Own Philosophy

During the last couple of weeks in class we have been leaning about Romanticism and Transcendentalism which are philosophy that deal up close with the individual soul and not conforming. I believe that there is truly no way for an individual not to conform to its surroundings. I also believe that for a society to run smoothly and safely, a government figure is needed. We as individuals are capable of doing good, but some bad as well and that is why we need government to lead us and keep control over us. I'm not saying I prefer government to completely rule over the people, what I'm saying is we need some type of leader to keep society in a good path. I do believe people are one with nature and that great things come from nature since our world did start from just that, but the idea of rebelling from society is not particularly a very smart one. Our society should have individual freedoms but also some type of government.

Thoreau

Thoreau is a new author that we learned this week while studying transcendentalism. To me Thoreau went to the extreme with his beliefs on transcendentalism. He respected and followed Emerson's ways and beliefs, then decided to do put it all to practice by living on his own within nature. He depended on himself by living outside of society's rules and regulations. He felt that by living on his won withing nature he wouldn't find himself conforming, but in the end he say that he was and decided to move on as he realized he had not accomplished what he wanted to in life. He lived "to find purpose, simplicity, and a life away from society." He also suggested to limit affairs to two or three instead of 100 which would limit complexity. Nowadays Thoreau would think of our modern lifestyle as a nightmare since it goes against all his beliefs because we are about more speed and technology.

Emerson/Transcendentalism

This week we have been introduced to transcendentalism which is an extreme side to Romanticism and was an intellectual movement that took place during the romantic period. Transcendentalist basically believed that all people are good and that individuals could all experience God first hand, which is the complete opposite of what the puritans believed. Transcendentalism based their beliefs of the individual and highly believe on intuition, "the highest power of the soul." They were very close to nature and believed it reflected the ideal world. Nature was a way for the soul to teach itself and not conform to society's ways. It taught to follow personal beliefs other than society's beliefs. Emerson, a transcendentalist, believed that the "soul's emphasis is always right." He focused on his own thought the seeked for religion outside of the church instead. He gave many speeches which helped into the leading of the abolishment of slavery. Nowadays we don't see many of these thought around since out society is strictly influenced by the government.

Poe

This week we talked about a new author named Poe. We also read some of his short stories which to me seemed a bit peculiar. In our discussion about "Fall of the House of Usher" we discussed different topics about the short story. One of the topics discussed was about our thoughts in the fact that Roderick buried his sister alive and whether he knew she was alive or not. To me, the reason why he buried her was because he feared her greatly and he didn't want her illness to get worse and affect him. Evidence of this is shown in the beginning of the story when the narrator sees Madeline, Roderick's sister, and at the sight of her, Roderick hides his face under the blanket in terror. Roderick also explains that his only fear is fear itself and that he is terrified of dying in fear, which would directly show his reasons for burying his sister as soon as possible. Another explanation for this peculier act would have been that the whole incident was all a trap that roderick and madeline were playing of the narrator. This is shown in the way in which roderick burys his sister inside the house instead of outside and burying her while she is still alive

Romantacism

We have now started leaning about Romanticism which deals with thoughts regarding the individual, imagination and nature. I feel that I am not necessarily a romantic, but my thoughts have some connection to this belief. I don't completely agree with their views of seeing nature as the answer to all questions. I feel that we do need facts from studies to be able to understand the meaning of life. But i also feel that we as humans are directly connected to nature, since that is what we started with and that is what our world grew from. I believe that we can find answer to a lot of our questions through nature, but we cannot base everything from that. I would definitely prefer living in the romantic era than during the Puritan times since there was much freedom of the individual and imagination. I think our generation would have fit in better with the romantics other than with the Puritans, but we would also have different views since we are huge on technology.

Scarlet letter conclusion

Well I finally finished Scarlet Letter. It wasn't a bad book, but it just moved very slowly. The end was pretty unexpected since everything was wrapped up in a way we didn't expect it to. For instance, Dimmesdale finally confessed in front of the whole society on the scaffold where 7 years earlier, Hester and Pearl had to stand. We also notice how there is something in his chest, which is all up to one to interpret. To me it was a result of Chillingworth's poison that led to Dimmesdale getting a rash on his chest then later on led him so start torturing himself and marking it with an A as punishment. What still seems weird to me is that when Dimmesdale was confessing, Chillingworth wanted to save/protect him. For a man who has been wanting to poison and torture Dimmesdale, it sure seems weird he is wanting to protect him. The part that i most expected was when Dimmesdale died in the arms of Hester since we all saw it coming.

The scarlet letter

So far we have seen how the scarlet letter , representing sin and guilt, has affected Dimmesdale and Hester both negatively. Hester has become statue like, while Dimmesdale cannot stand the guilt. We can now predict that Chillingworth is poisoning him, causing his condition to worsen which in return causes him more pain and guilt. We also notice how all Chillinworth's actions have led us to view him as devil-like. He slowly poisons Dimmesdale leaving him with greater pain and also doesn't encourage Hester to tell Dimmesdale that he is her husband, leaving us to believe he has a plan in mind. But back to Hester and Dimmesdale. They both agree to leave their miserable lives behind and run away to start all over. This plan sounds well to all but Pearl, since this leads to her mother changing her appearance (literally) as she takes off the scarlet letter and takes down her hair. Pearl is not used to this side of her mother so she rejects her mother's happiness which leads us to see Pearl as an evil character. We are also viewing Dimmesdale as a coward since it took him that long to finally realize that he needs to also confess his sin to the society and realize his wrongs. Even though his condition is very clear to the reader, Pearl seems to still not accept Dimmesdale unless he quote "walks to town with [her] and [her] mother holding hands." Pearl's constant request shows how she has a clue as to what her mother is trying to keep from her since she also shows great interest in the scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom.

