The Black Veil

Dark Romanticism, a sub-genre of the Romanticism Literary Period, was based around the darker side of human nature, mythical creatures, and human flaws. Two very famous Dark Romanticism authors are Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. One of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories or parables during the Dark Romanticism Literary Period is "The Minister's Black Veil." This is meant to be an eye opener, and it is written with many dark romantic characteristics to accomplish this.
The story is basically a mystery in a certain way. It is about a well respected minister who starts to wear a black veil across his face. The town is baffled by this, and eventually they come to fear him for it. He lives a lonely life with his black veil, as he refuses to take it off, even when coaxed by his wife. As he is dying, a new young minister begs him to take it off, but the minister with a dying breath tells the people that he will never take it off as long as he is on earth, that every one is hiding behind their own black veil, as he is; and then with that last statement, the minister dies. He is buried with his black veil on, and no one takes it off or looks under it. No one knows what the minister does that makes him wear the black veil, and it is this dark secrecy that separates him from the rest of the world. Dark romantics often wrote mysteries as this one could be classified.
Another characteristic of dark romanticism, and really just romanticism, is the symbolism used through out the story. The black veil is a symbol of secrecy, of sin, of darkness. Black is often the color of death, darkness, and sadness; and a veil covers something up, in this case, his face and his soul. "When Mr. Hooper came, the first thing that their eyes rested on was the same horrible black veil, which had added deeper gloom to the funeral, and could portend nothing but evil to the wedding" (Hawthorne, 284).
Also, the fact that the black veil covers the face of a minister is very interesting. Dark romanticism dealt with the side of human nature that we associate sin, greed, lust, and other darker elements with. The minister, someone who was respected and thought to be a pure messenger of God, was wearing the black veil, associated with sin and secrecy. "There was the black veil swathed round Mr. Hooper's forehead, and concealing every feature above his placid mouth, on which, at times, they could perceive the glimmering of a melancholy smile. But that piece of crepe, to their imagination, seemed to hang down before his heart, the symbol of a fearful secret between him and them" (Hawthorne, 285). The secrecy, sin, and darkness mentioned with the minister shows that even the people considered as righteous and good are even affected by sin and covered by it. Every one is covered by a black veil. "I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil" (Hawthorne, 289)!
The main point of this story is that every one is affected by sin, and though they may try to hide it, it is still there. They conceal themselves from the world in hopes of being unnoticed, so that people will not know their deepest and darkest secrets and sins. Hawthorne concealed this point symbolically in a story of a minister. However, even a Black Veil cannot hide the characteristics of Dark Romanticism in this story.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature. Ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill. 2010. 280-289. Print.

Journal #25: Wearing a Mask

Have you ever worn a mask? And I do not mean wearing a party mask or a Halloween mask or wearing a mask at a masquerade ball. I mean an imaginary mask. Have you ever worn an imaginary mask? Wearing this, you disguised your true identity with another that was not your own. You wore a mask to cover up your personality, your true self, whether it was to impress someone, fear of not being accepted by a certain group, or contempt for yourself. Everyone has probably worn a mask at some time or another. This next story is a story about a young girl who wore a mask at one point in her life.

Her name was Susan. Susan was probably the sweetest, the nicest, and most innocent girl you would ever meet. She was always happy and cheery, even when everything around her seemed sad. She was there to help a hand, and she never complained about the work. She was always the first to volunteer, and many people liked her. However, there was a group of girls who did not. These girls were considered the "in" crowd of the school. Susan was not part of this group, but she had always admired them, for their clothes, for their hair, for their attitudes. At heart she wanted to be like them. Susan with her own personality was not accepted by them. She did not like this at all. She decided to be more and more like them, so that she too would be part of the "in" crowd. First she higlighted her hair, cut it, and fixed it into the right style. She bought new clothes to match them. Soon she was acting like them, with bad attitudes and mood swings. She dropped her friends to hang out with them. Finally she was accepted by the "in" crowd! But when she got into the group she found out it was not as glamorous as she thought. Susan put on a mask, hid her true identity, and for what? Nothing! It was not worth it. So bottom line is, do not wear a mask just to fit in. You are you, and only you. Do not just change to be like someone else. If the world was all the same without much difference, it would be extremely boring. So do not hide behind your imaginary mask. Be yourself.

