Dorothea Lange

I chose the work of Dorothea Lange as my example of modern realism. Lange traveled across the U.S. documenting the plight of Americans during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Her photos were not posed or edited, they are the raw images of the strife and suffering that people were experiencing. It expresses Realistic ideals because not only does it show you something that you don't need your imagination to understand, it shines light on a serious social issue.

The Battle With Mr. Covey by Frederick Douglass

Douglass explains in great detail how he felt after the fight with Mr. Covey. "I felt as I never felt before. It was a glorious resurrection from the tomb of slavery to the heaven of freedom. My long- crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place..." He wrote about the resurgence of his will to live and the determination he had to become free. He describes his intentions perfectly with little room for interpretation, which is a defining characteristic of realism writing.
Douglass is obviously throwing into harsh light the "bitterest dregs of slavery" with his retelling of his time with Mr. Covey. First he tells of how Mr. Covey broke his "body, soul, and spirit". Mr. Covey worked slaves so hard that Douglass says it completely changed him, "My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!" Douglass is trying to get people to understand how truely awful slavery is by realating the harsh conditions he and his fellow slaves were subject to.

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

The description of what Louise sees out of the window in front of her chair is very detailed in my opinion. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves." That paints a vivid picture of what Louise was experiencing as she sat in her chair. Realists didn't want their readers to have to use their imagination when they read their stories, so the descriptive and detailed way that Chopin explains the setting of her story is a good example of realism.
The social issue that Chopin addresses in The Story of an Hour is women's rights. In the story Louise is happy after her husband is thought to be dead, because she is finally free to live her own life as she sees fit. I didn't get the feeling that Louise's husband was tyranical or abusive, but Louise just wanted the chance to live of her won free will like many women would not have been able to during that time period. "There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination." Back then a wife would have been expected to be meek and willing to follow her husband wherever he may choose to go. Louise wanted to make her own decisions for once, which would be a growing desire of women in the years to come. "'Free! Body and soul free!'"

Happy Halloween!

The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe

The poem, The Raven, tells the bleak tale of a man's decent into a deep depression. The raven, which I think is either a metaphor and/or a delusion, seems to be a manifestation of sorrow. The man in the poem has lost his true love, Lenore, and although he tries to occupy his mind with his books, the raven incessantly croaks the word "Nevermore" as a constant reminder of his loss. His subconscious is forever returning to thoughts of his heartbreak. The raven, an expression of his inner thoughts, taunts him to a point of woebegone madness. This contradicts Transcendentalism because the Transcendentalists thought that your inner voice was the voice of God. Something makes me doubt that God would be feeding you the cheerless word "Nevermore" repeatedly until you were too grief-stricken to go on. "'Other friends have flown before-- On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before' Then the bird said 'Nevermore'"
When the raven enters into the chamber, he immediately perches on a bust of Athena, "Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door - Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door" Athena/Pallas is the goddess of wisdom. Wisdom was a virtue greatly admired by the Transcendentalists, and I think that Poe was using Athena/Pallas as the bust that the raven sat on with a purpose. Since the Transcendentalists put wisdom and thought on such a high pedestal, Poe puts his miserable raven on top of Pallas, as if to squash wisdom out. The man in the poem becomes so consumed with his grief that he lashes out at a bird that might not even exist; "'Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting - 'Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!' Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.'" The man's wisdom is replaced with anguish as logical though gives way to the persistant agony of his broken heart. "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted - nevermore!"

The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe

I liked this story, even though is was sort of twisted; it was interesting. The narrator starts out as a well-tempered nice young man with a kind heart, and by the end of the story he's a conniving murderer who has all but completely lost his mind. Sure, you could blame one or both of the two cats for the poor mans demise, or you could blame the alcohol, but the fact is that the man was consumed with rage. He says, "The fury of a demon instantly possessed me." This goes against what the Transcendentalists believed. They thought that people were pure of heart, so where do murderous actions come from? Transcendentalists thought that society could skew a persons perspective and quiet their inner God/conscience, but no one was telling the narrator to kill his cat or his wife. The urge to kill came from within himself, and he didn't seem to feel much remorse for the awful things he did. No, rather than feeling remorse, he just wanted to make sure he covered his tracks and didn't get caught. He actually seemed to feel worse about killing the first cat than he did his own wife. The narrator was worried about his immortal soul, he feels he is "even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God." A Transcendentalist would not have thought anyone could ever be so removed from God, because God was supposed to be a part of the individual - you can't be apart from something that is intangible and inside of you.
Poe uses a bit of irony in The Black Cat. After the main character buried an axe in the brain of his beloved wife, decided to mortar her body up in a false chimney in the basement of their house. After his task is finished he takes great pride in his job well done, "I looked around triumphantly, and said to myself -- 'Here at least, then, my labor has not been in vain'". This is almost a direct hit on what Emerson says in Self Reliance, "A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work." Poe took one of the Transcendental ideals and twisted it into something sick and horrifying. He kind of throws it in their faces that their beliefs are too idealistic.

Maybe this is why my parents call me "Nega-Tori".

I think that I'm definitely closer to being a Dark Romanticist than a Transcendentalist. I agree with the Dark Romanticist's belief that there is a major flaw in Transcendentalist thought - sometimes people do things that are just plain bad, so how is that possible if we're all a part of God? God is not supposed to be evil; God doesn't murder, or steal, or go insane. God may be pure, but people are most certainly not, and therefore separate from God. People do go insane, bad things do happen, and within everyone there is the possibility of evil. This all sounds very dark and brooding, but it's just sort of a reality. I'm not saying that there isn't good in the world too, I'd like to think that there is more good in the world than bad, but the bad does exist.

