Journal 27

In the song "Amazing Grace" it talks about the amazing grace God has for us and how much he cares and Emily  Dickinson was a strong christian.  She cared about people and loved God a ton.  She obviously was impacted by God and His grace because she continually based her works off of the song "Amazing Grace" or made it fit to the tune of it.  She either loved God a ton, or she loved music and this song happened to be her favorite.  Honestly I would not judge her for liking the song because it is a very good song and I always sing along when I hear it.  Sometimes I get choked up because when I sing and hear high notes my eyes water up and it gets hard for me.  I always laugh when this happens because it looks funny and i can joke around and say that I am crying and this song always gets me.  This is really getting hard for me to write because I dont have very much information for the length of the blog I am writing and I keep getting distracted.  But I do think that Emily Dickinson liked this song and had good intentions in her life.  She probably was mature at a very young age and  understood that she shouldn't be stupid and ignorant and waste her life because each day is a gift and shouldn't be taken for granted.  This song along with our national anthem are very important to me and I have lots of respect for.  If people disrespect these songs and mock it or don't pay attention and give their respects for it I get very angry and get disappointed with these people.  If I know the person I will talk to them about it but usually thats not the case.  My step dad explained this to me when I was younger and have cared about this ever since.

Realism and Modernism

Walt Whitman's writings were in a very unique writing style because it was custom to Whitman himself.  To be completely honest I have never heard Mr. Langley call Whitman and Dickinson "the tweeners", but it would make sense because the two of them wrote in between two major writing style time periods.  These two are Realism and Modernism.  Realism writing was when an author would look at something or take something and write about how it is and not what it had potential to be in the future.  On the other hand, Modernism was about what was going on in the world at that moment and talked about different things during that time.

Obviously Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were very achieved and popular writers of the best of both periods since they were considered the "tweeners" and wrote inbetween the two writing periods.  A good example of this style, written by Walt Whitman, was "Calvary Crossing a Ford" (Whitman).  This poem talks about an army during a war and how it reacts when it comes across a river or a ford it has to pass.  The story has the war effect that is found common in Realism writings and speaks of what is going on at that time which is found common in Modernism writings (Whitman). To be honest it feels weird having to write about a different author and its hard going back to what we did.  I also have found it difficult writing 500 words because I am so use to the normal 325.  I almost started out this sentence with "Emerson and Thoreau were blah blah blah blah blah",  but then stopped myself remembering we aren't talking about them anymore.  To go back to the explanations of Realism and Modernism, a good example of Realism would be a savings bond.  In order for you to collect the amount that it is for you must wait a long period of time, but if you want the money right now you can cash it in and get it for what its worth at the time.  An example for Modernism writing is stories that come out about something that just recently happened in our history because this would mean that the author was focusing on things that were happening as he wrote the book, story, or poem.  Other than that, I cannot really think of any other good example of Modernism writing like I came up with for Realism.  I like learning about all of these different authors, but I sometimes feel that I am not learning that much and am just continuing to repeat myself and write the things that I already know and have said in all of my other blogs.  All in all, I think this writing style if it could be given a name, was interesting because it included two separate styles mixed together into one.  It had the best of both worlds (no Miley Cirus relation intended).

Whitman, Walt. "Calvary Crossing a Ford." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 533 . Print.


Bauerlein, Mark. "Whitman's Language of the Self." American Imago 44, no. 2 (Summer 1987). Quoted as "Whitman's Language of the Self" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Song of Myself, Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts on File, Inc. (accessed 21 March 2012)

Life:Part 1:Victory comes late

To Build a Fire

This story was interesting and felt like an adventure the entire way through it.  I didnt get bored once.  Even though it was kind of a generic story, or at least that is how I felt at first because the man was facing a tough trouble, the story kept getting interesting and left the reader hanging at the end.  That is one thing I hate and tends to happen to me a lot.  If I remember correctly we have read of a few writers who have done the same.  I think I remember reading something by Thoreau and Emerson and probably a couple more authors in English, and all of them left the reader wondering in the end in the stories.  Both Emerson and Thoreau were transcendentalism writers and both loved to talk about nature which is what this story was all about.  The man fought a prolonged battle against mother nature which he ended up losing, or at least I think since Jack London kind of leaves us hanging at the end weather the man was going to make it out alive or not and if the dog was going to get help in time.  I cant remember off of the top of my head but in me and Kirsten's project we talked about naturalism and regionalism and its one of these two that is the perfect definition of this writing.  Im leaning towards the naturalism because regionalism is about society and economy and such in a certain region while naturalism is more about natural things and relating them to an overall theme or idea the author is trying to get across.  Actually, as I continue to define both of these more in this blog, I am pretty posative that naturalism is the word or style I am looking for and what I am meaning to say as the way the author is portraying the idea he wants to get across to the reader.


