The Red Badge of Courage

The Red Badge of Courage as read in our books, is very small and very generic.  Stephen Crane uses a person to say their thoughts while fighting during a battle in a war (Crane 493).  There are different times when he describes the scene so specifically I felt like I was in the story when in reality I had only read a half a page of this story.  A good example of this detailed setting writing is "Buried in the smoke of many rifles his anger was directed not so much against the men whom he knew were rushing toward him as against the swirling battle phantoms which were choking him, stuffing their smoke robes down his parched throat (Crane 493)."  I figured that if half a page was as good as this was, I wonder what an entire book or story would be like.  I then started thinking and wondered how come people don't really know about this story and it isn't a very popular read in modern day society.  We are all so caught up in different love stories or murder mysteries that are all fiction while a very good and interesting story that actually has to do with America's history is right there in front of us and no one notices.  To be honest, I am actually mad that I didn't know about this story until now even though I probably wont go and read the entire story anyways.

Emerson and Thoreau both wrote many good stories and both men loved nature and had a ton in common, but I'm not really sure if either of them ever wrote about American History or on any sort of war topics.  I wouldn't put it past them though because they are both very accomplished men and have wrote many things in history that would alter society completely if we lived without.  I keep learning new things about Emerson and Thoreau each time I write a blog or am in English class and I don't plan on running out of things to learn any time soon.




Crane, Stephen. “from A Red Badge of Courage.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 492-493. Print.

Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour

In "The Story of an Hour" multiple tragic things happen that can relate it to the story of Romeo and Juliet.  Mrs. Mallard was an elderly woman that had heart problems and was ill to begin with even before she received tragic news of her husbands suspected death (Chopin).  Mr. Mallards suspected death could be related to the suspected death of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.  When Mrs. Mallard finds out about his suspected death she then cries and weeps until her husband walks in and she has a heart attack (Chopin).  Its kind of like Juliet waking up in Romeo an Juliet and finding her lover dead at her side and her killing her self in astonishment (Shakespeare).

Ok, so what I have said about the Mr. and Mrs. Mallard story has probably been kinda confusing so I am going to explain things a little better.  Mr. Mallard was suspected dead in a train accident, Mrs. Mallard cried, Mr. Mallard showed up since the suspected death was false, Mrs. Mallard died of a heart attack in shock, end of story (Chopin).  Kate Chopin's story relates to writings of Emerson and Thoreau because both Emerson and Thoreau were tranceldentalist writers and trancidentalism includes femanism.  Kate's story is very femanist as the main character, Mrs. Mallard, realizes that her husband is dead and she is free when in reality he was alive and she died of joy since she would rather be dead and happy then alive and imprisoned to her husband.  It was a tragic story and a happy story mixed together in one.  It signified how women felt they were treated and how her life would have been changed forever.  The way Kate mixed tragedy, joy, happiness, and history together is what I think made this story so popular.

I would like to thank Chris Moore for more thoroughly explaining this story to me because without his help I would have never realized how Mrs. Mallard was actually joyed about her suspected husbands death.




Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." PBS. PBS. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. 

Kate Chopin. "The Story of an Hour"   The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 23 Feb. 12.

Shakespeare, William. "Romeo and Juliet: Entire Play." The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. The Tech-MIT Newspaper, 1993. Web. 23 Feb. 2012.

A Wagner Matinee

Reading this story, I was over-joyed to see that we were moving on to a new time period since the other one was getting old and a little boring.  One person can only read so much of one style before being bored and struggle to want to pay attention.  In the story "A Wagner Matinee", the man finds out that his aunt, who is near and dear to his heart, was on her way to visit him and spend some time with him (Cather).  When Clark heard this he was filled with joy and became very anxious to get everything ready and make a great impression on her.  He remembered that his aunt Georgian loved music and anything that had to do with vocals, instruments, percussion, etc (Cather).  He decided to take her to the opera where she could enjoy the music with him and get a sense of peace after a long travel to come visit him (Cather).

Now that I have told you the physical meaning behind the story, I am going to analyze it from a psychiatrists perspective.  In this story, Cather used the opera to show the idea that "one mans trash is another mans treasure" and how the boy in the story probably could care less about the opera and just wanted to make a good impression/see his aunt, while she enjoyed every minute of it and probably had one of the best times of her life.  Emmerson used this style of getting a point across on different occasions throughout his writings.  Emmerson will take an idea or object and will show or explain how many different people would like that object while others wouldn't and think it is stupid.  This idea that what is important to us might not be important to someone else needs to be something that we engrave into our brains and never forget about because if you make fun of someone or ask "why did you buy that its ugly" is breaking the golden rule and not a good idea if you want to make friends.



