Modernism Citations

Gordon, Stephanie. "modernist poetry." In Kimmelman, Burt, and Temple Cone, eds. The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 2. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54& SID=5&iPi n= CAP299&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 15, 2011).

Introduction to Modernism - Mr. Langley's Digital Classroom - Blip.tv. Dir. John Langley. Blip.tv. 13 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. .

Hemingway, Ernest. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 4th ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton and, 1994. 1638-651. Print.

"Ernest Hemingwar." Ernest Hemingway His Life and Works. 2011. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. .

Sandburg, Carl. "Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. .

Barr, Andy. "Carl Sandburg Biography." Carl Sandburg - Chicago Poems - Carl Sandburg Biography. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. .

Rasula, Jed. "Jazz and American modernism." The Cambridge Companion to American Modernism. Ed. Walter Kalaidjian. Cambridge University Press, 2005. Cambridge Collections Online. Cambridge University Press. 18 April 2011 DOI:10.1017/CCOL052182995X.007

Quinn, Edward. "jazz." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= Gfflithem0431&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 19, 2011).

Werlock, Abby H. P. "Harlem Renaissance." 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. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CASS408&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 21, 2011).

Post Modernism in the Movies

Today is my birthday!!! I do not feel like writing or being in school. My lovely boyfriend is taking me out for dinner if the meet gets canceled. Hopefully it does. But I am not doing anything at the meet so if it is still on, it won't be that bad. I get to pick where we go to dinner. I do not know where we should go yet, but I am thinking about Osaka!!! I doubt that though. I do not want to go to practice though. That would suck. I am excited to go to my dads. I think I am getting a Kindle and that would be awesome! I have wanted one for a long time and it is about time I get one. I will be very upset if I do not get it.
So I guess I should start talking about post modernism within a post modern movie. I am going to talk about the movie Water for Elephants. It is a very recent movie that came out in theaters. It fits the aspects of post modernism by its act to react the past. It is a movie that was set in the 1930's during the Great Depression. It shows how the people act and how they are going to make a living during this hard time. It was about a man named Jacob and how he got a job working on a circus. He soon finds out how bad life can be in the outside world. He meets a girls and falls in love with her. This movie is based of the book Water for Elephants. It is a post modernism piece because it is trying to capture the tradition of the past through the book. There was also fear in the book. Jacob is scared for his life, his lovers, and the animals in the circus. There lacks an individual within the book. Jacob joins the circus and he is put within the system without a lot of people knowing. The other people on the circus had nicknames. They had nicknames and not individual names for each other. They would call the citizens coming to watch the show rubes. They had not distinction between the people.

Modernism

Jazz Music

Right now I am listening to Blue Trail. All there is playing is music. Josh just flipped out because it is a ten minute song. The saxophone just jumped into the song. The saxophone is very good. It makes me want to get up and dance. The sudden saxophone entering the song makes it cheerful. I think that Jazz music came around to give the blacks and other people in this genre some hope and something to do. Playing music is very fun. The saxophone is still playing. I can tell that the saxophone is a very important instrument to Jazz. The story I see withing this song is a couple is walking down the road and they are in Louisiana. Louisiana is the prime state for Jazz music. there is now a piano playing. It is very smooth. Now the symbols are playing. No the song is about to end and the music is very mellow. It kind of resembles the sadness they are going through. Black people had a lot of sadness through out their lives. They had to go through slavery. Now in the middle 19th century during the modernism period, they were going through the civil rights movement. This was a time when blacks were discriminated against. They were not allowed to use the same things as white were. Like Rosa Parks and not being able to sit in a seat labeled for a white man. She was arrested for it. The black culture was greatly influenced by Jazz because the black people needed something to take their minds off of their trouble. It was very interesting music to listen to. They express so much soul in their music. The modernism era brought out great jazz music. It was also a time of "beats". They were poets and novelist who had very bizarre thoughts and actions. The Jazz era defined greatness in our country by the blacks over coming their sorrows and finding something they are passionate about.

Modernism vs. Realism

Modernism is "inscribed a particular sense of radical rupture with the past and a perception of cultural crisis" (Modernism). This is a period of literature that came around a great time of change for America. The Great Depression hit America and many changes were happening. The Harlem Renisnesse was occurring. That is the black people coming together and celebrate music and their culture. There was also the "Roaring Twenties". It was a great time of economic growth for America. There was more leisure time and people had to find new ways to entertain themselves. They started playing baseball. That became a great American past time. There was also theater. Movies started coming out. That forms a great deal of literature in our culture. Scripts needed to be written and it gave room for a new era of literature. That sparked modernism. "The normative changes associated with modernity include a sense of cultural crisis brought on by World War I and the sense that the new 20th century put the world closer to the apocalypse; Western notions of progress and superiority were breaking down. Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud all offered so-called master narratives that helped to explain history and to produce a new historical self-consciousness. Well-held precepts and norms for religion, sexuality, gender, and the family of the past Victorian world were also collapsing. Conflicts over racial, gender, class, religious, and colonial systems of oppression were moving to the fore." (Modernism). That was a big change in society in America. It led to the development of authors like Ezra Pound and Ernst Hemingway. Hemingway was a great novelist that inspired many other authors to be a part in the modernism period.
"Realism is the attempt to depict life as it actually exists, not as the author wants it to be in the present or the future, or imagines it was in the past. A realist carefully chooses details that illustrate this vision, unlike the naturalist who tries to include all possible details." (Realism). I like realism writings. I like the facts that everything in the writings are real. I like the aspects of real life. I find that in my life, I am not exposed to real life experiences. I am stuck in school all day and I live at home. I do not have to pay bills. Realism talks about all of those items. Realism authors write about their real world experiences. It is similar to modernism because they are talking about the world, but modernist had a least gooder things to talk about. The times were hard. I feel like they are both the same type of writing. Realism and Modernism have the same types of feelings toward items in real life. I wonder what the realism period would have been like if they were during the Great Depression.l There would not be any hope like there was with the modernism period. I like modernism writings. I do not really like the poems because they are not written in normal poems. They do no have rhyme chemes.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "modernism." 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. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CASS589&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 6, 2011).

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= Gamshrtsty0575&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 6, 2011).

Job Shadow

I went to the Guardianship and Advocacy agency. they were located in the Straton Building. I got there and the girl I was shadowing was no there. She was running some errands and I talked to a guy named Jeff. He was very nice. He talked a lot and let me know a lot about the agency and what they do. I learned that they take adult, disabled people and manage their money. They have to pay the bills and decide weather it is important for them to purchase items. They are there because people would take advantage of the people if they were managing their own money. They are like the parent of the peoples money. I do not know what I want to do in my life. It was neat to see the business side of life, but that is not what I want to do. I want to do something in business, but not that. It was a boring career. The girl, Carol, who I was following decides what the funding for the agency goes to. There is a lot of "paper pushing" as they put it. It means just signing things and stuff. It was kinda what I expected. I had no idea what they did there and what to expect. I would not want to do it. I want to do something that is more active and fun. It was interesting when Carol took me to the Capitol. We watched the House of Representatives in secession. It was very cool. I have never been there before. It was fun to see them arguing and passing bills. The job shadowing was an experiences. It was fun to see how the business life is. I would not like that specific job, but I do want to do something in business.

