Civil Disobedience

For the reflection and analysis that we are assigned with this time we had to read a essay by Henry David Thourou titled Civil Disobedience. At first when I saw the assignment I groaned at the thought of reading an essay because quite frankly I usually am bored to tears by such. But, when I read this essay I was not because he actually has some extremely intelligent well made points present in it. The essay is divided up into three parts, the first part being about government and it says "That government is best which governs least."(Thoreau). Which I pretty much completely agree with. I do think that government is entitled to power, but in a lot of societes today their government has way too much power. The struggle power was actually a reason our country was founded. The first colonists of the United States came because they did not feel they were being treated fairly over in England and they did something about it. After the war when we were granted our freedom, they purposely designed our consititution at the time titled the Articles Of Confederation to have a weak central government because they were being run in a dictatorship before. The essay also goes on to say in part one that Why can't there be a government where right and wrong are not decided by the majority but by conscience? Thoreau writes, "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think we should be men first, and subjects afterward."(Thoreau). The world would be superb if right and wrong was decided not by the government, but by our concious, but sadly that is pretty much impossible because there are good and bad people and not everyone has a strong enough concious, and it would probably result in complete chaos. It is not possible for a nation to be run on complete morality. A common theme of the Trancendentilism period is morality which is strongly present in part one on how the government should be ran(Quinn). After the Articles of Confederation were in place people could not behave and riots and rebellions occured that could not be stopped, which in turn led to The Constitution now being written designed with a stronger central government than before.

Part two is about how society should respond to injustice of the government and about how it should not be decided by majority because that is not really doing something about it, but rather just as a common whole what they express they would like to see done. He is against this which is self worth over society. Self worth over society is another common theme of the Transcendentilism period(Quinn).

Part three is about Thoreau's personal experiences with civil disobedience. He says that he hasn't paid a poll tax in six years and that he spent a night in jail once because of this. His experience in jail did not hurt his spirit: "I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to break through, before they could get to be as free as I was." (Thoreau).The masses can't force him to do anything; he is subject only to those who obey a higher law. This is showing a bit of feeling over reason which is also a common theme(Quinn). He should probably obey the law because that is what you are supposed to do but he does not feel like it so he does not.

Thoreau, Henry. "Civil Disobedience." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 26 Jan. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 26, 2012).

Journal #26 - Breaking the Rules

Breaking the rules is usually a very bad thing, but sometimes it is necessary to break the rules. My favorite show is Desperate Housewives and on that show Gabrielle Solise played by Eva Longoria was raped by her step father as a teenage girl, but nobody ever did anything about it because they never believed her. The man is thought to be dead to Gabby and all of her family, but he shows up in her neighborhood and comes into her house after he is creeping around and he corners her and tries to threaten her and says he is going to do it again. She is obviously very upset and is crying when her husband Carlos comes in and sees it and is infuriated. He is trying to protect her and goes up behind Gabbys step father and he hits him in the head with a candlestick and he accidently kills him and then they hide the body. It is not okay for him to hide the body because that is concealing a crime, but he did not mean to murder this man. He was just protecting his wife. They should of handled the crime differently but the actual crime and committing the crime was actually somewhat okay. Another time when it would be okay to break the rules is if you were doing it for the common welfare of people and for the greater good of a community. Some people are terrible terrible people and do terrible things and sometimes they deserve to be punished. It is also okay if say a man's wife was dying of a cancer and the pharamacist would only sell him this medicine for a million dollars even though it was not worth anywhere near that. The man could steal the medicine if he was going to pay later in order to save his beloved wife's life. Some rules are actually meant to be broken under certain circumstances, but you must be very careful about breaking the rules.

Journal #26 - Breaking the Rules

Breaking the rules is usually a very bad thing, but sometimes it is necessary to break the rules. My favorite show is Desperate Housewives and on that show Gabrielle Solise played by Eva Longoria was raped by her step father as a teenage girl, but nobody ever did anything about it because they never believed her. The man is thought to be dead to Gabby and all of her family, but he shows up in her neighborhood and comes into her house after he is creeping around and he corners her and tries to threaten her and says he is going to do it again. She is obviously very upset and is crying when her husband Carlos comes in and sees it and is infuriated. He is trying to protect her and goes up behind Gabbys step father and he hits him in the head with a candlestick and he accidently kills him and then they hide the body. It is not okay for him to hide the body because that is concealing a crime, but he did not mean to murder this man. He was just protecting his wife. They should of handled the crime differently but the actual crime and committing the crime was actually somewhat okay. Another time when it would be okay to break the rules is if you were doing it for the common welfare of people and for the greater good of a community. Some people are terrible terrible people and do terrible things and sometimes they deserve to be punished. It is also okay if say a man's wife was dying of a cancer and the pharamacist would only sell him this medicine for a million dollars even though it was not worth anywhere near that. The man could steal the medicine if he was going to pay later in order to save his beloved wife's life. Some rules are actually meant to be broken under certain circumstances, but you must be very careful about breaking the rules.

