Journal #14 - E. A. Robinson Poems

Realism – The theory or practice in art and literature of fidelity to nature or to real life and to accurate representation without idealization of the most typical views, details, and surroundings of the subject.

Read the following poems and write a detailed description for each of the title characters and explain how each is an example of the “real” instead of the “ideal.”

“Richard Cory“ (497)

Richard Cory is richer than a king. He is a gentlemen from toe to crown. He is the person who everyone looks up to. All the townspeople are aspiring to be like him, yet one day he goes home and shoots himself in the head. This poem is an example how you cannot judge what is on the inside by what is on the outside, or the surface. Ususally the two are completely different. Appearance is significantly different from reality. Cory had a seemingly “perfect life” in the eyes of the townspeople, but his mind was not perfect. It is ironic that the ideal man was really just a man who had stuggles within himself and committed suicide. Richard Cory is rich on the outside but poor on the inside.


“Miniver Cheevy” (497)

Miniver Cheevy was born too late and wishes he was born in the Medieval Times. He is jealous of those who got to live in the times of Knights, Chivalary, swords, and horses. He wanted to escape from the reality of his life, and become a part of what he thought was an ideal life. He gets wrapped up in the fantasy of the past. He drinks to get rid of the real and gets lost in his fantasies. Miniver Cheevy is a minimum achiever. His life is so mundane and monotonus that he wishes he was never born. The era of Medieval Times is his ideal life, but he is stuck in reality. He lived a bitter, insignificant life.


“Mr. Flood’s Party” (498)

Mr. Flood is an older man and either all of his friends are gone or dead. He drinks to create friends in his mind. Mr. Flood floods himself with alcohol in order to have a party. His friends are strangers now. The ideal life for Mr. Flood would be to relive to the past and enjoy moments with his old friends and other people. His reality is that he is lonely. Change has taken over his life. It is ironic how he is throwing a party, because it’s a one person party. You cannot have a party with only one person. His loneliness leads him to do drastic things.

Journal #13 – Edgar Lee Masters Epitaphs (p. 502)

Read “George Gray” and “Lucinda Matlock” and answer the following questions.

1. What object symbolizes George Gray’s life? How is this object representative of him?

The object that symbolizes George Gray’s life is a sailboat. The furled sail is at rest in the harbor. The furled sail does not symbolize that his journey came to an end, yet it symbolizes how Gray spent his life in fear. “Life” offered him love, sorrow, ambition, and meaning. He shrank from the offer of love. He was afraid to answer the door when sorrow knocked. He dreaded his own chances of being successful when ambition was offered to him. He never let life lead him on a journey like the wind that was capable of carrying the the sails of his boat out of the harbor and to a destination. He realizes that now he is dead, he should have let down his sails and let their desire carry him where they wished. Life without meaning is torture. Gray should have not been afraid of his boat of life, longing for the sea.


2. How was Lucinda Matlock’s life different than George Gray’s? How do you interepret the last line of the poem?

Lucinda’s life is different from Gray’s in the sense the Gray feels regretful that he did not live his life to the fullest. Lucinda’s epitaph opens with her dancing. This symbolizes happy, celebratory life. She is not complaining because she has lived a full life. She lived to be 96, which is definitely a full life. The other voices she hears from her grave in the graveyard, like the voice of Gray’s, are sad and sorrowful. She offers her perception of life, saying you must live a little in order to love every aspect of life. It takes energy, vitality, and eagerness in order to enjoy the many blessings and activites life offers. Gray’s life is seen as lifeless, and there is a great lack of motion. He has no courage compared to Matlock, who lived a life full of nurturing, adventure, shouting and singing. Matlock knew what it was like to be in love and had other loving people around her. Gray’s life was loveless. Life is more rewarding if lived in the way that Matlock had lived.


3. How are “George Gray” and “Lucinda Matlock” examples of realism?

George Gray is an example of realism because his story was a common thing among humanity. He is a simple tragic character that makes several mistakes and lives life in caution like many other people. He searched for the meaning of life but never did anything extraordinary because he was too afraid. Gray died knowing what he did wrong in life. He never took a chance and did not live his life to the fullest. His reality was boring and unexciting. Lucinda is an example of realism because she lived life to the fullest. She experienced happiness and sadness, like any other normal person. Her life was easy, and normal. At her death, she had no regrets because she lived a life or normality and delight. Realistically, she was happy with her normal life. Gray and Matlock’s lives were both lived realistically.