Dickinson's Time

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were in the time of great writers in American history. they both have two very different types of writing styles and things that they wrote about in their poetry. Walt Whitman wrote his poetry about God and everything that God was to him. I do like to read a little about God, but not everything. Whitman was able to put God into every poem in his Leaves of Grass poetry book. He did have a little bit about information Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, but most everything was about God. During class we analyzed the poems of Whitman and they were not my favorite. They were pretty poems to read, but the meanings were always the same and they got old. During the time, I would think his poems would be more legitimate because he was not a crazy man locked up in his room writing poetry. Emily Dickinson lost something in her life, so she went into an attic and decided to write about all of her life experiences. I would of thought she was a crazy broad and would not have read her poetry during the time she was alive. Now, I would prefer to read her poetry above Whitman's. Emily Dickinson used many aspects in life to write her poetry. She had more a poetic ring to her poems. Whitman had no rhyme to his poems and it felt like he was not a real poet, he was a very short story author. I also like the imagery in Dickinson's poems. They were easy to read because she described the items in her poems with enthusiasm and beauty. Emily Dickinson was a great poet. She had many different sections in her poems. She had a section on love and life and death. She did not talk about God a lot and it is nice to read about real life feelings and not just God. That's all

WHEN roses cease to bloom, dear

This poem was written by Emily Dickinson. It is in her Love section of her poem book. It fits good into her love section because she is talking about the end of a relationship, or the start of the end of a relationship. This poem is number thirty nine out of fifty seven poems. As I was looking at the titles of the rest of the poems in the section of love, most of them had titles of sadness. I could tell she wrote the last poems at the end of her relationship with her lover. The poem starts off as her saying, "When roses cease to bloom, dear". I took this as she was talking to the person who she is in a relationship with. I think this because she says dear. That is usually said when directing a sentence at someone. The roses ceasing to bloom stand for the fact that their love is not vibrante any more. All females want new things in relationships. When new things stop happening, women get sad. New things mean like even though a couple is married for fifty years, they can still have fun and try new things with each other. When roses bloom, it is beautiful. Roses symbolize great things for love. They are the flower of love and are given on many occasions to lovers to show compassion for each other. Dickinson had great passion for her lover by comparing their once beautiful love to a wilting flower. "And violets are done,When bumble-bees in solemn flight Have passed beyond the sun" (Dickinson). This is the rest of the first stanza in her poem. It is also talking about flowers dying. Died flowers are very sad to see. When they are alive, they smell good and they make you feel good on the inside because they are so pretty. The bees resemble the life being sucked out of the flowers. Bees taking to nectar out of the flowers which make them smell good. The poem said the bees are in solemn flight, it means that they are sad because the flowers are dead and they can not get any more food from them. The sun passing resembles the end of the relationship like the end of a day. "The hand that paused to gather" (Dickinson). This line talks about the her reaching out her hand to try to save the relationship. " Then take my flower, pray!" (Dickinson). That is the last line in the poem. It is talking about how she is done with the relationship, and she is putting her life into God's hands. Emily Dickinson used great imagery in her poems. When I was reading the poem, I felt like I could see the flowers welting in front of her. The analogy is a good one because when love dies and the relationship is at its end, it sucks. I do not like it when flowers die and it is sad to see them gone. They smell so good and they are pretty and they can help the people around you because since you are in a good mood, everyone around you would be too. The sun passing was a good analogy was because nobody likes the dark and it is sad to see it come.

Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1924; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/113/. [March 23, 2011].

Dickenson life Our Lives are Swiss

Emily Dickinson was a poet. She was secluded against the world and she wrote a lot of poems in her life. She did not live with people and she was not that friendly. He poem, Our lives are Swiss,So still, so cool, Till, some odd afternoon,The Alps neglect their curtains, And we look farther on.
Italy stands the other side, While, like a guard between,The solemn Alps,The siren Alps, Forever intervene! She is talking about the mountains first off. She uses great imagery to portray the feel and the looking of the mountain. She says the mountains are cold and still. They are cold and still because they are pile of rocks and they can not move. Usually on the tops of mountains, there is snow and where there is snow, it is cold. Dickinson says the Alps are a curtain on the world. It is also a guard against Italy and the rest of the world. She also talks about what is on the sides of the mountains. On one side there is Italy. Italy is a very beautiful country. There are many fountains and life in Italy. Emily is talking about the Alps being a guard because Italy is so pure and she does not want anything to ruin that pureness. She also says that the Alps are siren and solemn. I think she said that because not many people live on the mountains and they are very pretty. When Emily said they were looking on, she means that the people on the other sides of the mountains want to go into Italy and to be pure like they people in Italy are. The title Our Lives are Swiss is very important because Emily is talking about how many holes there are in our life. Swiss Cheese is a type of cheese that has holes in it. Emily is making a parallel to our lives and the holes in the cheese. That's all.

My Self

When Whitman writes, he uses the idea of self throughout most of his poems. He was aiming to identify a person and their own personal self. I think it is cool that he is trying to identify what Self is, but everyone has a different perspective of what self is. Josh's definition of self is himself. "And if you have seen the movie the Librarian, me equals God. But that only counts if you have seen the movie" (Cornett, Direct Quote). See, that is a very different idea than I have. I am not the most religious person in the world. I practice religion, but and it probably would be a part of my definition of self, but it would not be the focus point of all of my poems or writings, given if I ever write poems. I would write a little on some of the poems about God because he is a very important person to the world and its function, but I would probably talk more about myself. Since I am defining the meaning of self, I would not try to come up with an explanation for everyone because everyone is different. I would come up with my own and if someone wants to read it, they can. They can learn how I define my self. I would define my self by love and romance. I would because I love everybody. Love is a very important thing to have in relationships because when you love someone, you would do anything for them and it helps to maintain a relationship with a person. God loves us all. So by talking about love and identifying myself, I am talking about God and his love for everyone on earth. I know he loves us all because He put us here on the earth for a reason. Another way I would define myself would be by working. I like to read and I am a hard worker. I believe that people who want to be successful in life should be able to work hark in what they do.

As Toilsome I Wander'd Virginia's Woods

This is a poems written during the Civil War written by Walt Whitman. The general analysis of the poem is, Whitman is walking in a forest in Virginia and he comes across a grave of a fallen soldier (Whitman). The grave was quickly made and there was a sign that said, "Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade" (Whitman). Whitman or the guy walking in the woods can not get the message out of his head. The first two lines of the poem,"AS toilsome I wander'd Virginia's woods,
To the music of rustling leaves kick'd by my feet, (for 'twas autumn,)" (Whitman) are giving a setting for the reader. It is autumn and there are leaves being rustled on the ground where Whitman walks. Then, he comes across a grave that is underneath the tree. "Mortally wounded he and buried on the retreat, (easily all could I understand,)" (Whitman). That is what was on the grave of the soldier. Whitman could not read it very easily because it has probably been there awhile. He reads this also with the other note left of the grave kind of scares Whitman. It does because the true horrors of war shine even brighter. "The halt of a mid-day hour, when up! no time to lose—yet this sign left, On a tablet scrawl'd and nail'd on the tree by the grave, Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade." (Whitman). Here he is talking about the sign and is showing that he is actually putting thought behind the note left behind by other soldiers. "Long, long I muse, then on my way go wandering, Many a changeful season to follow, and many a scene of life,
Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt, alone,or in the crowded street," (Whitman). These lines are showing the deepness of the thinking Whitman is putting in the sign about the soldier. "Yet at times through changeful season and scene, abrupt, alone,or in the crowded street, Comes before me the unknown soldier's grave, comes the inscription rude in Virginia's woods, Bold, cautious, true, and my loving comrade". (Whitman). That shows that he is still thinking about the inscription on the grave for even longer and it effects his life now.
There were many graves in the Woods in Virginia because of its placement during the war (Huff). This means that it would not by uncommon for Whitman to run into a grave of a fallen soldier. Whitman was a nurse in during the Civil War (Huff). So he was probably actually walking in the forest when he ran across the grave. The leaves that Whitman is kicking represent the falling of the soldier also (Huff). I can see that because the leaves have fallen from the tree and they are dead. The soldier had fallen in battle and he was gone from the world. Walt Whitman's poem "As Toilsome I Wander'd Virginia's Woods" is about Whitman thinking about his life and what he will leave behind if he is ever killed in the war.

Whitman, Walt. "AS ADAM EARLY IN THE MORNING. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .

Huff, Randall. "'As Toilsome I Wander'd Virginia's Woods'." 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. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0034&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 3, 2011).

As Adam Early in the Morning.

As Adam early in the morning,
Walking forth from the bower refresh'd with sleep,
Behold me where I pass, hear my voice, approach,
Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass,
Be not afraid of my body (Whitman).
This is a poem about coming out. Walt Whitman wrote this poem for himself because he was a homosexual. The first part of the poem deals with just coming out to the world of his preference of lovers. When I wake up in the morning, I am refreshed and ready to go for the day. All the things that happened yesterday are behind me and I am ready for anything new. Homosexuality was a new thing to Whitman and he is ready to accept his new life choice. "Walking forth from the bower refresh'd with sleep, " (Whitman). This line shows that he is now refreshed with his new life and he is relieved that he has now discovered that he is able to not live in shame any longer. Sleep represents the time when he was not accepting of his life. He wakes up and now is comfortable within himself. "Behold me where I pass, hear my voice, approach," (Whitman). This line is starting that he is kind of second guessing what he is doing. But, he hears his voice (which is probably God's voice). Telling him it is okay to be who he is. "Touch me, touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass," (Whitman). Here Whitman is asking God to give him the okay to be who he is. He is asking God to touch him as an okay for his to follow his desires. "Be not afraid of my body" (Whitman). Here he is saying that he is now comfortable in his body. He is saying that he would be comfortable to show his body to other men of his nature.
The Bloom's Literally Criticism said the same thing. It said that the "Children of Adams" poems were about the love between a men and women (Oliver). "As Adam Early in the Morning" is the last poem in the "Children of Adams" section of Leaves of Grass. It starts a transition to the next section called Calamus are about the love of men and men (Oliver). This would be true because Walt Whitman wrote about his life in his poems. Oliver also says that when he was talking about Adam, Whitman wanted Adam sto see him. That would mean that he wants a nother man to see him and he wants to be with a man (Oliver). Whitman talked a lot about finding love and sensual feelings between two people (Oliver). Whitman was more profound in his sexuality. I can tell this by his writings and poems. He was able to express his feelings for men and woman through his Leaves of Grass. He started with woman because that is the "Correct" way of life, but he changed to men, because that is what he preferred.

Oliver, Charles M. "'As Adam Early in the Morning'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCWW026&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 3, 2011).

Whitman, Walt. "AS ADAM EARLY IN THE MORNING. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 03 Mar. 2011. .

Whitman and Bardic Symbols

Walt Whitman was a very confusing author. He used the theme of Self. Self is a combination of soul, personality, the real me. Those are three things that can help define a person. Whitman wrote about them all the time. His favorite to write about is Christianity. He does because he talks about God in his poems. He becomes confused by talking about these poems. It a rumor that Whitman was gay. In the poem, he says "I throw myself upon your breast, my father!I cling to you so that you cannot unloose me," (Whitman). This shows that he was confused about his sexuality. He does not mean he literal father. Though I find it skeptical that he would even mention kissing another man unless he was gay. The father is God. It is because as we all know in our religion, we call God our father because he put us on the earth to live. That instance is the example of the Christianity part of Self. The poem is a reflection on his life. Whitman did not know what he was telling people. When I read the poem, I was also confused. Whitman was talking about many different things and it was confusing about what he was talking about and trying to wait. The writer of the "Bardic Symbols" review even said that it was confusing. He said that there was no use in trying to find the symbols that Walt Whitman uses. He said that basically no matter how many times someone read the poem, a person was still not able to find any meaning behind the poem. He did say that Whitman was trying to identify himself because he was going through a tough time and he needed something to get away from life. Whitman was a very confused man. The poems he writes all have meaning, but usually only he knows the true meaning. I am not a fan of him because his stuff does not relate to everybody because it is about himself.

The Dust Was Once the Man

Walt Whitman's "This Dust Was Once the Man" is about the great sixteenth President Abraham Lincoln (Whitman). Abraham Lincoln was the president during the Civil War. The Civil War. The Civil War was a war between the Northern Union and the Southern Confederates. The South seceded from the United States because they wanted slavery and they did not like Abe Lincoln because he was a Republican and the South were Democrats (Abraham). When he took office, the South instantly seceded (Abraham). Lincoln was a great fighter during the Civil War. "As a commander in chief Lincoln was soon noted for vigorous measures, sometimes at odds with the Constitution and often at odds with the ideas of his military commanders (Lincoln). This shows that he fought hard for what he believed in and went through anything he could to see it done. I believe Lincoln was a tough guy. He had a lot of hardships during his life that would have led other people to given up, but he stuck with it. His children died before him and so did other people he loved (Abraham). That would have bee hard to deal with being a father, but he was tough and got through it. He was always in with military planning. He was always part of the action to end the war (Abraham). After the Civil War, Lincoln was shot at the Fox Theater by John Wilkes Booth (Abraham). When he was shot, the war was at an end. The Union and the Confederates were starting reconstruction (Abraham).
"THIS dust was once the man,
Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,
Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,
Was saved the Union of these States." (Whitman)
In the poem, The Dust Was Once the Man was talking about the passing and the after effects of Abraham Lincoln being gone and dead (Whitman). The Dust is the ashes of Lincoln body. They also represent the all that is physically left of Abraham Lincoln on the earth. It is also saying that Lincoln was a great man and a great president. The line, "Gentle, plain, just and resolute" shows that Lincoln was a calm man (Whitman). He dealt with many matters that other would have gone crazy over and he was calm about it. He had plans for every thing and it was all thought out. He was also very just because he was very truthful. He was known as Honest Abe because he walked over five miles to return money to a woman who paid to much (Abraham). "Under whose cautious hand,against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age," (Whitman). The foulest crime is fighting against family. The United States is a big family and the Civil War was horrible because we were fighting against each other. "Was saved the Union of these States." (Whitman). In this line, Whitman is stating that Lincoln was a great guy and he brought the nation back together from it horrible state that it was in. Lincoln was a great man and president. Whitman really respected what he did and stood for by showing it in his poems.

"Abraham Lincoln." Civil War. Nps.gov. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .

Whitman, Walt. "THIS DUST WAS ONCE THE MAN. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892])." The Walt Whitman Archive. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .

Plough man Ploughing

Well, God is everywhere. He is in the grass on the side of the road and the wind that blows through your hair on a windy day. In the poem, As I Watch’d the Ploughman Ploughing, Walt Whitman is giving an analogy to God. God is amazing. He is so awesome. He knows everything that is going to happen before it happens. He has the whole world planned out. That is why he is a farmer also. Farmers are very important people to society. They produce food for our world to function. He is the plougher, the sower, and the harvester. That shows that he is actually three in one. He is three in one by being the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Those are the three main components of God and how rules us and guides us in our lives. Whitman compares this poem with the every man to Christianity. He does this because since God is the plougher, the sower, and the harvester (Three in one), the everyman is also there. The everyman is a concept that every man is combined together to form a society. The everyman is important because without it, our society would not run as smoothly as it would today because we need everyone to be able to survive in a world. The everyman is also talking ab out the farmer. Farmers are everywhere and they take great part in our society and its function. They are in charge of producing yummy plants to give to a nation to fed them and make sure we are nutrition. This has to deal with God and the poem because God is planting "Seeds". The seeds are the people in the world who follow him and believe in him. I think that God created everyone and he gives everyone a choice on if they want to follow him or not. It also talks about death and the circle of life. Everyone dies and God replaces them with new life.

Whitman Language of the Self

In Walt Whitman's poems, he always tried to identify self. He tried to identify the idea of self, not just to him, but to all the people in the world. He tried to identify self into different topics. There is soul. This stands for the spiritual side of a person. There is also the personal self. This deals with the characteristics of who a person is. He uses soul to reply most of his ideas of self. He uses a lot of analogies to define what his ideas of being spiritual to yourself. "Whitman coveted logical scandals, for without contradiction Whitman could not assert the paradoxical unity of the spiritual self and the material word, nor could he coalesce his own conflicting desires into a unified identity." (Bauerlein). This means that he talks and uses the spiritual side of life to pertains how to find self in Walt Whitman's poems. To show that he uses self for the idea of personality, Mark Bauerlein "To express a self. To display a "Personality" "uncompromisingly" with a limpid style, a transparent form that ardently renders an identity in all its plenitude and immediacy." (Bauerlein). This shows greatness within the poems of Whitman. Personality is very important to define a persons self. My personality is important to me because it tells me and others who I am and who I will be. When Mark Bauerlein was talking about how the writing affected the life of Walt Whitman himslef, he said, "Writing can never satisfy Whitman's desire to soothe his psychic insecurity, for in re-reading his poems for signs of self-acquaintance, he can only find an alienated, lost, impoverished version of himself." (Bauerlein). I see how that would be true. Writers write to relieve pressure and because they feel like they have something to state, even if they do not have a purpose at the time. The writers have to go back sometimes to identify for themselves what they are writing. Whitman uses what he thinks self is in his poems.


Bauerlein, Mark. "Whitman's Language of the Self." American Imago 44, no. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts on File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/ (accessed January 20, 2010).

