Thursday, March 31, 2011
Frederick Douglass #2
Frederick Douglass was a man who accomplished great things, even though he lived in an environment where he could easily have his life and dreams taken away at any point. He was extremely persistent to say the least. From reading the narrative, it seems as though Frederick Douglass would not give up for anyone. He gave it his all until he had no more. Sure Douglass wanted to be free and probably always had, but one day this dream got a just a little closer to reality. He became aware of one very necessary skill that would lead to success and a better future came, and it came when he least expected it. His mistress, Mrs. Auld, began to teach him the alphabet, and then went on to teach him words. This was the first time that Frederick had been taught the alphabet. When Mr. Auld found out that Mrs. Auld was teaching Frederick the alphabet he was not happy but enraged. Mr. Auld said, "It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master." (Douglass 937). Mr. Auld said this about Frederick learning the alphabet, because he knew what the power of knowledge could do to him. Mr. Auld even went on to say, "It would make him discontented and unhappy." (Douglass 937). Mr. Auld was right when he say that Frederick would be discontented and unhappy. It could be said the this discontent that Frederick had lead him to keep trying to find a better life. Frederick seemed to be consumed with the thought of freedom, which is evident when he said, "I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it." (Douglass 941). The thought of freedom was driving Frederick insane clearly. Though the thought of freedom almost drove him crazy, Frederick later reached his goal.
Frederick Douglass
The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, aside from its historical significance, is a book that cannot be described with just a mere word. The emotions that come from this narrative have to be read to be completely understood. It is a very personal story, which definitely adds to the emotions that come from the words. Being that the story is a personal account of part of the history of the United States, even though it might not have been the prettiest or most highly thought of time in history, adds to its significance greatly, because it can be related to by many, in different parts of the country. It seems very appropriate to say the Frederick Douglass was a man that had a very strong will to not only survive his circumstances, but to free himself from his circumstances and lead a more promising life. The perserverance that Douglass showed along the way was nothing short of inspirational and somewhat unbelievable. Douglass went through many difficult things that most people simply would not be able to handle. "He rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger," said Douglass about Mr. Covey, and Mr. Covey was just one harsh man that Douglass had to deal with (Douglass 949). Douglass had to deal with being constantly intimidated and mistreated by Mr. Covey. Douglass said the marks left by Mr. Covey were, "visible for a long time after." (Douglass 949). Violent acts were directed toward him all the time, but they did not stop Frederick. He kept living his life, even though it was not easy.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass
Judging by the way this book reads so far, it is one that I could read in one sitting if I had an afternoon with no other responsibilities. I’m drawn to this type of historical information, whether it is in books, movies, interviews or any other form. I was actually exited when I learned that this was one of the literature pieces that we would be reading this semester.
Fredrick Douglass opens the narrative in a way that immediately grabs my attention. As he stated, he had no accurate knowledge of his age. He said that this was the case with the majority of the slaves he knew. “By far the large part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs” (Douglass 923). He estimates his age based on hearing his master mention that he was about 17 years old in 1835.
It is somewhat difficult to organize my thoughts on this narrative so far, having read such a small portion of the story. I can say that Douglass is very crafty in the way he describes the people in the narrative, more specifically, the masters and overseers. He describes his first master’s overseer, Mr. Plummer as “a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer , and a savage monster (Douglass 925). Another overseer he describes is Mr. Gore. He is described as “proud, ambitious and preserving. He was artful, cruel and obdurate” (Douglass 932).
Fredrick Douglass opens the narrative in a way that immediately grabs my attention. As he stated, he had no accurate knowledge of his age. He said that this was the case with the majority of the slaves he knew. “By far the large part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs” (Douglass 923). He estimates his age based on hearing his master mention that he was about 17 years old in 1835.
It is somewhat difficult to organize my thoughts on this narrative so far, having read such a small portion of the story. I can say that Douglass is very crafty in the way he describes the people in the narrative, more specifically, the masters and overseers. He describes his first master’s overseer, Mr. Plummer as “a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer , and a savage monster (Douglass 925). Another overseer he describes is Mr. Gore. He is described as “proud, ambitious and preserving. He was artful, cruel and obdurate” (Douglass 932).
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Frankenstein 3
At the beginning of Frankenstein not too many bad things happen. Everything goes rather smoothly with no major catastrophes. Then Victor creates his monster, Frankenstein. After the creation, everything seemed go downhill and one bad thing after another happened.
Victor realized what he had done when the monster finally came to life. Once his creation came to life Victor said, "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe." (Shelley 34). From the the beginning Victor reecognized his creatoin as a catastrophe even though the real catastrophes had yet to occur. It did not take long for Victor to become afraid of his creation. The night his creation came to life he attempted to sleep but could not. He woke up to the monster standing over with, "his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me" said Victor about the monster. (Shelley 35). Victor was so terrified he left his apartment for the whole night.
