Miranda: English II, Section F

Scarlet Letter: Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Recognition

In Chapter 3, Hester recognizes her husband in the back of the crowd of people who are standing and watching her on the scaffold. It is the first time they have seen each other in several years, because he had sent her to the colony before him, and then when he was on his way to follow, his ship got shipwrecked and he was delayed.

The reader is given the information that this man is her husband, or at least her lover from her flashbacks to her past in the end of Chapter 2, because of the sentence (in Chapter 3), “one of this man’s shoulders rose higher than the other”, which Hester had previously described in her description of this man during her flashbacks or visions from her past in Chapter 2.

In Chapter 3, I thought that it was interesting when the narrator was given an opinion in the sentence… “He looked like the darkly engraved portraits which we see prefixed to old volumes of sermons; and had no more right than one of those portraits would have, to step forth, as he now did, and meddle with a question of human guilt, passion, and anguish.”

The underlined line in this quotation shows that the narrator has an opinion about what is going on in the story, because he is outraged that the clergyman (John Wilson) was meddling in business which he had no right to (in the narrator’s opinion).

In the sentence on page 59: “him who tempted you to this grievous fall” I got more of an understanding that Hester was not blamed for the whole affair of adultery, but she became pregnant, and the people in the town were able to identify her as having committed adultery. In this sentence, it is displayed that the town and the community does not just believe that Hester made the choice to commit adultery, and her partner in this sin was not guilty of sinning, but rather, they were able to identify her of committing the act because she became pregnant as a result and her partner, on the other hand, was unidentified and Hester refused to speak his name.

Later on in the chapter, Reverend Dimmesdale, the man who committed adultery with Hester is forced to preach to her and tell her to speak the name of he who sinned with her, which is actually him. I thought this passage was very cleverly written by the author (Hawthorne) in that, if I had not known that Dimmesdale was the man who sinned with Hester ahead of time, I do not think I would have been able to pick out the subtle clues about Hester and Dimmesdale which point to the fact that Dimmesdale was in fact the person who committed adultery with Hester. Little things like the way that Dimmesdale passionately talks to Hester and the fact that he is very nervous and he hesitates to talk to her about her crime and speaking the name of he who committed the crime with her, and also, his reaction of relief and happiness at the fact that she would not speak the man’s name, point out the fact that Dimmesdale is, in fact, the person who sinned with Hester.

At the end of Chapter 3, there are two main sentences that describe the symbolic resonance of the scarlet letter:

“seemed to derive its scarlet hue from the flames of the internal pit”

This sentence suggests that, not only does the scarlet letter represent sin itself, as well as the result of committing a sin, but it is also apparent in this sentence that the scarlet letter represents hell and damnation to hell, which, in a Puritan society, is basically the worst thing that can possibly happen to anyone, and everyone (in a Puritan community) works hard to achieve the exact opposite of that, which is salvation. This sentence gives the scarlet letter new meaning as a symbol in the story, because to longer does it represent sin and shame, but it represents hell itself, and damnation to hell is the worst thing that can happen to someone in a Puritan society.

“the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark passage-way of the interior.”

This sentence does not necessarily bring new resonance to the scarlet letter, to the extent that the previous sentence does, but it definitely gives it a new meaning in that it makes it more powerful. Not only does it represent sin and hell, but it also glows with power and it almost spreads its sin and power through the prison. This sentence gives me a vivid picture of the scene that it describes, the idea of the scarlet letter glowing down a dark hallway. I think this sentence displays an example of the imagery that is used by Hawthorne to create vivid images in the readers mind.