Journal #12: “Young Goodman Brown”

1. “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory (symbolic narrative). What do the following represent?

Young Goodman Brown – Young Goodman Brown represents good and evil. Faith is what he tries to follow, but evil tempts him to leave his faith. He is an innocent man, tempted with evil.


Faith – Faith is Brown’s spiritual beliefs. In the story, several people are in danger of losing their faith. Faith is like a light. The forest is like darkness. People leave the light to go to into darkness. Brown is fearful of losing his wife to the darkness.


The Elderly Traveller/Fellow-Traveller – The Traveler is most likely the devil. He is the evil component of the story, tempting others and inflicting evil upon others.


Goody Cloyse – Goody Cloyse is the representation of a fake persona. It is like a fallen angel. They fake being a good person, when in reality they are evil.


The Ceremony – The Ceremony is a Baptismal ceremony. It represents going from good faith to evil. It is the renewal of faith in the devil.


The Pink Ribbon – The Pink Ribbon represents purity. When the ribbon gets left behind and he finds it, Brown loses hope in ever having his pure wife back.


Young Goodman Brown’s Journey – His journey represents the fall of man. It represents how a man of good faith is not perfect. He is tempted just like everyone else. Nobody is perfect and sometimes temptation is too hard to resist.



2. Identify the following for “Young Goodman Brown”:

Theme Message of Theme Element Used to Establish
Sin/Fall of Man Humanity is not perfect Plot/Conflict


In addition, provide three direct quotes from the story that address your theme.

- “My Faith is gone!” cried he, after one stupefied moment. ‘There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is the world given’”(6).
- “The road grew wilder and drearier and more faintly traced, and vanished at length, leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness, still rushing onward with the instinct that guides mortal man to evil” (6)
- “Depending upon one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived……

Journal #11 - Selections from Walden

Write a summary of the following selections and identify a direct quote that you feel best expresses its main idea.

“Where I Lived and What I Lived For” (232)

Thoreau has too many possessions in life. He believes that humans are advancing too fast, and advancement is taking over life. Technology corrupts us. The reason Thoreau lives in the cabin is to revert back to the simplier things in life. Railroads, like technology, are supposed to improve us, yet they ride on our backs.
This excerpt talks about the necessity of simplicity in our lives and how living a life with too many possessions is.


Quote: “Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity”
“We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.”


“Sounds” (234)

Walden talks about all the sounds he heard while actually listening to the world. He loved to just sit out without doing working or seeing anyone and just being peaceful. He was able to stop his life for a little bit and just take a step back from his busy life. He loves life and thinks its an adventure. He doesn’t think nature is a waste of time and its wonderful to sit their and just listen to the sounds.

Quote: “it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished.”


“Brute Neighbors” (235)

A red ant was fighting a black ant that was half an inch longer. They were wrestling with each other and it look not like a duel but a war. It was between two raises of ants (red and black). The black were so big it was frequently found that two red ants equaled one black. The red ants stood for republicans and black ants stand for imperialists. Then a red ant came to the full of excitement. He could see the unfair battle but he charged ready to fight. He ripped the body parts out of the black ant that was nearly twice his size. The man witnessing it was excited to see the minority party that the red ant was representing coming back. The man never found out which party won nor the cause of the war but he was excited to witness the battle before his door.

Quote: “I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not a duellium, but a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted ones to one black” ……. “It was the only battle which I have ever witnessed, the only battlefield I ever trod while the battle was raging; internecine war; the red republicans on the one, and the black imperialists on the other.”


“The Pond in Winter” (237)

Nature, in which all creatures live and flourish, offers no questions. It only gives the answer of pure beauty. Humans do not have to ask Mother Nature to provide wonder and awe, she just shows her true colors through the earth and animals. A pond in winter is beautiful because of its ability to be peaceful, yet underneath the sheet of ice, its orginial life and beauty is still preserved through all seasons of the year. Life is beautiful through any kind of weather. Just because you cannot see something on the surface, the world is still thriving.

Quote: “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our head” pg. 237


“Spring” (238)

It is talking about the beginning of Spring, and what Walden goes through in the beginning of Spring. It looks majestic and alive and beholds a great summer ahead. The geese are circling it, and different animals are coming alive. He is saying that Walden is like the beginning of new life with great chaos in it. It’s a time of new beginnings and happiness. Each Spring is like the creation of the world. Spring is a symbol of rebirth.

