Margaret Fuller Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
Margaret Fuller
11//01/11

AUTHOR’S QUOTE

“Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely famine woman.” (1656)

INTERNET QUOTE

“It cannot be denied that in any estimate of Margaret Fuller, her personality, the compelling charm and power of her character have great weight. The genius with which she was so richly endowed was manifest in that character as well as in what she said and wrote. The tradition of wit and sparkle, the beauty and depth of her conversation still abides.”

 

SUMMARY

The Great Lawsuit, by Margaret Fuller is Fuller talking about the woman’s role in life or society and the way that she is looked at. It explains the way in which men see a woman’s role but it also explains how a woman also sees her role. Fuller wants to get across that there is much more than what a woman’s role is and that she can be so much more. She is pointing out the one standard way, in which a man may see a woman but also tells us of men who look at a woman more than what her role is, but what makes them a woman. Her point is to tell woman and men that they need to stop looking at the woman as just her role but to look beyond who she really is and can be.

YOUR IDEAS/REACTIONS/RESPONSES TO THE AUTHOR’S IDEAS

Some of the ideas that I got from fuller, is that she just wanted men and woman to see how they portray woman and that the woman doesn’t have to be just someone who has to clean and birth children. But, she can have a mind, someone who can be strong and be more that a role in life. My reactions to Fuller, is that I really like her work and think that she did a great job at getting her point across about what she was saying. I reacted to the work as really good and thought that she had a lot of truth to what she was saying. I think in her times, the role of a woman was different than now and to say what she was saying in The Great Lawsuit, was coming from a strong, smart and powerful woman. I can’t say anything bad about Fuller because I think her work was great and I really would like to read more of her stuff. I think that her ideas made a clear and strong point about woman. But not only that, she makes good points on how men and woman thought in those times about woman. She uses many examples from history to share how the roles of woman were looked at and then gives us her thoughts on what she felt about their roles. Also, to back up her thoughts on how she felt, she even uses examples form men who loved their woman and tell how they see their woman as so much of importance. I liked Fuller’s thoughts and ideas.

Robert Richardson, Emerson: The Mind on Fire Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
Robert Richardson, Emerson
10/28/2011

AUTHOR’ QUOTE

“He was not sure what he really believed, who he really was, or what he should be doing. He felt the “vanishing volatile froth of the present” turning into the fixed adamantine past. “We walk on molten lava,” he wrote.” (5)

INTERNET QUOTE

“Richardson details the evolution of one of the most famous 19th Century thinkers--from liberal Christian to Emerson's eventual philosophy which was akin to pantheism. The subtitle "Mind on Fire" was well chosen. Richardson uses it to form a thread through the work as he shows the lighting of Emerson's early mind, its climactic flame, and its eventual extinguishment just prior to death.”
http://www.2think.org/etmof.shtml

SUMMARY

Robert Richardson, Emerson; The mind on fire, is about Emerson being lost for love and life. Emerson, who visits his dead wife Ellen’s coffin, decides to open it, because he still is in denial about the fact that she is dead. But it is also about what her death has done to him and how it has taken his life. Emerson, being lost and alone, not sure of what his life is truly about. His beloved Ellen was the love of his life and without her he had lost himself in the world. Death is a big part of Emerson’s lonely solitude and he is only trying to figure out what his meaning of life is.

YOUR IDEAS/REACTIONS/RESPONSES TO THE AUTHOR’S IDEAS

I got a few ideas from Richardson, I think that he was trying to look in the mind of Emerson and see what he was all about. I also think that he wanted to look into the life of Emerson and his writing to tell people what kind of man Emerson may have been. I think that Richardson really wanted to share Emerson's feeling and what he was going through after the death of his wife. I reacted to Emerson’s story as a very sad one. Seeing a man who was having trouble getting over the death of his wife and getting lost in the world because of it. I felt from the words, that he was losing himself in the world and didn't know what to do with his life. It was also sad because he still wrote journals to his wife ,still wanting her to be alive; I could feel a pain that he must have been going through. I think that Richardson does a good job at trying to explain what a person can go through after death hits them in their lives. I feel that he waned to give us an idea of Emerson and tell us how this man had lost with himself. The descriptions show that Richardson must have been very intrigued with this Emerson, to share this story, because it is a sad one and also tells us the life Emerson, and one of the things that he went through in life. I think that Richardson did this because this was a huge part in Emerson’s life, and the loss of his wife was something that changed him and took his soul. Richardson wanted us to to see this because this is where Emerson losses himself in life and is trying to find a way back into the world that he had experienced hardship.

