Slavery and Beloved

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/28/lincolns-legacy-fights-modern-slavery/

The article above focuses mainly on the Idea of slavery even after it was abolished 150 years ago. The article talks about modern slavery, its characteristics and those who are affected by it. The article begins with a victim Shelia white who was forced into prostitution on the streets of New York City in which she describes the feeling of self-deprivation that can occur. The article talks about the surprising number of people that are modern slaves, or those who are forced to do work against their will. The article goes on to state the amount of money that is received annually through this illegal business. The Polaris project is an anti-trafficking organization that helps former modern slaves and tries to raise awareness and ultimately stop the trafficking of humans. This article relates to the novel Beloved in the sense that the modern slaves of today are a lot like the slaves depicted in the novel. Like Sethe white was forced to do work and beaten if she disobeyed. The gross realization that this sort of thing is still happening today especially in the United States you wonder whether our society is as good as we think it is.

To Be Loved or Not to Be loved

 From my experiences with life, family and reading various novels the question of whether the past ever dies is a hard one. For some people it is easy to live by the saying "Forgive and Forget" but to what extent is that saying true and to what extent do the people really live by that saying. I would say that the past does not die and stays with us but it takes the person to be able to not dwell in the past and move on with the present and subsequently the future.

The past cannot ever die metephorically speaking because it is a composition of memories that we as humans might find important. No matter how much we fool ourselves and say that the past never happened all we are doing is further sinking ourselves in a hole of misery. In the case of Berniece from the piano lesson, her inability to let go of the past (not forget) affected her, and the people that she loved in a negative way. The person that was being hurt the most was her child. All the talk of the ghost and and the constant fighting between Berniece and Boy Willie added up and affected the mental stability of the child so much so that she feared sleeping up stairs for fear of the ghost. One reason that the past cannot die is because we are constantly reminded of the past by things that area associated with the past in out everyday lives. Using the piano lesson, as an example again, the piano for Berniece was a constant reminder of the past, of her parents of which she felt that she could not give away, destroy or throw out. It is because of this constant reminder that some people often get consumed by the past and cannot lead normal lives. This example is also present in  the novel Beloved, where Paul D. Garner and Seathe's daughter Denver are a reminder to Seathe, of Sweet Home and the atrocities that she survived through. The Painfull memories of being raped and Wipped like a dog. Theses reason are why the past cannot "die", but like I said before it takes a strong someone to acknowledge the past with all that it bears and move on.

BenchMark Stuff

1. Number 4 asked why Vivian thought that the quote was vilely phrased. The question was not that difficult at all I think the reason why most people got  this wrong is because they read the passage and Vivian's response and thought that the answer had to deal with nature or art(Otherwise letter E) when it was actually really simple. Also they probably didn't know what pretentious meant so that was a handicapping.

2.Number 7 asked for the primary rhetorical function of the sentence in quotes. This was a fairly hard question because it required much thought on what the author was trying to do with the quote and the student had to read the passage to understand what the sentence was about. I personally chose the answer choice B which was wrong. I had no idea that the author was introducing a digression from the central topic.

3. Number 9 asked the reader to figure out what argument the second speech repeats from the first. This question was not hard at all I think that the reason I missed this was because I misinterpreted the question that was being asked. Instead of looking at the main focus of the 2 speech and getting its ideals I thought about the ideal that mainly recurred in the first speech but not really much in the second speech. After going back and reading the second speech there is clear evidence to support the correct answer choice.

4. Number 13 Asked the reader to identify where the comedy of the passage derived from. I think that this question is only hard if the reader could not see the paradoxes in the passage and if the reader got lazy and just picked the answer choice that seemed the easiest and falsely obvious. I was considering C to be the correct answer but I was not sure of myself and I was being lazy so I picked the answer choice D.

5. Number 21asked the reader to determine, grammatically the function of the word Plumes. This was an easy grammar question. I got this question right and knew that it was clear that Plumes was the direct object of Lift.

6. Number 24 asked the reader to determine the least idiosyncratic aspect of Dickinson's poem. This question is hard if the reader does not know the meaning of the word idiosyncratic. Other than not knowing the meaning of that word the question was easy. The meter other than other aspects of the poem was conventional and consistent, while the other aspects listed were weird. 

7. Number 54 asked the reader to determine what the character Louisa believed that Joe Dagget functioned to her. I don't know if this question is hard or not because I did not get to it. I guess the answer for this and got it wrong. Nevertheless this question could be difficult because it is a characterization question and asked the reader to judge based on the events that occurred what the character Louisa thought about Joe.