September 27, 2007
Dear Miranda,

I want to tell you about the book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, and the many lessons that can be learned from the experiences and actions of Frederick Douglass. I think that through this narrative, Douglass presents several invaluable lessons that everyone can learn from. These important values can be valuable in some way to everyone and they can be useful in contemporary issues and situations. Two of these values are especially emphasized in Douglass’ slave narrative: self-assertion and self-empowerment, which are both very valuable in modern society, and they are also very important in my life.
Self-assertion is very important in Douglass’ narrative because it is what drives him to learn to read. Douglass displays self assertion when he teaches himself how to read and write because he is able to overcome all of the obstacles in his path (which include the fact that his master can severely punish him if he finds him trying to become literate, the fact that he has no teacher, and the fact that he must be very careful to learn in complete secrecy), and assert himself and use his own intelligence to teach himself how to read. Self-assertion is very important in society today because it is so easy to sit back and conform to society or go with the flow and get swept away in what everyone else seems to think or believe. It is easy to be the same, but it is hard to be different. Douglass showed that people should be able to assert themselves and take action against what they think is wrong. Douglass wanted to become literate and he felt that it was unfair that the white boys where he lived learned how to read and write in school, while he was forbidden to become literate because of the color of his skin. Douglass asserted himself and took action against what he felt was wrong by teaching himself how to read and write and becoming literate. There have been many instances in my own life in which I wish that I could have been self assertive because I feel that I am the type of person who likes to please people…I like to help people and make them happy. If somebody asks me to do them a favor and I really don’t want to, I am inclined to say yes because I don’t want to disappoint them. Even if I did say no, I would have to justify my reasons for saying no and I would not be satisfied with myself, I would feel very guilty. Quite simply, it is very hard for me to say no and I am not always able to assert myself and tell someone what I really feel or what I really want. If someone asks me to do something, I feel obligated to do it, and if, for some reason or another, I cannot do it, I feel that I have to fall all over myself apologizing. It is really hard for me, and something that I really need to work on. If someone asks me to do something, I have the right to say no. I like helping people and making people happy, and doing what people say, and it is hard for my to go against my instincts to assert myself and just say no. I think that once I am able to overcome my resistance to saying no, it will be easier for me to assert myself and I think that I will become a stronger and more individual person.
The value of self-empowerment is another important trait that was displayed by Douglass on numerous occasions, and basically, at times, it was the only thing that kept him alive. Douglass’ display of self-assertion in teaching himself how to read and write was a major example of his self-empowerment. This was because although he was told that he was less than a white person, he refused to accept that and by asserting himself and becoming literate, Douglass is also able to give himself a sense of power through the action of becoming literate. Being literate gives him more status and helps him to improve his condition, even if only by a little bit. One of the main reasons that slavery was widely accepted in America was because the majority of slaves were illiterate and uneducated and this made them seem like beasts to the white “owners”. It justified the fact that they could beat their slaves and, in many cases, worked them until they dropped, because they saw them as nothing more than animals. Douglass’ literacy made him feel a sense of power over his white owner because he was essentially defying him by becoming literate behind his back, and he also felt that he was defying slavery by going against one of the main principles that justified it (the idea that slaves were like animals). This gave him a sense of power because he was essentially tricking his owner, which made him feel very powerful, almost to the extent that he knew something his owner did not. Perhaps the most important thing that Douglass gained from his self-empowerment of becoming literate was a feeling of self worth. Douglass was really empowered by becoming literate because he was able to recognize that he was taking action against what he felt was wrong which gave him a sense of self worth because he was asserting himself and doing something about what he felt was wrong, instead of just thinking that it was wrong without taking action. The idea of self worth was very important for Douglass, because, ever since he had been a little boy, he had been encouraged not to be different, he had been encouraged to conform to society and behave exactly like everybody else did, because if a slave stepped out of line or tried to be different from everybody else, it would be seen as a form of rebellion, and he would be whipped or severely punished in some way. Douglass had never known how old he was, or when his birthday was. He had never had a close relationship with his mother or his brothers and sisters, or anyone in his family for that matter. Douglass had always lacked a