DuBois- "The Souls of Black Folk"

In "The Souls of Black Folk" DuBois talks about what is like to be a black American, yet when he wrote it, he did not feel like those two terms were actually one. He wanted to be both black and American because he felt that blacks were in America for a purpose, to bring a message, but he still felt out casted by the white Americans. Even with freedom from slavery, blacks were still discriminated against and he felt that Americans could only get past that with equal education.

Africans, like the Europeans, were stuck with a challenge to find identity in America. After being freed, Africans struggled on how to keep their traditions yet still integrate into America. Thomas Paine in "Common Sense" talks about how America was a place of freedom and it is one's responsibility to reach it. This causes problems when the black Americans tried to reach freedom but others would not let them. Paines argument is not sound in this case of segregation and oppression. This is why the black Anericans were struggling, because they were in a place a freedom yet not allowed to actually be free from judgement and inequality.

What does he mean by calling Africans "the seventh son?"

Kipling- "The White Man's Burden"

Kipling writes this poem to show his imperialistic views. He believes that larger nations should rule over others because they are less developed. The developed nations should feed and protect these other nations because it is their duty as superior nations, "veil the threat of terror/...Fill full the mouth of famine." It is apparent he thinks that the superior nations are run by white men. He says that the other nations will not thank the superior nations but will judge them. He encourages the white man that this is their burden and that they should rule over others.

The way Kipling views the ruled nations is similar to Orwell. Both recognize the fact that they will not appreciate the "superior" nation controlling them. The man in Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" says that the Burmese (ruled people) hate the European officers who have to control and keep peace there. Kipling and Orwell do disagree in whether these nations should be ruled over and how. Orwell shows he does not think nations should rule over the weaker ones; the man in his story says that imperialism is bad but Kipling thinks it will benefit the other nations. He thinks it will benefit because they are supposed to feed and protect these people but Orwell is more realistic in saying that what they really have to do is keep the peace so no nations will revolt against the ruling ones.

Did people think Kipling was racist?

Orwell- Shooting an Elephant

A British police officer stationed in Burma is having a hard time since most of the Burmans are anti-European. He recieves a call to go kill a wild elephant and when he gets there he has to decide to shoot or not. With all the Burmans watching, he does not want to look like a fool and shoots is out of fear. He feared that they would laugh at him and that if he killed it, they would respect him and his job. This symbolizes imperialism and how the government's drive for control. The Burmans are the ruled people and the police officer is the government that wants to control the people, fearing that they might over rule it. The elephant was an example to show the power of the government.

This relates to Lord of the Flies. The Jack ruled out of fear of rebellion, just as the police officer did. He hurt other children to show that he was powerful and to not cross him. I think Orwell believes that the government has to inflict some sort of pain among the people to show that it is not afraid to control them.

Why was this man a police officer?

Marx/Engels- The Communist Manifesto

Marx and Engels say that class stuggles have exsited through out all time periods. Around 1848, the Bourgeoise and Proletariat were the two classes that faced each other. The Bourgeoise were the middle working class that only cared about making money. This led to the disintegration of the individual because everyone is just working in the factories, not really understanding their value. Sex, race and age are no longer issues for the Bourgeoise sole goal is production. people are dehuminized as just one piece in the machine, a piece that could easily be replaced by another. Marx and Engels argue that this way of thinking will lead to the Bourgeoise class to fall to the Proletariats.

Marx believed in "the idyllic feaudal system," in that who you are determines what you do. This is contrasts with existential angst that says what you do determines who you are. This existential view relates to the disintegration of the individual felt by the Bourgeoise class. The workers of this class were easily replacable factory workers and so they stuggled in finding out who they were, or their identity. This later leads to the rise of the individual when people feel like they have to find their identity or purpose so they emphasize personal, unique and other terms that embrace onces originality. 

Is this a cycle that will once again return to the disintegration of the individual?

Crane- "The Open Boat"

This story is about men stranded on a dingy in open water. They can not do much to be saved except row a little and try not to tip over. They see a man on a beach and hope to be saved but the man does not do anything. then after the boat capsizes the correspondent, cook and captain wash up on shore to find the man but the oiler does not survive. These men are helpless in the water, which symbolizes the universe. The man symbolizes God because he sees the helpless men and does not go out and try to save them but just watches. Crane's naturalistic views are clearly seem by the men's helpless and God and the universes lack of compliance.  


Cranes Naturalistic views have similar characteristics with Existentialism. Existentialists focus on the individual, that they alone have the power to give their life meaning. Crane views man in the same light; God and the universe do not care about you so it is up to you to do something with this terrible life you have. I think Naturalists could have gotten some of their views from previous Existentialists.


Why does the oiler die?

