Emily Dickinson

I enjoyed reading some of her poems, a lot of them are hard to understand but there were some that really spoke to me and I got what she was saying. She really seemed to speak from things she felt or had experienced, and while she did seem to talk about death and mortality a lot I never got the feeling of it being too morbid.

I feel like Emily Dickinson says more in few words than some people say with a lot of words. In the above quote, this says so much in just one sentence and it applies to a lot of people. I thought about my daughter when I read this, she is very artistic, my niece is very athletic, in my family sports is everything, not to me, but to my immediate family. When my daughter would get a hit, or catch a ball, the smallest victory for her was sweeter than the big win of people who expected to win. This is what I mean when I say I don't get a lot of what Emily is saying, but when I do, I really get it, and it really means something to me.

The Letter of Shame

I remember reading this when I was younger, it's interesting to me how we can read something when we are younger and we think we remember it perfectly, then we read it again later in life and it's nothing how we remember it. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one that I read when I was younger and remembered it entirely different than what it actually was. As I read the Scarlet Letter, I realized this was that way too. All I remembered was Hester Prynne being a bad lady, and because she did bad things she had to wear the red A. Reading it now, I get a totally different perspective from it, what I took away from it was that Hester wasn't a bad lady, she was in a bad situation, To me it's a story of two people who under different circumstances could be together, but instead she is ridiculed and tormented while her husband who doesn't really love her anyway is out for revenge. To be in what seems a hopeless situation, Hester keeps going, even though she has to wear this letter, she still wants to be the best mother she can be, and does charitable work to try and redeem herself, I think more for her daughters sake. It takes a strong person to be so wronged, yet still willing to do things to help other people. This story really took on a different meaning to me this time around, we have all done things we regret, how horrible would it be if we lived in a time that we had to walk around with our sins on our chest. 

Uncle Tom's Controversy

She is probably the author that I was most familiar with in this particular section, her book Uncle Tom's Cabin is controversial among some but in my personal opinion she felt like she was standing up for what was important to her. For a white woman in that time to stand up against slavery is amazing, to be a strong woman today is fantastic, but to be a strong woman in the era that she and Fanny Fern were alive in is extraordinary, I often wonder what drove these woman, what motivation did they have to stand out in a time that it wasn't that acceptable for them to.

The Fern

I had never heard of Fanny Fern before this class, but she was by far my favorite of this pod just because of her humor and wit. She stuck up for women in a way that made people feel like it was okay to speak out about things that were wrong, she could put men in their place in a time where that probably wasn't ideal. This lay was way ahead of her time, she was funny and smart and quick witted and we need more people in the world like Fern. It's no surprise that she was the highest paid columnist and that Nathaniel Hawthorne was a fan of hers.
I do plan on reading more of her work, she is one of those people I wish I could sit and talk to because I thinks he would have a lot of educational things to say about life.

Edgar Allan Poe - Disturbia

I had not read the Raven before taking this class, I had heard of it but never read it, this bird was menacing, no? Edgar Allan Poe had such dark writings that I have to wonder what was going on in his mind to produce such stories. The story starts out fine, he's curious about the Raven and almost happy to see him, then you progressively get that paranoid, manic feeling. You get this sad loneliness from his stories, I loved the Raven and Annabel Lee, but they are both so sad because he is missing someone who has died, and is driven close to madness.
Though his stories are slightly disturbing and makes you wonder where he is drawing from, what happened in his life that he wrote such menacing, chaotic poems and stories, he did write so well that it does draw you in and he makes you feel the doom and danger that the character is feeling, while reading the Raven I started to feel the panic that the character was feeling, and I wanted the Raven to just go away.

The Transcendentalists

I went into this reading thinking I would enjoy Ralph Waldo Emerson the most, maybe just because his name was who I recognized the most from the list. I started reading Nature, and I was not one with Nature at all, I couldn't get into the story, and it took everything I had to turn the page and keep reading. I'm sure that at the time this was written people of that era might have gotten more out of this story than people do today, and that could be partly our fault because we are in too much of a hurry to stop and appreciate the leisurely pace this story takes you on. I myself want a little more excitement and if I'm not intrigued by a book within the first few pages, I'm off to something else.  We live in a world of instant gratification I guess, and that for me includes my reading material. I know the transcendentalist era was a philosophical era, so we should be able to take something educational away from these stories.

Of his stories, self reliance was most meaningful to me, because it's something I try to teach my daughter and what I assume all parents goals are, to teach their children to be self reliant and be yourself, not to conform to other peoples ideas and ways.

My First Blog EVER

This is my first time blogging ever, so I hope that this turns out OK!! 
Since it's my first blog, I want to take a minute to talk about the first real novel I have ever read, and my most favorite book and movie of all time, Gone with the Wind. 
I know it was written a little passed our time frame, but I have read this book at least 5 times, and I watch the movie every single time it is on television. I think that this book is so well written it takes you to a place and time of the old south.

Scarlett O'Hara, the rich southern belle who didn't have a care in the world to having everything and almost everyone taken away from her. You walk with her through the time of the Civil War, and the desperation she felt to get back to her family. Once she is there and realizes her mother is gone you feel the agonizing pain she must be feeling. The things that she does to take care of her family and to get back to the status she was accustomed to. 

I think Margaret Mitchell wrote this book so well, she transports you back and the way she writes you feel everything that Scarlett is feeling. This book really did take me to another place and really is the reason that I love to read. My next blogs will be about different authors and books but I wanted to start out with the book that is my all time favorite.