The Pit and the Pendulum: Dark Romanticism

Dark Romanticism, a sub-genre of the Romanticism Literary Period, had many characteristics similar to those of romanticism, but still different. Dark Romanticism included the darker side of human nature in its writings. This would include characters who had committed crimes, lied, were suffering , greedy, who had the darker qualities or flaws of human nature. Dark Romanticism writers also included dark mythical creatures in their novels and poems, such as demons, Satan, ghosts, goblins, and ghouls. Dark Romanticism stories are usually bleak, dark (obviously), scary, eerie, and have a sad or dreary tone to them. All of these are characteristics of Dark Romanticism.

Edgar Allen Poe is considered a Dark Romanticist. He has written many things including The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Pit and the Pendulum. All of these writings include Dark Romanticist characteristics, especially The Pit and the Pendulum. The Pit and the Pendulum is a short story of a man accused during the Spanish Inquisition, and his torturous stay in prison. The Spanish Inquisition the beginning setting for the short story was "a court that arrested and tried suspected heretics, or those who opposed Church teaching. Those convicted of heresy were imprisoned for life or sentenced to death" (Poe, 262). This already shows Dark Romanticism, because it deals with human error and human paranoia. In the beginning lines, Dark Romanticism is again apparent, because it talks of death in a depressing tone. "I was sick--sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me" (Poe, 263). Here Poe leads into the main story with the person's feelings. As the story develops, the accused is sent to prison where he is left in a small damp prison cell, rat infested, and fed little food. The keepers of the prison torture him by tying him down and swinging a pendulum with the sharp head of an axe slowly down at him. He marginally escapes, but again his torturers beckon him to a deadly pit in the middle of the room. "My cognizance of the pit had become known to the inquisitorial agents--the pit whose horrors had been destined for so bold a recusant as myself--the pit, typical of hell, and regarded by rumor as the Ultima Thule of all their punishments" (Poe, 269). This phrase shows Dark Romanticism because it mentions the pit as a hell, and shows the accused's contempt for the pit. It shows his darkest fear for the pit, something common to Dark Romanticism. "I felt that it was of joy--of hope; but I felt also that it had perished in its formation. In vain I struggled to perfect--to regain it. Long suffering had nearly annihilated all my ordinary powers of mind. I was an imbecile--an idiot" (Poe, 270). Again this shows Dark Romanticism, because it talks of being an idiot, not something to be proud of, a darker part of human nature. Also it shows how his joy disappeared and how he was left in utter darkness and felt as much, another characteristic of Dark Romanticism. Edgar Allen Poe's short story, not surprising, is an excellent example of Dark Romanticism. The Pit and the Pendulum shows how human nature becomes corrupt and what happens when it does, somethings common to the Dark Romanticism Time Period.

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature. Ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill. 2010. 263-273. Print.

Analytical Criticism of "The Raven" and Edgar Allen Poe

"The Raven" is one of Edgar Allen Poe's most famous poems, intriguing its readers with the deep inner thoughts of the mind, put out into the open by grief, suffering, and insanity. Edgar Allen Poe was a dark romanticist, and in being this, he wrote many things about the darker side of human nature, of mystery, of the psychological mind, and of darker spiritual phantasms. "The Raven" is a dark tale of a man going practically insane from the grief of his lost love, Lenore, and talking to a raven--a symbol of death--who only replies to the man, "Nevermore." The tale has many different references in it making the symbolic and figurative meaning stronger. It can be interpretted many different ways: a grieving man losing his mind due to the suffering from the loss of his beloved, a dark tale revealing the author's own feelings toward love, or a historical meaning, such as Dave Smith, author of a criticism of "The Raven," believes.