sense of identity, an inner idea of who he was, and the uniformity of all of the slaves and the fact that they were all just put to work only added to his lack of identity and self worth. Douglass says that at a few different times in his life, he considered committing suicide, but he kept pushing on to become literate and his achievement of a feeling of self worth made him feel that he had a purpose in his life, he had an ability to change his life, he was taking action against what he felt was wrong, he was not just conforming to society, he was different, which helped him to overcome his suicidal ideas. A major driving force of why Douglass wanted to learn how to read and write and defy slavery, was the fact that by becoming more literate, he was becoming more intelligent and respectable, and, not only that, he was improving his condition and he was bringing himself closer to escaping slavery and achieving freedom. In terms of my own experiences with self-empowerment, I feel that I am a very positive person, and therefore I have empowering experiences a lot. I feel self empowered when I score a goal in soccer, or I have just finished a run for Cross Country or Track. I feel empowered when I do something that helps the world or someone else, I feel empowered when I run past an old lady in a wheelchair being pushed around by her caretaker and I feel that I am running for myself and for her, because she can’t run anymore. I feel that I have empowering experiences very often, and that my attitude about them, or my take on them, makes them self-empowering, because I am making the decision to be positively affected by these experiences. The idea of self-empowerment can be achieved in many different ways: by achieving a goal that you worked very hard toward, or by feeling that you made a difference, or by understanding that you affected some type of change in the world. The definition of self-empowerment is fairly subjective, but to me, and in modern society as well, it is a very important quality because the idea of being powerful and being able to make your voice heard, as well as the idea that you can affect change in the world, and in your own life, is very powerful and deep.
My goals in terms of achieving self-assertion and self-empowerment begin with discovering what I believe in, and then I want to make my voice heard. I want to make my voice heard by making little differences and big differences. I want to make my voice heard by being different, like Douglass, and not conforming to society. I want to make my voice heard by discovering my true identity for myself. I want to make my voice heard by helping someone or giving them a smile that makes them a little bit happier. I want to make my voice heard by organizing a peaceful protest against what I feel is wrong, I want to make my voice heard by planting trees. I want to make my voice heard in little ways and big ways too, because I think that the real way to make your voice heard is to make your opinion known, even if you are the only one who knows it. If you are the only one who knows it, at least you have an opinion, you are not basing it off what other people say, or even if you are, it is yours, it is what you believe in, it is what you think that matters. The first step towards self assertion and self empowerment is finding your own voice, then you have to make it heard, little by little, you are capable are making a difference because you are an individual and you have your own opinion that is different in some way from everybody else’s.
Douglass was able to learn from his own life experiences by using the values of self-assertion and self-empowerment to speak out and take action against what he felt was wrong, and by doing so, he was able to become a stronger and more individual person. The values of self-empowerment and self-assertion are so important today because your opinions make you who you are, and you can learn from the determination of Frederick Douglass in resisting slavery, because if you feel, deep down, that something is wrong or unjust, you have to assert yourself and speak out against it, you have to make your voice heard. Douglass was not really able to speak out against slavery while he was enslaved, but after he escaped from slavery and became a free man, Douglass wrote the book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, in which he was able to tell about his experience of slavery, and he was able to openly speak out against it, because he felt very strongly that it was wrong. He was able to tell us through this book about the lessons that he learned throughout his life. One of those lessons is that even though sometimes it seems so easy to just sit back and live your life without speaking out against what you feel is wrong, or making your opinion known, you have to be strong and determined, you have to speak out and let your voice be heard, you have to affect change in your own life. I know it seems so easy to sit back and not be who you really are, wear the mask, hide yourself, but you have to be yourself and make your opinion heard if you want to affect change and make a difference in the world, like Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was able to affect change because he was very open about his opinions and he was not afraid to speak out against slavery, he knew that he was meant to affect change in the world, and he certainly did. Learn from Frederick Douglass, he wrote the book to support the civil rights movement and human rights all over the world, but he also wanted to share the lessons that he learned throughout his life and through his experiences with slavery, with people all over the world. I think that there is so much to learn from what he has to say.