The Minister's Black Veil

The Minister's Black Veil by Nathanial Hawthorne is a very interesting story that leaves you wondering at the end. This short story has a completely open ending left for the reader to decide. The story starts out at a church organization where everybody is gathered to meet for their service. The preacher's name is Mr. Hooper. Mr. Hooper is a loved man by the people he preaches to, and was never thought to be any sign of weird or demented until one day he comes to the morning service with a black veil covering his whole face, everything but his chin and a bit of his mouth. Everyone is immedietely confused by this. They have no clue why the minister is wearing this veil. As the day continues there is another service for a funeral and another for a wedding. At both services the veil is being worn over Mr. Hooper's face even though he knows that everyone he has seen is watching him and thinks something is wrong with him for wearing this veil and not removing it. People begin to ask questions on why he is wearing this black veil over his face. He eventually tells him that he is mourning something and this veil must be worn until he is no longer on this earth to mourn(Hawthorne). This worries his lover Elizabeth and Elizabeth makes him choose what he wants either her or wearing the veil. Mr. Hooper chooses the veil. At this point nobody still fully understands why he is wearing this veil.

Mr. Hooper shares that he is wearing this because he is mourning a sin, but what is this sin he is mourning? This is so mysterious because nobody knows the answer of what could of happened that was so bad that you have to wear the veil for all of your life, and to lose your lover over something that you wear. Something deep and unknown is hidden in Mr. Hooper's veil. This is a major symbol of the Dark Romanticism because the whole poem is mysterious(Stade). It is dark and unknown just like what the Dark Romanticism is supposed to be like(Stade).

So what do all these readers of this short story get out of it? What do they think this terrible sin could be and why is this man wearing this veil over his whole face? At the end the preacher dies and many people are there but the ending never says whether or not something bad or evil under his veil on his face(Hawthorne). They just leave it open. After reading many criticisms I found one that talked about what Poe thinks this symbol was. It states Since the character himself never reveals the mystery of the black veil, readers have been forced to propose their own theories. Edgar Allan Poe, as well as other critics, have suggested that Hooper wears the veil as penance for a "specific sin," perhaps connected with the young woman whose funeral he conducts(Wright). I do agree that there probably was a specific sin, but there is still a mystery of what it was. Nobody ever knows and probably never will know which is why it is so intreaging. It is a dark mystery that the reader is left up to decide in his or her own head.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Eldritch Press. 1986. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener. "romanticism." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EBWEP364&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 23, 2012).


Wright, Sarah Bird. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCNH403&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 24, 2012).

Reflection - Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is a psychological story that resembles very closely the major characteristics of a dark romanticism story. The main character has been sentenced to death during the Inquisition(Poe). That first theme or basic principle of the story is him being held to die, which is resembling a major characteristic of the Dark Romanticism period. A common theme is this dark romanticism is the dark, unknown, creepy, subject of death. He is afraid that he is going to die, but he feels a sense of confusion because usually during the Inquisition people are put to death by hanging, but he is trapped in this tomb. It is like a dungeon. He eventually beings exploring and does things like counting steps of the perimeter to see how large this place he is in because he can not see because he is in complete darkness(Stade). Being in this tomb is like torture for this guy that is trapped in there. Darkness itself is a common theme of Dark Romanticism as is present in this short story.

The torturing continues in the story. The narrator collapses and falls asleep and when he wakes up he finds bread and water. It is like the people torturing him are keeping him alive only to torture him more. It is terrible actually. After eating he ends up exploring some more and ends up falling and hits the solid ground, but his face dangles over this abyss like thing. It is the pit(Poe). It is a dark deep unknown hole that seems to have no bottom. He tries to see how deep it is by throwing a rock down to the bottom and the rock just keeps going and going and he can know see that the bottom pretty much has no end. This is unknown and dark and scary because there is no way he would live if he fell into this dark deep pit. They just keep messing with this guys head.

Eventually the narrator is strapped to a board and this pendulum is swinging at him. It is like he is seeing his life flash right before his eyes. He is just sitting there with time to think about him dying and how his life is going to end. He ends up being able to time this pendulum swinging at him to tell where it is to almost help cope with the fact that this pendulum is swinging at him. Things are less scary if you do not have the time to sit there and think about him, but the people are torturing him and want him to be scared. However, this fear is all in his mind it is psychological(Stade).