"If we read "The Raven," despite its absence of specific local details, as an "awareness" of the life of America in 1845, we see that Poe has conjectured the nightmare of the individual cut off from history, abandoned by family, place, and community love. He experiences personally what the South will experience regionally and the country will, down the long road, experience emotionally. Though he means to celebrate Lenore, what he most intensely celebrates is the union with community, the identity of place and people which Poe simultaneously has and has lost" (Smith). Dave Smith believes that Poe's poem is Edgar Allen Poe's portrayal of the country at the time, something that I had never thought of, but that is interesting and also relevant. This idea would be accurate with the Romanticism Period characteristics, in which they wrote of emotions, nature, and patriotism. Smith's connection of the poem to the South does seem logical and it seems to fit the Romanticism time period."In this, in 1845, he speaks for the Southern white and, paradoxically, for the slave paralyzed in his garden and also dispossessed" (Smith). However, even though this does make sense, I do not agree with David Smith. I think that Edgar Allen Poe is mainly coming across and giving a story of how grieving and not doing anything to stop one's suffering of a loved one eventually makes that person go insane. He or she loses their minds to the grief and anguish caused by the loss of the loved one. "It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore--Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore." Quoth the Raven "Nevermore" (Poe, 260). I think that the poem is merely the suffering of a loved one, Lenore. Edgar Allen Poe's very articulate ryhming scheme and his use of words to create a dim and bleak, yet sincere tone, tell the story of a lonely, sad, loveless man, rather than an analogy to the South and historical United States, as David Smith believes.

Works Cited

Smith, Dave. "Edgar Allan Poe and the Nightmare Ode," Southern Humanities Review 29, no. 1 (Winter 1995): pp. 4-5, 9-10. Quoted as "Poe as a Southern Writer" in Harold Bloom, ed. Edgar Allan Poe, Bloom's Major Poets. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BMPEAP26&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 22, 2010).

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Raven." American Literature. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 257-260. Print.

The Raven

The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe--a dark romanticism poet--, is one of Edgar Allen Poe's more famous dark works. Here is a literal translation of the poem.

A man is sleeping from reading a book, and he hears a small tapping noise on his chamber door. He shakes it off thinking it is only a visitor. He sleeps again, but wakes to the same tapping noise again. He goes to the door opens it, but he finds no one there. Then he hears a tapping noise on the window, and as he opens up the window, a raven flies into his room and sits on a bust of Athena, the greek goddess of wisdom and war. He asks the raven what his name is and it replies. "Nevermore." He asks of Lenore, his dead wife whom he grieves, and the raven again replies, "Nevermore." He then asks if his suffering for Lenore will ever go away, and the raven replies, "Nevermore." He tells the raven to leave him, but the raven, alas, says, "Nevermore."

This poem is dark and mystical, and from the literal translation, one would not know this. However, Poe uses many literary devices to make this poem how Poe intended it to be. For one, he uses illusion, or referencing something of another piece of work or art. "But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door--Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door--Perched, and sat, and nothing more." (Poe, 258). Here, Pallas refers to Athena. Athena was the protector of wisdom and innocence, and in the poem, she is used as protection of the man's mind. A raven was commonly used as a symbol of death. As the raven flies and sits on the bust of Athena, it symbolizes that the innocence, the wisdom, and essentially, the man's mind, dies, or he goes insane.

Poe also uses repetition in his poem to set the dark theme. The raven continues to say, "Nevermore," and only that word. The raven says nothings else but that. And as the man asks the questions to the raven, and the raven gives him these terrible replies, the man perishes in his anguish and grief.

Poe's poem is a symbol of darkness and death. The man, suffering from the loss of his beloved Lenore, loses his mind in his grief. He talks to a raven, believes the answers from the raven, and goes insane. The man loses himself in his sadness and suffering. The Raven symbollically shows us that when one wallows around in his or her grief and suffering and does nothing to escape it, they eventually lose themselves, and their innocent selves die in their anguish.

Walden Criticism

Walden, is by Henry David Thoreau, a well known Romanticism poet and writer. Thoreau was very interested by nature, and he tried to become a new person through nature, something common to the Romanticism Literary Period. Walden is basically a journal of Henry David Thoreau's stay in nature and his observations. During his stay, Henry David Thoreau looks at individual parts of nature and finds ways to connect to nature through that. In a criticism of Henry David Thoreau, by Bradford Torrey, Torrey praises Thoreau on his writing and connection of nature. I agree with Bradford Torrey on this aspect, because Thoreau is an excellent writer, especially when he writes of nature. This is obviously apparent in Walden, one of Henry David Thoreau's most famous works.

Bradford Torrey says, "Thoreau's love for the wild--not to be confounded with a liking for natural history or an appreciation of scenery--was as natural and unaffected as a child's love of sweets. It belonged to no one part of his life" (Torrey). I agree with this statement. Henry David Thoreau really did have a love of nature. It was almost as if it was his life. One can see this in an excerpt from Walden. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary" (Thoreau, 214). Thoreau tells why he made this solitary trip into nature. He wished to see how nature lived, how it operated, how it survived. From his observations Henry David Thoreau wished to live his own life according to nature. This proves Torrey's statement that "it [nature] belonged to no one part of his life" (Torrey). Henry David Thoreau did not want to live like nature only in spiritual aspects or only in work aspects. He wanted to learn from it, and then Thoreau wanted to apply that to all of his life, like Torrey stated.