Werlock, Abby H. P. "'A Wagner Matinée'." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.  Web.  21 Feb. 12.

Willa, Cather. “A Wagner Matinée.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 521-526. Print.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

During the story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" the author takes us on a journey through the life of a young man.  The story starts out in the present and then switches gears to the past before switching back to the present and imagining a perfect scenario of escaping the wrath of the Northern army. Poor Peyton Farquhar was faced with death because he fought for the South in an attempt to sabotage the railroad (Bierce).  The railroad was a crucial weapon for the northern army during the time because it provided an easy way off transportation of goods, ammo, guns, supplies, and men to different places of battle.  Without the railroad the movement of soldiers would have been slow and difficult, but now the north could surround the south in the matter of a night without them even knowing.

Since Farquhar was declined acceptance into the Southern Army, he was determined to serve his side well by doing something that would benefit them.  By sabotaging the railroad, it would cause for disruption and serve as a distraction giving the south the upper hand (Bierce).  It is evident that Farquhar was for the South because of his attempt to join the SOUTHERN army and the fact that he was a plantation owner that farmed land (Bierce).  Thoreau and Farquhar would have never gotten along simply because of their outlooks on slavery.  Both had strong opinions and both were faithful to what they believed in.  For Farquhar this was evident when he attempted to set fire to the railroad and for Thoreau this is evident in his writings that he despised slaver and wanted it gone forever.  Most of this story had detailed descriptions of the natural surroundings and the places in nature that served as the setting of the story.  This was one thing that the two of them had in common and that was their passion for nature.



Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 387-396. Print.

Bruccoli, Matthew J., and Judith S. Baugman. "Peyton Farquhar." Student's Encyclopedia of American Literary Characters. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Feb. 12.

Letter to His Family

To me, this story was kind of confusing.  It was a letter and it did have to do with the arising Civil War, but I never completely understood why it was "A Letter to His Family."  Lee did a good job in writing this letter as you could say because he covered all of the problems between the states (Lee).  Ironically, as I read through the letter again, it made more sense to me.  I see how it is a letter to his family now thanking them for the book they sent and then talks about the different themes in the book and how they relate to what was happening in the country at the time.  Lee talks about the different things that happened to cause the Civil War and the states that left the Union because of the slavery laws (Lee).  He understood what was going to happen and reasoned with the South about why they were mad (Lee).  If I were in the South's shoes I would be mad too because we had just started to settle down after settling more Westward in the United States and then the government springs a law banning the use of slaves on the country.  To the North, they didn't care other than the massive influx of people it would cause, the drop in economy, and space wise, about the decision because at this point in time, factories had become popular and useful in the North.  In the South though, all of the crops were grown because of the massive areas of flat land that were easy to control water amounts and hoe and plow and harvest with cattle and other machinery.  Lee explains his thoughts on the situation and how he hopes that a Civil War doesn't break out before he dies (Lee).  Emmerson and Thoreau were kind of the same way in how they didn't want to fight and just wanted enough drama to happen in the country to be able to write about, but not too much to where they couldn't live their lives in peace and it got too dangerous outside their houses.

Butler, Robert. "Harper Lee's Religious Vision in To Kill a Mockingbird" New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/. 14 Feb 2012

Lee, Robert E. "Letter to his Family". Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 382-385. Print.

"Ain't I a Woman?"

In Sojourner Truth's poem "Ain't I a Woman?", she expresses her feelings towards prissy white women that don't acknowledge the black women in the community as women.  The poem basically consists of a few lines that explain an example of one of the scenario's where a white woman is babied and "helped over puddles" or "carried in carriages" and such things, and then followed by the line "Ain't I a woman?" (Truth).  The time period can be easily guessed by the different clues within the poem that sets it off.  Truth often talks about how she worked on a plantation and would get whipped, yet still could work harder than the men, in her speech (Truth).  Another thing that she says in her speech that is horrible and should never happen was when her thirteen children got auctioned off as slaves right before her eyes (Truth).

