Thomas Paine Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A

Thomas Paine

11/15/11

AUTHOR’S QUOTE

“As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any part of it. It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European connections, which she never can do, while by her dependence on Britain, she is made the makeweight in the scale of British politics” (634)

INTERNET QUOTE

”Paine's political pamphlet brought the rising revolutionary sentiment into sharp focus by placing blame for the suffering of the colonies directly on the reigning British monarch, George III./ First and foremost, Common Sense advocated an immediate declaration of independence, postulating a special moral obligation of America to the rest of the world. Not long after publication, the spirit of Paine's argument found resonance in the American Declaration of Independence.”
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/commonsense/

SUMMARY

Thomas Paine writes in Common Sense, the politics behind America and Britain. But he also writes the truth in what lies behind the ties of America and every other country. He states the fact in which America is to be a free country, it would have to remain free from all; meaning any other country. He states how many Europeans came to a new land to find a new and better life and if they want to remain free, why would they want to interact with other countries; especially Europe in which they left the Old country for a better life, but especially with Britain. He sates on how America relies too much on Britain and other countries to help make a stronger country but says that they could still be strong without them.

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

Some of the ideas that I got from Paine were that he wanted to state all facts about countries such as Europe and the pain and sufferings that it was going through. But what I also got was that many of these people that fled to America for a better life but were still relying on Europe; especially Britain for help in this new country. The idea from all this and from he stated, is why would people run from a country when in fact it needed help and was not doing good and what could it really do for the new country. I got that he was stating that would everything would remain the same if they did this and needed to fight for its own freedom. I reacted to Paine’s work as really good because he stated many good points and was trying to help people see and want better from what they already had left.

There are some great thoughts that I got from the Author’s ideas. The quote that I chose, tells in many words, exactly what Paine was trying to get across in Common Sense. As Paine tries to say that we should have no interaction what so ever with any part of Europe. He says this because doing trade or having any kind of business with them; is not moving on in which many Americans wanted to do; since they came from Europe. But Paine also states that no matter how hard we try to not have anything to do with Europe, we in fact have relied on them so much, that it would be hard not to do and still are falling into the Britain politics that many Europeans who came to America, were trying to get away from. My internet quote says all this and that Paine really wanted America to remove itself from Britain. I think in all, Paine was trying to say that for America to be a free country; it would have to free itself from all ties with Europe and America would have to find some way to do this and still be a string country. To not repeat what they came from and were running from.

  

Lies My Teacher Told Me Gone With The Wind Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A

Lies My Teacher Told Me Chapter 5 Gone With The Wond

11/11/11

AUTHOR’S QUOTE

“Except for backsliding on slavery’s role underlying secession, most textbooks now handle the topic with depth and understanding. Why sis they improve? To ask this is to engage in “historiography”-looking at the writing of history. Who wrote this textbook? Of what background? To what audience? When?” (141)

INTERNET QUOTE

“In vintage Loewen fashion, the poster juxtaposes short quotes from a range of high school textbooks currently in use, with excerpts from primary sources that clearly show how textbooks have “lied” by knowingly substituting crowd-pleasing myths for grim and gruesome historical evidence.”

http://thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1570

SUMMARY

From Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen in chapter 5, he writes about the issues of racism and slavery and where it comes from. He gives us ideas on what we can do to change the view and how people see and look at them both. He explains that it has a lot t do with history and what is written in our textbooks and what we are taught. He says that our textbooks have a lot to do with the truth and neglect the true facts of racism and slavery. However because the times have changed from before, now textbooks books see and explain the truth and people who have no idea about the truth are shocked. Loewen explains it is a learning experience for many, who don’t know the reality of our history or choose to not acknowledge the truth of it.

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

The ideas that I got from Loewen in chapter five is that he wants us to see the truth about slavery and racism. However throughout the whole book this is what he is trying to get across. I thought that he used many examples like “Gone With The Wind” to show us that history is filled with lies and most of us were taught to not see the truth about it because people don’t want us to see the truth. I honestly reacted to what he was saying as great because he used great examples and gives us many details from history that point out the facts about slavery and racism.

My response to the Loewen’s ideas is that the truth shall say it all and knowing it is something that all people should know and not deny. The quote that I used is a great example of what Loewen was saying and tells us that things have changes when it comes to the truth. Times have changed and the truth is coming out but that does have a lot to with who is writing the work. Times before there weren’t that many voices heard through writing so the truth about slavery and racism was to a point but always looked at, as it was not so bad and weren’t told the whole facts. However with the times now more people have a say and are telling the truth about our history and what was really behind slavery and racism. Some people don’t or may not believe it but because I was raised on the truth about our history I can understand and not deny what is being said. The quote about Loewen says it all also that history and our texts books have lied to us and there is more truth than some are saying and we should learn and know about the truth.