I don't particularly like the score that I got on this benchmark. I had generally been doing well on the benchmarks but I think that i dropped the ball on this one. The primary reason for my low score I think is over analysis at times and spending too much time trying to figure out the right answer to some questions and not others. I think that the best thing for me to do is learn to skim through the passages based on the questions and try to answer the questions that way unless it asks me for themes or big ideas. From now on I am going to implement the strategy that I stated before. I also feel for the benchmarks that I try to based more of my answers on examples from the text and not mere speculation. My goals for the Benchmark will probably be grades within the 80-100 range.

I liked the progress that I have gotten with my past essays. I have done well as my essays have usually been top tier in the 6-8 range. The reason for this is that I am thinking a lot better and I have tried to focus my analysis on mostly tone imagery and themes and have set up a little formula for how I am going to write my essay based on the type of essay that I am supposed to write. Because of the formula that I adapted from you I feel a lot less under pressured and capable of writing my analysis of poems or prose. As for goals for my essays I still have not gotten that coveted 9 on any essay which I have been searching for. I don't particularly know what I need to do to get a 9 but that is my goal for the moment. I hope to talk to you about this. As for what I need to work on in my writing I need to focus more on the little thing which serve as evidence for my big ideas or my thesis and I still feel that the level of insight in my essays can be a bit insightful.

The Debate

   I honestly enjoyed the debate that we had in class. As of the topic of who won It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Anyone who actually paid attention the the debate could know that you (Mr. Beddingfield) beat us easily. Although I feel that you clearly won as it relates to the trial itself I, I don't feel like we had a legitimate chance of winning. The reason for this is that, you (Mr. Beddingfield) switched your stance from banning the book (Huckleberry Finn) to not having the book taught or canonizing the book. By doing this you allowed us the students no chance for winning at all, because like you did you could easily have talked about the literary merits of the novel as a counterargument then still feel that the book shouldn't be taught. I feel that in this sense we got robbed. Although I feel bad because of that aspect of the trial I ultimately feel good, because I learned a lot during the trial and I got a sort of first hand view of how a real debate would sort of look like. All in all I think that the debate was great and that we should definitely do it again.

Me Against the World

     Of all the articles that I read, I disagreed the most with the critique of Jane Smiley. Though her criticism was clear and coherent, and she made valid points against the novel, I felt that Jane  was mostly angry at Twain's novel  for not being Uncle Tom's Cabin and that she was wrong in her crititicm against Mark Twain.

Throughout  the whole article  Jane Smiley, on numerous occasions expressed anger at  Mark Twain's novel for what  I see as jealousy. It seemed to me that Smiley is angry at the praise or The novel's  "Canonization". She constantly criticized the novel for not exhibiting the same characteristics of another novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, of which she feels should be worthy of praise. Smiley says in quote that "The power of Uncle Tom's Cabin is the power of brilliant analysis married to great wisdom of feeling"(Smiley, 359). This quote exhibits just one of the few points in which Smiley expressed the feelings about Stowe's novel. Smiley also explains why Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin did not spawn American literature. Smiley states that the reason lied in Twain's novel and it's distracting properties. Personally agree with her that the Stowe's novel is brilliant and deserved praise however, I would have to say that Smiley needs to realize that the Twain's novel is not Stowe's novel and vice-versa.

I absolutely do not agree with smiley's criticsm of Twain. She criticizes Mark Twain by saying that "He knew how to give Huck a voice but didn't know how to give him a novel" (Smiley, 356). This statement is a blatant attack at his writing ability. I thoroughly disagree with the quote. To me Twain's novel is a masterpiece for one of two reasons. The first of the two is Twain's ability to capture the innocence of a child and through the child express his criticism of the society as a whole. Twain painted a picture of Huck's world and allowed Huck to grow and mature. Instead of accepting the social and religious conventions of his world, he went against them in his decision to help free Jim from captivity and Risk going to hell for it. It's easy for a mature adult to have the capacity to understand society and it's flaws but when a child begins to understand those concepts that are out of their realm of understanding it is absolutely brilliant. The latter of the two reasons why I see Mark Twain as an excellent writer lies in his ability to mix dialect and form to contribute to the function or theme of the novel. Twain's novel exhibited the idea of the archetypal hero's journey. The journey down the river with Jim resembled that of Conrad's novel. Twain used the river to symbolize freedom from the constraints of social conventions, and the journey to symbolize the inner growth of Huck. Both of these parts of the novel contribute to the themes of the novel. What's more is that these idea's are all expressed with humor, most of which was from the dialect. Because of these reasons again I feel that Smiley was wrong in her assessments of Twain and the brilliance of his novel