There is one more main point that I found interesting in Torrey's criticism, and it pertains to Henry David Thoreau himself, not just Walden. Bradford Torrey says this, "He did his work, and with it enriched the world. In the strictest sense it was his own work. If his ideal escaped him, he did better than most in that he still pursued it" (Torrey). I agree with this point also, in that Thoreau added extra small details into his stories or poems or journals that make one think, "Is that really necessary to have that in there?" He did this with Walden even more so, because he was observing the small little details along with the obvious ones to see how those could affect his life. "Holding a microscope to the first-mentioned red ant, I saw that, though he was assiduously gnawing at the near foreleg of his enemy, having severed his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away, exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of the black warrior, whose breastplate was apparently too thick for him to pierce; and the dark carbuncles of the suffer's eyes shone with ferocity such as war only could excite" (Thoreau, 218). Even though some may have thought these details over the top therefore taking away from his journal, Thoreau includes them deeming them necessary for his own work, very similar to Bradford Torrey's criticism of him.


Works Cited

Torrey, Bradford. "Thoreau's Attitude toward Nature." Atlantic (November 1899): 706–710. Quoted as "Thoreau's Attitude toward Nature" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVHDT010&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 21, 2010).

Thoreau, Henry David. "Walden." American Literature. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 214-218. Print.

Journal #24: Unnecesary Fear

Everyone remembers those times when they were five years old, and at night their mom and dad tuck them in bed and say good night. They just start to close their eyes when they hear a weird scraping noise. They hide under the covers until they cannot stand it anymore and run to their parents, who come in, say it is only a tree branch, and tuck them back in bed. Then they see a dark shape protruding out of their closet. What could it be? Their minds immediately go to the thought of the monster that comes and eats little kids at night! (What are kids learning in schools these days that cause them to resort to that particular thought?) They again hide under the covers, and they start to call for mom and dad, but they know if they do so, they will get in trouble. They stop, peer from outside the covers. They grab a plastic golf club sitting next to their bed. (Why there is a plastic golf club there, I do not know. There just is.) They slowly creep to the closet, and suddenly they................. Beat down on the dark shape yelling, "Die, monster, die!" (Such violence). The parents, disturbed by the yelling, run to their room, turn on the lights, and surprisingly find an embarrassed little kid, holding a plastic golf club above his head, standing next to some newly beaten bunny slippers, not a monster.

Even if this is not exactly how your story turned out, it still probably follows the same idea. That idea is that we let our fear get into our head distorting what we see. The little kid saw a monster, not bunny slippers. However, when the lights were turned on, he realized that it was indeed his pink bunny slippers, not a monster. Hopefully now, as we are older, we do not beat up slippers, thinking they are monsters, but we do let fear control our emotions at times. For example, I use to be afraid of the dark because I thought that some hungry animal would attack me. Whenever it was dark outside, I would stay inside, and if I did go out, I clung to the closest person. I soon realized this fear was ridiculous because there were no hungry animals big enough or aggressive enough to attack me in the dark. Everyone has different fears, but the bottom line is that we cannot let them get into our heads and control us.