Toward the end of this story the man is saved and all of this worrying and psychological fears are not even worth it because his life is not going to end. He is finally to the point where he is accepting his death and he is no longer going to spend his time in that dark place worrying about it because he has accepted that he is going to die and that life is not going to be over because not everything ends in life...He believes there is some afterlife.


"Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 23 Jan. 2012.

Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener. "romanticism." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EBWEP364&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 23, 2012).

Fear...

Fear is something that is inside all of us, however it is something that is completely not real. It is irrational. Everyone is fearful of something whether they want to admit it or not. I will a list a few things that I fear. One is spiders, definitely spiders. I also am fearful of bridges. I get so scared and creeped out when I drive over tall wobbley bridges because you could drive over them and it could collapse and everyone on the bridge would fall in the water and drown and die. That would just be horrible. I am also scared of dying. Because if you die then your life is over. These are all just little not real fears. I do have one fear that seems more real than the rest of them. That fear that is the worst is failing. I can admit that I am extremely scared of failure. I am scared of failing at school, sports, work, and even life. Okay, i will list a few other creepy scary things that I am scared of. Some are rapists, murderers, sex offenders, cats because they make me itch. I am also scared of the dark kind of. Some people have really weird fears, such as teeth, sidewalks, the outside world, eyelashes, dogs, cats, pillows, bags, cardboard, folders, and a bunch of weird things that they should just not be scared of. I am scared of school and Mr. langley too......But i get through it every day so people that are scared of outside like Howie on Benchwarmers should probably get over their fear and go outside and breathe in the air. There are some things that I like, but I am also scared or fearful of at the exact same time. Some movies like really scary movies such as Paranormal Activity, but I really like them too. I also am kind of scared of roller coasters, but I like them at the same time too. I always gets really scared of them right before I get on, but I have so much fun and I love them so much.

Spooked

Many times in my life I have been spooked. Whether it be by a scary movie or by somebody jumping out by me. I do not really like to be spooked nor scared, but sometimes it happens. One time my sophomore year I went to the haunted house in auburn. First of all they can touch you in this haunted house so that is just not okay. I had to sign a waiver to go in this stupid haunted house, but hey I am a good sport so I sign the waiver and I go. At this point in time I had extremely long hair and i had my face dug into Noah's back and the people in the haunted house start grabbing my hair and stroking it like freaks. It was so scary then they kept wrapping their arms around me and it was just extremely scary. Also this haunted house was so long and it seemed never ending. I was just super scared for what seemed like eternity. I never wanted to go back to a haunted house again after that. Also they had raw meat hanging down, so that is just disgusting. The people in that had extremely realistic makeup and were really good at acting. Therefore, they could spook me and scare me bad. I have gone to other haunted houses but none were as good as this one and I was just not as scared in haunted houses like the ones in Clayville especially because I knew the people in clayville, and i went to places like terror on the square, but that one was just not as scary. But i guess I was still a little bit spooked. Every year around Halloween it is a little bit fun to get spooked so I will go with all my girl friends and go to a haunted house. I also sometimes get spooked by scary movies, but that is hard to do because you always know that they are fake. Some movies are based on true stories such as paranormal activity or some murder cases.

Analysis of Poe's poem

Many of the great poet, Edgar Allen Poe's, poems have similar themes and messges. They are all very dark, mysterious, and lots of times are written to his loves rather they be alive or dead, either way. In class we read the poem Anabel Lee, which was talking of his astounding love with Anabel Lee and how he was taken from her, but the two's love was strong enough to fight through her being taken by the angels from him. A common theme both I, and other Literary criticists have discovered in dark romanticism pieces is that there is almost always a dark mystical vibe, also a lot of times there is something supernatural about it whether that be magic or something with death(Stade). This was present in Anabel Lee when talking of his love to someone who is no longer with them because she was chilled a.k.a. is now dead.

This common theme was also evident in the poem To one Departed by Edgar Allen Poe. The poem is talking about a memory of what is now an angel, or someone who has died. He refers to them as a seraph, and how it is nothing more than a memory and compares the person to an enchanted far off land(To One Departed). This is an example of a characteristic of the dark romanticism period because the whole poem is about one of his dearly departed which once again is death. And even talking about the enchanted far off land is a red flag to this being a piece from the dark romanticism because enchanted is mystical or supernatural which are two words often used to describe the writing in this period.

