blog #9

After reading the introduction of American Literature from 1865-1914 I noticed a lot of connections from the entertainment people had during this time period to the entertainment people enjoy in today’s culture.  Besides having novels, poetry, and newspapers to read, people were introduced to magazines which “exploded, from 700 during the Civil War to 2400 in 1880 to roughly 3,500 at the turn of the century… (p.26). Today, people still read magazines religiously.  At every grocery store you can find a multitude of magazines ranging from politics to health guides to gossip magazines.  Magazines are even in the hair or beauty salons we go to or in the lobby of the car repair shop.  I found it interesting that some magazines have survived for over 125 years, specifically the magazine Good Housekeeping. The text also describes how people were “attracted by the colorful covers, lavish illustrations, and modest cost of magazines… (p.26)” when they first became popular in the late nineteen hundreds.  Today people are still drawn to purchase magazines due to the catchy titles of the articles on the cover or because of what celebrity is on the cover.  The illustrations in magazines are still a big influence on people buying magazines, but now the photos we see are professionally done by photographers and have most likely been altered to make the person being photographed look their best and their body shape has been “touched up” to make them look a little more tone or thin.  Illustrations in magazines also consist of a wide variety of advertisement and coupons for what is hot and trendy in our current culture, but the original influence is still present.  Although not all magazines are “modestly priced” today, I think the magazine is one of the biggest connections from the reading to our day and time.

Blog #8

After reading, I felt as though Jefferson Davis’ Inaugural Address and President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address were speaking to each other.  It seems as though President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was a response to Jefferson Davis’ Inaugural Address, but he was not agreeing with Davis, but voicing ideas and opinions that were opposite of what Davis has said in his Address a few years earlier.

 In Davis’ Address he talks a lot about the rights that citizens were given in the Declaration of Independence and how the Union states were trying to take away those rights and end the original purpose for which the southern states were created.  Throughout his whole address it seems as though he is blaming the succession of the Southern states on the Union, by saying “We are doubly justified by the absence of wrong on our part, and by a wanton aggression on the parts of others (1360)”, Jefferson is putting confidence in southerners that there is nothing wrong with their way of life and that all the succeeding and revolting is a result of the northerners actions.  I think this speech is appealing to the southerners because Davis himself is a southern and he is defending the culture of the south.  He is defending slavery without actually saying anything about the topic but by talking about the “agricultural pursuits” of the south and that their “…policy is peace (1361)”.

In President Lincolns Address, he talks about the Civil War and the actions of the South that caused the Civil War to begin.  Lincoln states that “Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than it perish (1374)”. Without directly saying the north or the south, Lincoln’s readers or listeners understand that south is the cause of the war in his eyes.  He also says that “It may seem strange that any men should dare ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces (1375)”, with this statement he is calling out the Southerners on greatly benefiting from the slaves hard work while they sit around and do nothing.  This speech probably enraged Northerners more than they already were because they worked hard for what they earned and believed that slavery was wrong and inhumane.  Lincoln’s audience probably agreed with him blaming the act of war on the South and that the South was responsible for the devastation of the Civil War.

I think that both Davis and Lincoln were persuasive and did a good job of persuading their audience in their way of thinking because they both wrote in a way that was appealing to their audiences.  I think that Lincoln may have been more persuasive to an audience that extended into the south because there were some Southerners that felt that slavery was wrong and that it was against the will of God. 

blog #7

After reading Frances E.W. Harpers poem “The Slave Mother” and “Ethiopia” and John Green Whittier “The Hunters of Men” and “The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother to Her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage” I found the element of imagery most appealing to analyze these four poems.  In the poem “The Slave Mother” I thought the images Harper painted for readers really allowed them to feel what stress and sorrows a mother and child went through during slavery.  I think a great example is where Harper writes “She is a mother, pale with fear, Her boy clings to her side, And in her kirtle vainly tried His trembling form to hide. He is not hers. Although she bore, For him a mother’s pains; He is not hers, although her blood Is coursing through his veins! (p.1231)”.   Here readers can see the little boy clinging to his mother and his mothers sorrow that her child is the property of another human and that she has no way to protect him or keep him from danger.  I think this imagery probably pulled on the heart strings of mothers who could never imagine having one of her children taken from her or not being able to protect her own flesh and blood and persuaded them to see slavery in a more negative light than they already did.  Another form of imagery that I found moving was in the poem “The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother to Her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage” by Whittier.  Throughout the whole poem he writes about daughters of a slave being sold in slavery and being gone forever from their family.  I think Whittier persuades a younger audience when he writes “Never, when the torturing lash Seams their back with many a gash, Shall a mother’s kindness bless them, Or a mother’s arms caress them (1223).” By describing how a young girl will never be comforted by her mother again, I think Whittier changes the views of slavery in a younger audience because when a child gets hurt or doesn’t feel well the first person they cry for is their mom and with this statement younger people are able to think and feel what that would be like to be taken from the person that they cherish most. 