Sincerely,
Miranda Landfield
Section F

Initial Reactions to the Scarlet Letter
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Blog # 7

Non-Conformity and its consequences: So far, we are given the information that Hester Prynne has done something that goes against the conformity of her community, and for that reason, she has been in prison. Once she gets out of prison, she is forced to wear an embroidered letter “A” (the SCARLET LETTER) in order to represent her terrible act and because she wears that scarlet letter, she is essentially ostracized from society, without actually being physically ostracized. The women in her town, “the gossips” talk about her in a cruel manner, and they say that she deserved what she got, or even worse. Either Prynne committed a truly horrible act, or the strict rules in this Puritan town make a lot out of what she did, whether or not it was severe or not. Prynne is made to stand in front of all of the people in the town as they stare at her and her scarlet letter, as well as the baby that she carries, who, until she was let out of prison, had never seen the light of day.
The Baby: First of all, it cannot have been good for the baby’s health that she had been shut up in darkness for three months and then, suddenly brought into full daylight. Also, it seems that the baby’s birth must have happened in close proximity to the crime that Hester Prynne committed, which could indicate that the baby had something to do with the act that she committed.
Relationship between community and the individual: The community disapproves of what Hester Prynne did and they think that she deserves her punishment, and many people even think that she deserves worse. The community represents the idea of conformity and obeying the strict rules of Puritan society. The rules in a Puritan town are very strict for two main reasons: the first is that Puritans believe in Original Sin. They believe that all people are sinful by nature, and therefore they need to implement strict rules of conduct in order to keep all of the citizens free from sin and conforming to society. The second reason is basically the reason that the success of Puritan towns depended on ALL of their citizens being free from sin. In a Puritan town, all the citizens believed that if one person in the community broke the rules of society, they would put the salvation of the entire community in jeopardy. This meant that when someone went against the conformity of the society or broke any of the rules in the community, they would be killed, or severely punished.

My own observations based on the first two chapters of The Scarlet Letter are that there seem to be several comparisons between opposite metaphorical ideas. This can be seen in the comparison between…

Imagination and Reality
Hester Prynne has visions about her past while she is standing in front of the throng of people in her town and then she comes back to reality and she even touches the Scarlet Letter to make sure that it is real.

Shame and [Beauty and Luxury] (grouped)
The Scarlet Letter is meant to be a symbol of utter disgrace, but in fact, it is quite beautifully embroidered with gold and bright scarlet red which makes it seem very luxurious and opulent…maybe even something that a King or Queen would wear, or a seal of pride. In reality, it is meant to cause the wearer embarrassment and disgrace at what they have done or committed.

Melancholy and Half-Holiday
The boys of the town are very innocent and they do not really know what is happening to Hester Prynne, but they are in somewhat high spirits because it is almost a half-holiday for them. Obviously, this is meant to be a melancholy event and a great disgrace for Hester Prynne, but the boys are innocently quite happy for the holiday.

Another important comparison is between the Prison Door and the Rose Bush outside. This comparison expresses the juxtaposition between darkness and gloom and beauty and freshness. The fact that these two things are so close to each other (the rosebush is right on the threshold of the prison door) that it presents a very important comparison between the two. When I think about this juxtaposition, it makes me think of a painting in which the prison is depicted and everything is very dark, except for the rose bush, sitting right at the threshold with red or pink or white roses, so bright in the contrast with the dark background.
So far, I really like the book, I am really curious about what happens in the story and what Hester Prynne did to deserve the burden of the SCARLET LETTER.

After Class: Now I know that the A stands for Adultery…I am really curious about the rest of the story.

Dear Ms. Rochette,

I am really sorry that the blog below (Blogs 5 and 6) is one day late (I posted it on Sunday morning at about 10:20 am, but it is my two blogs from last week (in other words, I am blogging for last week, not this coming week, even though it is Sunday).

Thanks,

Miranda

Blogs 5 and 6: Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” and How I feel about Blogging

“Believe your own thought”.
I really think that it is hard to go against common belief, and it is very true that if you think something that does not go along with what everyone else believes, you dismiss it…only because it is yours and it cannot be valuable or right because it is not what everyone else believes. Sometimes it is really hard to speak out if you are unsure of yourself, but what we do not realize is that other people maybe be thinking the same thing, or something very similar, but they are too scared to speak out. You may not be the only one with a certain opinion, there could be many other people out there who would support your statement, if only you gave it words and expressed your opinion. This is very true today…from speaking out or making a comment in class that you think might be wrong…all the way to expressing your feelings about a current issue and maybe organizing a protest. Another thing to think about…sometimes you might not want to express yourself because you are afraid that people will not support your view or that you will not have any followers. The interesting thing about this is…maybe instead of you doubting if you would have any followers, all the followers need is a leader, which could be you.

I think the following passage really expresses this in a very simple sentence…but it is a very complex idea. Because it is stated so simply, the reader is able to understand and contemplate the idea, at least on a simple level. However, I think this statement is loaded and layered, and can refer to many different things in life.

“ A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.”