Henry David Thoreau/Resistance to Civil Government Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
Henry David Thoreau
10/27/11

Henry David Thoreau
10/27/11

AUTHOR’ QUOTE

“My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with,-for it is, after all with men and not with parchment that I quarrel,-and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government’.” (1864)

INTERNET QUOTE

“Precipitated by boundary disputes between the United States and Mexico, the war was ultimately fought in order to expand American territory--many Americans felt it was our "Manifest Destiny" to seize all the land we could--and as a result the United States gained much of the present American Southwest, including California, Nevada and Utah. Thoreau and other opponents of the war argued that the campaign constituted an unnecessary act of aggression and that it was pursued on the basis of arrogance rather than any philosophically justifiable reasons.”

http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/civildisobedience/context.html

SUMMARY

Resistance to Civil Government, by Henry David Thoreau, is all about what is going on with the government and the people that choose to follow it and the people that don’t. Thoreau describes it as a way of living and why people follow it. He also explains, who is in charge and those who want to be apart of it, have to follow the rules of the government. But he says that it is the ones at the bottom who suffer and the ones who choose to rebel against it, are the ones who pay for it in the end. Thoreau explains it is throw control and power.

YOUR IDEAS/REACTIONS/RESPONSES TO THE AUTHOR’S IDEAS

I got a few ideas from Thoreau’s words and was intrigued by the way he saw how the government was ruled. I think from his point, he saw it as the devil and it was ruled by the power of men and it was not at all ruled in a civil way. I also felt that he was against it, and wanted people to see how the government is full of power but not in a good way. I reacted to Thoreau’s words as a way of thinking about what goes on in the government and men who follow it and the way it rules our country. I also saw that he feels that it is man that he is saying his feeling to, as they are the ones creating the problems. I also saw this feeling that the government was using its power in an aggressive way that seemed to be very controlling. Seeing this, I was getting a feeling that may have been something he was going through and seeing in the world, that he was living in at the time. I couldn’t help feeling that his words were something of meaning of life, and his life at the time was ruled by the government and men were the followers. I think that the Author wanted us to see what was going in our world; especially with what was going in with Mexico and how people were treated and how people’s lives were taken away. But I saw that he was saying that our country, our government, was the gain of this and was using its power to run the country, I was very interested in what he had to say, because he seemed to really be against the government. What is funny, even though this is what he was feeling and what he was seeing in the world he was living in; times may have changed but things with the government are still the same now.

Fredrick Douglass and Ottilie Assing Journal/ Love Across Color Lines

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A

Fredrick Douglass & Ottilie Assing

10/21/11

AUTHOR’ QUOTE

“Are we talking about a love story, or are we imposing twentieth-century, post-Freudian expectations on a friendship between a German- American woman and an African-American man that was just that, a friendship.” (xx)

INTERNET QUOTE

“This version of the couple's relationship is more compelling than past versions. Primarily because other assumed accounts were soley based on Assings letters to her sister, Ludmilla, with whome her relationship was strained or on associates of the couple, such as Helen von Racowitza./Deidrich's research took her to archives and libraries all over Europe and the United States. The author expresses clearly that this is not another Douglass biography but her assessment of the couple's relationship with a closer focus on Ottilie Assing.”

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/african_american_literature_ret/27962

SUMMARY

Love across Color Lines, by Maria Diedrich,  was about Fredrick Douglass, an African American man and Ottilie Assing, a half German and American and. It is about weather or not these two had a love affair or weather or not they were just friends. Assing, who came across Douglass’s work, met him and was intrigued by this man. They became long time friends with many visits to each other’s home, attending events with one and another, and be a huge part of each other’s life. With these two very close there is proof of their friendship but not enough proof that it was in fact they had a love affair; though many knew about their relationship and there were letters to friends and family; however many of the letter were lost. They story comes across as what we would think and see what was behind these two relationship.