London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 603-614. Print.



Werlock, Abby H. P. "'To Build a Fire'." 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. 15 March 2012

I Will Fight No More Forever

I Will Fight No More Forever by Chief Justice, is a very real but sad story to hear.  It is about America exploring the west because they felt God had given them the land to settle, and taking over the Native American's land.  This caused many arguments and eventually battles between the two until finally the Natives gave up.  At the time, the surrender from the Native Americans was a great thing and worth celebrating, but after a while we realized that it was not fair and it was the Indian's land first so we needed to cooperate with them and share it.  Before all of the good happens though, they had to go through some very harsh times.  The Natives suffered from extreme racism against them, practically enslavement to some, and many died in the cold from fighting for their freedom or while fighting.

Thoreau was huge on nature and loved everything about it.  Since the Indians were too, I feel that he would have sided with them.  Looking back now, I think that in the moment America thought it was doing the right thing taking the Native's land, but now know that it was wrong and we needed to come to an agreement and share part of the land.  Thoreau was also a big believer in solving issues and fixing problems.  Thoreau and Chief Justice both use their writings to explain different stories and how the issues were resolved.  Edgar Masters who wrote Spoon River Anthology was also a big believer in solving issues and explaining things through the writing.  All three men would have probably been for the Natives and felt that they should have been treated fairly as would many people when looking back on the problem now including many Americans.  I know that I am happy to have Natives in America because I have a good friend who is one and don't mind having to share our land with them one bit.  It says in Constitution that "All men are created equal" and if this statement is true (which it is) then we should have no problems letting Native Americans stay here.




Chief Joseph. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 531-533. Print.




Howells, William Dean. "My Mark Twain." In My Mark Twain; Reminiscences and Criticisms. New York: Harper, 1910. Quoted as "On the Life of Mark Twain" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Mark Twain, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Accessed 7 March 2012.

Spoon River Anthology

"The Hill", which is an excerpt from "Spoon River Anthology",  was a very good teacher of a very common lesson.  Edgar Masters talked about five main men and their occupations and how each one had to do with their life. The five characteristics were: weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, and the fighter (Masters).  Masters goes on to explain how each man died from their characteristic, most of them being a shameful death at that.  Personally, I know I would not want to be known as someone that constantly drinks heavily, but someone happy and always having a smile on their face.  He uses the characteristics or hobbies of these five men to show that "you are what you eat."  Not specifically that, but that whatever you spend the most of your time doing is how you will be known by others and if you are doing something you dont want other people to know you by, you should stop doing that and  find something else.


Thoreau's writings relate to this because Thoreau was a big believer of problem solving.  We all have read the stories of him being arrested for protesting and not paying his taxes because he was trying to fix a problem with the government.  He believed that society as a whole was way too occupied in the wrong things and the things that we enjoy, and not in the things that are important in living a healthy, everyday life.  A good example of when this happens is many young adults.  Once they graduate from college, they think they can go back to living their lives as teenagers and spending their money left and right when in reality they cant.  College cost so much money, and most of them will have student loans to pay off, but many of those students wont have any money because they have blown it all partying.  They need to get their priorities straight and start building a healthy life style.






Becker, Geraldine Cannon. "Spoon River Anthology." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 6 March 2012.


Masters, Edgar L. "The Hill." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.

Miniver Cheevy

Personally, I liked this poem and didnt dread reading it.  It was kinda interesting and weird all in one.  Actually it was interesting because of how weird it was.  To me, it was about a man who was drunk at a bar telling a story of his life in the past.  He talked about being a soldier and how "he missed the medieval grace of iron clothing (Robinson)."  To me, this signified being a knight and wearing iron armor to protect himself as he saved the lives of many innocent people.  Although this poem was short and sweet, I was able to kind of visualize the scene and understand what was going on.  To the average person, this probably sounds like an old man sitting at a bar late at night all by himself when a young man walks in.  The man sits by the elderly one and starts small talk while getting a drink.  Eventually the two become friends and the old man tells him stories of his childhood. From here, I think this story could be interpreted multiple ways.  Either the young man eventually got up and left leaving the old man talking to himself, or the young man stayed there and listened to more stories the old man had to offer.  Either way, just as the poem says, "Miniver coughed, and called it fate and kept on drinking (Robinson)."