Emerson and Melancholia

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a poet and essayist during the Romanticism Period. The Romantic Period of Literature was a time where people wrote things based on religion, feelings, intuition, patriotism, love, nature, and the exact opposite of the reason and the logic of Rationalism. He was considered a Romanticist early in his career, but he later gave that up and is now considered a transcendentalist poet. Transcendentalists are those who went off of intuition and to find the meaning of something took a long process of thought and examination. Ralph Waldo Emerson has written many things, including Self-Reliance, and Nature, a very famous piece of work. The criticism on Emerson says that he basically goes through changes in life that has therefore shown up in his writing, common to the Romanticism time period. "What Freud characterizes as the progression from narcissistic attachment to melancholia to mania is the movement central to the great Romantic lyrics of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Browning, Tennyson, Emerson, Whitman, and Stevens, to all of the poets of certain loss and qualified restitution" ("Emerson..."). So what were these changes? It says he progressed from narcissistic attachment to melancholia to mania. But what are those things? Narcissistic is being self-obsessed, basically. One is in love with oneself. They are self centered, and they do not notice much outside of themselves. Melancholia is the state of being overwhelmed by one's life to the point where they become depressed and sad, and they are like that most of the time. Mania is being excited with something, being again obsessed with it, like it is the newest and most popular thing around. These progressions are obvious in his work, such as Self-Reliance. It is interesting how Emerson goes through these changes, and even though they are completely different from each other as compared individually, one can see how they are linked together. If a narcissist, one who is self-obsessed, self reflects and sees how his life is not the way he wants it to be, then he could become depressed and saddened therefore emerging into melancholia. But what about the switch from melancholia to mania? "Freud would perhaps stigmatize this exuberance as mania, the exultation which follows upon an achieved work of melancholia, when 'a large expenditure of psychical energy, long maintained or habitually occurring has at last become unnecessary, so that it is available for numerous applications and possibilities of discharge….'" ("Emerson"). Well, this has happened numerous times before. For example in response to the scientific ways of the Rationalism Period, there came the Romanticism Period. This was quite the opposite, and it came on strong. This is the same idea with the different generations. This is the stages Ralph Waldo Emerson went through with his life and his writing, since poets lives were usually connected with their writing. This is another common style of the Romanticism Literature Period. "Freud, against his own wishes, has provided us with a map of that process in which the self is constituted by powers not its own, and initiates a self-wounding drama of exorcism and incorporation whose final issue will be nothing better than a motive to begin the process once again. This unfolding act of self-destroying self-invention, which is at odds with our humanistic ethical principles, may in fact be the driving force within what we have come to call the Romantic sublime" ("Emerson"). This criticism is interesting that it explains the switch and progression of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it did an excellent job explaining Emerson's life and the connection of that to his life.

Works Cited

"Emerson and the Work of Melancholia." Raritan (Spring 1987). Quoted as "Emerson and the Work of Melancholia" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Updated Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=1&iPin=MCVRWE007&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 7, 2010).

Journal #23: No electronics... what?!

Our society today is pretty much hooked on electronics. Common uses of electricity today are phones, lights, microwaves, iPods, stoves, fans, computers, alarm clocks, Christmas lights, and other digital electronic devices. People almost always have their cell phones or iPods with them. It is a connection to other people, a connection to the rest of the world. IPods are a source of entertainment. So what if we went away, somewhere where we could not use these electronic devices, where they were non-existent. WHAT?! Some of you who are reading this just nearly had a heart attack. Sorry about that, but this is the topic, so this is what I am going to discuss. If you have a history of heart problems, please, stop reading, step away from the computer, and go lie down. For those who are brave enough to go through this electronic stagnation, pleases, continue reading. Thank you.

So, picture yourself in the Teton Mountains. That is in Wyoming for you geography impaired people. You are in a log cabin. There is a little stream behind the cabin. Trees and willow bushes everywhere. The mountains are right there, clear as air, and just majestically huge. The sky is clear blue, and the weather is crisp and cool but sunny. Nature is all around, and it is just plain beautiful. If I were to get away from electronic devices, this is where I would go. I have already gone on vacation here and have described it in an earlier blog, and in short, it is wonderful. It really is. However, I would still miss my cell phone and iPod, because those are my entertainment and connection to the world. If I did not have those things, then I would obviously do something else for entertainment. I would go horse back riding across the mountains for all of the morning. Then I would have a delicious lunch and ice cream. I would then go walking around and just hanging out, relaxing, reading, or take a nap, quite possibly. Then in the evening, I would go fishing and eat a delicious dinner. Then I would just hang out and look at the stars. I really like nature and out doors, if you have not noticed. This is how I would live if I did not have technology for a certain amount of time.

Thoreau versus Gandhi

Henry David Thoreau was a Romanticism poet during the 1800's. Romanticism poets were obviously during the Romanticism period, a period of literature in response to the earlier Rationalism Period. Rationalists believed in using logic and reason. They were very interested in learning and gaining knowledge, and they were also very interested in and curious about science. This is when many early inventions, such as the lightning rod and stove, came about. As a response to that period, came the Romanticism Period. This time of literature was quite the opposite. Romanticists believed in using intuition rather than logic, feelings rather than reason, and searched for a figurative meaning in things rather than a scientific meaning. They wrote about nature and the beauty of it, patriotism, love, myth, happiness, and religion. This time period was much different from the Rationalism Period. Thoreau was of this period, and even though he started out with the literature consisting of the Romanticism ideal, he later gave this style of literature up.