YOUR IDEAS/REACTIONS/RESPONSES TO THE AUTHOR’S IDEAS

My ideas to the story seem to jump from one idea to the next. I seemed to believe that Douglass and Assing in fact did have an love affair, because of the fact that after Douglass got remarried; Assing committed suicide because she was hoping Douglass would marry her and left her estate to Douglass. But then I thought why would Douglass marry someone else, if he did have a relationship with Assing. I got to thinking that maybe he wanted to marry her but he couldn't’t because of the times and circumstances of their races, and may not have been the right thing to do. My reactions to the story was I was very interested in the truth and what really happened between these two. It’s one of those story’s that you have information but not all the facts, so you are left with a thought of what really happened. I think that the Author did a great job at trying to find out the truth with what Douglass and Assing had going on, as she proved that they did have some kind of relationship; whatever it may have been. But she also proves the fact that people knew about them and they did not hide what they had going on. It was interesting to learn that these two may have fallen in love but could not share their love because the times that they were in, and would not allow them to be together. That is just a thought that I got from the Author.

 

Harriet Jacobs Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A

Harriet Jacobs10/20/11

AUTHOR’S QUOTE

“I come to a period in my unhappy life, which I would gladly forget if I could. The remembrance fills me with sorrow and shame. It pains me to tell you of it; but I have promised to tell you the truth, and I will do it honestly, let it cost me what it may.” (1816)

INTERNET QUOTE

“Male narratives generally followed a strictly chronological format, focusing on the narrator’s life as he relates the story of his journey from slavery to freedom. In contrast, Jacobs’ narrative focuses on “Incidents” in her life. Moreover, instead of following a strictly chronological pattern, Jacobs often interrupts her narrative to address social or political issues such as the church and slavery or the impact of the Fugitive Slave Law in runaways. Consequently, her narrative did not fit the pattern of the “authentic” (male) narrative.”

 http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/Incidents-in-the-Life-of-a-Slave-Girl-About-Incidents-in-the-Life-of-a-Slave-Girl.id-31.html

SUMMARY

Incidents in Life of a Slave Girl, by Jacobs is a story of a young girl living a wonderful life not knowing of any cruelty and the fact that she will one day that she will be a slave. As life changes for her; as she becomes a slave, a life is taken away through cruel and harsh times for her. Regardless of what she is going through she sees more in the world and dreams of better life. Her life came with ups and downs. As good is the beginning of her life, the bad takes it’s toll for many years, to only awaken to the reality of a better life; which would be her freedom.

YOUR IDEAS/REACTIONS/RESPONSES TO THE AUTHOR’S IDEAS

The ideas that I got from the story, was the fact the the author wanted to get out the truth of her life and what she had been through; if they were happy, sad, and even hard times for her. All that what she had been through was a meaning of her life and what would become of it. My reactions to the story were sadden by the truth of what happened to this young girl. Coming from a happy life, from her mother and the mistress, she ends up in a life that was unknown to her. But not only was I sad ,I was mad because of how she was treated and what many slave women went through in those times. Having a life taken from you, to only help out those who get to live a life of freedom. Not being able to fall love, or going out somewhere because it wasn't allowed and always having to get permission to do something. This was not fair and pissed me off because that is someone’ life that you are messing with. I know that this was how those times were, but that doe’t mean I have to like it. My response to author’s ideas is that she just wanted to share her life with the “Reader” as she kept referring to thr reader in her story. I really think that she wanted us to get an understanding of her life and what she had to go through. She wanted us to see the best of her life; as to the things that made her smile and happy and the hard times, which broke her and she was not proud of, but would make her life in the end. I think that she did a great job at telling her story because I could hear what she was saying.

