Journal #13

1. What object symbolizes George Gray’s life? How is this object representative of him?

The object that represents him is the boat waiting to sail. This represents him because he is so afraid to try things at life that he is like a boat that has been docked but will never go out into open waters anymore. He doesn’t want to take the chance that something bad would happen to him so he stays at home doing the same things he’s done his whole life without excitement or meaning in his life just like the boat that will never sail again.

2. How was Lucinda Matlock’s life different than George Gray’s? How do you interepret the last line of the poem?

Her life is different than George’s because she has had so many years of excitement and doing what she loved that she felt fulfilled when her time came to pass. Instead of never doing anything new she would try everything she could because she knew that life was short and she wanted to make the best of the time she had. I interpret the last line of the poem to be advice. It says that “You have to live life to love life.” This is so true because if you don’t experience life to its true potential in full how can you love the life that you have lived. Without joy and love in your life you can not be in love with the life that you have lived like George in his poem.

3. How are “George Gray” and “Lucinda Matlock” examples of realism?

They are examples of realism because they both have to do with everyday life. They both are normal people who had normal lives just like the rest of us. The only thing that is different is that she enjoyed her life whereas he didn’t get to fully live his own. There is nothing extreme going on it’s just two people that have opposite opinions on how to live life going about their own lives. Both of them are realistic because that’s what life is.

Journal #12

1. “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory (symbolic narrative). What do the following represent?

Young Goodman Brown – man who goes from good to evil

Faith – Faith(spiritually,emotionally,physically)

The Elderly Traveller/Fellow-Traveller – devil

Goody Cloyse – Corruption

The Ceremony – sinful nature of people

The Pink Ribbon – Ribbon

Young Goodman Brown’s Journey – Everybody has flaws

2. Identify the following for “Young Goodman Brown”:

Theme Message of Theme Element Used to Establish

Don’t let anyone persuade you from your beliefs.

Always trust your own instincts or you will live a very unhappy life.

Brown’s life before and after his journey

In addition, provide three direct quotes from the story that address your theme.

``Sayest thou so?'' replied he of the serpent, smiling apart. ``Let us walk on, nevertheless,

reasoning as we go; and if I convince thee not thou shalt turn back. We are but a little way in the

forest yet.''

``But where is Faith?'' thought Goodman Brown; and, as hope came into his heart, he trembled

“But he had no power to retreat one step, nor to

resist, even in thought, when the minister and good old Deacon Gookin seized his arms and led him

to the blazing rock.”

Journal #11

“Where I Lived and What I Lived For” (232)

It’s about a man who lives in the woods and the best way to live life is the simple way. He says not to worry about the small things in life and just enjoy the ride. A simple life is a happy and fulfilling life.

Quote: “to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meaness of it, and publish its meaness to the world.”

“Sounds” (234)

He simply listens to the sounds of the day. How in society they say people need to go do stuff and be around other people but he is saying that he just needs to listen and look at nature. This is entertaining enough for him and he doesn’t need other people.

Quote: “I had this advantage, at least in my mode of life, over those who were obligated to look abroad for amusement, to society and the theater, that my life itself has become my amusement and never ceased to be novel”

“Brute Neighbors” (235)

In this passage he is telling the story of the ant’s life and how it is filled with hardship and war just like humans. He is saying that the life of an ant is just as hard to live as a human’s and that they fight as hard as we do in our battles. They also celebrate as much as the humans do when they are victorious. The balance in this is similar to the American Revolution.

Quote: “I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that is was not a duellum, but a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black.”(235)

“The Pond in Winter” (237)

The speaker talks about how when winter comes he sees fisherman and just watches them because they don’t follow all the rules. He goes down with the axe to chop holes so he can get his water from the pond. We go out into nature and experience it ourselves and usually it is a simple carefree life. Nature and life is still thriving in winter you just need to know where to look for it.

Quote: “But there was dawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene satisfied face, and no question on her lips.”

“Spring” (238)

He talks about how everything is changing and all the animals and plants are coming out again for the season. He compares spring to a recreation of nature and everything being reborn again. Grudges should be let go and you should forgive people and give them a second chance

Quote: “As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.”