    One of the ideas of Romanticist poets was that it was okay to break the law if it went against one's morality or innocence. This was their idea. This is also in common with Gandhi, an Indian peaceful activist. Both said that it was acceptable to break the law since it went against the rights of the people. "I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up" (Thoreau, 224). In Gandhi's "On the Eve of Historic Dandi March," Gandhi says, "Wherever possible, civil disobedience of salt laws should be started. These laws can be violated in three ways" (Gandhi, 229). They both gave permission to the idea of civil disobedience, of not following the government laws because they were not in favor of the people. However, Henry David Thoreau and Mohandas K. Gandhi were different in how they used the civil disobedience.

    Thoreau disobeyed the law for himself. He did not want to pay a poll tax, so he did not. He did not include others in his opposition, only himself, and to him, it was more of a single gain, not for multiple people. "Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire" (Thoreau, 227). Henry Thoreau went it alone and individually gained from it, but Gandhi was disobeying for all of the people. He wanted everyone to continue the peaceful fight for rights. "I shall eagerly await the news that ten batches are ready as soon as my batch is arrested. I believe there are men in India to complete the work begun by me" (Gandhi, 230). Both of them disobeyed, but only Gandhi looked for the bigger and greater outcome. Thoreau looked to benefit himself, and though they both criticized the government, Gandhi did so in looking out for the many others of India. Thoreau did so for the individual, not the group.

 

Works Cited

 

Thoreau, Henry David. "Civil Disobedience." American Literature. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 222-227. Print.

Gandhi, Mohandas. "One the Eve of Historic Dandi March." American Literature. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 229-230. Print.

 

Journal #22: Breaking the Law According to Romanticism Poets

Breaking the law is not good, as made so by our society. Duh. This is obvious, because if someone breaks the law they are punished. If breaking the law was a good thing, "criminals" (now considered regular citizens because they are following the law by breaking it) would get lollipops rather than ten years in prison. Unless you are in some crazy backwards, upside-down, opposite world, that lollipop scenario is non-existent. Breaking the law is a bad thing in this society. Again duh. So now that we got that down, I am going to twist it to match the views of the Romanticism Poets.

So Romanticism poets believed in youth innocence, purity, morality of oneself, intuition or a gut feeling, and human nature and emotions, not science and logic like the Rationalism Period. According to certain poets, their philosophies basically say that if the law goes against someone's morality or intuition or something they believe, then it is okay to break the law. For example, and this example is exaggerated a lot, there is a guy named William. He is a young teenage boy in his prime, and he knows this. He lives in a world governed by a stern cross man, Mr. Mean. Mr. Mean has made it a law for this world that everyone needs to be adult like and wear a clean suit. Sweat pants, loose clothing, and other casual clothing items are not allowed to be worn in public, only in the privacy of one's house. Clause: if there are guests at one's house (guests are considered people who do not live there on a daily basis) then clothes must be in dress uniform as well. William hates this. He is just becoming his own person and he is young, and figuratively speaking, he has just learned how to fly. William does not want to wear dress clothes, because he feels that it takes away from his youthful innocence, that he is not himself anymore, and that he is speeding to quickly into adulthood. He breaks the law, and wears casual clothes in public.

William just broke the law. According to the Romanticism Poets, this would be okay, because the law went against his feelings, youth, and morality.

However, this does not mean that you should go and steal a flat screen television and argue at your trial that you did this out of your own morality and it goes against yourself to pay for a television. Do not argue that the Romanticism Poets allowed this, so it should be fine now. That is wrong and just plain crazy. Please do not be that crazy guy who takes things far past the limit and tries to make them work when it is obvious that they do not work and he is just insane.