Quote:
“As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is life the creaytion of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.”

Journal #10 - Insight

Often at the end of a play, Shakespeare’s tragic heroes often have a moment of insight. What is Othello’s insight? Look closely at Othello’s last speech before answering this question.

Othello’s insight comes right before he ends his own life. His insight starts with realizing that he killed his loving wife, Desdemona, because of false reasons. He had killed her because Iago fed him lies about her being unfaithful. He knows that he ruined his whole life because of lies. Before he dies, he tells his friends to write about him and not just say the good things, but tell of his bad characteristics and other things that make him imperfect. He wants people to know he let jealously get the best of him. He wants all to know that you cannot trust even your closest friends, because one of his betrayed him. His insight includes him realizing that you should be careful who you trust and never believe anything you hear unless you hear it for yourself. He wanted to die an honorable death. Now that Desdemona was dead, he had nothing else to live for in his mind. Ultimately, his insight made him realize that honesty is always the best policy.

Journal #9 - Free Will vs. Determinism

Free Will - The power of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate or divine will.

Iago: “'tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our
gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners” (1.3 361-3).

God gave us the power to have free will; to choose from right and wrong. But what happens when our free will is corrupted by outside forces? It does not matter; we still possess free will and we can freely choose to make our own decisions. Outside forces try to influence our decisions and thoughts. This is what Iago had done to Othello. He tried to make Othello believe that Desdemona was being unfaithful to him and that she was in love with Cassio. Although what Iago was telling Othello was untrue, Othello used his free will and chose to believe what Iago was saying, was true. He chose to be jealous. He let his emotions get the best of him. Othello ends up killing Desdemona. When he found out the truth, he killed himself as a way of punishing himself for his free will choice to be jealous and gullible. Othello had to accept the consequences regardless of how harsh they were. Free will is as much as a gift as it is a curse.


Determinism - The philosophical doctrine that every event, act, and decision is the inevitable consequence of antecedents, such as genetic and environmental influences, that are independent of the human will.

Othello: “Yet ‘tis the plague of great ones … ‘tis destiny unshunnable, like
death” (3.3 313-16).

Certain events, acts, and decisions are the consequences of genetic and environmental forces. Human will does not create events, acts, or decisions. Iago was the dominant outside force that created disastrous events such as the smothering of Desdemona, or the revoke of Cassio as an officer. Othello had preformed these acts, but not by his own human will. Iago filled his head with lies and corruption. It was inevitable that Othello would commit such crimes because Iago was the mastermind behind every act. Iago was holding the strings of a puppet, the puppet being Othello. Iago’s influence was what caused Othello to wrongly use his human will. Iago was without a doubt the poster boy for Determinism. This definition describes Othello perfectly. His involvement in every aspect of the book caused dire consequences.

Journal #8 - Emerson’s Aphorisms

1. Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

2. Keep cool: it will all be one a hundred years hence.

3. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.

4. We boil at different degrees.

- Emerson’s point is that everyone has their own, individual breaking point. He wants us to realize when we’re going overboard or pushing ourselves too hard, or when we’re pushing someone else too hard. You do not want to push someone over their edge, because you never know what they are capable of doing. Everyone is different, and so is the way they get aggravated and angry. Beware of the people you know who are short tempered.

5. To be great is to be misunderstood.

6. There are always two parties; the establishment and the movement.

7. When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

8. In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.

- Emerson’s point is that when you are in danger or an argument, how you choose to handle the situation is the key. You are skating over thin ice, which is capable of collapsing. You got yourself into that mess, and you must be calm, cool, and composed in order to save yourself. If you speed through the ice, it will for sure break and you will sink into the icy cold water below it. You will suffer the consequence of your careless actions. If you take your time (slow and steady wins the race) going over the ice, you will ultimately be safer and avoid dire consequences.

9. What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered.

10. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines.

11. What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

12. All sensible people are selfish, and nature is tugging at every contract to make the terms of it fair.

13. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

- Emerson’s point is that life is full of chances and experiments and the more you take a chance or test something out, the more you learn. Life is a learning experience. If you never take a risk or chance your life will never be as beneficial as who someone who does. When you experiment with life, like the way you experiment in the science lab, there is room for error as well as success. Failure is okay, it teaches you a lesson. Success is great, and the more you experiment and have successes, the better your life will be. Remember that there is always a possibility of error, and it is okay. We live, and we learn.

14. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

15. The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant.