Tregre, 5 Things I Learned About America and 5 Things I Learned About American Literature and HOW I WASN'T TAUGHT CRAP IN HIGH SCHOOL!

I will be the first to admit that American Masterworks has truly gave me new insightful views on America and its literature.

AMERICA
1.Predestination: When one was born, they were already condemned to hell or saved in heaven.One should live their life good in case they were to be saved in heaven. I thought it utterly depression and fearful that one cannot save themselves and that they were already predetermined. What is the point of being a good person if I was already going to hell? That is why people established their class. If they lived an honorable and noticeable life, then everyone in the community would believe that they were already saved. You were damned if you did and damned if you didn't.
2.Salem Witch Trials: I learned just how really frustrating these trials were. It was cool how Hawthorne changed a letter in his name so as not to associate with a family member who was a judge in these trials. But I did not truly realize how bandwagon these trials actually were. Annoying! If one wanted to cover their butts they would accuse another of witchcraft and all the young girls would fake symptoms. Also, the fact that people quit lying to save themselves. They would rather die and be with God than lie and say that they were a witch to save their physical being. How brave and inspiring. It makes me wonder what my choice would be. These trials truly were horrible because it was based on a bunch of bologna.
3.Spectral Evidence: I had no clue what this was. It is bogus to condemn people to death based on visions. That is equivalent of me saying that I had a vision that McCay was killing her husband and she was sentenced to death because her husband happened to stub his toe after that. Let's get real. This evidence had no scientific or reliability at all. Absurd!
4. Slavery:It was so interesting to read different opinions on slavery. It was better to be a slave in the North than the South of course, but one can never learn enough about the truth of this horrific time. I had no clue that some authors supported slaver (Poe). He supported the hierarchy and people actually believed that black people were physically inferior. One person even said that its the masters who are enslaved and not the slaves. The master is doomed to his own enslavement of slaves. Interesting. Never thought of it that way.
5. Self-examination: It was neat to see how self-examination came to be, especially through Ben Franklin. One can use basically use his list as a to do list to live up to one's potential. It is an easy 1-2-3. He included God to lure readers in, however, it really had nothing to do with God but one's self. These virtues enabled a person to basically be God-like material. The virtues can be more clearly viewed at this link 1-2-3 people!

LITERATURE
1.Dickinson:Was a recluse and wrote mainly about death. The only poem I really read about her was "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" so when I read more, I had no clue how depressing she was. I mean, who wants to think about death all the time. It was nice to get an overview of her themes in poems instead of assuming all of them were light and airy.
2.Whitman: SEX! Whitman had numerous sexual symbols in his poems. He viewed it as the single, most powerful thing two people can share and Whitman wanted to share that. Others critics of course misinterpreted it and were astonished that sex was mentioned in poems in the 1800s.
3.Poe:He supported slavery. He believed in the hierarchy and was SO depressing. He tried to immortalize himself in his writings an struggled against time. Time killed in his pieces. Death is in each person and he identified and remorse was preceded by an action while guilt is preceded by innocence or an action. It was nice to finally get a background on this standout writer and get his opinions on actual life.
4.Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: People were scared sh*tless of God. When people were God fearing and scared into obeying him. If they did not they would burn and be tortured in hell. This was based on the old testament but God was not the all forgiving God, but a vengeful, wrathful God. Interesting to see what kept people in line.
5. Thoreau: Civil Disobedience kicked a$$. I agree with disobeying laws that are unjust. More people need to be brave and stand up. He spent a night in jail for what he believed in. He did not support what he did not believe in (including those wretched taxes). It created change and the government and law systems are many times corrupt and not right. How inspiring to read about a person back then with these brave, different views. I would be scared not to conform, yes, I would have been a coward in that sense. I mean look at the Salem Witch trials, people are looney at times. However, this piece has helped me develop a more sense of where my opinions stand on politics. It made me more confident and inspired.

HOW THESE THINGS HAVE CHANGED MY VIEWS:
This class has given me not only a lesson on American Literature, but on history. I have learned more in this class than I ever did in my history classes. It all connected and made sense. I remember more since it relates to novels I like to read and explain why many authors wrote the way that they did. I was able to actually understand the stories FINALLY with the historical background on which they were written. I am a more solid person with how society has evolved now and cannot wait to read more on these authors and actually understand all the CRAP I WAS NOT TAUGHT IN HIGH SCHOOL! Thank you McCay, I can actually have intellectual opinions now since I understand the writings and why they were written and critiqued. I did not realize how much history has impacted this.