Crane- "In the Desert" "A Man Said to the Universe" "War is Kind"

Crane demonstrates his Realistic and Naturalistic points of views in these three poems. "In the Desert" shows that humans are bitter and terrible, but it is how God created them. Humans love their bitterness and live by it. "A Man Said to the Universe" shows how men do not have much importance because the universe has no obligation to them. "War is Kind" shows that men are born to die and that war is kind to give them that relief. Crane sees men as bitter, unimportant beings, where death is the only way to get away from the terrible creation of humans.

Crane wants to show just how bad creation, more exclusively humanity, is. This is a key factor in Realism writings because by showing how bad it is, he is indicating that it should change. This is shown in "Life in the Iron Mills" by Davis. This shows how dark and gloomy the Iron Mills were as well as the oppressive system. Both authors push for change in society because they see man as evil, terrible beings.

What made Crane think man was so evil?

Chopin- "The Story of an Hour"

Chopin writes about a Mrs. Mallard, who received news that her husband died in a railroad accident. She is shocked at first and sits in grief until she comes upon an intelligent thought. As she sits in her chair, looking out a window she realises she is not sad because she has finally rid of this husband that oppressed her. She can live for herself, look forward to life and no longer has to abide by his will. When struck with the sight of her alive husband, she dies at once from a heart attack because of the shock. Mrs. Mallard strove for independence from her husband and finally got it. 

Chopin talks about how during this movement, women felt oppressed by their husbands. This relates to "The Yellow Wallpaper" because when the narrator felt depressed, she was sent away to a prison-like room and had to abide by her husband/doctors rules. During this era, women were not allowed to decide what to do on their own because they had maids to do all their house work and husbands who got money for the home, all they had to do was sit around the house. With this unsatisfactory life, many became depressed. Men saw themselves as not having authority at work so used it improperly at home. Men and women for the most part, did not have healthy relationships at this time rooting from the work place.

When Chopin posted this in Vogue, was she criticized by many men?

Howells "Criticism and Fiction"

Howells is a realist and loves description. This is why he believes that Jane Austen was the best writer. He criticizes many European writers like Bulwer, Dickens, Bronte, Thackeray and Eliot but praises Jane and Anthony Trollope for the honesty in their writings. He believes that art is beautiful and good when it is descriptive and truthful. He thinks that fiction is declining as art because of its change from realism to romanticism. Austen knew how to write truthful, realist fiction.

Picasso says that, "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." This relates to Howells thoughts on fiction as an art. Arts function is to show truth and he believes the best way to do this is through description. "Life on the Iron Mills" demonstrates this realist movement by being very descriptive and showing tensions while advocating social change. Howells believes that fiction will continue to decline until it gets back to the best way it can demonstrate truth, through details.

Does he think this is the only good type of writing?

Franzen, "Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts!"

As Franzen talks about how much he loves his new Pearl Blackberry. He is amazed that in only a few years the technology has upgraded so much. The relationship he has with his phone is erotic, he loves this piece of technology that gives him everything and asks for nothing allowing him to have complete control. This sense of control appeals to people because so much in this world is uncontrollable. The technology becomes one with the owner so that they can not let it go. This world of techno-consumerism changes the idea of love. People start to think they need to love as technology does. Love used to be a feeling but is now just a click on a link via Facebook "liking." Consumer products are designed to be likable, they are designed for the individual. This contrasts with the non-consumer things that aren't fixated on the individual.

Franzen thinks that technology has changed the way we love just as Carr believes that technology has changed the way we think. These changes are gearing towards the individual; consumer products are made for you to like. This relates to Focault when he speaks about the Panopticon. The Panopticon allows people to be individuals so that a power can control them. People want to be individuals now. The Christian Church can prove this. Christians used to be more focused on the body of Christ, the Church. Throughout time the focus has changed to a more personal relationship with God. People want to be recognized for who they are individually and not as a whole. As people move towards individualism, technology utilizes that to evolve and vice versa. This is a cycle that leads to more advanced technology and more individualistic people.

Does Franzen think that non-consumer products are the only good products?

Cascio- "Get Smarter"

Cascio believes that humans do not have to fear the technological future ahead but instead that it gives them the chance to get smarter. Humans have the resources that they are continually making and utilizing for them to become smarter, better people. Certain drugs like caffeine and nicotine can enhance humans. If people already have the information, why waste it and be scared of what it can do? They need to take use of what they have and grow off of it to become greater. There is no point in fearing technology when it can do so much good, so people might as well learn how to control it.

Cascio disagrees with Carr's argument. He believes not only that growing technology should not be feared but utilized to make humans better. When Carr states that the written human language has damaged the human memory, Cascio states that it increased our memory. He also views other inventions like this and drugs as enhancing humans and not as being detrimental. Carr thinks that technology can control humans and change the way they think but Cascio believes that humans can control technology and use it for their benefit.