Mac and Cheese

My favorite dinner to eat would have to be macaroni and cheese. Its cheesy goodness is so yummy. I could eat mac and cheese forever. The best invention that was ever created would be easy mac. It is so easy to make. I put the mac noodles in the cup and add water to the cup. Then I put it in to the microwave for three minutes. Be careful because the cup will be very hot once it is done in the microwave. I recommend that you use a towel or something to protect your hand. Once it is out of the microwave, put the cheese powder into the now soft noddles. Mix it up. Since it is very hot, I usually put an ice cube into the cup to cool off the macaroni and to have it easier to eat. When mac and cheese are made on a stove, it is the best. My grandma makes the best mac and cheese in the world. I grew up on that stuff when she was babysitting me. I would ask for it all the time. But, when it is made on a stove it is so good. It does take a little while to make and it is hard to keep my mouth from watering. It is nice to finally get the cheese mixture into the bowl and mixed up. Once the noodles are drained, I mix the noodles with the cheese. It is so yummy and it is all I can think about. I love mac and cheese. The smell is to delicious. When my grandma used to make it, I would walk into the house and smell it. The smell is cheese. I love cheese. That helps me to love mac and cheese even more. Mac and cheese when it has hot dogs in it is even better. They have a certain smell to them. And when it is cooked with the noodles, it has the yummy hot dog taste to them. When I finally get the bowl in front of me, I just have to eat it. My favorite is when it is when it is the perfect mixture of cheese and noodles and not to much cheese or not enough. When I finish my bowl, I always get extra. I love mac and cheese and I always will.

War

Today, I am in Iraq reporting the news. I am in the middle of the action covering the inside details about what is really going on. I am told I can not give my exact location for safety reasons. I have also changed my name to Erica so nobody can come back and get my later. These precautions give me a little piece of mind. It helps me to sleep at night knowing that later, once I am done with this gig, I will be safe and my family will be okay. I have not talked to my family in over a month. I miss them greatly and can not wait to see them. My trip her is almost over. I get to go home tomorrow. This experience has changed my life forever. I will never look at war the same way. All of the soldiers are very nice. They were all very welcoming also. Sometimes, there is nothing going on, they just go about their day as any normal day without being stranded in the middle of the desert. They all have their daily routines that they follow. They all have their ups and downs. It is like a big family here. They all have each others backs and fight for each other. One day we went on a mission. They dressed me up in gear and protecting gear. I feel safe with these guys. When I was told I was to go out with them on their next mission, I freaked out. I did not know what to expect. I was wondering if I would make it back to camp alive. I knew the boys would keep me safe. We went out on our mission and I took notes the whole time. The things happening to me seem impossible. Gun shots were being fired everywhere and people were running and screaming. I will never forget a soldier that got out of the humvey to get a little boy inside a house for safety. It is truly remarkable what these men and women do for our country. They kept me safe and I made it home safly.

Jack London

Jack London is both a realism and regionalism author. His travels when he was a young adult helped him to become on of the nations best authors. His parents did not want to claim him and he moved in with a family friend and his step sister (Meet). He toke a job at eleven to help to get money to help his family to be able to eat (Meet). He did not know how to read or write. When he was traveling, he noticed that many of the uneducated people did not have a place in that society (Meet). He realized that he could not depend on his strength his whole life (Meet). That must have been hard for him to realize. He was in a place where he did not have many friends and he taught himself how to read and write (Meet). In his teens, he signed up to go to work as a schooner in Siberia (Meet). It inspired his first story. He attended University of California and Berkeley, but he he left because wanted to go to Klondike to strike gold (Meet). He did not find any gold, but he did get lots of experiences for his later stories (Meet). In 1903, he moved back home to write stories for a living (Meet). After he published many some of his books, he became on of the most well-known authors in the country (Meet). He also became one of the countries most paid authors in the country (Meet). He gave his money to help out his family and friends (Meet). He also went into debt helping out these people (Meet). He did make enough money to build his dream home in California (Meet). It was almost done and it was burnt down (Meet). This influenced London greatly and left him in emotional and financial turmoil.
Jack London uses the type of literature called naturalism in his writing "To Build a Fire". Naturalism is telling a story using the factors of nature to relay important things in writings (Campbell). The story is about a guy who moved to Klondike in northern United States. London moved to Klondike to try to find gold, and he failed (Meet). He uses his experiences in the land and he writes about them. The main issue in the story "To Build a Fire" is about the harsh, cold, bitter weather of Canada (London). The people were not ready ro prepared for the the gruesome winter (London). It is naturalism because Jack London is talking about how nature is affecting him and the other men around him lives. It would be horrible to go to a place that you have never been to before. They did not know what to expect and they could not pack for the weather because there was no room for them to carry a huge coat with them in the middle of the summer when they travel. The purpose of building a fire is so the men there can have warmth in the midst of their frowziness. London used his personal experiences to write an intellectual and neat story about nature and its effects on him and others.

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 603-614. Print.

"Meet Jack London." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 601. Print.

Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 27 July 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2011.

Edgar Arlington Robinson

Edgar Arlington Robinson questioned his survival since he was six years old (Meet). He grew up in Gardiner, Maine. He started writing because he felt like it was his "destiny" to write (Meet). He felt like he was put on the earth to write and to share his feelings with the world. He also felt like he was enslaved to write poetry for the world (Meet). He went to Harvard and he also wrote for two years there (Meet). The struggles in his life led him to become a realism author. His father died in 1892 and his mother in 1896 from a disease (Meet). His brothers also became a drug dealer and an alocholic and they both died early (Meet). Since he went through so much turmoil, he wrote about sad and real things. The characters in his poems go through the same problems that people in real life go through. He makes the characters frustrated and have the feeling of defeat in his writings (Meet). This is realism because he went through these feelings when he lost his family and when he started to question his existence in the world and his purpose. He has always felt like he did not belong in the world and he should not be here. He tried to make up these real feelings by writing them down for others to share the feelings. He also had more struggle when he moved to Ney York City in 1896 (Meet). He could not find many jobs and he was not making much money (Meet). He was not able to get his poetry published (Meet). He had a life changing moment when President Theodore Roosevelt rescued him (Meet). Roosevelt loved his poetry and gave him a job that he would be able to write as he pleased without worrying about money (Meet). That was a big turning point in his life.
The poem Richard Cory is a huge example of realist writing. I could not find a bigger example if I looked for it. The poem is about a rich man named Richard Cory (Robinson, Richard). He talks about how the guy is always dressed nicely and has "More money than a king" (Robinson, Richard). He also said that he was very well respected and polite to everyone in town (Robinson, Richard). Robinson also stated that the people in town wanted to be like him (Robinson, Richard). This shows realism because people always want what they can not have. Realism is a form of writing that depicts real situations and feelings in real life (Werlock). What the townspeople did not know was that Mr. Cory was not all that satisfied with his life. He went back to his house and he killed himself (Robinson, Richard). That shows realism because everyday we see people who look happy on the outside.
The poem, Miniver Cheevy reflected the views of Robinson. Cheevy questions his purpose in life (Robinson, Miniver). He talks about the questions he has faced his life upon in the poem and they problems he has himself (Robinson, Cheevy). Robinson uses a lot of true realism in his writings by writing basically memoirs of his life.

Robinson, Edgar Arlington "Richard Cory." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 575. Print.

Robinson, Edgar Arlington "Miniver Cheevy." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 576. Print.

"Meet Edgar Arlington Robinson." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 573. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first know African American writers (Meet). He attended a high school in Dayton, Ohio (Meet). He was the only African American to attend that school (Meet). In high school, he participated in many writings activities. He wrote the play for the drama club, edited the school news paper, and was also class president (Meet). That is a big deal because since he was the only African American. He did not have this much success outside of school. He could not afford college and could not find any jobs with newspapers or law firms (Meet). He took a job as an elevator operator (Meet). When there was nobody in the elevator, he would write stories (Meet). He was discovered by the Wright Brothers who owned a private publishing office (Meet). To be able to write his first poem, Dunbar took out a loan to be able to get the book published (Meet). His first book was called Oak and Ivory (Meet). He sold it to passengers on the elevators (Meet). He also spoke at a convention in Chicago with Fredrick Douglas (Meet). That must have been cool reading your poetry with another African American like his self. In 1898, he married an African American poet named Alice Ruth Moore (Meet). His second edition was called Majors and Minors (Meet). He got a lot of praise for it. A writer named William Dean Howells read his poems and he really liked them (Meet). He helped to spark Dunbar's popularity. He was the first African American to be able to live off of the earnings he made from his writings (Meet). Dunbar must have been proud of himself and his writings.
In the Poem Douglas, Dunbar uses realism. He does by telling a poem about Fredrick Douglas. He is looking to Douglas for help support from the hard times dealing with the end of the Civil War (Meet). Realism is a time where people wrote about their feelings and emotions of the things there were going through (Werlock). I think it would be scary to be alive during this time, especially if you are a black because the racial hatred would be horrible. I can tell just by the very bigiging of the poem. Dunbar says, "Ah, Douglas, we have fall'n on evil days" (Dunbar, Douglas). That shows realism because he is telling of a real feelings he has for the black community. In Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask" is a powerful poem. Dunbar is talking about how the African Americans put on a mask and smile to show they are fine when they really are not (Dunbar, We). "We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes" (Dunbar, We). That is true for every person in the world. If we were able to tell people how we really felt and were able to be ourselves, the world would have no control or uniform. It shows realism because he is talking about the true feelings of the people in that time period. Dunbar used his life to give real meaning to his writings.

"Meet Paul Laurence Dunbar." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 568. Print.

Dunbar, Paul Laurence "Douglas." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 570. Print.

Dunbar, Paul Laurence "We Wear the Mask." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 571. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

Cheif Joseph

Chief Joseph was born in Wallowa Valley in Northeaster Oregon (Meet). He was originally named, Hinmaton Yalaktit which means "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain" (Meet). He was renamed chief after his father died in 1871 (Meet). He was the chief of the Nez Perce people (Meet). They were the largest group of Sahapatin speaking people from Idaho to Washington to Oregon (Meet). Chief Joseph and his tribe went through many rough times. In the early eighteenth century, they were introduced to the horse by the Plains Indians (Meet). This helped the tribe turn into a very warlike tribe (Meet). The first white the Nez Perce people encountered were Lewis and Clark (Meet). Problem started with the Nex Perce and the whites when the gold rush started (Meet). Oregon was a hot spot for the search of gold and the government kicked the Nex Perce people out of three quarters their land (Meet). Joseph did not want his people to leave their homeland (Meet). He and his army resisted the United States government, but in 1877, the government told him they would use force to get them out of their land (Meet). Chief Joseph decided it would be a good idea to save the lives of his people and leave (Meet). One of his three top warriors did not want to leave and went up to a group of white settlers and he killed them (Meet). The Chief left quickly after that for the whites were not happy and they wanted retaliation (Meet). He led his people over a thousand miles of land to Canada (Meet). Forty miles away from their destination, they were ambushed and half of the tribe was killed (Meet). The people who lived were not able to return back to their homeland (Meet). They were forced to go to an Indian Territory in Oklahoma (Meet). The hardships that Chief Joseph had to go through to led his people and keep them alive was no easy task.
Chief Joseph's speech "I Will Fight No More Forever" is a very saddening speech. He is talking about the horrible things his tribe has gone through (Joseph). He mentions they have no leader ship, warmth, or food (Joseph). It would be hard to be a leader in a situation like this because his people are running away and he is worried about them, but he still has the people who are with him, and he has to care for them (Joseph). In the speech, Chief Joseph uses realism in his speech. I say this because he is telling his true feelings and fears that he has for his people. Realism is talking about items in that are happening in real life and the outcome on a person from those events (Werlock). He expresses his willingness to quit by saying "I Will Fight No More Forever" (Joseph). That must have been hard for him to say because he comes from a tribe that has always been a fighting tribe and now they are tired and do not want to fight anymore. America had no right to kick the Indians out of their land or to hurt them because they would not leave their homeland that they have been on for as long as they know.

"Meet Cheif Joseph." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 531. Print.

Cheif Joseph. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 514. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters was raised in Pettersburg, Illinois (Meet). I think that is cool. I did not know that Illinois had so much history to it. I knew we had a lot of important places from Abraham Lincoln. It is cool to know we had more than just one important persons to our state. While he was growing up, he read works by Charles Dickens and Ralph Waldo Emerson (Meet). Those good and talented writers helped him to establish that he wanted to become a writer also. He was an apprentice for a local printer (Meet). He went to Knox College for one year also (Meet). Masters knew he wanted to become a writer, but his father wanted him to become a lawyer (Meet). He did go into layering (Meet).He was very well with the law. He started a law office in Chicago (Meet). He was a very successful attorney (Meet). He even argued some of his argument in front the Supreme Court (Meet). He married a woman named, Helen M. Jenkins in 1898, and they had three children together (Meet). He was able to write and work at his law firm at the same time. He published many good works and poems during this time (Meet). He became good friends with the editors of Poetry Magazine (Meet). He decided to leave his family to move to New York to work on his writing after sixteen years in Chicago (Meet). In New York, he meet a woman named Elaine Coyne and he married her in 1926.
Spoon river Anthology is a book of poems and memoirs of people around the area. I read the poem, Emily Sparks. In the poem, a woman is looking for her boy who is a student in her class (Spoon). It shows realism because the teacher is worried for hte boy and how he will survive in the real world on his own. Realism deals with the real feelings of people and what they do about those feelings (Werlock). The teacher knows thow boy will be fine in the real world, but she still has fear for him (Spoon). She says, "Where is my boy, my boy In what far part of the world? The boy I loved best of all in the school?" (Spoon). This is sad because she really cares for the boy and is looking for him. She knows he is okay, but she wants peace of mind to be sure he is safe.
I also read the excerpt by Ralph Rhodes. Ralph is worried about spending all of his fathers money (Spoon River). "All they said was true: I wrecked my father’s bank with my loans" (Spoon). This is a part of realism because people always spend More money than they need to and it puts them in to debt. Ralph also wanted to go to New York and to be on Broadway (Spoon). This is realism because he is relaying a dream that he has and many people have. Since many people have that dream, he was told that he would not make it and would be kicked back to Spoon River (Spoon). It shows realism because they are not sparing Ralph's feelings, they are telling them flat out what they think.
Edgar Lee Masters earned many awards for the Spoon river Anthology. He received the Poetry Society of America Award, the Mark Twain silver medal, and the Shelley Memorial Award (Meet). Those are great awards for a great poet. The Spoon River Anthology is his only literally success, but he did publish over fifty poems (Meet).

"Meet Edgar Lee Masters." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 514. Print.

Masters, Edgar Lee. "Spoon Rivers Anthology." Bartleby: Great Books Online. 2011. Online. http://www.bartleby.com/84/index.html. February 13, 2011.

Mark Twain 2

Mark Twain had many experiences in his life that affected his writing and his writing styles. He is one of the best rationalist writers of the time. His stories are very important to our past and to our culture. Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri and he had the name Samuel Clemens (Meet). Hannibal is located near the Mississippi River. He stories are about life in Missouri (Meet). His father died when he was eleven and he was forced to go into schooling and be an apprentice to help out with his family (Meet). When he was twenty one, Clemens finally completed his life goal to become a river boat captain (Meet). He got his name Mark Twain while he was on the boat (Meet). The word twain means two. When the boat was loading and unloading cargo, the boat would rise and fall with the weight of the cargo. When the boat would be at level of two, the crew would yell Mark Twain. Twain loved the sound of it and he changed his name to it. During the Civil War, the Mississippi was closed off for commercial traffic (Meet). Twain moved out to Nevada to find money from gold (Meet). He settled in San Francisco (Meet). Here he started writing. The story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" helped him to get his name out in the literature world and made him famous (Meet). He also wrote about his travels (Meet). Twain's later life had many tragedies in it (Meet). He lost a lot of money and important people in his life died on him (Meet). He became bitter after those hardships.
Mark Twain's life as a riverboat captain influenced his life and writings. He wrote about the life and the surroundings one and off of the riverboat. His descriptions of the world around him make him a rationalist author. Regionalism is a type of literature that pertains to the life around the author and depicts real aspects of the environment (Campbell). Twain is very descriptive in his writings. He described the shore of the river as, "Densely wooded, and the somber shadow that fell from this forest was broken in one place by a long, ruffled trail that shone like silver; and high above the forest wall a clean- stemmed dead tree waved a single leafy bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun" (Twain, 504-505). This shows regionalism because he describes the area around him in great detail and he respects the land around him. Twain uses an analogy of the different sides of the river to describe two different sides of society. I think this because he decibels the side of the river as two totally different things (Twain). One side is beautiful and the sun rises on that side and sun rises give hope to people who see it (Twain). On the other side, it is dark and no hope (Twain). It represents the blacks and the white of society. Blacks do not have much hope because of hte way whites treat them. Twain has the river represent the small difference between them because they are all people (Twain). Mark Twain was a great regionalism author that gave a nice analogy to a problem that faces our country even today.

Campbell, Donna M. "Regionalism and Local Color Fiction." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2011.

"Meet Mark Twain." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 496. Print.

Twain, Mark "Two Views of the River." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 504-505. Print.

Mark Twain 1

Mark Twain is one of the best rationalist writers of the time. His stories are very important to our past and to our culture. Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri and he had the name Samuel Clemens (Meet). Hannibal is located near the Mississippi River. He stories are about life in Missouri (Meet). His father died when he was eleven and he was forced to go into schooling and be an apprentice to help out with his family (Meet). When he was twenty one, Clemens finally completed his life goal to become a river boat captain (Meet). He got his name Mark Twain while he was on the boat (Meet). The word twain means two. When the boat was loading and unloading cargo, the boat would rise and fall with the weight of the cargo. When the boat would be at level of two, the crew would yell Mark Twain. Twain loved the sound of it and he changed his name to it. During the Civil War, the Mississippi was closed off for commercial traffic (Meet). Twain moved out to Nevada to find money from gold (Meet). He settled in San Francisco (Meet). Here he started writing. He wrote his story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and he helped his name to get out in the literature world and made him famous (Meet). He also wrote about his travels (Meet). Twain's later life had many tragedies in it (Meet). He lost a lot of money and important people in his life died on him (Meet). Those hardships led him to become a bitter man.
Twain used the places he has been in his writings. The story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is about the gold rush in California (Twain). Twain left his hometown and moved out to California to look for gold also (Meet). Regionalism is a type of literature that depicts the factors of a specific region and the characteristics of that region (Campbell). For example, for the dialect of the region, Twain said "cal'klated" for the work calculated (Twain). The was the dielect of the region and the time period and Mark Twain uses it in his writings. The dialect of the time is where people shorten their words and use an accent. The accent that Twain grew up with was very redneck and hard to understand. I think it is cool when an author writes like that. It is very unique and shows that the author knows the true characteristics of the region. There is regionalism in Twain's writings when he talks abbout the land. He describes the land of California as if he knows all about it. He does know about it because he has lived there. I enjoy reading Twain's work because he uses good detail and he understands what he is talking about because he has lived it. He uses a nice anaolgy of the frog wanting to become smart is an example of a person wanting to become educated also. Twain's writing has always been about the area he has lived in.

Campbell, Donna M. "Regionalism and Local Color Fiction." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2011.

"Meet Mark Twain." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 496. Print.

Twain, Mark "The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 368. Print.

Stephan Crane

Stephan Crane is a naturalist writer. He was born six years after the Civil War (Naturalism). This shows that he was not truly affected by the war itself. He still had to deal with problems that came after the war. Though many of the problems would have sufficed more over time as he grew up. The story "The Red Badge of Courage" is about a man who goes into war (Crane). In the war, the man becomes a coward (Crane). He gets scared and starts to run away from the fire and the action (Crane). I do not blame him. I think it would be scary to go in to war. It is kind of his fault because he knew what he was getting in to and he should of been prepared. As he is running back to his group because he is scared, on of the other soldiers hits him in the head with the end part of a rifle (Crane). He gets hurt. When he goes back to his home, he is awarded the Red Badge of Courage (Crane). The Red Badge of Courage is a badge that is given to people who were harmed in war. He did not deserve the badge because he did not actually get hurt in the line of fire. When he got home, everyone felt sorry for him because he was hurt. He did not deny any of the claims that he was actually hurt in the line of fire (Crane). But, he did not tell anyone that he did get hurt. They all assumed that he was hurt in action and he deserved a badge of courage for it. So now, he is a coward for running away in the middle of a battle and a liar. He did not lie, but he also did not correct the truth which is just as bad as telling a lie. He feels bad about it. Everyone would feel bad if they were given an award for something they would not have even gotten if they would not have been so scared. He decided to go back to war (Crane). He was not careful for what he was doing (Crane). He was trying to make up for the lie he has been telling and he wanted to feel accomplished as a soldier (Crane). He was not cautious enough (Crane). The flag that marks where the separate sides of the battle are on, was moving back (Crane). The soldier went up, grabbed the flag, started to go forward to move the soldiers up (Crane). That is very heroic, but he did not think before he did it and he should have been more careful. Luckily he lived.
Crane used naturalism in his work. He did by telling how the guy was feeling and the items surrounding him. Naturalism is showing how people interact with science and their surroundings (Campbell). Crane has a hero in his work. The soldier is a hero in his own way because he comes back and redeems his name (Naturalism). I can tell it is naturalism by the statement, "He developed the acute expersation of a pestered animal, a well meaning cow worried by dogs" (Crane). This is because Crane uses the analogy of a scared cow to the soldiers feelings on the battle field (Crane). Crane's use of naturalism gives a great story about a soldier and he searching for heroism.

"Naturalism." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 492. Print.

Crane, Stephan "The Red Bag of Courage." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 493. Print.

Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 27 July 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2011.

Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin was a feminist. She was one of the first women in the U.S. to bring up the point of the times are changing and women are no longer what they used to be (Meet). By this, it means that women are becoming independent from men and are able to do things on their own. The time period she was born in influenced her writing. She was born in the late Victorian period (Meet). This was a period when women were thought less of and designated their lives to their children and their husbands (Meet). Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri (Meet). Chopin's father died when she was young (Meet). She was raised by her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother (Meet). This impacted her writings because she was raised by three strong females that could function on their own. she married a man named Oscar and they moved to New Orleans (Meet). Oscar died after awhile and Kate was left with children to raise. She moved back to St. Louis to be close to her family (Meet). Her mother died and Chopin was devastated (Meet). Her doctor recommended that she start to write again and it helped to and she published her first story.
Kate Chopin is and extreme realist writer. Realism is about real parts of life depicted in a story (Werlock). Chopin uses realism in the writing when she talks about the factors of women. She was frowned upon in her writings because they told such truths (Realism). Her story The Awakening is about a woman who leaves her family to identify herself. She says, "Turning, she thrusts her face , steaming and wet, into the bend of her arm, and she went on crying there, not caring any loner to dry her face, her eyes, her arm" (Chopin, Awakening). This shows realism because sehe is describing the story of a woman trying to find herself. For any person, finding your self can be a hard thing to do, especially during that time period with all the pressures of women to be the perfect housewife. The short story called, "A Story of an Hour" is about a woman who has heart disease and her husband dies (Chopin, Story). She is supposed to be in charge of a the family (Chopin, Story). It must be hard to live a life full of sickness and loneliness and heartache to be able to stay strong and take care of a family. Mrs. Mallard is in cahrge of keeping the family running smoothly (Chopin, Story). A example of realism in her writing is, "But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky" (Chopin. Story). It is realism because Kate is talking about the true feelings of Mrs. Mallard while her husband died. Kate Chopin had many challenges in her life to help to her to find a topic that interests her and she she has experience with.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

Chopin, Kate."from The Awakening" Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 491. Print.

"Realism." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 490. Print.

"Meet Kate Chopin." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 551. Print.

Chopin, Kate "The Story of an Hour." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 554. Print.

Willa Cather

Willa Cather's stories are about her life in Nebraska. She grew up in Shenondoah Valley, Virginia (Meet). She moved to Red Could, Nebraska when she was nine (Meet). In Nebraska she learned about life on the prarie and it led her to write stories about it (Meet). She attended high school in Nebraska and participated in many of the activities at her school (Meet). She became known as a good writer throughout her school (Meet). She attended the University of Nebraska in 1891 (Meet). She paid for it by writing literary reviews that won state wide awards and recongination (Meet). After her graduation, she moved back east to Pittsburg (Meet). She started to edit fo magizines and start to write her own stories (Meet). Her work impressed writers from all over. One editor from New York liked her writings and he asked her to come over to and write for him (Meet).
Cather liked to write about her life on the prarie. This makes her a regionalist author. She talked about the area around her and it affected her writings imensly.
Regionalism is where an wuthor takes dielect from the area they live in and apply it to their writings (Campbell). In Willa Cather's story, "O' Pioneers" she talks about the harshness they have been going through living on the rough terrain of the west (Cather, Pioneer). It is a harsh environment out there for a pioneer. The weather in in accurate and they is never a promise of anything. Cather says, "the failure of corn crop made labor cheap" (Cather, Pioneer). This would hold true because if men do not have a job they are willing to mostly work for nothing because it would mean that they have at least a little money coming in. They did not complain like the workers out east working in factories. They knew the circumstances they would go through moving out to Nebraska and they are willing to face them head on. Cather's pervious life on the frontier changed the way she wrote her stories. Her writings "Reflect her memoriesof praire life, and many of early works focus on the harshness and isolation of pieoneers' life's" (Regionalism). Cather does this in her writing by telling the reader about a drought that has been goin through the west (Cather, Pioneer). This shows great regionalism because at this time, she is going through the drought herslef and she knows the land. Her story "A Wagner Manitee" is also regionalism. She starts out the begigining of the story with stating they are in Nebraska (Cather, Wagner). The story is about her aunt Francis and Uncle George moving out west after the Homestead Act is passed (Cather, Wagner). She tlaks about her aunt and uncle and their life before the move and after the move (Cather, Wagner). It shows great regionalism becuase it is showing how people who are just ocming to the area and are new how they react to the roughness of western life on the Great Plains. Cather's life influenced much of her writings and she move west changed how she writes.