This poem, much like many of his others is very sad because he has lost a loved one. They are nothing but a mere memory to them. He says it is a memory he likes to think about, but it almost does not seem real even as a memory because in the time's reality they were no longer there. I know what he means. It is like when sometimes you dream about someone like your dead grandpa and about memories you had with them, and then when you wake up you have no idea if those memories every happened or if it was just a dream all along. The whole idea of that is very sad or dark and also a bit weird. Sadness, darkness, and strange are all also characteristics of this writing period as well. The love poe has for some of the people he writes about is almost magical. I do not know how he could still love someone that much after them being gone, but then again maybe he did not and it is just his writing that comes off that way. He was a very strange man I think which is why he wrote such strange poems. But hey this guy was pretty much made for writing pieces that were dark romanticism esque so good thing he was alive in this time period.


Stade, George, and Karen Karbiener. "romanticism." Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EBWEP364&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 18, 2012).

"To One Departed, by Edgar Allan Poe." Poetry Archive | Poems. Web. 18 Jan. 2012.

Journal #23

There are many things that contribute to making a story or movie scary. One thing that I think is a major contribution is the music. There are certain types of music that just make things scary. like Wah wah wah wah wah wah wah...That is scary. Also they will play this music and then people or scary objects will just pop up out of no where and scary the bejesus out of you. Also, a lot of scary stories have to do with paranormal things such as ghosts. Things will move without a human or other living things touching them such as a door opening all by itself and it is usually because a spirit or some other creepy thing touched it. Scary movies always consist of a story that just has an eerie vibe such as a new family living in a house that people were murdered in before. In all scary movies things happen to people that does not normally happen to people in everyday life. Such as in Insidious, a guy was a "drifter". During his sleep he will drift away and go into this land that nobody can go to. Eventually they figure out that his son is a drifter too, and he drifts to this land and gets caught by the bad devil guy. In almost all scary movies there is never a happy ending. Like in Insidious the dad you think he is all good and saves his son, but he is actually possessed and ends up killing his wife. It is sad because for once you think it is all going to end up good. I guess at least the boy was saved. I do like scary movies, but it is actually hard to make them actually scary...Insidious was a pretty scary movie, and so was movies like paranormal activity. Paranormal Activity was scary because it actually seemed real. oh! and they also usually have to deal with the devil because he is bad...

Journal #22 Poem about sledding

During the cold winter pretty snows shine
Covers the ground with white very cold flake
When snow falls hard you can go out to sled
sometimes i would rather be in my bed
Before I sled I want to eat some cake
I eat then I get clothes without any whine

go out to sled and i know I'll be fine
under all my clothing my skin will bake
Especially under my hat, my head
I will not get to hot that I'd be dead
Sometimes I play fight with Daniel that's fake
Later that night, hungry we will go dine

When I am out sledding I wait in line
Am so nervous that my two legs will shake
Trash talk from kids older than I was said
Will go so fast on my plastic made sled
Trophy if real, I would go fast and take
Super star I will be, so fast I shine

So proud my friends will be waiting in line
I hope they are staying warm for their sake
hope they do not think I have some big head
other wise they might stab me with some lead
so far out that I sled atop a lake
it is frozen so I know I'll be fine

Journal #21 - Snowy Scene

It is very difficult to describe a snowy scene because it has been such a long while since I have seen such a sight. From what I can recall from years past snow it is a beauty. The ground is dusted with gorgeous, white, majestic snowflakes, each one unique from the other. It falls like thick rain from the sky and falls over the ground so much prettier than rain. It does not build up and flood the streets as rain does. Snow is a mystical being. It is not liquid, but not solid...so what is it? IT IS SNOW. With snow comes all kinds of activities that make you feel like a kid again. Sledding with intense speed down a hill, making snow balls to have a snowball fight, or making snow angels all come with the fabulous snow. Snow can make even the oldest people feel young again, it can make you feel just like you were when you were ten. When you step outside into the cold your cheeks turn rosy red and so does your nose. You get to bundle up into thick coats with scarfs, mittens or gloves, and hats. Snow is the best part of winter because it is happy for everyone, unless you are driving of course because snow can sometimes be dangerous, but hey it can still be fun sliding around every which way driving on the snow. It makes kids feel like kids and adults feel like kids again. I really want to snow a big snow this year. Last year there was three whole fun days of snow days, which we of course had to make up, but it was definitely worth it. When I am a senior I hope that there is about a billion snow days so that I get to miss school to stay home and act like a little kid and make snow angles, go sledding, and pelt my brother with snow balls.