Why doesn't he note the bad side affects of too much nicotine and caffeine?

they are watching...

Carr- "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

Carr is intrigued by how his and many of his friend's attention spans have shortened with the access to the Internet, mainly Google. Once in his life he could sit and read or write for hours with no issue of concentration, but now he has gotten to a problem. He can not concentrate on much of anything for too long because he is used to being able to just search everything on the Internet. Socrates found a similar situation with the written language. Once that was created no one really had to remember what they knew. People would think they were wise, when really all they needed to do was know how to read. Now the same is happening with the Internet, no one needs to read books or go out and experience things to learn because they can just Google it! People can just skim articles and jump to the next one in seconds. Their minds have been trained to grab important facts and then move on as quickly as possible. Has Google ruined people's want to read or experience things? Google does spread knowledge, just as the written language did, but not without a sacrifice.

The Internet is beneficial in the need of a quick answer but the problem is that now barely anyone can stand to read a full book, listen to a full song and so on. Why do you think the hit songs are getting shorter? Most people can not stand to listen to songs more than 2-3 minutes. This is especially true for people who grew up with access to the Internet. This issue will only be getting worse but there is nothing that can be done since the Internet allows people around teh world to reach information quickly, quickly being a key word. The faster it is, the less we have to work for it, the lazier we become. This begs the question, are the people that grew up using the Internet losing their want to experience real things? Like Whitman said, the best way of learning is experience, but since they can find out everything they need to know on the Internet, what is the point of having to get up, go out and physically experience something. With an increasingly lazier people, it is frightening to think that one day we might generate into the people from Wall-e, fat, lazy people that never have the motivation to get up and read or experience. I am all for the Internet, it is just scary at what it may cause people to turn into.

What will be the next technological endeavor that will transform the way humans accept knowledge?

Whitman- "The Wound-Dresser"

Whitman wrote this poem as he tells children about his experiences with being a wound-dresser for civil war soldiers. He tells them of the hard times because there were so few joyous times. He speaks of the wounded all around the hospital and inside on cots, who he tried to help and felt so bad that he wished he could take their place. He sees so many men die who are forgotten and so many that wish they could die from the pain. He dresses many wounds, not giving up because the men need him. He remembers all the suffering he saw as a wound-dresser and thinks of all the men he saw die.

Whitman is struggling here, with a concept that haunts many. He saw so many forgotten after they died in the war, "like a swift-running river they fade, Pass and are gone they fade... While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes on, So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the sand." Life is full of pain and suffering, so what is the point of dealing with it all especially when your whole life will be forgotten. When death is inevitable, why not just die before one reaches the pain? "Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death! In mercy come quickly." He understands that he needs to help these men but struggles with the reason of life when death is so beautiful, freeing oneself of pain and suffering.

Is this poem transcendentalist?

Whitman- "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"

The narrator is on a ferry, as he looks out on the water and the other passengers he thinks of the people that will take this same journey in the future. He sees himself as being connected with these future people. He tells them about himself, that he is evil but is still just a normal guy. He tells them that everything should continue as it is, nature and man. He thinks that man can learn about his soul and spiritual things by observing the physical or nature.

In this poem Whitman is stating how time is connected by nature for, for the most part, nature does not change. Men in the future will be crossing that same body of water as the narrator did. Nature can connect the people from the past and future. They all experience nature and can learn from it. The spiritual and their soul can all be understood better through experiencing nature. This connects with his transcendentalism thought that man has fallen from its perfect state with nature, but to learn about themselves, they should look to nature. Nature can show what man should be like and the good things in man can relate back to nature. Whitman wants to experience nature so that he can learn more about his soul.

Does Whitman make up these stories or are these things that have happened to him?

Whitman- "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"

Whitman wrote this poem about a narrator who is listening to an astronomers lecture. The astronomer teaches with proofs, charts, diagrams, figures and such all to help the students understand astrology. Many applauded at his brilliance, yet the narrator felt overwhelmed, sick and tired. All this information thrown at him did not help him learn, it just made him leave. He left to walk by himself and looked up at the perfect stars in awe.

Whitman is demonstrating something about education just as Freire did with the "banking concept." He is showing how a student can't just be told or shown information in a classroom to learn, sometimes he has to get out into nature or emerge himself in the subject. Just looking at information does not ingrain it into his brain like experiencing it does. Freire also had a similar idea, that teachers just give the students information to memorize, not to actually learn or experience. Education sometimes needs charts, proofs, and diagrams but I think that students would be much more prepared for life if they could experience the subjects in their lives, not just look at them.

Was Whitman the narrator?