Campbell, Donna M. "Regionalism and Local Color Fiction." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .

"Regionalism." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 488. Print.

Cather, Willa. "O' Pioneers." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 489. Print.


Cather, Willa. "A Wagner Manitee." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 521. Print.

"Meet Willa Cather." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 519. Print.

Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee was a war hero during the Civil War. Lee was born in Virginia (Meet). He was born into a very respected family. His father was a commander during the Revolutionary War, Governor of Virginia, and friends with George Washington (Meet). Lee attended West Point school (Meet). In the school, he was granted commission into the elite Army Corps of Engineers (Meet). Lee was asked to fight with the Union by Abraham Lincoln (Meet). He declined the offer and retired after spending thirty six years in the United States army (Meet). He could not stay away from the war scene too long. He went back to Virginia and he gathered up troops there to fight the Union (Meet). He knew the Union would be hard to beat with their numbers so high, and he knew they did not stand a chance up to the Union Army (Meet). Lee went to an army base and had the troops better than they ever thought imaginable within three weeks of training (Meet). He led many major battles. He knew they had lost, but he fought hard anyway. Lee surrendered at the battle of Appomattox on April 9, 1865 (Meet). This must have been hard for him to do since he loved his country so much. He did not like to loose. After the war, he advised the Confederate Armies to forget what happened and go back into the Union (Meet). Lee was a very brave and smart guy.

Lee was a very intelligent man. He knew what he was doing before he did it and he always had a plan. He was trained well and that led him to train others well. He writes a letter to his son about his thoughts on the Civil War (Lee). War takes its toll on everyone around it. Robert E. Lee was affected a lot also. He was a peaceful man and he did not like war. Yes, he was good at it, but nobody really likes to be in a war. In his letter to his son, Lee is talking about his opinions of the War (Lee). He knows the what the North and South are doing to each other. He can not help himself but to fight for his homeland. He states, "The South, in my opinion, has been aggrieved by the acts of the North, as you say. I feel the aggression and am willing to take every proper step for redress." (Lee). He it taking the blame for the wrong done here by telling his son that he knows what is happening and he is trying to stop it. He also says that he would fight for any state that had its rights stripped form them (Lee). This letter is a letter in the form of realism. It is because he is talking about real feelings (Werlock). He is telling his son how he feels about the situation they are in (Lee). He does not down play the difficulties they are in. I would say Lee is an American Hero. He fought everyday for his country as a whole and he deserved his name. Robert E. Lee was a great war hero and I am glad for what he did.

Lee, Robert E. "Letter to His Son." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 385. Print.

"Meet Robert E. Lee." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 382. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

And Ain't I a Woman?

Sojourner Truth was a slave for the first twenty nine years of her life (Meet). She escaped the harshness of slavery and ran away to a nice family that toke her in (Meet). She was a big lady and people liked to listen to her talk (Meet). Truth believed, "That resisting justice was her divinely ordained duty" (Meet). This means that she thought she was put on the earth to help people who could not talk for themselves about their problems. She was originally named, Isabella (Meet). She changed it Sojourner Truth because she was traveling around and telling of God's work (Meet). Sojourner means visiting traveler (Meet). She would travel around the United States talking about God, and soon enough she started to talk about the importance of antislavery in her sermons (Meet). She was also a woman's rights activist (Meet). She demanded votes for women (Meet). She was around during the Civil War time. The United States were going through a lot of changes during this time. We were in war with ourselves over the issue of slavery. Truth helped out a lot during the Civil War. She gathered supplies for blacks that were fighting in the war (Meet). She also help after the war with counseling slaves on how to live their life with their new freedom (Meet). Sojoruner Truth's most famous sermon, "And Ain't I a Woman" was given in Akron, Ohio (Meet).
Sojourner Truth's sermon is about the equal treatment of women from men (Truth). She talks about how women should be helped in every thing they do from getting into carriages to giving them the nicest things (Truth). She comes back from that and says, "Nobody every helps me get into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And Ain't I a Woman? Look at my arm. I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns and no man could head me. And Ain't I a Woman?" (Truth). This is a very realistic statement. It is because she is showing how life really is for a black woman(Truth) (Werlock). Realism is a writing style the show real things that happen in life (Werlock). Truth talks about women how they are really treated (Truth). She does not sugar coat it to make it sound better or add stuff to make it worse, she just relays the truth to the listeners (Truth) (Werlock). Since she was a woman's activist and was fighting for abolishing slavery. In her sermon, she says, (talking about intellect) "What's that got to do with woman rights or Negroes rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me half my little half-measure full?" (Truth). This is also a statement of realism because she is talking about the men telling women and men they are not smart enough to vote. She says they are and they should be allowed to have a say on what goes on in the country (Truth). Truth's sermons were very full of realism by the way she talked about real topics that were happening during her time.

Truth, Sojourner. "And Ain't I a Woman." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 370. Print.

"Meet Sojourner Truth." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 368. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

The Slave Songs

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Go Down, Moses", and "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" are all songs written by slaves before the Civil War (Three). They were written anomalously by the working slaves (Three). They were passed on by word of mouth from slave to slave and plantation to plantation (Three). The stories reflect the lifestyles of the slaves (Three). The slaves changed the versus as the song progressed from farm to farm (Three). The story "Swing Low, Sweat Chariot", reflect naturalism. They do because the song give the listener a chance of hope. Naturalism is a type of literature based on the belief that you can create what you want to happen, to happen (Campbell). In the song, the singer says, "A band of angels coming after me, coming to carry me home" (Swing). This shows great naturalism because the singer knows they can not leave the real home they are on, on the plantation. The wish they could leave the horrible thing called slavery, which they are in for life. The slaves sang the songs when they were worshiping (Three). The chariot represents that carriage that will take them to heaven (Swing). It means that the hand of God will come and get them and take them to heaven where they will be away from the hellish ordeal of slavery. The slaves were very religious. They refereed to the Bible for information (Three). They also used symbols from the Bible to talk to each other when they were not allowed to talk with each other (Three). Moses is a character in the Bible that led his people to freedom. The first line of the song basically tells the whole story, it goes, "Go Down, Moses, Way down in Egypt's land; Tell ole Pharaoh, Let my people go (Moses). This is very religious because it is referring to a specific instance in the Bible and the slaves are begging for a man like Moses to come and save them. Same in the song, "Keep Your Hand on the Plow". The singer is talking about some slaves that were in "jail" (Plow). They were referring to the story in the Bible when Paul become imprisoned and there is an earthquake to get him out (Plow). The slaves were complaining that there was nothing coming to get them out of slavery (Plow). The slaves know if they hold on a keep working, good things will come to them if the wait. That is why they sing, "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" (Plow). The songs are filled with great sorrow and hope. They are sad at the situation they are in, but they hope they will get out. They know God has a plan for them and it will come true. It does sort of come true with the ending of the Civil War. The slaves were freed after the Civil War and ended what was true slavery. The songs reflect great Naturalism. They do because it is talking about what the slaves want out of their life which is not slavery. It is much different than realism because though the slaves are talking about the hardships they are going through, they are still talking about what they want to happen, not what is happening (Werlock, Campbell).

Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 27 July 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2011.

"Three Spirituals." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 344. Print.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 346. Print.

"Go Down, Moses." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 347. Print.