Tregre, Sex, Death, Dickinson and Whitman, in the 1800s?!

Both of these poets, Dickinson and Whitman, were controversial poets. Both of them had themes of sexuality or death in their poems. Each poem of Dickinson is full of death. Her poems are about dying, being buried, funerals, etc. She explores the beyond fact. In "I Heard a Fly Buzz" while she is dying, instead of basking in the white light, she is paying attention to God's lowest creation making an irritating buzzing noise. This is not a clean, pure animal, but an insignificant insect. In "I Felt a Funeral" by Dickinson, she describes a funeral perfectly. She talks about the mourners and being buried. They are completely morbid and gothic. In Whitman's poem he discusses sex. In his time (1800s) one did not explicitly write about sex like Whitman did. In "Leaves of Grass," Whitman definitely drove the theme of sex home. While others misunderstood it, Whitman viewed sex as spiritual. It is the single most intimate, greatest act one could share with another. Whitman even wrote "the body, he teaches, is beautiful. Sex is also beautiful. . . . Sex will not be put aside; it is a great ordination of the universe. He works the muscle of the male and the teeming fibre of the female throughout his writings, as wholesome realities, impure only by deliberate intention and effort." Whitman wanted to communicate this through his poems and not to be seen as that secret, dirty act that many critics understood it to be.
Both these poets wrote about uncommon themes making them surpass the other poets in their times. They were honest and deep and nonconformists which made them surpass centuries of decay.

Tregre, Fuller and Hawthorne

An interesting fact I would like to share with the class is the fact that Hawthorne's character Zenobia in The Blithedale Romance, is supposed to be modeled after Margaret Fuller. Margaret was a guest at Brook Farm, the community Blithedale is also modeled after. Before The Blithedale Romance was written, Brook Farm was a community to act as the epitome of a perfect one. Blithedale was the result of Hawthorne’s reflection of his experiences.
Here’s a list of coincidences and things that do not match up between Fuller and Zenobia:
-Zenobia's death was modeled another women named Martha who drowned herself and not the shipwreck that ended Fuller's life. Though the manner of death does not match, there are other parallels between Zenobia and Fuller.
-Like Fuller, Zenobia was an activist for women's rights.
-Many critics think that when Hawthorne has the character, Priscilla, hand off a letter from Fuller, it is to draw attention away from the fact that he made Zenobia resemble Fuller so much.
-The character Zenobia wore flowers in her hair, much like Fuller would wear tropical flowers in hers.
-Her character was also similar to Zenobia in the way she liked to be in the center of attention and was educated.
-There were too many mirrors for the public to deny that Zenobia closely resembled Fuller.
-Before Blithedale was written, the community of Brook Farm existed. It was the transcendentalist's enterprise, Margaret Fuller was a transcendentalist.
-Fuller’s family believed the Zenobia to be modeled after Margaret and were furious.
Hawthorne was coy. Whether it was intentional or not for Zenobia and Fuller to mirror eachother, The Blithedale Romance was modeled after Hawthorne’s stay on Brook Farm as to which Fuller often visited.
Coincidence? I think not.

Tregre, Are slave owners really free?

Some people strangely believe that the slave owners were really the ones enslaved. When I read this in an article, it mind boggled me so much that I had to research more into it and turn the tables.
Often times it was reported that the white children would envy the black children because of their freedom to play. The black children would usually run around naked since they were too poor to afford clothes. The white children would see this and get jealous because they had to put clothes and shoes on and go to school. White men also envied the black men because their marriages were "impermanent." For example, when Harriet Jacobs was forced into sexual submission by her master, the wife would be cruel to her. It was easier in the Black community since marriages were not really "real" so it was easier to get by with having more than one woman.
Other people also believed that it was better to be a slave than free up North because of the jobs. If a person was a slave, at least they had food, water, and shelter. Up North it was hard to gain money to afford these necessities.
Also, as slave rebellions became more prominent, owners lived in fear. Slavery also proved white labor to be less efficient, giving black men and women a better work ethic. They could work circles around white men. Also, when owners would fear that slaves would escape, like in Jacob's story, they were sold which often allowed slaves to be happy because they could be lucky and receive a "good owner."
Although I do not necessarily agree with these reasons, it was interesting to ponder and read about how slave owners could be just as enslaved as their actual slaves. Depending on how a person looks at it, both owner and slave were bound together enslaved.
In current society slavery does not exist in the U.S., however, the hierarchy of the economy and political systems represent the system. The CEOs and the big dogs in the government run the people. It is corrupt and they are mega rich and have control over lots of things. It is not the form of enslavement as back then, but the hierarchies and controls still exist.