I underlined this line in the book and this is a perfect example of what I am talking about in the paragraph before I gave this quote. It is a very simple statement, man dismisses his own thought, simply because it is his. Man doubts himself and he doubts what he believes… because it is his belief. This simple statement gets across the point that Emerson is trying to express…and it also expresses layers of complication that the reader is left to contemplate. It really makes me respect Emerson’s intelligence and ideas, that I am able to learn new things, simply by reading and understanding what he has to say, and then thinking about what he has said, I am able to draw new conclusions and make new connections, and through reading one sentence, I am left to contemplate (literally) infinite ideas in my own head.

That is something that is so cool about the blogs. I did not realize the complexity of this sentence until I was able to write about it in this blog. By reading it, it seemed like a simple sentence, expressing a really true and philosophical idea, and I understood it on a simple level. However, when I began to write about it in this blog, I started making connections to my own life and things that I know, and through the process of contemplation, I am able to learn new things…through my own thoughts and ideas. And analyzing about three sentences in Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” has started all this. I literally could probably go on forever with the ideas that these three sentences spur, because one idea would lead to another…one connection to the next. It seems really healthy to me to be able to think about one idea and have it lead to other ideas, and be able to express my ideas and feelings freely in a blog. This morning I got really scared that I had forgotten to write my two blogs for the week and I am really glad that I sat down and wrote this blog, because every time I write a blog, I am able to learn new things. One sentence that someone writes can spur so many different ideas and connections in my head. I really like blogging, and I think it is really good for me to be able to express my ideas and think about them, because it leads me to new ideas and connections. I wish I could blog more often, but it seems like I don’t have time. Maybe I need to find time, because I am a teenager, and I feel like I am just forming my own ideas, and blogging allows me to express those ideas and think about them, and learn new things and make new connections. I feel really free when I blog because I am able to speak my mind, and think about what I am writing, which allows me to learn new things and make new connections. I think blogging is really good for me and I really like doing it. I feel like every time I sit down and blog, I learn so many new things and am able to organize my thoughts, I am able to express myself and how I feel about something, which allows me to make new connections and learn new things.

Back to Emerson, I want to say that I wish I could write a sentence like he did, that was stated so simply, and which led me to make all of these connections and learn all of these new things, and it made me think about blogging, and my life, and he only wrote one sentence, and it caused all of that. I feel that my essays and pieces of writing are often very repetitive, because I feel like I have a really good idea about something, but I don’t quite know how to express myself. I keep repeating myself and writing several different sentences about the same topic, just to try to express myself, but I am never quite satisfied, I never feel like I have fully expressed the idea that I had. I feel that if I could write a sentence like Emerson’s sentence, I would be satisfied, because his sentence really engages the reader. It is not just telling the reader something and expecting them to believe it, or telling them that they should believe it, or even stating it as a fact. Instead, he puts his idea out there and leaves it to the reader to make connections about it. Maybe he didn’t even mean to do that, but I feel like his idea was so well expressed, that he was able to get his point across, but also, leave room for the reader to make their own connections and learn several new things from what he had to say. I want to learn how to express my ideas in a more concise way, but I also want to be able to fully express my ideas, which I often feel like I am not able to do (mostly in essays or pieces of writing).

Another thing about this passage in Emerson’s writing, is that he keeps talking about “man” and what “man” has to do…but he doesn’t talk about women. I feel that I was able to understand and relate to what he had to say…but he wasn’t even addressing me, or the female gender. I don’t know why he did this (not talk about women), but maybe it was very controversial at this time to give women power, or the idea that they might be able to understand things as well as men could. Or maybe Emerson did not believe that women should be given power or the idea that they could be as intelligent as men. Because I really respect Emerson, I would like to believe that he did not talk about women in this piece of writing because it was very controversial at this time, and not because he did not believe that they deserved these rights. However, if Emerson thought that women should be given power and the idea that they could understand the things that men did, and he did not speak out about his opinion or include women in his writing because it was so controversial, then it could be said that he was hypocritical because he talks in his writing about how you should believe your own idea and not just dismiss it because it is yours, and it is not what the common opinion is. I do understand that he probably could have been persecuted for including women in his writing, or maybe men would just ignore or dismiss him or not listen to him because he included women in his writing. I understand that it was probably a hard decision and better for him if his ideas were widely accepted, rather than rejected and never published or written down…I am just interested in why he did not include women in his writing.