"Keep Your Hand on the Plow." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 348. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. He was the president during the Civil War era. He tried to free the salves. He did this through the Gettysburg Address. The nation was separated before his eyes and he tried to put it back together again. The Gettysburg address was an address to the end of a gruesome battle at Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Thousands of men died at the battle and he was telling the country their next step in what they need to do. The time period is around the 1860s. It was during the Civil war. The Civil war was a war between the Northern Union and the Southern Confederates. The Civil war did bad things for our country. It divided families and thousands of people died (Nation). The speech the Gettysburg address is an example of realism. It is because it is talking about real events that happen in the time period (Werlock). Lincoln states "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure" (Lincoln, Gettysburg). He is relaying that our nation is at war with itself and only we can help to stop it. He does not hide any of the facts about the men that are dead. He says we should honor the men that have died before us and we need to finish their work and end the war (Lincoln, Gettysburg).

When Abraham Lincoln was signed to his second term in office, the war was still going on. On his first election, the South got mad ans succeeded from the Union (Nation). Lincoln was not for slavery and the South needed slavery to work their plantations (Nations). The Second Inaugural Address by Lincoln for his second term in office was about God and slavery (Lincoln, Second). Abe Lincoln talks a lot about God in his address (Lincoln, Second). He was asking the question "Shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in the living God always ascribe to Him? (Lincoln, Second). This is showing Lincoln's beliefs in God. This is more of a naturalism speech. Naturalism focuses on the psychosocial things (Campbell). This is not realism because realism is pertaining to the real parts of life (Werlock). I personally believe in God, but some people may not believe God has a plan. They would not like the Second Inaugural Speech because most of the speech is about what Lincoln thinks God's plan are for the country (Lincoln, Second). This shows that Lincoln is into naturalism. He believes in a greater good and he is willing to find it. Naturalism is about things that can not be seen (Campbell). It reflects a person and their views on how they see a situation (Campbell). Lincoln portrays this by telling the counrty that they need to come back together (Lincoln, Second). Lincoln says, "With mallice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in" (Lincoln, Second). This is Abe Lincoln saying that we need to finish the war quickly and we shall forget and forgive.



Lincoln, Abraham. "Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln Civil War Speech." American Civil War History Timelines Battle Map Pictures. Web. 10 Feb. 2011. .

"A Nation Divided." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 338. Print.

Lincoln Abraham. "from The Second Inaugural Address." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 339. Print.


Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 27 July 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .

The Meaning of July Fourth for the Nengro

Fredrick Douglas was a former slave. He is African American and free. He knew how to read and write even though the white male slave owners thought it was bad (Resistance). They thought that an African American that knew how to read and write would be a threat to the land (Resistance). Douglas knew how to read and write (Resistance). He knew it would help him to become free which was very hard in the time period (Resistance). In Douglas' work, "The Meaning of July Fourth to a Negro is talking about the feelings African Americans have during a time of happiness for our country (Douglas). The Fourth of July is a holiday on July Fourth that celebrates the freedom of our country form Britain. The meaning is not the same for the slaves. They are not free and the holiday shows how hypocritical America can be. Douglas states, "Your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety and hypocrisy" (Douglas). This explains how the slaves thought of the holiday. While the whites were celebrating their independence, the salves were being forced to do things they do not want to do. I was not a fan of slavery. The owners could at least pay them for their work and not beat them. They would still need work and the owners would probably pay the same amount from buying the slave anyway. Our country could have been through much less of the turmoil we went through and are still going through.

Fredrick Douglas' writing "The Meaning of July Fourth to the Negro" is an example of realism writing. It is because Realism is a writing style that tries to give a story that has real aspects in it. It shows real parts of life (Werlock).
I know Douglas' writing is realism because he talks about things that are real. He does ad things in the story to make it sound worse, he tells the truth. He talks about the harassment the African Americans go through during the time of freedom for the Whites (Douglas). He mentions that the whites did not earn their freedom like the salves do (Douglas). He says, "The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me." (Douglas). He gives the reader his true feelings about the difference of the holiday to the slaves than the their masters. The book "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" is a biography or opinion of Fredrick Douglas. He was educated. Not many slaves around time were educated. The salves that were educated talked about their lives and their experiences (Resistance). They were real stories about their life's and how they were affected by slavery. That makes it realism because they are giving real information and not putting in things that are not necessary (Werlock). Douglas' story shows realism in a good and true way.

Douglas, Fredrick. "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 337. Print.

"Resistance to Slavery." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 336. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/

Regionalism

"Regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region" (Campbell). It could also be called local color (Campbell). This means that writings in this literature period pertains to stories that are written about a certain area. For example, if I wrote a true story about Pleasant Plains it would be regionalism. To make it even more rationalistic, I would use real characters of the town. I could use the mayor, the principal of the school, the teachers, the students, the workers, and even the people who live in the town. I could use them to portray important events that have happened in our town. The book would also talk about the land scape of Pleasant Plains. It would talk about the corn fields and the random little hills around the area. I would be in the dialect of normal people. People native to Pleasant Plains do not usually talk in a way that makes them sound like red necks. That is something I like about them. That would be an example of a regionalism story in literature.
"Many critics, including Amy Kaplan ("Nation, Region, and Empire" in the Columbia Literary History of the United States) and Richard Brodhead (Cultures of Letters), have argued that this literary movement contributed to the reunification of the country after the Civil War and to the building of national identity toward the end of the nineteenth century" (Campbell). I think this is true. They have a good point because the regionalism period was between 1865 to 1895 (Campbell). That was right at the end of the Civil War which ended in 1865. The country was trying to get back together and form a strong nation again. Western expansion started to become a big part. Railroads were booming everywhere. Regionalism created a romantic view of the west and made people want to travel there. Regionalism is a type of literature that explains how the characteristics of a certain region go together.

Campbell, Donna M. "Regionalism and Local Color Fiction." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .

Naturalism

"The term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings" (Campbell). This means that when authors are writing in the naturalism period, they are talking about how people interact and why that act the way they do. It also studies the way people act in nature. This is the main point Naturalism. It is because "Since human beings are, in Emile Zola's phrase, "human beasts," characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings." (Campbell). Naturalism is a different type of literature it confronts how people's relationships are affected by nature and their surroundings. Since naturalism deals with a lot about peoples interactions with nature, Campbell says,"Nature as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings." (Campbell). I like naturalism because I like to read how people deal with nature. Everyone deals with situations in nature differently. Since every author is different it is interesting to read what their perceptions on people's thought on nature. Naturalism is very different from realism. It is because realism "focuses on literal technique" (Campbell). That is because realism was pertaining to how people were with each other and not how they were in nature. "Naturalism implies a philosophical position" (Campbell). This is different from realism because realistic writers believe in the thought that there is a reason beyond everything. Naturalistic authors also thought like this but it was a little different. I was different because authors thought that the reasons of why people do what they do in nature could be studied and understood (Campbell). Naturalism writers think about their writings with a scientific way (Campbell). They think about the environment and how it effects the characters(Campbell). They also think about heredity (Campbell). They studied how nature effects how the people act in their society. Naturalism is a neat topic of of literature. I like it and how it shows how they can compare science to how people react to their environment.

Campbell, Donna M. "Naturalism in American Literature." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. 27 July 2010. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .

Realism

Realism is a writing style that tries to give a story that has real aspects in it. It shows real parts of life "not as the author wants it to be in the present or the future, or imagines it was in the past."(Werlock) This means that the author shows the truth in his writings. The author does not make up things to be how they wish they would be. In the story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the man is up to be hung(Bierce). This is a real part of life. In the day that the author is writing, hanging is what they did normally. While the man is on the rope, he has a day dream about seeing his family (Bierce). This day dream tells the reader what the author would happen to the man, but instead real life hits and the man is thrown over the bridge and killed (Bierce). That acts shows realism because the character did not widdle his way out of the situation and he was actually killed.

Romanticism replaced realism. Romanticim is an idea that people can create what they want. "In this sense realism is opposed to romance, which represents life as we would like it to be" (Quinn). This is true because Romanticism is all about becoming who you want to be a realism is finding the truth behind what is happening. The American Dream comes from self made man. A self made came around when Americans were given equal rights to have a chance to become rich. This also created the hero for realism. It did because the men who actually did become rich were a hero in a way. They were because it shows that anyone can become rich if they know how. Realism is a topic that addresses the issues of today's society. It does because it pertains to actual occurrences that happen. It does not sugar coat things to make a good story. Realism tells the truth and everything is for themselves.

Bierce, Ambrose. "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce; I Page 1." Page By Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free. Web. 18 Jan 2011http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Ambrose_Bierce/An_Occurrence_At_Owl_Creek_Bridge/I_p2.html

Quinn, Edward. "realism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." 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. http://www.fofweb.com/