Edgar Allan Poe Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A

Edgar Allan Poe
10/14/11

AUTHOR QUOTE

“Regarding, then, Beauty as my province my next question referred to the tone of its highest manifest-and experienced has shown that this tone is one of sadness. Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones.” (1620)

INTERNET QUOTE

“Anyone who has ever heard “The Raven” read aloud remembers it.  The internal rhymes, the classical allusions, the repetition of sounds and words, and the slow build from curiosity to horror all combine to make “The Raven” one of the best known poems of the nineteenth century, no small feat considering the quality of the verse that was written in the 1800s.  Beyond being an amazing poem, however, “The Raven” has the additional attraction of being the subject of an essay by the poet himself that explains the process he used to write it.  One doesn’t have to do a ton of research or a deep analysis to figure out what Poe was thinking as he wrote “The Raven” because he tells you in “The Philosophy of Composition.”
http://10000birds.com/edgar-allan-poes-the-raven.htm




SUMMARY

The Philosphy of Compostion, in words describes the meaing of writing poetry. Poe describes it through the words of tones, reality, truth, beauty, stanza, originality, and objective to state what makes  poetry stand out. He uses “The Raven as and example to show what he is talking about. Even though “The Raven” is seen as dark and is about death, he explains that it is how the poetry is seen beyond tand makes it goof poetry.

In The Philosophy of Composition, I thought that Poe made interesting examples and clarification on how to write good poetry. I think that it can help someone learn how to write poetry in a way that can make people/the readers enjoy and like it. I think that there were many good points that stood out and explained justification clearly to why poetry is good and bad. I know when he said that if poetry is too long that it is not as good as short poetry and I would have to agree because sometimes the longer the poetry; I get bored and just want it to be over. I liked Poe’s ideas on how he used “The Raven” as an example of how to write good poetry. But what was great about it is that he explains that “The Raven” is seen as dark because its about death and that no matter what kind of poetry is written; it can be beautiful. I think that's true because if poetry is great, dark or not dark; if it is written well, it can catch the readers to want to read it and love it, and that it's beautiful no matter what. However, I am a person who likes dark poetry as to sweet, nice, or loving poetry; I do like it, but dark and deep poetry stands out because there is some kind of mystery to it and that grabs me into the poetry. All in all, Poe does a fantastic job at making you see the truth in poetry and that it should come reality and that’s what I like.

The Land of Opportunity James W. Loewen Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
James W. Loewen

10/7/11

In chapter 7 from “Lies My Teacher Told Me was all about the truth behind social class and the truth of what kind of opportunities we really have in America. But not only that, its also about lies in what we are taught and what people are taught to think. This chapter pointed out why people feel and think the way they do. There was quote form the chapter that I liked because it explains that our books and what we are taught gives us the meanings of not truly understanding the truth. Even today we are blind to what the land of opportunity really stands for. “Since History textbooks present the American past as four hundred years of progress and portray our society as a land of opportunity in which folks get what they deserve and deserve what they get, the failures of working-class Americans to transcend their class origin inevitably get laid at their own doorsteps” (211).

At the beginning of Chapter 7 there were several sayings by different people and their feelings about The Land of Opportunity. One of them really stood out to me because it really said exactly what Loewen was saying in this chapter but in this whole book period. “Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can’t but enough to eat” (204). Because chapter 7 talks about our social class and the way it is, this quote says it all about this chapter and says a lot about our country and how we live in it. It’s very sad when the truth reveals itself; thank God I was taught and raised to know the truth, because I can understand and get what I am reading.

The quote that I chose was an explanation of a girl from a poor family; lower class and she is going to a school that has all middle-class students She is taught that the reason for her family life is because it’s what they deserve and is only taught the facts of what they want her to see.. The quote is showing a confusion of teaching to this girl. She lives one life at home but is taught another at school. The question is how is she supposed to understand this when she see two sides of the world.

The reason that I chose this quote is because it teaches us what our society, schools and books want us to see. But I like knowing the truth and when you are taught something that leaves out many facts; you are not taught everything and not learning the real in which our society and class are truly living.  We need to know what is real and this has been happening forever in our history; leaving out the facts. Why is it that some have more and some have less and should we blame people for what they have. Coming from who I am and what I see, no… we should not always blame people because in some cases life has handed them a whole lot of bull and they really didn’t have a choice. That is the reason that I chose two pictures of Mount Rushmore. There is one that has just our presidents that says lies in America and the other and my favorite with the Native Americans behind them; as there should be a mountain with them. The Native Americans are a great example of what social class is all about and a great example of the quote I chose, because they are people who suffer and not because its their fault; its what was given to them.