Emerson- "Experience"

Emerson speaks of experience as having different parts that affect it: Illusion, temperament, surface, and subjectivism. These ideas are intertwined in the poem in the beginning. He writes that understanding experience is confusing. A man's life is an illusion in which his temperament and mood affect his perspective and how he will experience life. Man can not see below the surface and can live an unprofitable life. Emerson states that man is subjective to God and nature.
"Experience" had a solemn tone and was not easy to read. Emerson was trying to explain experience and what contributes to it. It is a complicated subject but overall he still continues in the transcendental thought that man is subjective to nature and God. He thinks that mans experience should lead to observing the things in him that are in relation with God and nature and try to leave everything else behind.
Why did his writing seem so solemn?

The Fall of the House of Usher- Poe

The narrator is visiting his friend, Usher, who sent him an earnest letter to visit because he is sick. When he gets to the house, he notes how gloomy and spooky it is. Usher's sister is sick as well and Usher suspects that the house is bad. After the sister dies, Usher is even more loony. He can not sleep and wakes the narrator. The narrator reads to him and starts hearing noises. Usher says that he suspects that they are from his sister, for they might have buried her alive. Usher screams that she is behind the door and then the door opens and she is! She attacks Usher and he dies, the narrator runs away as the house breaks and falls to pieces.

This, like the other Poe stories, shows Gothic attributes with the gloomy, mysterious landscape and the possibly insane minds of the characters. The story begs the question if the house is really possesed by some evil spirit or if the people in the house are just crazy. What if the narrator imagined the whole thing? This depicts how unknown the human mind is and how it can trick someone. All of Poe's stories have been very fun to read because they make you feel like the narrator and that it is happening to you. This makes the reader feel like their mind is insane and I like how Poe is so good at putting you in the situation.

Why does Poe never give names to the narrators?

The Tell-Tale Heart -Poe

The character in this poem lives with an old man who is blind in one eye. This eye drives the character mad and he decides he must kill the man to rid of the eye. Every night the character would sneakily watch the man sleep, hoping to see the eye but it was always closed. The character feels that he must affirm that he is not mad because a mad man would never take such thought into this process. One night the old man wakes as the character is watching him. He shines the light on the dull eye and when he finds that it is open, he is infuriated by this dull eye. Then troubled by a new nuisance, the old man's beating heart filled with terror, the character feels he must rid of this man tonight for the neighbors might hear his treacherous, raging heart beat. The character unshielded the lamp, the old man screams and the bed is thrown on top of him, killing the old man. The character is filled with joy as he has rid of the dull eye and heart beat. The character dismembers the body, hiding it under the planks of the old mans very own floor. As police come later, alarmed by the shriek heard from neighbors, the character remains calm showing them the house, being so bold to sit in the old man's room. As he talks, a quiet beat gets louder and louder, convinced that they hear the beating too he confesses, no longer being able to handle the dreadful heart beat.

This poem shows the American Gothic theme distinctly. Through the mad character, Poe demonstrates how frightening the mind can be. Reading this can make it seem like the reader is the character, making them feel mad. This work puts the reader inside the mad, mysterious, mind of a killer. The most frightening part is that the character does not think of themselves as mad, they consider themselves justified and actually smart to act so precisly. This is scary, for this shows that the mind can convince the mad that they arn't actually mad. Poe is saying that we could all be mad in the mind and not even know it.

Is the point of not giving the character a name or gender to make the reader think they are the mad person?

The Raven- Poe

The main character in The Raven, a man, is sitting in his house, thinking, depressed over his dead lover, Lenore, and nodding off. Then he hears a tapping on his door, he goes to it, hoping it is she, when he finds nothing there. There is then a tapping on his window and when he opens it a raven comes inside. When he asks the raven its name it replies, "Nevermore." As he continues to ask it questions it only replies, "Nevermore." He thinks that it is sent from God to help him forget Lenore or it is an evil prophet. He asks if she is in heaven and the raven only says, "Nevermore." He is angered and tells it to leave since it is not helping him with his loneliness but the raven states it's only word, "Nevermore." The man now feels that the raven will never leave and that his soul will forever be stuck in it's shadow, cast by the lamp, forever.
The raven is something from the afterlife ("Night's Plutonian shore") that was sent to the man to help him understand that Lenore will be gone forever. The man fears, in the tenth stanza, that this too will leave him as his other friends did but the raven ensures that he will not. Words like Disaster, Despair and Hope are capitalized leading to believe they are names. "so, when Hope he would adjure,/ Stern Despair returned, instead of the sweet Hope he dared adjure-/ That sad answer, 'Nevermore.'" When the man expresses his hope that Hope, or Lenore will return, yet he only got Despair, the name of the raven; the raven tells him she will not come back, "Nevermore." The raven could be seen as an evil presence that brings the man frustration because he will never leave or as a comforting presence that helps him heal over Lenore's death and will not leave him in his time of loneliness. Either way, the man's soul is stuck with the raven, nevermore to leave.
Is the raven some sort of death since the mans soul is stuck with him?