Journal #10

Othello definitely comes to some conclusion about what he has done in his life and how that conclusion came to be right before he killed himself. His insight started with that he just killed his wife for reasons that were false even though they were given to him by his trusted soldier Iago. He realizes that he has destroyed his whole life because of faulty information. He had it all and in one swift blow it was all taken away from him. With his demise so close he realized that he got tricked by one of his most trusted officers. He probably learned to never trust anybody especially those closest to you. He realized at the end that he regretted not trusting his wife and that he gave up love for believing some lies about her. He saw that Cassio would now be the head of the army and that it would be in good hands when he was gone. He knew that he wanted to kill himself because he wanted to go honorably. He just wanted to be remembered for what he was not what he became at the end of his life when he was weak. He saw that he was going to be with his wife Desdemona so it wasn’t all that bad.

Journal #9

1. The first quote represents free will because Iago is talking about how people can be manipulated into a certain direction but the final decision is the persons’ to make. He says that no external force can change what the person is going to do in the end; it just gets them there faster. So even if people persuade you to do something they can't actually force you to do that action without the consent of you. In the end the final decision is up to you to make and nobody else can effect that decision no matter how hard they try.

2. The second quote really reflects the definition of Determinism because it talks about how your fate is decided at birth and nothing you do can change that. Othello even talks about death and how that is final and we can't escape it no matter how much we try. Even though we may try to control our lives our fate was decided long before we even tried to figure out what our faith is. We can do things to lengthen and shorten out lives but how and when we are going to die is in God’s plan and we can't change that no matter how much we try.

Journal #8

1. The first aphorism that I find interesting is “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” I think this is saying that you need to try many different things in life so when your time is up you have no regrets on how you lived your life. I like this personally because I think that you do need to try a lot of different activities in your life so you find what truly makes you happy. If you are not happy by the end of your life you will have many regrets and won’t be happy about the way you lived your life. Live it to the fullest because it’s the only one you get.

2. The second aphorism I found interesting is “We boil at different degrees.” This is saying that everybody has different tempers and tolerance levels. Some people will get mad after one joke and others will never get mad. This is personal to me because I believe that some people are more prone to get angry over certain things. We are born to tolerate different levels of discomfort and anger and some people do it better. This means never to assume that some is ok with a joke or hurtful response until you know them. Better yet just don’t say hurtful things and this will never have effect in your life.

3. The third and final aphorism that I found really interesting was “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.’ I think that this is saying that it doesn’t matter what is in the past or what lies ahead in the future as long as you are true to yourself you can and will succeed in life. This is personal to me because I think that everybody makes mistakes in life but not many people know how to forget about them. Part of growing as a person is to learn to forget about some of the mistakes you’ve made in the past and just know that you being yourself and the virtues and knowledge you have already about life will get you through rough times.

Journal #7

These two poems are very different. Whether it’s literary or poetic terms they differ greatly. The first thing that I can think of is the tone. The tone in these two poems is very different. In the Waterfowl the tone is very peaceful and attentive but in the Raven the tone is very gloomy and hopeless. You can tell that in the Waterfowl the speaker is excited and curious about these birds but in the Raven the speaker just wants the bird to leave. The setting in the Waterfowl poem is very early in the evening where the sun is setting and it is very peaceful. However, in the Raven the setting is midnight when it is very creepy and eerie especially when you have a bird that is the sign of death talking to you. The mood is different because you get chills reading Raven when you are more relaxed reading about the waterfowl. I think the themes are different because the theme in the Raven in simply that death always finds you while the theme in the waterfowl poem is about living life even though you might not know where you are going at certain times in that journey. The Raven is a lot longer so it develops more of a plot than the Waterfowl poem does. The Waterfowl poem is more of a description while the Raven is set up more like a narrative type of writing. Poe’s version of romanticism is definitely more pessimistic whereas the Waterfowl poem is optimistic saying that you could go anywhere with the help of God guiding you. The conflict in Waterfowl is where the birds are going and if they will get there but the conflict in the Raven is much more involved. It has to do with life or death and where you go when you die if you don’t have God in your life. The imagery in the Raven is very dark and gloomy whereas the Waterfowl poem imagery is bright and hopeful. Nature in the Raven is displayed badly but in the Waterfowl nature is being guided by a higher power to its final destination. The raven is guiding the person to death whereas God is guiding us to happiness.They are both written in first person but the speakers have very different views on nature. Both poems do have to do with birds but in very different ways. The message of the Raven is that there is no afterlife and once you are dead that life just ends and you do not get to see your loved ones again. In the Waterfowl the message that a higher power like God is leading you in the right direction even if you don’t quite know where the final destination is. These poems are very different but are both well written and interesting.