Blog #6

While reading Jacob’s “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and Child’s “The Quadroons” this issues that the characters faced due to their race and culture really stood out to me.  In the story “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” Linda is caught in between the culture of slaves and of the African Americans that were free in the South.  She had fallen in love with a free African American and wanted to be married to him.  Although there were no laws against free African Americans marrying one another, she as a slave had no rights to be married unless their owners gave her permission.  Unfortunately for Linda, she was scolded and even “struck” for asking permission to be married to the man she loved.  Although free African Americans did not have many rights, they still had the right to love as they wanted.  Linda asks “why does the slave ever love? (p.772)” and then quotes Dr. Flint when he said “If you must have a husband, you may take up with one of my slaves (p. 773)” allowing us to see that in the slaves culture they weren’t even allowed to love or marry who they wanted.

In “The Quadroons” I noticed the conflict between Xarifa and the society that she lived in.  Child’s writes that during “summer walks with her beautiful mother, her young cheek often mantled at the rude gaze of the young men, and her dark eye flashed fire, when some contemptuous epithet met her ear, as white ladies passed them by, in scornful pride and ill-concealed envy (120)”.   Child’s illustrates a young girl growing up in a home filled with love and that this little girl’s safe world was broken apart after being insulted in public.  Society didn’t accept Xarifa for the person she was, maybe it was because she was so beautiful or maybe it was because she was the child of a white southern man and an African American woman, but that day she experienced judgment and hatred towards her, which in turn created conflict between her and society.

Blog #5

After reading “An Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man” and “Indian Names” I realized that a major theme in both stories is how the white people took over a land that already belonged to another race. In Apess story he writes a lot about how the Indians were forced to retreat from the land that their families had lived on for many years and how now the red skins are forced to live without food or shelter. “…With the females who are left alone, children half-starved and some almost as naked as they came into the world… while the female are left without protection, and are seduced by white men, and are finally left to be common prostitutes for them and to be destroyed by that burning, fiery curse… rum”.  He also calls out the white race on how they destroyed a race and ask if the Indians ever did what the white people did to the red skins. “Can you charge the Indians with robbing a nation almost of their whole continent, and murdering their women and children, and then depriving the remainder of their lawful rights, that nature and God require them to have? And to cap the climax, rob another nation to till their grounds welter out their days under the lash with hunger and fatigue under the scorching rays of a burning sun?” Apess describes how the white race has taken something that is not theirs to take. He tells the story of how the Indians have been robbed of their God given rights and that the white race has left the Indian civilization with nothing, making their survival almost impossible

 In “Indian Names” Sigourney describes where and how the Indians had an influence on the country before the white people ever arrived.  She rights “their name is on your waters” and “your mountains build their monument”. She also gives the names of states that still hold the influence and names of the Indians. She then goes further to say “though ye destroy their dust” to describe how the whites have tried to destroy the race of the Indians and erase their cultural remains that still are part of the land that they lived in. But she writes “Wachuset hides its lingering voice within his rocky heart, And Alleghany graves its tone throughout his lofty chart; Monadnock on his forehead hoar doth seal the scared trust” to allows readers to see that the Indians are in the American landscape forever and that their race will not be forgotten because we will be reminded of it in our rivers, lakes, valleys and mountainsides.

Blog #3: The Wife

I think Irving’s story, “The Wife”, helps readers really understand what marriage is about.  When you marry someone, it should be because you love them to such an extent that words cannot describe, they have become you best friend, and are you backbone in life.  In most traditional marriage ceremonies people recite the vows “For Richer or Pourer”, I think this story is a great example of what that means.  Marriage isn’t about the money or the opportunities a persons name or family can give you, it’s about sharing your life with someone that you care so deeply for that you would sacrifice anything for them.  The wife, Mary, shows that when she doesn’t care where they live or how much or little they have, just as long as they have each other.  I think this story also allows readers to see that women are not just arm candy or housewives, but that they are there in times of need to support and comfort their families through the good and the bad.  This story also shows that there is too much pressure on people to keep up with “The Joneses”.  We put too much emphasis on where people live and what kind of fabulous lifestyle the lead.  People are too busy worrying about money to enjoy the finer things in life.  Irving tells his friend that he is not poor, but rich because of the wonderful wife he has and the gifts of life that he has been given, I think we should take more focus off of money, cars, and clothes, and pay more attentions to the gifts that surround us.

Blog #2

I have never given much thought to how important newspapers, magazines, and literature were to the colonist.  Thinking that newspapers and magazines were their main source of news seems strange to me because today we have access to national and world news through many different outlets, such as the daily and nightly news on TV and Google.   It is also shocking to me to know that ten of the twelve newspapers were printed in three major cities, it makes me wonder how long it took for the rest of the colonist to receive the news that the more urbanized colonist were reading weekly.  Realizing how far literature and national news has come since the 17 and 1800s is amazing.   Today we have the ability to listen to the news on TV while we get ready for work or bed, we have electronic versions of books and there are numerous magazines available at any grocery store you go to.  Although these advancements are amazing, it saddens me to think that we are losing our roots.  Not many people can say that they take the time to sit and read the newspaper in the morning or that they have gone to the bookstore and purchased a new novel.  Major bookstores are shutting their doors because Americans would rather see the movie than read the book and magazines are bought more today for juicy celebrity gossip than for educational purposes. The quick changes in technology make me wonder what the world of literature will be like in ten or twenty years from now.