My 3 Questions

1. Compare Rip Van Winkle's life before he fell asleep to his life when he woke. How has it changed? Is it better or worse for him?

2. Do you believe that the Usher mansion contributed to the demise of the Usher family dynasty? If so, in what way?

3. Compare Alcott's characters "Jo" and "Beth." Even though they are sister, both are very different.

My 7 Quotes

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Nature, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf."
2. Edgar Allen Poe: "...I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder/and the deep and dark tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the "House of Usher."
3. Washington Irving: "On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first seen the old man of the glen."
4. Nathaniel Hawthorne: "...the exquisite texture of its wings brushed against the early medium; and a sparkle or two, as of stardust, floated downward and lay glimmering..."
5. Herman Melville: "I would prefer not to."
6. Herman Melville: "Follow your leader."
7. Alcott: "...they will be loving children to you, will do their duty faithfully, fight their bosom enemies bravely, and conquer themselves so beautifully that when I come back to them I may be fonder and prouder than ever of my little women."

My Poem Reading- To a Waterfowl, William Cullen Bryant

7- Bartleby the Scrivner (Revised)

Don't you hate it when people ask you to do something and you don't want to do it, but you do it anyway? What if everyone could all be like Bartleby the progtagonist of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener?" When your parents ask you to clean your room, you say "I would prefer not to." (1374) Or when your boss asks you to turn in paperwork before a deadline, you could say "I would prefer not to." What kind of person would you be if you did nothing?

Bartleby did just that...nothing. He didn't eat. He didn't feel. He didn't work. He had no identity other than "Bartleby, the scrivener." (1363) His attitude and perception of life didn't allow him to be a functional human being. Would you consider a person like Bartleby, who is nonfunctional and vegetative, to be a human being or just an empty body just floating through life?

I believe Bartleby is Melville's way of telling people to examine their lives. Are we "Bartleby" or are we human beings? I think that feeling life is the best part of being human. Don't be just an empty body. Be present and truly live.

6-Herman Melville (Revised)

Herman Melville’s Moby Dick has several elements in common with southern sperm whale fishery legends of the 19th century. For this reason, critics have disputed the originality of Melville’s novel. After reading both Moby Dick and the sperm whale fishery legends, I believe that Melville’s book was an original work that was only inspired by the whaling legends. I think that a combination of Melville’s personal experiences and philosophical beliefs provided the true basis for his novel Moby Dick.

The amount of knowledge Melville gained through years of working as a harpooner and common sailor can be seen throughout his novel. In the first chapters, the narrator (Ishmael) describes his environment with intricate detail. He sees things that only a person with sailing experience could see. For example, one morning at breakfast Ishmael makes these observations about his fellow “whalemen.”

“You could pretty plainly tell how long each one had been ashore. This young
fellow’s healthy cheek is like a sun-toasted pear in hue, and would seem to
smell almost musky; he cannot have been three days landed from his Indian
voyage. That man next looks a few shades lighter; you might say a touch satin
wood is in him. In the complexion of a third still lingers a tropic tawn, by
slightly bleached withal; he doubtless has tarried whole weeks ashore.”
(McMichael, 1343)

This description could have only been written by a person who has been exposed to the maritime living and foreign lands. Melville had knowledge of the Southern Seas and knowledge of working whaling vessels. The more than two years of his life spent aboard the whaler Acushnet allowed him to experience the places Ishmael describes in Moby Dick. How would a person identify the smells and effects of a particular place without ever experiencing it for themselves? For this reason, I believe first hand experience not sperm whale legends helped Melville to create the believable, yet fictional situations in his novel Moby Dick.

Owen: the artist of the Beautiful

Being a "closet" artist myself, I found the problems facing Owen Warland in Hawthorne's Artist of the Beautiful, relatable. I know artists have anxiety when they present their work to people. I understand an artist's insecurities-not knowing whether viewers will appreciate a piece. However, an artist must keep in mind that art is subjective. Not all people like all artwork.

In Owens case, no one liked any of his artwork. Even after five years of pouring his soul into making a butterfly, no one saw its beauty. Robert Danforth the blacksmith calls Owen's time "wasted." saying "there is more real use in one downright blow of my sledge-hammer." 1146 It was Danforth's infant son who destroyed Owen's masterpiece. Even though his work seemed ruined and unappreciated, Owen was proud of himself.

He "rose high enough to achieve the Beautiful, the symbol by which he made it
perceptible to mortal senses became of little value in his eyes, while his
spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of Reality." 1147

5- "Nature never wears a mean appearance." (Revised B)

In his "Nature" essay, Emerson claims "Nature never wears a mean appearance." (952) I find that hard to believe. What kind of face was nature wearing when hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 or when Thailand was washed away the tsunami in which thousands of people died? The truth is, that nature CAN be mean: it can kill and destroy. And I think Edgar Allen Poe, unlike Emerson, would agree with me.

Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," is a clear example of nature wearing "a mean appearance." Roderick Usher blamed nature for cursing his family and making him into a tortured soul. He believed the demonic nature of his home had "for centuries/moulded the destinies of his family.'' (926) Roderick thought the house was "enchanted by certain supersitious impressions/ he said, obtained over his spirit."(922) The evil Nature living within the walls of his mansion kept him a prisoner of "FEAR." (922) In the end, nature in the form of Usher's twin sister blasts through the door with "superhuman energy," murders Rodrick bringing an end to the cursed Usher Dinesty. (931)

Poe saw that Nature could be dark. The thought of nature being cheerful and never "mean" is laughable. A quick look at the world around us will prove my point.