Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Wallpaper// The Revolt of a Mother

The revolt of a mother and the wallpaper have striking similarities in mood and leading roles. The mood in both stories is eerie and downcast. The revolt of a mother makes me squirm in my chair when reading the discomfort of the family and their disconnect from one another. When the family sits at the dinner, they barely speak to one another and this disconnect is also seen in the wallpaper between the husband and wife. When the wife decides the go against her husbands wishes in The revolt of a mother, the reader feels it is justified by the poor treatment of the father. This is similar in the wallpaper when the main character does not obey her husband in coming out of the room. Both stories make the reader lean graciously towards the wife because she is oppressed in some way.

Monday, March 12, 2012

3/13

1)
Outlived. This word is the center course of this poem. Although she is explaining the feelings she has within the moment, the big question is if she will outlive all of this. This is why the poem ends with acceptance of death. This word has so much brevity within this poem because she is questioning if she can outlive feelings. Outlive the continuation of her thoughts mulling around in her own mind. Dickinson writes often about death and I find that this word within this poem adds to idea of what can kill her. Her own emotion. Her not being able to escape those feelings.

2)
Emerson-He is one, who raises himself from private considerations, and breathes and lives on public and illustrious thoughts. He is the world's eye. He is the world's heart. 




Whitman- I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with me
Whitman wants to be within nature where he can be whomever he wants to be. Nature is a symbol of freedom of expression where he does not have to veil himself from anything because he is alone.

Douglass- He would occasionally say, he didn't want to get hold of me again. "No," thought I, "you need not; for you will come off worse than you did before."
Douglass' freedom comes from realization that he has more power than those who are in control of him. He realizes first that he has more power physically over his master, but eventually h realizes that he has more power mentally because he can learn to outthink his master.

Dickinson-  And seen my Brain -- go round -- They might as wise have lodged a Bird
Dickinson was suppressed mentally when she was younger and her freedom is coming into adulthood and being able to think and speak freely. Her realization of her freedom is evident in this line because she is aware that she is a bird that was simply lodged at a younger age.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

431


After great pain, a formal feeling comes --
when something extremely hurtful happens, my emotions run rampid and through the streets, like wild kids in a gang cursing and throwing rocks at dogs rather than being home where they should be, and then suddenly out of nowhere, an extremely sophisticated feeling arrives... like that of an elegant woman stepping into a dressy party.

The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs --
What was so rampid and playing at such a high pitch is now sitting peaceful. But not like a baby sleeping, like a dead rodent laying on the street.

The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
My I don't want my thoughts to venture here, but I keep wondering if there is someone that placed this together, I feel leaning towards the doubtful side because I feel so closed off to this idea.

And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

And if someone placed this together, it seems that it did not all begin today, but it would have to be forever in the past. If i dwell on someone creating and bearing yesterday, then it must have been before yesterday that He started creating, started baring.

The Feet, mechanical, go round --
I walk around in my own thoughts, thinking the same things over and over again, wondering the same questions, circling ideas in my head, what feels like the same thoughts, the same observations. I like that she used mechanical to talk about circling. She must be talking about something emotional rather than actually feet because she just mentioned the heart.

Of Ground, or Air, or Ought --

Going from one thing to the next, thinking of the things around her, above her, the things that she has to do. it is interesting that she placed things that she feels the need to do along side with the ground and the air.

A Wooden way
The way that her mechanical thoughts are going around resembles wood. This is fascinating because wood is stiff and still with so many crevices and problems. I like the idea for walking about mechanically and being wood like.

Regardless grown,
This statement makes me think of ivy growing along a wall, with no regard for which way it is growing and and it still continues to grow, no matter what others try to tell it or hope for it to do. Her feet are now goin in circles, mechanical, woodlike, and growing everywhich way with the regard for others.

A Quartz contentment, like a stone --

a stone is happy in its most simply form. Just sitting and existing, in a very pure way. She compares her happiness to that of a stone, being happy. Still and no movement, yet still completely content.

This is the Hour of Lead --
This places the poem in a specific time, not just a general idea or feeling. It is a specific time that these feelings are approaching.

Remembered, if outlived,
This hour and this space in time will be remembered if she lives passed it. Basically, as long as she is living, she will remember this hour of time. The hour of Lead.. I like that she states that she'll remember this time, as long as it is outlived, living passed it.

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow --
Just like a person that is already laying in the snow and freezing cold, first react to receiving more cold. I see the person laying in the snow in the feudal position, and the snow begins to fall more and their body collects the snow in corners.

First -- Chill -- then Stupor -- then the letting go --

The first thing this person laying in the snow feels is extremely cold. Then they loose connection with reality and are unaware of whats going on. Then they let go. I don't think this is dying, but more so representing the phase you feel before you die. You just let go of trying to hold onto life.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Keys to Freedom

Emerson, Whitman, Douglass
Freedom? Obstacle of Freedom? Differences and Similarities?
Emerson defines talks of education throughout the American Scholar as a form of freedom. Pursuing learning and reading rather than working in fields. Emerson does not only support the reading that of a bookworm who reads only to consume but that of student who receives learning and continues to produce and apply what is learnt to other aspects of life. Walt Whitman undertakes freedom in interacting with others. Even if that interaction is imaginary when he speaks to the reader. Whitman's writing is most joyful and at peace when he writes of interaction with his fellow man. Douglass' freedom is far more literal and easy to catch. Douglass merely wants to be free from his masters he is in bondage to. Douglass obeys and succumbs to the demands that he hates from a master that he despises. When he realizes the power that the master has is no greater than the power he can tap into himself, he is freed from this bondage to his master. All freedom's are similar in the way that they are an escape from one thing that they hate to enter into something they enjoy. Also, all freedoms are mental rather than physical, although Douglass's freedom does resemble that of a literal sense of freedom.