Journal #21: Ben Franklin and Ralph Emerson

Ben Franklin is an obvious historical and famous person during the rationalism period. He invented certain things such as the lightning rod and a certain type of stove. He was a famous writer, writing works including almanacs, books, newspapers, journals, and even his own autobiography. Ralph Emerson, who has the middle name of Waldo, (What a cool middle name!), is probably not as well known as Ben Franklin, but he is still a known figure. He was a Romanticism writer. Well, actually, he was more of a transcendentalist writer during the Romanticism Period as he later gave up Romanticism writing. Anyway, he wrote many essays and prose poems, including Self-Reliance, Heroism, and Nature, the essay I will be discussing a little bit in this blog. There is a little tad bit of their literary history, and now for the real question. How are those two different men similar in their beliefs?

So, how are they? One was from the Rationalism Period, and the other one was from the Romanticism Period. In case you are not quite sure what these two literary periods were about, these periods were pretty much opposites. Rationalism, which came first, was about the scientific facts. It included logic, reason, knowledge, proof, science, and the longing of all these things. Romanticism, which came next as a reaction to Rationalism, was about intuition, religion, nature in its beauty, feelings, patriotism, human nature, and a person's soul. They are two different things, but the people of these period do have one major thing in common. This is the view of creation, including God and nature.

Ben Franklin believed that God created the world and nature, and that this was apparent, but that that was it. God was not considered a reigning figure in each person. God was associated with creation and nature but not with a personal relationship or association with a person's soul. Emerson had pretty much the same view as Franklin. Emerson believed that anywhere one looked in nature, God's influence could be seen. In other words, it was also apparent that God created nature and the world.

This idea is the main similarity between these two different men, Benjamin Franklin and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Journal #20: Self Reflection

Self reflection and getting away from society is a good thing to do. For me, it gives me a chance to calm down, and relax, without any distractions whatsoever. Society can get kind of crazy and very busy at times. So that I do not blow up, and they have to clean my head off the wall, I like to go into my room and just relax, chill, chillax if you want to call it that. I like to listen to some music, take a nap, just lay on my bed, or I like to go outside and just be quiet and look at the surroundings. Society these days is generally very busy. I mean you have all the big cities like New York City, Boston, Houston, Las Angelos, Las Vegas, and many other cities around the United States. Then inside those cities are hundreds of thousands of store, factories, offices, sky scrapers, and other buildings, where there are many many jobs. Plus, achievement is a major theme in our country. That is why we have colleges, graduates schools, and schools in general, and other teaching facilities. Nearly everyone wants to be successful, to make money, to support themselves, and to achieve fame through their work. Not to mention, there is all this new technology, cell phones, computers, iPods, game boys, game cubes, Wii, Xbox, Macs, PCs, the technology list is nearly endless. Sports have become very popular, including extra curriculars, hobbies, rec centers, and other places for people to do what they want. With this society, people's lives have become very busy. Getting away from this, turning off your cellphone or iPod, taking a vacation, is a good way to just calm down, relax, and slow down.

It is also good to self reflect at this time, because one can think back on his or her actions for the week. Self reflection can lead to a change in one's life, which can help that person. Thinking back on one's life can make one see they need to change something to avoid bad decisions or situations. Getting away, slowing down, and relaxing are some very good things to do.

Journal #19: The Ideal U.S.

What would be an ideal United States? Well, everyone would have different opinions. These opinions would be based on Republican viewpoints, Democratic viewpoints, conservative viewpoints, and liberal viewpoints. Each person's view of the ideal United States would be different, and right now I am going to give my view of the ideal United States.

First off, it would be a democratic society as our nation was formed as. There would the freedoms mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Amendments, just like now. The ideal United States would be prejudice free, and there would not be an inferior or superior feeling to anyone. It would be a hard working society. People who are lazy, do not try in school, which would still exist as it now does, and just throw away their lives, would probably not survive in my ideal United States. Now, they have a long extension of "leeway" time, but I think that is wrong. While some of them do nothing and just keep asking for more time, living off the government, there are the hard working people paying for those slackers to keep slacking off and throwing away their lives. Those hard working people should not have to pay for someone's laziness. In my ideal U.S., people would work hard and earn their pay, not steal it from others. Also, crime would be kept to a minimal.

Along government, I think that it should be less government in the lives of the people, and less spending on things that are not needed. Basically, I have a conservative Republican view on the ideal U.S. If you do not share this view, that is fine, but this is my ideal U.S. MINE! So stay out of my ideal idea and create your own.

That is my ideal United States; and, unfortunately, it is only that, ideal. However, this is a journal, so I can write about my ideal United States, if I would like to. Well, that is all I have to say about that.