Tregre, "We're Just Anonymous Numbers on a Governmental Chart" -Better Than Ezra

The thing that struck me most in "Civil Disobedience" was the part about soldiers not really being true heroes. Soldiers go into war to fight for freedom and the law, however, the law does so many unjust things. For example, murdering another does not make the US law right when that is doing an unjust thing to another. Soldiers are a shadow of humanity and the government molds them into machines. They cannot exercise moral beliefs and are just trained to follow rules such as, shoot only if fired at. One critic commented that their existence is reduced to that of a horse and only used to get a "job" done. When one works for the government as a soldier, the individual is supporting unjust laws. They are carrying out their created injustices and being the governments workhorse. It is not right to betray ones integrity to commit a crime, governmental or not Thoreau explores. The attitude is not a brave soldier, but committing an unjust act. It is one's chief duty to do what is right and to break a law if it commits an unjust act upon another. One should not fit into the crowd, but exercise their rights as an individual and trust their instincts. One should not just be an "anonymous number on a governmental chart."

Tregre, "Innocence/Ignorance is not Bliss.”, Melville, March 10

The perfect example to reflect Melville's view on innocence is his story, "Benito Cereno." His character Delano was a trusting, naive fellow who finds Cereno's ship damaged and a mess. The entire story, there are obvious warning signs that something is amiss this vessel, but Delano has an innocence and denies everything putting the blame on excuses. At the end, it turns out the slaves took over the ship and Cereno was cooperating by force. Delano's character is a reflection that he was impractical and blind. His innocence was quite annoying and ignorant. If it was not for Cereno, he surely would have lost his life. Melville had a view that the Spanish treatment of the slaves were bad, and though they revolted, the blacks could not be responsible. In the end, the narrator and the deposition were both the white mans. The black man's point of view and opinions were never heard. It was stricly a white person's point of view. The slaves revolted, but it was probably in response to their entrapment. They were not to blame, though they were very smart. The problem of slavery is never dealt with, but the guilt was just assigned to other people, much like the guilt was assigned to Cereno. Cereno was not a good guy because "it is not the adjective, its the noun." (Good Master: The good adjective does not matter, the master is what is bad, the noun of him being in charge of someone is bad, that is the problem). Melville's insightment in this story was quite an eye opener. The problem in the story was not addressed, just like the actual issue of slavery was never addressed. People just turn their eye to the problem and assign blame to another, much like Delano. In this case, innocence was ignorance and not bliss.

Perfection and Naivety

I know the above image is quite large, but it is important to see the need and desire for the girl to achieve a perfect body. The above picture relates to the American Dream developing. Human nature to be perfect and the innocence that one can defeat death emerge in these stories. This girl wants to be perfect, no matter how skinny she gets she will not reach it, for it does not exist. Perfection does not exist.

In relation to Poe and Hawthorne, the two stories I read were "The Mask of the Red Death," and "The Birthmark." Both were very interesting stories written in a tragic sense. It is evident that the authors, Poe and Hawthorne, were now starting to write about human depravity and the idea of American innocence. Americans are starting to deviate from the Puritan norm and starting to write about the "fall of Eden." The quest for perfectionism and to escape death, two things that are not possible.
In "The Mask of the Red Death," the main character tries desperately to avoid a plague by hiding in his abbey with seven rooms. As he tries to evade death, death comes to him in the end and kills him instantly and first. One cannot be so naive to believe they can beat death. Prince Prospero locked himself in his abbey with a couple hundred people and locked the plague out. However, the plague still crept in and turned out to be a guest at the ball. His human nature was to evade this inevitable terror, but in the end, everyone succombs to death. Prospero made the crucial mistake of believing him smarter than this creature of death, but this gothic tale depicts the harsh truth of life. For a short further summary click here.
Then in "The Birthmark" it depicts the human instinct to strive for perfectionism. A man marries a beautiful woman who has a birthmark on her face. While men are pleased with her appearance, her husband grows more grotesque with her birthmark as each day passes. When the couple finally remove the birthmark, she instantly dies after she wakes up. The husband was able to have one moment of his wife's perfection, then lost her for good. He sacrificed a satisfying, loving life in order to achieve a perfection that simply was not possible. His nature of wanting his wife to be perfect was granted at a severe cost. While cutting out her birthmark, he cut out his wife's heart. The perfection was not love, but human depravity cost him his love. It showed him that he had all he needed and that his future was perfect right in front of him. For a different analysis with sexuality, click here.
These two concepts of human nature and innocence come crashing down in these authors' stories. Human nature is bad and deviates from God during this time and innocence has yet to be jaded.