The last observation I would like to make about Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” (in this blog) is that I feel that the way he writes gives his readers power and self confidence in telling them that they should not just dismiss their ideas…because they are theirs. Rather, he tells them to cherish their own ideas and not go along with the common opinion if they disagree with it. I think Emerson is basically telling his readers that he believes in their ideas which really gives them power and I think that that is very appealing to the readers, because, if you stretch what he is saying, you can say that he is telling his readers that he believes in them and their ideas. I also think that, just in the way he writes, he is not just stating his opinions as fact, but rather, he is allowing the reader to make their own connections and learn new things from the ideas that they have. I think he is more or less taking the stance of: this is what I believe or this is what I think…either accept it or reject it…I am just putting it out there. I think this also gives the reader power because he or she gets to make their own decision about what they believe in terms of what Emerson is saying or writing.

I realize that when I say, his readers, I mean everyone who reads “Self-Reliance”, but he probably only thought that men would be reading his writing or listening to his sermons. Just to clarify, whenever I say “his readers” I am referring to anyone and everyone who reads or has read his writing, and not just to who he was addressing with his writing (mostly men).

1, 772 Words…FYI (honestly, just so you know…I am not trying to show off about how much I wrote…I just started writing and the ideas kept flowing, and, well I talked a lot about this in this blog but, I just kept making new connections and one idea led to this next, I felt like I really had a lot to write about.)

To think about…maybe I will look back at this blog, or my other blogs later on, I think they will be very valuable to me…they are really very valuable to me right know. I feel that I can really express myself and my ideas, and I am able to contemplate them and make new connections, by writing about them in the blog entries.

These are two poems that made me think about slavery, the civil rights movement, racial inequality in America, and especially RESISTANCE. They are actually from a book of poems that my mom checked out from the Marlborough Library, the book is called… “The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis”. The poems were selected and introduced by Caroline Kennedy and I thought that they really related to what we are talking about in English.

Tableau (Pg. 78)
Countee Cullen

For Donald Duff

Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
The black boy and the white,
The golden splendor of the day,
The sable pride of night.

From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk.

Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder.

Merry – Go – Round
Langston Hughes

Where is the Jim Crowe section
On the merry-go-round,
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from
White and colored
Can’t sit side by side.
Down south on the train
There’s a Jim Crowe car.
On the bus we’re put in the back—
But there ain’t no back
To a merry-go-round!
Where’s the horse
For a kid that’s black?

Blogs 3 and 4: Frederick Douglass Slave Narrative

These thoughts are mostly very different from each other, but they all have to do with Frederick Douglass’ Slave Narrative.

To think about…it seems that the more literate and educated Douglass becomes, the more complicated his life becomes. The more he knows about reading, writing, and freedom, the harder it is for him to accept his life in slavery. When he didn’t know about freedom and a way to escape slavery, he just took his life for granted, assuming there was no way to escape slavery, he would never have even considered it because it seemed to him that that was the way his life was supposed to be. With the new knowledge of freedom and a way to escape freedom, in addition to controversial ideas about the fact that slavery was unfair and unjust, Douglass cannot just sit back and accept his life anymore, he knows, deep down, that he has the power to change it, and he cannot escape from that knowledge.

Just from the first 7 chapters, I am really getting a sense of who Frederick Douglass was, in terms of his personality. I really relate to the part when he wishes that he were a beast and he envies his fellow slaves for their innocence in not knowing about what freedom is and the possibility of attaining it. He also envies them for the fact that they do not hate their masters as he hates his, because he has read literature that opens his eyes to the fact that slavery is unfair and unjust and that displays to him the meaning of freedom and the fact that it is possible to escape from slavery. Once he has this knowledge, he can’t escape it…he can’t hide from it. He expresses the fact that he is obsessed with the idea of escaping slavery and attaining freedom with the portion:
(About Freedom)

“It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.”

Douglass even says that he considered killing himself, and had it not been for the prospect of freedom and escaping slavery, he may very well have killed himself. Sometimes, when you are in a bad or difficult situation, I think motivation and a goal to work towards can keep you going and, in Douglass’s case, even save your life. When Douglass understands the possibility of achieving freedom and he understands that slavery is really unfair and inhumane and that it is should not just be understood as the way things are supposed to be, it is definitely a turning point in the book, and I am sure, in his life. His entire perspective on life and the world changes because of the knowledge he attains from a book. It is very interesting to think about what his life would have been like if he had not read that book. In a way, he would have been saved from his contemplation of freedom, but in another way, he would not have lived the life that he lived; he may have died, like many other slaves, not even knowing that there was a better life out there, a free life in which they were not enslaved. These slaves are not guilty of lacking the confidence to take action against slavery or try to escape it, because they had no knowledge of freedom or a way to escape from slavery in the first place, and furthermore, everyone accepted it as the way things should be. These slaves were raised working and being mistreated and looked down upon by white people and they had no reason to question their lives or whether slavery was really just, because it was simply the way things were for them.
However, for the slaves who were aware of the possibility of freedom and escaping slavery, I really identify with them, and I think all people can, in that sometimes it seems a lot easier to just sit back and live your life or decide not to say or do anything about something that you know is wrong, or that you know you should do something about…but in most cases, it is better to speak out for what you think is right and take action, instead of sitting back and letting things happen to you. Sometimes this seems like the hardest thing to do. It seems like it would be so easy to just accept what is happening and not do anything about it, but in most cases, if not all, your instinct to act is often correct and taking action or speaking out is the right thing to do. To put this in the context of Frederick Douglass, he learns about freedom and the possibility of escaping slavery from a piece of literature that he reads. This literature presents the idea that slavery is wrong which makes him resent slavery and his masters. His knowledge of freedom makes him envy his fellow slaves because they are innocent of the knowledge of freedom. It is so easy for them to just sit back and live their lives without the knowledge of a better life. Douglass is different, however, because he cannot be content with the life he is living. He is now aware of freedom, the possibility of achieving a better life, and the idea that slavery is unfair and inhumane, and he knows that it is up to him to attain freedom, it just seems so much easier to sit back and not do anything. But Douglass was a clever man, he knew that he could escape from slavery and he was not going to be satisfied with himself until he achieved freedom.

In terms of what I have learned about Douglass’s personality and character through the descriptions of events that took place in the book, I have made a lot of observations about him…
He is very clever…when he tricks the white boys into writing words for him by challenging them and saying that he can write better than them. Then the white boys, that are educated in schools, write words down for him and, in this way, he is able to learn new words.
He is self-motivated…he essentially teaches himself how to read and write, with some help from other people, but mostly it comes down to his own craving for knowledge and his self motivation to do everything he can in order to learn how to read and write.
He is intelligent…Frederick Douglass is very intelligent. Not in the way of someone who went to school and got an education, but in the way of being, deep down, really smart, and quick to learn and pick up on things. He also very observant and he really analyzes the things he sees, which ties in with his intelligence. Even in the descriptions of when he was less than 10 years old, he was really making profound observations and learning new things everyday. I am taking into consideration that many of these observations may be fabricated or exaggerated in order to appeal to his audience, for example, him seeing the bloody act of a black woman being whipped may have been exaggerated in order to appeal to the female audience he was “selling” to. But really, he was able to teach himself to read and write while he was about ten or eleven and he so deeply wanted to learn these things. His knowledge about how important it is to learn to read and write is amazing.

To think about…Douglass is aware, even at a young age of the fact that he will be enslaved for his entire life and he is very bothered by this fact, I am sure that it makes him feel very helpless. I think the idea that you will be enslaved for your entire life is a scary proposition to have to live with. Not being able to make your own choices in your life…ever. That really speaks to the idea of living your own life…doing what you love to do in life and doing things that are right for you, not for the sake of satisfying others. Because Douglass and other slaves didn’t have a choice in their lives, many slaves didn’t even have the ability to think for themselves, they were so used to doing what other people said. I think that is why so many slaves who escaped slavery just wanted to go back to it…it was all they had ever known.

