your road or stay just as you are?

For the midterm essay I decided to talk about the story "The Storm" and "The Passing of Grandison"  I enjoyed both stories and I would like to find an interest in the stories that I can write about.  I'm going to read both of them over the weekend and really dive into the reading to look at them in different perspectives.  I'm going to take a closer look at both women, the irony, and romanticism vs. realism.  From there I will either narrow it down to one or I will talk about them all individually.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Conservative or Militant?


Booker T. Washington

I honestly believe he is conservative.  I was actually surprised when he was a former slave.  I would think because of his younger life and the things he experienced he would have been militant.  I would imagine with all the things he had been through and seen when he was younger he would speak with a more aggressive tone and use harsher words to express his thoughts.  Instead he chooses more powerful words that seem to find a way to have both races become equal. One of my favorite things he says expresses how they can be equal.  He says “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress”. 

I know I can take that quote and apply it to my personal life and pass it on because I believe it has a lot of power and truth.  I think he is basically saying if the Negroes should be taking their skills and all the qualities they possess and show the white race how they are useful with their trade and skills.  Although they are not the same they have an ultimate goal they both want and if they are more like the hand that brings them together they can accomplish more instead of always being separate. 

W.E.B Du Bois

I had a harder time with him because you would think with his background he would be conservative.  I would say he is conservative but it could be the way that I’m reading the story.  DuBois says “He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and pit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.”  I thought this was conservative because he is fighting for equality.  I read this and thought about the passion and the strength behind his words.  However, during the story he is demanding that America give the same equality that they have and he wants all the doors of opportunity to be open to the Negros just as they are to Americans.  He wants it all stopped now.  My mind starts to change when I read on and I see how he is militant because he is being more aggressive with his words and the meaning behind them. 

He talks about Washington saying “it is no ordinary tribute to this man’s tact and power that, steering as he must between so many diverse interests and opinions, he so largely retains the respect of all”. 
With all that said I have been feeling like a teeter totter since I read the words of BuBois.  Is he conservative or militant?  Did I go in reading this thinking that I wanted him to be a conservative because what does he know he was born free and Washington was the slave.  This one I’m stuck on however, I’m sticking firm to what I said about Washington.  I really liked what he had to say.  

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Response to Decker


I really enjoyed reading your post.  You have two really excellent points and I agree with them.  I like the one where you said http://deckeramericanlit.blogspot.com/ “Dick (his name is even ironic)” I was telling my husband about the story and when I was finished telling him about the story I had said that the name Dick was ironic in the story because of how he is kind of a dick by doing nothing with his life and when he finally does do something it’s still all for him.  I think the girl’s name also is a little ironic because her name is Charity and she would like Dick to help others and do more with his life such a charity and free a slave. 
The other thing that I like what you said was “The author tricks us all.  While “passing” many times serves as a metaphor for “death”, the passing in this instance is the passing of a slave into freedom.  Final though; think if the title has read, “The Escape of Grandison”, gives it all away doesn’t it?” http://deckeramericanlit.blogspot.com/

That is so true.  When I read the title and started to read the story I thought that he was going to be killed and I thought that because of the word “passing”.  To me I thought he was going to pass away or be killed and this was the story of how he passed away.  I never actually thought of the meaning behind the title until you said something.  It really would have given away the story and how it ends if the title of the story was in fact “The Escape of Grandison”.  

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Passing of Grandison

Verbal Irony




1. Charity says “ You must be losing your wits.  Steal another man’s slave, indeed, while your father ones a hundred!”
I think this is ironic because Charity says that she could love someone who would do something for someone else.  Dick Owens wants her to love him and marry her.  However, she says to him "Except that I do hate to see a really cleaver man so utterly lazy and good for nothing." Dick goes through all the trouble of getting his slave to run off but what he is doing is still good for nothing.  Dick is the heir of his father’s estate, why does he need to free another man’s slave when his father owns so many and one day they will all belong to Dick.  When that day come he could just set them all free, why does he need to steal another man’s slave when he will have them all one day. 

2. I love this one Dick says "Oh, come now, sweetheart! I'v been courting you for a year and it's the hardest work imaginable." 

The reason why I enjoy this one so much is because Charity does say that he is too lazy for any use because all he does is play cards or fox hunt.  Dick has not had a hard life.  He thinks its hard to court her wait until they get married.  With this conversation the story starts to unfold.  He goes on his adventure for it only to fail when he tried to get Grandison to run away.  He can not even do that right.  Grandison runs away but he did it all on his own. When I read this line it sounded as if he was whining when he said it which added the cherry to the top of the ice cream.  