It always gets me when I read these types of things because most of the time they are true stories and horrible things happened in them.  One thing that happens in all of the stories I read is that there are always sexist men and women and racist men and women that put this human being into slavery and treat her worse than their household pet.  I just can never believe that someone could do that and their conscience never get to them and make them wonder what they just did and what they were thinking in the first place to do such a thing.  White men and women are no different than black men and women and if a white woman gets treated like an angel or like a royal figure, there is no reason that a black woman should get the same treatment.  I hate racism and am happy that slavery is over in the United States.  I think about all of the slaves that were beaten to death and think about what their families were affected.



Truth, Sojourner. "And Ain‘t I a Woman?." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 368-370. Print.



Truth, Sojourner. "Ain't I a Woman?". New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 14 Feb 2012.

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Go Down, Moses,” “Keep Your Hand on the Plow”

All three of these poems were repetitive, but my favorite by far out of all of them was "Go Down, Moses."  I liked this one because my grade school spent a lot of time talking about the stories of Moses and his life story and it was all so interesting.  With the help of God, Moses marched the Israelite's out of Egypt and into the promised land.  Even though the job was extremely tough, Moses persevered and followed God.  He also had to have a lot of courage which I respect in him.  He brought plagues upon the Egyptians because Pharaoh wouldn't let God's people go (The Holy Bible...).  Moses' life was just so interesting and it is exciting to read about.  I enjoy learning new things every time someone teaches on him.

In the poems, I felt that they all had an earthly connection which as I made clear in my previous blog, was exactly how Thoreau operated.  In "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" it talks about a man being swept up in a chariot and taken to heaven.  To me, it cant get much earthlier than that since God was the one who created the earth and if someone is able to leave earth to go to heaven without dying, that is impressive and earthly.  Coincidentally, both poems that I have talked about can be related to a Bible character or hero.  This poems story can be related to the Bible figure Elijah and how God sent a flaming chariot to take Elijah and bring him to heaven  There were other miscellaneous accounts that I can think of that God used a chariot as either a symbol or a tool in the Bible.  The Bible contains so many entertaining and exciting stories that never get old or boring, which is why I am constantly bringing it up in this blog.  I could go on and on for paragraphs about different stories but I feel that I have already gotten off of the topic enough.  I liked all of the poems and found them all readable even though they repeated themselves a lot.

"Go Down, Moses." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 347. Print.

The Holy Bible Containing the Old Testament and the New, Etc. Cambridge: ] Printed by Tho: Buck, and Roger Daniel; London: to Be Sold by Roger Daniel, 1638. Print.

"Keep Your Hands on the Plow." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 348. Print.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 6. Print.

"Calvary Crossing a Ford"

In Walt Whitman's poem "Cavalry Crossing a Ford", it talks about a river on a beautiful day being swarmed to by animals and men. The third line in Whitman's poem sets the scene for the poem "Behold the silvery river—in it the splashing horses, loitering, stop to drink;". It makes the reader feel as if it is a beautiful day out even though it feels like negative -40 degrees where we are. Even though it was a short poem, it was a good one that satisfied a reader.

As it says in this literary criticism, Whitman was "a native and naive genius" (Longabucco). He loved to talk about nature and be apart of it. This is just like Thoreau and hit thoughts on nature. Thoreau lived in nature and spent as much time as possible in it. Thoreau and Whitman are one in the same to an extent because they both believed in natural stuff and wanted to spend time in nature. I found this interesting and think that if the two of them could have lunch together they would talk about a lot of the same things and agree with each other a lot and everything they wrote about. They would probably be those people that if they did get in a disagreement, it would be a huge deal over something nothing. They would hate each other one day and then the situation would get resolved and they would be best friends again the next. Since I did most of this blog during class I kind of lost track of what I was talking about and am sincerely sorry if the transition from what I just wrote and what I wrote the other day makes no sense and is extremely confusing. I meant to finish it in class, but the bell rang before I could.  Bottom line, both authors and Emerson too were fantastic and legendary.

Longabucco, Matt. "The Proof of a Poet"—Walt Whitman and His Critics" Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Facts On File, Inc., 2008.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 10 Feb. 2012.

Whitman, Walt. "Calvary Crossing a Ford". Philadelphia: David McKay, Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/142/. 10 Feb. 2012

Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous and well known speeches of Abraham Lincoln and of all time.  It was considered so important that I was required to memorize it in eighth grade.  I remember most of it or at least bits and pieces all the time.  When I was learning it though, I remember, for some reason, always reciting it in an auctioneers tone of voice and going really fast.  I guess I did that because I knew the speech really well and wanted to show off my skills to whoever was willing to listen.

