ELAALRL4: The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents.
The student understands different literary works through the knowledge of other genres of writing. when the students write, they use the different styles and techniques theyv'e learned.
Transcendentalist Philosophy:
What would your argument to this philosophy be? Are all people good? Is the voice inside people's heads the pure voice of God? Not all people are good. We can see this in our society today with examples such as crime, murder, and hate. I'm sure that some people may still believe that God speaks to them, but God is completely holy; I don't think that everyone purely hears him in their heads.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne- He probably agreed somewhat with the beliefs of the Transcendentalists. Due to the way he criticized the Puritans in his novels, he obviously did not believe that there was only one holy person and everyone else will go to hell and is subject to suffer god's wrath. Yet, there's no way to say for sure if he was a Transcendentalist.
- Herman Melville- I don't think Melville would have completely agreed with the Transcendentalists. How could a canibal be pure? Isn't it a sin to murder?
Which side of the divide do you fall? Are you closer to being a Transcendentalist or a Dark Romantic? I believe that I'm closer to being a Dark Romantic than a Transcendentalist. dark Romantics have a better view of the world, their philosophies are much more realistic than those of the Transcendentalists. Transcendentalists believed that everyone was pure and they heard to holy voice of God in each of their heads. Yet Dark Romantics had seen crime and hate; and they knew that not everyone was pure.
"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe
"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe was a story about a man who wanted to renounce his wrong-doings in life before he died. The man had commited two most awful crimes to which in the end he pays for. He has a cat named Pluto which he abuses after he becomes an alcoholic. Eventually he hangs Pluto and later that night his house burns down. When he goes back to visit his house, there's a haunting picture of Pluto with a rope around his neck on the only wall left standing.
Eventually, he gets another cat as a pet; it looks just like Pluto, except with a white mark on his chest shaped like the gallows. At first the man loves the cat, then he grows to detest it becuase it loved him so and haunted him for the crimes he had previously committed. As time passes, the man gets fed up with the new cat and his torments. When he tries to kill it one day, his wife stops him; so he turns and kills his wife.
The man walls his wife's body up in the cellar; he doesn't see the cat for a while, and he sleeps peacefully for three or four days. Then one day the police search for his wife's body. While in the cellar, they hear a screaming form inside the walls. As they bust down the walls, they see the woman's corpse and the cat atop of her head.
I did not like this story at all. To begin with, I'm not a fan of Poe. His stories are always so dark and depressing. When I read a story, I don't want to read about death and hurting animals. I'm glad that at the end of the story the man's crimes caught up to him. Nevertheless, I understand how this story is a good example of Dark Romanticism. This story turns around the idea that not all people are born good and there is crime and hate in the world.
"The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe
I think that in "The Raven", the grieving man is not actually talking to a raven, but using it as a form of God or a demon. the man had just recently lost his love, Lenore. I think the raven is some kind of sould or burden that is weighing down the poor man because of the questions this man is asking and the things he has said to it.
All the bird says is nevermore and the man is going crazy with grief and despair. Then towards the end, he yells at the bird and tells him to go away and "take thy beak from out my heart." It's as if the bird is taunting his, but it's really just the sadness of his wife's death that "shall be lifted, nevermore!"
The story represents anti- transcendentalism because the man is talking to a bird who is tauntingly saying nevermore over and over again. Yet, if the transcendentalists had it their way, the man would be hearing the voice of God telling him how his Lenore is safe and he should not fret. Another example of anti-transcendentalism would be when he yells at the bird and finally goes crazy, that shows that not everyone is good and holy. He's being rabid and f=grieving, so he's going to be mean and hateful.
Can you identify symbolism in the raven and then support what you say with direct evidence and some analysis? The raven is a symbol for his wife's death and the dark, sad time he's going through.
"And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadows on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted--nevermore! "
I think this last stanza of "The Raven" shows how the bird will never leave, will loom all around and haunt him. As he says his sould shall be lifted nevermore, he is saying his wife died and her death will never unburden him.
REALISM
"A Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
This story is a good example of realism because it's not hiding the facts of a situation behind a fictional character and its actually saying how someone's feeling and acting. In "The Black cat" and "The Raven" Poe used his imagination to cover up how he felt about real issues such as the death of his wife. In both those passages, the main character's wife died, but the blame was played of onto a wicked animal. Yet in Kate Chopin's story, the woman's husband died and she was sad, naturally, but when she really thought about it, she realized the she didn't love her husband all of the time and now she was free. The woman was swimming and back stroking in her new freedom when she walked downstairs and her husband and come back.
"The Battle with Mr. Covey" by Frederick Douglass
"The Battle of Mr. Covey" does a good job illustrating a setting for the reader. With the details about working with wheat, hiding in a corn field, and running into the woods, the reader can picture a plantation of medium sized farm of some sort. Frederick Douglas also did a good job of supporting the idea of realism. Even though we had to use our imagination to see the farm, it was still a very real thing, along with slavery, in those times.
"Graffitti the World" by Rehab is a good example of realism. They don't cover the truth with fictional characters and tricky lyrics. The song says how we are graffittying our own world with skyscrapers, graffitti the sky with airplanes and satellites, graffittying the minds of children with all this violence and man-made wants.
A. What do you like best? Dark Romanticism, Realism, or Romanticism?
I think I like Realism best.
B. create a short piece of whichever you choose
Yesterday there was a funeral held for Amelia Scott. She was a 17 year old highschool senior. Amelia had died of lukemia, which is a type of cancer. No one knew she had been sick, not even her own boyfriend. She had been diagnosed a little over two years ago, and she had decided form that point not to act like every day was her last. Sure she went through the necesary operations and chemo, but she just told the kids at school she had the flu or something. When she died she knew that she hadn't just lived selfishly and scared, but she lived for everyone else. She made them happy and didn't bogg their minds with sadness.
I guess this is a good example becuase cancer is a very real thing, and no one usually lives a normal life after they find out they're diagnosed. There's a lot of praying and sympathy outside of the home; no more normalcy. It's telling how a girl died and how she lived with her disease.