Dick Proenneke - Alone In the Wilderness

Dick Proenneke loved and respected nature. He must have in order to have spent so many years "Alone In the Wilderness". Proenneke talked about the peace and beauty of nature, how he had dreamt of it, and how he was happy to finally be surrounded by it. He wanted to see if he could enjoy his own company for a whole year, I'm not sure why, but Poenneke wanted solitude. All of this fits in perfectly with what Emerson wrote about in Nature; "To go in to solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society... But if a man should be alone, let him look at the stars." Poenneke was definitely retiring from society, and taking Emerson's advice about being in "the perpetual presence of the sublime".

While I was watching that video clip I kept being reminded of Self-Reliance by Emerson; "A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work." Proenneke must have taken pride in his hard work, otherwise he would have just bought a cabin, or used power tools to build one. Instead, Proenneke painstakingly went about the process of constructing his log cabin with nothing but hand tools and determination.
I think Pronneke embodied many of the Transcendental beliefs. I'm not sure whether or not Proenneke thought he could transcend the barrier between himself and God by going into nature, but he did think that he could become more in touch with himself.

Resistance to Civil Government by Henry David Thoreau

Although it was a bit long-winded, I liked Resistance to Civil Government much more than the other works I read for this unit. Maybe because it appealed to the idealist in me. I admire Thoreau for going to jail for something he believed in, even if it was only for a night. Thoreau says "Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? -in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable?" I pretty much totally agree with this. Why do we need to bicker and vote about things that should just be a matter of conscience? I understand that right and wrong are not always so easily defined, but there are instances where what is right and what is wrong can be clearly seen. The arrogant tone that bothered me in the other reading examples showed up in Resistance to Civil Government as well, but it wasn't an overriding theme. I thought it was interesting that Thoreau posed the question "Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government?" so many years ago, and no one has yet to come up with an acceptable answer. It seems like we should have been able to progress to a better form of government by now, doesn't it? There are obvious problems with our government, so why hasn't a solution been found yet?! I guess I can't be too upset about it though, I obviously don't have the answers either...
Resistance to Civil Government is a good example of transcendental thought because Thoreau expresses a need to fight against organized government. If you thought, like the transcendentalists did, that everyone had the ability to connect directly with God, would you think that there needed to be government? If we were so close to God and godliness, we would be able to govern ourselves quite nicely I think. Thoreau says we should be men first, and that you should never have to "resign his conscience to the legislator..." If we were meant to be blind followers of rule and government "Why has every man a conscience, then?" Another example of transcendental though that I picked up on was when Thoreau wrote about his chance encounter with his one night cellmate. Thoreau wanted to talk to this man and gain as much knowledge about his views on life before he had to leave. He was worried about the fact that his time to converse with him was limited. So, why would an upstanding, intelligent citizen care so much about the inner workings of a convict? Well, being a transcendentalists, Thoreau would have believed that God could work through this convict just as well as anyone else (maybe even better). I felt that Thoreau was trying to learn what God might have been saying to his cellmate. Thoreau mentions earlier in the text the hypocrisy of his neighbors and friends who pay taxes that support a war they disagree with. Maybe he thought someone of a different class would have a better perspective, or at least a different one, which he could learn from.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell pages 452 - 1037

I finally finished it!

Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-Reliance starts off with the statement that "imitation is suicide". Emerson is trying to say that by copying someone else we kill off our inner selves, and since our inner selves are tiny Gods, this is a rather awful thing to do. Thus, society and the status quo are very bad things indeed. We're supposed to isolate ourselves from all outside influences to become the brave men that God has chosen to make his work manifest in. Basically, there is no one better than you and all others are just trying to impede your progress. I endeavored to look past the self righteousness that so irks me, and see what Emerson was really trying to say with Self Reliance. I agree that the ability to think for yourself and knowing when society has it wrong, are good things. I just disagree that we can only accomplish great things if we disregard the thoughts and ideas of others. Emerson says, "To be great is to be misunderstood...", which may be true in many instances, but he also implies that people like Pythagoras, Jesus, Luther, Galileo and Newton all were independent thinkers. To an extent, they were, but they also read and studied the works of ones who came before them. I think some things about Transcendentalism are right on, but all of the ideas seem to be taken to such an extreme that I can't fully agree with it.
Self-Reliance is a good example of transcendental writing because it talks so much about listening to the inner self, the little god that lives in you. Emerson says, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds... With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." This is a good example of transcendental thought as well, because Emerson is talking about the consistency of society, and society/consistency impede transcending. Self-Reliance is all about awakening your destiny and becoming as great as you can be by not following the norm, and listening to your intuition; all of that is a part of what the transcendentalist believed.

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Something about this essay rubbed me all wrong. It just comes off so conceited sounding. Emerson says that there are few men who can see nature, that nature can only be seen by those with the hearts of children. He says that nature belongs to the poet, but part of what is so amazing about nature is that it belongs to everyone with senses. He also says: "In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows." I disagree with this too. I've experienced nature to be a very reflective sort of atmosphere, whether I'm feeling sad or happy. Going hiking does not suddenly make all of my troubles leave my mind, I may return from nature with a better outlook on what I saw as very problematic before, but not always. Nature can be soothing, but it does not fix everything. I'm all for nature, I grew up on a mountain out west with a father who is a nature photographer. I'm part of a family that appreciates nature very much, but Emerson seems to take it to the extreme. Then again, maybe I'm just not a "poet".
Every sentence of this essay is dripping with Transcendentalism. The opening paragraph of this essay is all about retreating from society to be truly alone with yourself in nature. "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society... But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars." Transcendentalists believed that humankind was pure of heart and if we would only remove ourselves from the distraction of society, man can connect more directly with God. "Standing on the bare ground - my head bathed in the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space - all mean egotism vanishes." I may not agree with that statement, but it seems to be in line with what the Transcendentalists thought.