Humor

http://www.theonion.com/articles/on-mike-tyson-being-inducted-into-wwe-hall-of-fame,27267/

From this link the fans give their opinions about Mike Tyson being inducted into the hall of fame. The guy on the left displays irony with his statement "He should be ineligible. He never took steroids." This phrase is ironic becuase Steroids are usually frowned upon in sports because of their performance enhancing qualities, however so many athletes take them in order to be successful. The point this guy is trying to make is that unlike a lot of athlete who made it to the hall of fame Mike Tyson actually worked hard and did have to cheat to gain success, he earned it. It is better that the fan used irony because it expresses his feelings more when he says something contrary to what he believes. Its better that he said something fun because humor usually garners more attention than being straightforward and serious, becuase its easily understood and less in your face.

Dear Mark Twain

Now I's noes that yo name is a Mr. Samuel Clemons. I's jus' likes to say dat I outa applaude you for yo novel "D adventures of Huckleberry Finn". I's noes dat dis here novel was not easy to write. I's enjoyes the novel plenty much. When I'sa first began to read the novel I'sa thinkin dat dis some silly O novel abouta boy goin on some silly adventure, but now I's know dat this novel is som'in serious. Dis novel is real mighty funny but at the same time there'sa alota criticism about society and the people who reside. First of all about the society I'sa feel dat yo critiscism was mighty right. theres plenty examples about the evils of the society but Im gonna start with the issue of racism. I'sa feel dat you take dis relavant part of the novel and expand on it. In the novel you show how the people in the soci'ty can be rash and impusive with thier mob mentality and how the soci'ty because of their ignorance allow the evil to get away with their deeds. fo instance the scene wheres The real wilks brothers are quiclky condemned to death along with the frauds even though evidence clearly showed dat the wilks brothers were genuine. In dat scene the people because of thier ignorance allowed the dasterdly duo to escape back to the raft. Another scene in which the two show how evil they r is when they don gon and lick Huck in the dorse wen theyd gon and sold Jim for greed and possibly revenge. These two scenes holdnrelevant importance cause there the ones in which Huck shows growth and made decisions. In the first scene discussed he discontinnued to be neutral party and realized that he had to do some'in. He was the one who put the gold in the dead wilks coffin and told Mary Jane it was there. In the other scene he had a realization in which hed rather dance with the devil's unda belly than not try and save Huck. cause of the way u try to show the people of the soci'ty the flaws that and present and instill some change, I deem this yo novel extr N' ary and worth the read.

Sincerly
Abdullay

What is a Huckleberry?

So far as I have been reading the novel Huckleberry Finn It has occurred to me that the novel was not what I expected it to be. The more I read the story the more I realized many of the underlying themes that Mark Twain set to discuss or criticize. I believe that many of these themes include the importance of trust between humans and flaws of society

In the novel Mark Twain set up the idea of trust first with the relationship between the boys of the “Tom Sawyer gang” in the cave. This scene between the boys in the cave emphasized the importance of trust when Tom said that the boys had to take a blood oath and promise not to tell anyone of the group’s secrets or else their family members would be killed. Though young, ignorant, and naive these boys are capable of understand a concept that is beyond their comprehension. With that idea present it is easier for the reader to understand the growing relationship between Huck and Jim. Jim is constantly hurt or fooled by Huck in the novel. One instance of this abuse is when Huck played a trick on Jim in which he put the dead snake near Jim and the snake’s mate came and bit Jim in the leg which resulted in Jim being poisoned and his leg swollen. This scene shows that the two are far from a trustworthy relationship because Huck has not committed to it. Later on however in the novel the trust between the two changes because Huck begins to realize that Jim is genuine in his care for Huck and that Huck should stop playing tricks on him. One scene that illustrates this is when Huck does not turn Jim in to the men that approached the boat.

The flaw of the society is key theme in the novel. Mark often criticizes the society that he lives in through satire. One instance in which he does this is when Huck meets Buck and the Grangerfords who are a family that are in a long lasting feud with the Shepherdson yet neither of the clans knows why each is fighting the other. This Criticisms shows that humans can be stupid and ignorant and use that ignorance to cuase harm. Another scene in which Twain criticizes the society is with the two men the Dauphin and the Duke. Twain characterizes the two as unscrupulous people who in the past have conducted shady business. Thier schemes are shown even more when one man decides to go to another town and trick the people in order to raise money for what he called a conversion of his mates while the other sold fliers and advertisements for money. through humor Mark shows how money and greed can effect humans causing them to take advantage of others. This says that the society in which Twain lived is not all perfect.