Scarlet Letter #2

Now that we are well aware that Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl and Hester's lover, we see him as more of a coward. He makes attempts to let the community know about it, but they do not catch on. His pain is growing worse each day and is due to the burden he carries. Even though he still decides not to tell the community, he indirectly lets them know through his sermons. Hester has also become more as we can call it, an ideal puritan woman, but only in appearance. She has become dead since she no longer takes care of herself which makes people believe that the scarlet letter has done its deed even though it really has not. She still doesn't believe in the puritan ways, but keeps it to herself. Chillin. is also harassing Dimmesdale even more and is now fully aware whom he is and turns into a bad person which in a way is a representation of the devil. Pearl, now being a lot older, notices all of it and is starting to connect the dots between Dimmesdale and Hester. As she gets older, i believe she will also rebel against the Puritan community since she is so free spirited and is growing up with Hester as a mother. I now would strongly agree that Pearl is Hester's savior since she has helped her get on the community's good side, but at the same time Pearl causes her to completely lose her own personality.

Scarlet Letter

I saw the cover of Scarlet Letter and thought it was going to be the worst book ever. As i started reading it and really getting into the plot, it isn't as bad as i thought. It is actually pretty interesting. Even though the Puritans are not interesting people whatsoever, their ways of life isn't too bad to learn about. It is so interesting how they could live the way they did with all those rules they had. They had to live such a plain and boring life. I see my life now and realize I could never be bored again after learning about the Puritans. I also found it pretty interesting they way they thought about and treated their women. Nowadays we live in a world where women are very respected and known to be equal to men. But that was not the case back when the Puritanism was huge. I saw this greatly in the Scarlet Letter as we are introduced to Hester Prynne, a puritan women who has committed adultery. It shocks me how she is treated the way she is by what she did. Nowadays we have no punishment for adultery and back then it used to be death.

Jefferson

This week we read "The Autobiography" by Thomas Jefferson. To me is seemed so interesting how such a person could truly want to achieve perfection and go that far to achieve it. He uses a very strict method which consists of recording all his actions through out the day into a booklet, then at the end of the day observing it and seeing all his flaws and observing what he can improve. Through this process he corrects all his flaws, and is closer to achieving perfection. Through this method, Jefferson keeps himself busy with things things that benefit him as a person while achieving perfection at the same time. I do not think it is possible for any person to achieve perfection since nobody is perfect and all have flaws. Every person has to commit flaws, therefore they can learn valuable lessons from them as we all do. Even though i do not believe that Jefferson could reach perfection, I do believe that he spent a very productive life.

Edwards

So this week we read a story by Edwards. It was a very different style of writing which included a lot of pathos. It got to people's emotion and scared them causing Edwards to get his point across and convince people into converting so they wouldn't be sinners since their religion saw all people as sinners. They also believed that only god could save them. This seems very weird to me since nowadays we see so many different religions and people believing in many different gods. What also seemed very interesting to me was how Edwards used such strong language and backed it up with visuals making his speech seem a lot more persuasive. He used a lot of visuals that related to hell in a horrific way so the people would get scared and want to follow him. This speech made me think of how things have changed over the years and wonder if they were right back in those days. Could all those things, or even some of the things Edwards say and believed in be somehow true.

NA mythology

As I was reading some Native America creations stories, i saw many similarities among many of them. They were all similar to the bible creation story is the sense that the believe the world was created by a godly figure such as a Great Spirit or Great Lord. They were also all very big nature people. They believed nature, land, and animals were very important and formed a huge part into their creation stories. As most of their stories began with the world being covered completely with water, they developed into saying that the animals came together and helped with the creation of earth. It is also visible that they are very involved with nature and we see their stories revolve around it. They mentioned many times how they praised their land and animals as if they were people. The Natives were also huge on the community and them working as well as having an elected chief to watch over their tribes. Most of the creation stories are very similar since the Natives believed in very specific customs, and from there developed their creation stories.

The American Dream

The America Dream can be described in one word, success. Everyone in life wants to be successful but not all take it. The all American dream to me is when you obtain a good paying job that meets your standards, a nice home with luxurious objects such as a pool in the backyard and nice cars to fill up the garage. Also having a home with a wife and kids is ideal in the American dream. When kids are young, they are already striving for this dream. They wish to get a car at sixteen, get accepted into a good school, then later on have a successful future. Some do get to reach this goal, but others do not have the luxury to have all these things. Money also plays a big role in "The American Dream." If you do not come from a wealthy family, it is very unlikely for you to have the all American dream during your youth years. But I am a strong believer that if you work hard and set goals to accomplish for your future, you may also get to have that lifestyle.

(I did my post in time and wrote it out. Because i got switched in the class late, I did not get logged on and juts got the chance to get the account and type out entry today.)