Emerson and Thoreau both wrote poems, but I'm not sure how they are directly related to this of Robinson.  Robinson's poem was really short and didn't really have a life lesson or deep meaning intertwined in it like Emerson and Thoreau normally do.  Normally I have to read Emerson and Thoreau's poems multiple times in order to understand the physical meaning of the poem let alone the lesson or idea implied in the writing.  I liked Robinson's poem though because it was so easy to read and I was able to understand it for the most part and interpret it how I thought it should be interpreted.

Cusatis, John. "'Miniver Cheevy'." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds.Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 4 March 2012.

Robinson, Edwin. "Miniver Cheevy." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 531-533. Print.

"The Darling"

"The Darling" is a very weird story and didn't make much sense to me, but I'm going to try and write this blog on it.  It is apparently about this woman whose name is Olga and how she never settles down with a man for more than a year (Chekhov).  Whenever she would find a man he would die or something would happen to them (Chekhov).  Halfway through the story I started to wonder if I had read this story before.  I think that it is a very common one because I am almost certain that I have read this or a version of this before because I was able to guess everything that was going to happen next or at least that she was going to be with a guy that was going to die.  I found it really weird that she had a fixation on every guy she met and that she became obsessed with them and liked them so much.  Now that I am thinking more I am starting to wonder if maybe Olga killed all of her husbands because she got bored of them and wanted a new one.

I'm not completely sure how Emerson and Thoreau's writings compare to these of Chekhov, except for the tragedy that happens throughout the story.  If i'm not mistaken, both Thoreau and Emerson use tragedy in multiple stories of theirs.  I cant remember any specific examples, but both authors were accomplished writers and must have wrote about a tragic story sometime in their lifetime.  Chekhov did an amazing job with mixing tragedy with humor in this story by Olga's marriages sadly failing every time, but it was funny because it happened not once, not twice, but more than three times.  In the end, I enjoyed this story and liked reading it, but I don't really know how it relates to any writings of Emerson and Thoreau's writings in a legit and reasonable way.

Chekhov, Anton. "The Darling." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 557-565. Print.




Rayfield, Donald. Understanding Chekhov: A Critical Study of Chekhov's Prose and Drama Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999 pp. 198–200. Quoted as "Chekhov's Passion for Life" in Harold Bloom, ed.Anton Chekhov, Bloom's Major Short Story Writers. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2001. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web.  2 March 2012

Two Views of a River

At first, I didn't really understand this story because I wasn't really paying much attention, but when I took a second look, I noticed what Mark Twain was trying to show.  I knew the story was about a river and riverboats and had a lot of explanation of the nature around the river, but I didn't understand the overall meaning until the very end (Twain 504).  What Mark Twain was trying to get across was the point that we always grow out of the things we once loved (Twain).  When we would get a toy as a child, we would be super excited the day we got it and play with it the entire day, but after a week it would make its way to the bottom of our toy box and fade out of our lives forever.  That's because we didn't enjoy the toy anymore; it wasn't fun to play with because we could compare it to the day we got it and the excitement could not be matched.  I think this is what Mark Twain was trying to get across in his story.  In the story, the man had gotten a job as a riverboat captain or pilot as they said and he loved the job, but after all of the years of doing the same thing over and over, the man got bored and didn't enjoy the job anymore (Twain).  He started to realize the scenery wasn't as beautiful as he once thought, as it was dead now, and all of the possible dangers that could erupt as being a riverboat captain.  Its just like us eating our favorite foods, if we eat too much we soon get sick of it and don't want it anymore and then we realize all of the unhealthy things about it.

Emerson and Thoreau writings relate to this of Mark Twain by the scene which this story took place.  A lot of Mark Twain's writings took place outdoors as did this one which is a lot like what Thoreau did with his writings.  Thoreau loved nature and the outdoors as did Mark Twain.   Twain made sure to use detailed descriptions of the scenery to give the reader the effect of being there during the time when the story took place.

Huff, Randall. "'Two Rivers'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 1 March 2012

Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 504-505. Print.