Blog # 2: Tuesday, September 4, 2007

I loved Sojourner Truth’s poem and this passage made me laugh out loud: “Then that little man back in there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman!’ Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.”
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and the “fathers of our country” state their grievances to the English crown in order to justify their rebellion and separation from Great Britain. Sojourner Truth’s speech does not state any grievances, obviously she has had a hard life as a slave and a black woman in society. She even gave birth to 13 children and she lived through them being taken away from her and sold into slavery. Instead of complaining about how unfair her life has been and how many wrongdoings she has suffered, she simply appeals to your common sense and she engages her audience, not through the use of highfalutin’ vocabulary, or trying to make herself sound better or more educated than anybody else, she speaks to her audience honestly and with an air of being very down to earth and simple, and yet you still understand that she feels very passionately about her cause for women’s rights. The passage: “If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.” Shows that Sojourner Truth really has a positive and hopeful outlook about the idea of fighting for women’s rights. She seems like she would be a strong leader and she displays that she is not afraid to question and defy male authority. Sojourner Truth seems like such a charismatic and strong willed woman and I think that if any woman who attended the women’s rights conference was unsure of whether they wanted to be a part of the cause of women’s rights, she would have cleared that right up for them and they would have had no doubt in their minds. They would have been right on the bandwagon on their way to freedom and civil rights. (A little bit corny…I Know… but it’s my first blog, I am allowed to be a little bit corny. Is it okay that I wrote that Ms. Rochette?? Please tell me if it is not.)

Blog # 1: Tuesday, September 4, 2007

To think on… What a controversial time in America in terms of civil rights? With the Native American Indians, the African slaves, and the women’s suffrage movement, so many different groups of people were oppressed and forced to fight for their rights.

Dunbar: “We wear the mask” & Slavery

Wow, I just read Dunbar’s “we wear the mask” poem and Sojourner Truth’s speech. I think it is such an interesting juxtaposition of looking at this period of time through two different perspectives of oppression and people fighting for civil rights. Dunbar’s poem is so simple and yet, the point that he is trying to get across is so clear to me through the simplicity of this piece of writing. I think he is pointing out the fact that slaves during this period were oppressed and mistreated but that they were covering up their suffering because they would probably be beaten or treated even poorer if they showed any sign of questioning slavery or whether it was fair. Even more than that, he says “Why should the world be over-wise, in counting all our tears and sighs?” I think that with this statement he is pointing out that even when slaves show their tears, or let out their sighs, the European settlers don’t care, they just overlook it or ignore it. I think it is very interesting that I was reading about slavery tonight in the AP US book and it briefly talked about the development of slavery.
Slaves didn’t just come to the Americas and then were mistreated and looked down upon by the European settlers. The whole idea of slavery and the oppression of African slaves evolved through a period of many years. This is my interpretation of the AP US books explanation: At first, (in around the 1620s) people didn’t really know what to think of African immigrants and servants or where to place them in the social hierarchy of society in the New World. Their status was really “ambiguous for [several] decades” but as time went on, more and more African slaves began to serve as servants for life and especially when sugar cane was introduced as a profitable crop, European settlers were shown (often by other European settlers from different backgrounds) how to grow sugar cane and how to use slave labor on a “massive scale” to plant and harvest the crop. Soon, authoritative figures in the New World began to take actions that made the message to white landowners very clear, “any white was superior to any black”. (Liberty, Equality, Power, Murrin, 48-50)
I was never really aware of the fact that the idea of slavery and the superiority of white people over black people during this time period just sort of evolved. It has always been made clear to me in my history classes that slaves were beaten, mistreated, in many cases treated like animals, but I always just thought that someone thought that they were animals and should be discriminated against and everybody else just kind of jumped on the band wagon in order to justify the fact that they could enslave black people. Eventually, I thought, people probably just got too far into it and everybody else was doing it, so it seemed like the right thing to do. To me, it makes slavery seem even worse, that it went through this whole development that took place over the course of decades, and nobody stopped to think…is this really humane?? Is this really fair?? How could they justify such behavior towards people that were just people just like they were. Black, white, people. It seems like a weak explanation for slavery, this mass killing, mass mistreatment of people, that is controversial in so many ways that this theory just kind of evolved, the theory that white people were better than black people just evolved, but why didn’t anybody question it? Obviously the African servants began to feel more and more oppressed in society (and their decreasing power and respect in society would have made it hard for them to speak out against society) but why didn’t any powerful, land owning, white man stop and think about what was evolving. Or did slavery just happen in a bang and when people questioned it, was it already too far along??