Olaudah Equiano Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
Olaudah Equiano

11/08/11

AUTHOR’S QUOTE

“I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country, or even the least glimpse of hope of gaining the shore, which I now considered as friendly; and I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation, which was filled with horrors of every kind, still heightened of my ignorance of what I was to undergo.” (683)

INTERNET QUOTE

“The best comparison is with Frederick Douglass's Narrative (1845), which follows the three-part pattern of spiritual and slave autobiographical work. Douglass's work depicts the same search for identity involving the attainment of manhood, education, especially the ability to read, and the securing of physical and spiritual liberations. Other connections concentrating on the spiritual conversion account in Chapter 10 of Equiano's work may be made with the Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and Jonathan Edwards's Personal Narrative.”
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/vassa.html

SUMMARY

The Narrative Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavas Vassa, by Olaudah Equiano is a sad but true story about a young boy who is taken from his family and sold into slavery. This young boy tells a life of which he is sold from master to master and moved form one place to another, by ships and having hardships hit his life that would live with him for the rest of life. However, even with all that he had went through, there were a few good things that came from his life; he was still given a great education and chance to experience things that not all slaves got to experience. At the end he is given his freedom and gets to travel from place to place, not as a slave but as a free man getting to experience the travel in a whole different way from which he was a slave.

 

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

I really thought that Olaudah Equiano’s work was full of detail and experience of what he saw and went through in his life. As he tells the story you can hear and picture the truth in what he was trying to tell. I found it sad as many of the things he saw and went through were horrific, but I found it very interesting that he used what he had been through to make a better life for himself and not hold a grudge; it was like he was thankful but not forgetful for his experience in life. I reacted to his work as great and honest. I saw him scared and fearful of many situations that he encountered and learned from each; as they were a new experience for him. He was thankful for the good that he given along the way; as he was taught English and given and education and used it to his advantage; which I found very smart of him to do. I was a little confused as to why he wasn’t angrier at his experience and forgave most of what he had been through. I tried to understand that he accepted the life that was given to him and used it to his knowledge, in his writing.

My response to the Author’s ideas say it the quote that I chose from his story. I think that Olaudah Equiano was trying to say, all he had been through from the moment he was sold was different and a sad experience. However, it was all about to change as he was about to set sail on a new adventure; which was not an adventure at all, but a new horror part of his life. He had a feeling that what he had already been through was not bad compared to what he was going to see and he was clueless as to what it was. I think that this says it all because this is exactly what happens. He comes to a new world, with different people, new things that he had never seen before. Some were good but most were bad because it was all new to him and he had to completely adjust, not only to a new world but a new life. I also think that the Internet quote says it all about his writing and comparing it to Frederick Douglass who also was another wonderful and fantastic writer and their stories are the same. They both express their life in the sadness of what they were going through and hoping and fighting for a better life.

William Apes/ An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man Journal

Tanya Barragan
Scott Lankford
English 48A
William Apes

11/03/11

AUTHOR’S QUOTE

I would ask you if you would like to be disfranchised from all your rights, merely because your skin is white, and for no other crime. I’ll venture to say, these very characters who hold the skin to be such a barrier in the way would be the first to cry out, “Injustice! awful injustice:” (1054)

INTERNET QUOTE

“Apess, in adopting the rhetoric of Christian conversion narratives, "lost his voice" as a Native American and wrote in a derivative style. In the last decade, however, as interest in marginalized peoples, in the subversion of established discourses, and in cultural, ethnic, and racial identity has grown, Apess's works have been rescued from obscurity. Apess is now celebrated for his ability to combine the perspectives of Native Americans and European Americans and to manipulate the accepted modes of discourse to suit his subversive ends.”

http://www.enotes.com/william-apess-criticism/apess-william

SUMMARY

In An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man, by William Apes, he writes how we should look at the Indian’s for more than their skin color and look at them as people. He argues what is the difference between them and the white man and what gives the white man, the right to treat them as they were not equals. He quotes many verses from the bible using examples on how God looks at everyone the same and loves them for who they are and not because of their skin color. He is asking for justice for the Indian people and tells us, if this was the “white man” they would have a fit and cry, if they were treated they way the Indian’s were.

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

I think that Apes wanted to get a point across, a point on the unfair treatment towards the Indian’s. I really think that he wanted us to see them as people and equals. He also wanted us to see that all people are equals, no matter what their skin type is. I got that the world he was living in was unfair to color; especially if you were not white. I reacted to his work as coming from experience and what he was seeing in life. I think that he does a good job at stating what he is trying to say. Even if at the time people didn’t agree with him; I think he was right at looking at people for more than their skin color. I responded to Apes work as really good work because he is speaking about people and the truth about them. I think that he points out many facts about people and their skin color; there is no difference than the color and that they are still all people. I like that he points out that God created many colors and what makes the white man’s color the best; God did not intend this. His ideas to look at people for more than a color were great because that’s they way it should be and no one is less or more of a person because of it. Even though Apes and his work disappeared for awhile; like he fell off, his work shows strength and truth and I really liked what he had to say.

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.