Situation Irony

1.The one that I though was the best one was when the story was ending.  Grandison returns after the being held in Canada.  The colonel says that he came back to where is master, friends, and his home is because he is loyal.  
The next day Grandison and Grandison's whole family are gone and no where to be found on the plantation.  When the colonel finally catches up to them they are on a steamboat.  The story says

 "One last glimpse he caught of his vanishing property, as he stood, on a wharf at a port on the south shore of Lake Erie.  On the stern of a small steamboat which was receding rapidly from the wharf,with her nose pointing toward Canada, there stood a group of familiar dark faces, and the look they cast backwards was not one of the longing for the for the fleshpots of Egypt.  The colonel saw Grandison point him out to one of the crew of the vessel, who waved his hand derisively toward the colonel.  The latter shook his fist impotently - and the incident was closed."

I love the way it ended because Grandison shows he is devoted to the colonel the whole time.  When Grandison returns the colonel boast because he believes Grandison returned because of how well he is treated.  In reality he returns for his family.  He does not want to be owned he wants his freedom.  Who would want to be owned?  He would not be free without his family.  He got his freedom and the colonel was shocked by the reaction Grandison gave him in the end.  

2. In the story Dick wants to take one of the slaves with him on the trip because the whole reason for the trip is to prove his love to Charity and do something good by freeing a slave.  His father has him take Grandison.  Dick's father and Grandison are talking about how good of a life he has being owned and how he gives him whiskey and tobacco when he wants or needs it. Grandison gets worried that the abolitionists will come in the night and take him away.  The father replies saying "Your young master will protect you.  You need fear no harm while he is near."  

I find that funny because the reason for the trip is to get him to leave and to run off and be free, however, everything Dick tries does not work.  He should fear Dick because he is trying to get him to be taken or to leave on his own.  





Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Response to AJ's Chickamauga

A.J. states the more he read Chickamauga story, the more he could relate two things in his mind.  I have to say going into the story I would have never thought I would be relating to it because of the picture above the story. However, from the first paragraph it brought me back to my childhood playing with my brothers.  We would have our fake guns and we would use our imagination for hours.

When I read the beginning I could smell the grass and feel the sun just like I remember it when I was a child.  It was as if I was there once again.  We had "opportunity of exploration and adventure".  I know the story is nothing like my childhood but I could relate to it as well.

I could relate to the story The Storm but I did not have the same ending only the beginning when she saw Alicee standing there and how she felt at that moment.

I'm beginning to enjoy the stories because of the experience and how I too can relate to them so far. I like the different perspectives everyone has towards the stories, for example the zombies.  

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Storm

I read The Storm three times and every time I read the story I felt the same way I did when I read it the first time.  The reason why is because of my personal experience in live and love.  I didn’t have the same fate as the woman in the book but I do have past loves that I will always cherish.  I was intrigued to read this and write about it because our instructor said “you will either love it or hate it”, I was hooked on wanting to read it. 

I looked at the story as saying she loves her husband and her life but one rainy day a man she once loved happened to be riding by and they had not been alone since they had been dating but something stopped them from getting married.  Through the wind and the rain there was this worry in her eyes and she was frightened for her husband and son who were not home and safe in the house.  I think with that old memories and sparks flew and with the touch of his embrace when he put his arms around her brought up the love they have always had for one another. 

They went on the emotion of the love and they were not living in the now.  When it is all over there is a line in the story that I love, “ The rain was over; and the sun was turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems.  I love this line because I feel like its saying that this is what the couple has always wanted to in the past but it didn’t happen.  The world looked different.  Now they can move on, they have closure. 

Now I’m not saying that infidelity is a good thing and if it makes you feel this way then you should do it ban fulfill that burning love you have had for someone else if something like this happens to you.  The story does not go on to say that she live the rest of her life with guilt.  Maybe she did and maybe she didn’t.  Who knows?  When it says the “So the storm passed and everyone was happy” that might mean that neither one said anything to their spouses nor to each other again because that void was fill when they had their moment. 

When it comes to the portrayal of marriage, to me it can go many different ways.  I really don’t know what her marriage was like.  Was she happy and in love and this was something that happened and wished she could take it back or was she screaming inside because she didn’t love him the way she loved the other man or the way a married woman should love her husband.  With the love aspect I believe that you can love more than one person in your live that you will cherish forever but still be married and have that same love for your husband.  The choice is up to you if you choose to go after the other man and fulfill that burning love for him and go behind your husband’s back for a moment in time or keep him as a memory just the way you two left it knowing that you will always have him in your heart.