In both of Washington Irving's stories, "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," he created a precedent for the beginning of American fiction. He created the pop culture and wrote stories that people enjoyed. His stories drastically changed from the Puritans because witchcraft and ghost stories were poked fun at instead of being feared to be real. Americans wanted to rid themselves of the past and create a new future, but Irving dug up the past and viewed a need for cultured people. He created a fantasy like world that people could enjoy reading for fun, but also learn a bit of American History. His stories are still enjoyable today with its fantasy aspects. His description of Crane and Van Winkle is hysterical. When he describes tucking ducks into a bed of pie, fantastic. Irving definitely had a unique writing that created a breakthrough for literature. It was nice to finally read a piece of writing that was not serious and trying to scare its audience to death about God. It gave the mind a break from predetermination discussions and how to become the perfect human. Props to Irving.

Purple, Green, GOLD, and BLACK = Gluttony

Mardi Gras is a time for gluttony. It is an excuse to overindulge and to say, "I was wasted, so it's okay." Being raised in New Orleans all my life established a belief that Party Gras is an excuse to let an alter ego become released and that anything goes. This is a Puritan's alter ego. All year people go to church and try to better themselves, then carnival comes and it is thrown out the window. It seems like it is a few days to ignore the battle to become a better person and act like a complete bad ass. This year will be even more insane because the Saints won the Superbowl. Every year, including my family, Saints fans head the the dome and tailgate expecting them not to lose too bad that game. Then they pull off the unexpectable, winning the Superbowl. This adds to the party. Something out of the ordinary happens, so it is time to get naked and drink up. Times have evolved. Puritans would have been scared that God would strike them down in the middle of the parade or that they would get run over by a float due to the amount of sinning taking place. Everyone in Lousisiana has the week off, people come in from out of state, because Mardi Gras is a justification for sinning and to unleash and naughty personas and become your alter ego. Times have changed and Puritan beliefs have evolved and God fearing times are over, so how hard with you party and what will your alter ego be? 

MARDI GRAS DRUNKS BELOW.... BEWARE OF EXTREME CRUDENESS

The Fall of the Puritan Writers and the Rise of New Thought

Benjamin Franklin marked the beginning of a new belief system. Until he began to write in 1771, Puritan authors wrote about living life in a God fearing way. Ben Franklin began to branch off in his own direction of writing. He believed that the power to live a good life comes from within. He wrote behind many personas and began to formulate the belief in the self-made man. He included God in his writing so as to gain a wider audience. He believed that hardwork and virtues would perfect himself, so he wrote an autobiography in the form of a "how to" manual for his son. He was a Puritian in the way he did intensive self examination, but through his opportunites and hard work, he created a successful, satifying life for himself. He established a list of virtues that if a person commited to perfecting them, they could lead a humble, fullfilling life. This man was not God fearing like the other Puritan authors. He was in my opinion genius. He included God in the writings in order to recruit more people to read his new ideals. He was able to impact society and begin to give individuals strength at creating their own life (self-made man) which paved the way to the American Dream. He marked the turning point for the power of the individual. All one has to do is work hard and take opportunities while perfecting one's self to end up at the desitination of success.

A Letter On Religion Today

Dear Fellows

The state of religion today in America has become somewhat of a weakened back up plan, or fallout. Although there are a great many Americans who stand strong to their faith and visit Church regularly, most people live their lives carefree of religious duty. Many Americans have stated to me that they are Catholic and believe in Jesus Christ, yet they do not pray to God or follow the laws of the Bible. In fact, the only time most Americans do speak to the lord is when they are either in trouble or in need of something. However, this is not to say that all Americans have become evil and entirely sinful. America still retains a “good guy” persona, just with less religious discipline. A study by the Pew Forum of Religion and Public Life found that “More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion.” This is the nation of free men and women, and freedom entitles the belief in any or no religion.

The Pew Forum also presents a chart which details the religious status of Americans today.

In God’s favor, most American classrooms still require their students to say a prayer, as well as the “Pledge of Allegiance,” which of course refer to America as “one nation under God.” Therefore, we have not lost our religious backbone at all; we have just developed into a less radical following.