When reading through some other peoples blogs as I always do before writing mine to see if they had anything that I agreed with or forgot about, I came across something in Ben's blog.  Ben brought up a good point about how Thoreau basically hated the government and pretty much despised every move they made (Civil Disobedience) unlike Abraham Lincoln in his speech at the place where The Battle of Gettysburg took place, was the government and was proud of our nation (Gettysburg Address).  His speech also talks about the pro's of our nation.  I just found it interesting and ironic that Thoreau and Lincoln were complete opposites in their view of our government.

If me and Kirsten were choosing out of a group of people we should interview for our project that liked Emerson and Thoreau and agreed with their views on life and government, Abraham Lincoln would not be a good candidate.  Although, I think that I want to use him as one of the people that we interview not only because I want to dress up and wear a beard and hat, but because he was a well respected man and his thoughts on life and Thoreau would probably be very interesting.  He most likely didn't like the man because they couldn't agree on anything, but his thoughts on Emerson and Thoreau's views could strike a good debate.

Lincoln, Abraham. "The Gettysburg Address." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 400-402. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Douglass, Emerson, Thoreau

In the story "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" by Fredrick Douglass, he explains what America was like after slavery was banned and became illegal.  Many whites in the south did not like this new law and disagreed with what it said.  To me, this was a great thing and was a fair thing, but to the farmers of the plantations which they used to provide for their families, their thoughts were not the same.   All three of the authors I compared when reading this story (Douglass, Emerson, and Thoreau), felt the same about slavery and that it should be illegal and was not a humane way of treating the African Americans.  It was easy to realize what side Douglass was on by reading one simple fact.  In the story, he stated, "There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. (Douglass)"  To me, this is sickening that humans could treat other humans so horribly and easily.   I am happy that I do not have to worry about slavery in America anymore and never did for that matter.

I am going to enjoy this project for the reason in this story.  I always enjoy expressing how I feel, but when I get the opportunity to say how much I hated slavery and how horrible it was, I take it.  Even though me and Kirsten's project with interviewing famous authors will have a part for personal thoughts and beliefs, I am determined to find a way to intertwine my thoughts into our overall project.   This probably means I will add an extra small section including to our personal interviews that pertained to the different questions asked during the interviews.

Douglass, Frederick. "Africans in America/Part 4/Frederick Douglass Speech." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. .

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - with Annotated Text." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau was a very opinionated man.  He felt that our government was not needed and claimed "that government is best which governs least (Thoreau Section 1)."  For thee most part, this saying could be true, but on the contrary it could be completely wrong.  Just like every other human being on this earth, you tend to mess up and sometimes people need governing.  with having an established government, the different branches and people are able to help guide us in the right direction.  They set guidelines that we must follow for our safety and regulation of life in America.  If we choose to not follow these rules struct punishments come into effect until we decide that it is worth it to follow the rules set before us.  Paying our taxes is always a huge thing to us Americans because we feel that we are being over charged and it is unfair.  I agree 100% with this, but I wont get into it now.  Usually if you dont choose to cooperate with the state or federal's rules you will lose your belongings, be fined a significant amount of money, or even thrown in jail for an unknown amount of time before your court date.

This essay had a ton of Romanticism in it because it was all opinionated.  Thoreau went on and on about what he felt was right and wrong with our government.  Personally, I got confused sometimes with what Thoreau was saying because there was so much information he was throwing out that was against our government.  I dont get why he feels that we would be better off without a government at all, but if thats what he wants to think he has the rights and freedoms to think that way.   As of now, I dont mind our government.  Yes, there are some things I think they should do differently, but that is always going to be the case with people because someone can not be completely satisfied unless they are doing it themselves.  Overall, our government is fairly stable and strong.  I don't mind our government because it doesnt really affect my every day life at all.  If it were to change my daily routine and get outrageous and strict, I would have a problem and probably rise up with the millions of other Americans against the government and its ways.  Henry Thoreau proved to be a persistent man, but without the support of other people to back him up, he was just one out of millions of Americans that had something to say about our government.  Many tempers can strike when war is present because war is an ugly thing and can be very ugly and graphic.  Thoreau's reasoning for being so mad about the government is a fair reason.  If the United States was trying to support slavery, I too would be disappointed and find a way to protest and get the foolish acts of it to stop, but I wouldn't stop paying my taxes.  If there is one thing that I have learned about the United States government it is that they don't tolerate people that don't pay their taxes.


Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience." The Thoreau Reader. Richard Lenat. Web. 1 Feb. 2012.