Journal for Rebecca Harding Davis

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
Rebecca Harding Davis
10/6/11





Rebecca Harding Davis is a great writer. I have never read any of her writings before and I really enjoyed “Life In The Iron Mills”. I found it sad but truthful. For some reason, I could see what she was saying and kept picturing the life around the Iron Mills. There were so many quotes that I found interesting but I had to chose one and decided to choose something that she said at the beginning of the book that gave me the feeling of seeing. “Can you see how foggy the day is? As I stand here, idly tapping the window-pane, and look out through the rain at the dirty back-yard and the coal-boats below, fragments of an old story float up before me,-a story of thus house into which I happened to come to-day.” (2600).

Rebecca Blaine Harding explains how Davis was in touch with her writing and “Life In The Iron Mills” made a point and was known because she put effort into it, but she also says that her future writing lost its touch. “After the publication of “Life in the Iron Mills” and Margret Howth, Davis received a warm critical reception from the literary elite in Boston, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others. But many of her later works were stunted by her need to make her works marketable for the popular journals. Davis faded from literary circles as the years passed.” http://www.enotes.com/rebecca-harding-davis-criticism/davis-rebecca-harding Even though her later works didn’t make it like “Life In The Iron Mills” I still like it and that’s enough for me to like her writing. I haven’t read any of her other writings to judge, but maybe my mind will change if I do; as for now I like, “Life In The Iron Mills”.

The quote is trying to say to picture the foggy day and picture the tapping on the window-pane but also, to see the back-yard and coal-boats and the house. If you could see this, than you can what w life was like on the Iron Mills and you could see how people lived and thought. It was an introduction to what was to come and what was life was always like.

I really liked this quote because there was just something about it that made you see it all. I could feel and see everything that was described in this quote. This quote is saying something strong and making you picturing the life in the Iron Mills.  I think that it’s trying to draw you in, to see what was around and what was going on and if you truly looked; you could see that. I found it very heartfelt and descriptive and it’s what kept me wanting to read; to see and know more about life on the Iron Mills.

Journal for Herrman Melville

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
Herman Melville
10/4/11

Herman Melville is an interesting writer. From what is said about him in his introduction, he went back and forth with his writing and when he wasn’t satisfied he would rip up his work. But the work that was published and reading from “Bartleby, the Scrivener” I found his work pretty good. One of the quotes that stood out to me from “Bartleby, the Scrivener” was, “Revolving all these things, and coupling them with the recently discovered  fact that he made my office his constant abiding place and not forgetful of his morbid moodiness: revolving all these things, a prudential feeling began to steal over me” (2375).

There are different thoughts and ideas from authors on how they feel about “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville. Some will say that they did not like it, or that maybe that its boring but some will say that they like it like me and find it good work. Ben Kafka, in Lapham’s Quarterly, says this, “smartest inquiries into the psychopathology of paperwork” and forms part of Kafka’s own entertaining inquiry into diverse aspects of office work: Why, he wonders, is there no Norton Anthology of Paperwork?” http://blog.loa.org/2011/04/herman-melvilles-bartleby-scrivener.html But he also says that  there is a problem in the story and quotes this, “The problem of the story, Kafka writes, “is that Bartleby turns out to be no more willing to work than the mettlesome poet.” One day he simply refuses to copy. His mild “I would prefer not to,” the most memorable line in the story, could perhaps be considered the stifled rallying cry of legions of paperworkers ever since”.

From what is said in the quote that I chose, is that Bartleby seemed to be a man who did things his way and would talk back to his boss. But even with all this there is still something interesting about him that draws people closer to him. There was something that made you want to know more about and learn about him. The quote by Ben Kafka explains that he is stubborn and says he wont copy and that shows something; besides his moodiness. He is someone who will say no… and you may not like that but some may find that different and either fire him or want to write about him and find things out about him.

I think that quote was a striking because I couldn’t understand how someone could say no to something that needed to be done and how someone could still find this person intriguing. What was about Bartleby that someone could like? But there had to be something, if it grabbed someone in. Something was seen in him that made you want to know more about him because of his attitude or personality and it just kept me wanting to read on to find out.