This was just the being of the catastrophes that would haunt Victor. One might say that Victor brought this upon himself, which seems to be apparent. The monster that he obsessed over for so long to create ironically becomes his worst nightmare, taking the lives of the ones he loves, such as his friend Henry.
Victor realized what he had done when the monster finally came to life. Once his creation came to life Victor said, "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe." (Shelley 34). From the the beginning Victor reecognized his creatoin as a catastrophe even though the real catastrophes had yet to occur. It did not take long for Victor to become afraid of his creation. The night his creation came to life he attempted to sleep but could not. He woke up to the monster standing over with, "his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me" said Victor about the monster. (Shelley 35). Victor was so terrified he left his apartment for the whole night.
This was just the being of the catastrophes that would haunt Victor. One might say that Victor brought this upon himself, which seems to be apparent. The monster that he obsessed over for so long to create ironically becomes his worst nightmare, taking the lives of the ones he loves, such as his friend Henry.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Frankenstein song!
I found a song the EVERYONE needs to listen to! its kinda of inappropriate so dont listen to it if arent a vulger person.
go to youtube. type in Frankenstein singing critic.
(its a little british guy singing with a guitar). It is so funny. I chose this song becuase it completely sums up everything about frankenstein and what might be going through his head.
go to youtube. type in Frankenstein singing critic.
(its a little british guy singing with a guitar). It is so funny. I chose this song becuase it completely sums up everything about frankenstein and what might be going through his head.
Dr. Frankenstein
While reading this novel, Victor, besides being the main character, stood out to me the most. His whole life changed when he created the monster and didnt want to fess up to take the blame for it's actions. In the beginning of Victors studies he shut himself off from the social world as well as his family which is what he did at the end of the story too. Alot of people were felling sorry for the monster, but to me, I personally felt sorry for Frankstein because he simply had a passion for life, creating life, and the science behind life. He didnt know that creating life within his monster would have a negative outlook. How was he supposed to know that creating the monster would result in the death of his brother, best friend, and wife, as well as contribute to two other deaths? In science there are consequences to everything but at first no scientist ways out the pro's and con's of what COULD happen, all they are processing is how famous a discover will make them.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Paradise Lost
I found it interesting that Frankenstein’s creature, while observing a family, obtained such a thorough education. He learned the native language, as well as history, government, religion, geography, and the list goes on. I understand that this was necessary for the sake of the story, but I started wondering about the content of the texts that he read. He acquired a copy of Paradise Lost, a volume of Plutarch’s LIves, and the Sorrows of Werther. He read all these books as if they were true history, and when considering the affect they had on him, one must take that fact into consideration.
I randomly picked one of these titles to get a better understanding of what these books were about. Paradise Lost was the winner of my inquiry. It’s basically a narrative of Adam and Eve’s creation, and of how they were exiled from the Garden of Eden. It includes the story of Lucifer, or Satan, who declared war on god and was sent to hell.
I randomly picked one of these titles to get a better understanding of what these books were about. Paradise Lost was the winner of my inquiry. It’s basically a narrative of Adam and Eve’s creation, and of how they were exiled from the Garden of Eden. It includes the story of Lucifer, or Satan, who declared war on god and was sent to hell.
Frankenstein
In all honesty, procrastination has found me a little too willing to employ it in the last few weeks. I have now snapped out of that cycle, but only after I realized that I hadn’t the foggiest clue as to what theme I would choose to write about, and my topic proposal was due the next day. I made up my mind on three different themes, and then changed it again before finally coming to a decision to write about the “Nature vs. Nurture” theme. Finding something that I could write about wasn’t the problem. I could talk all day about obsession, guilt, isolation, loneliness etc. The hard part is actually finding sources that I could use to draw information from for these same themes.
I did find a couple of good sources for my selected theme. One that most closely and plainly reflects my views on the subject is an article by Percy Bysshe Shelly titled, “On Frankenstein”. He begins the article inviting the reader to ponder what might have been the thoughts of the author, to produce such a work of peculiar nature. He then goes on to describe what I would call the tempo of the book. “We are led breathless with suspense and sympathy, and the heaping up of incident on incident, and the working of passion out of passion. We cry “hold, hold! Enough!”- but there is yet something to come; and, like the victim whose history it relates we think we can bear no more, and yet more is to be born.”(Shelley)
Percy Shelly explains that the direct moral of the book is “Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked.”(Shelly) I’m tempted to finish this posting with quotes from this section of the article because they so blatantly reiterate the theme of Nature vs. Nurture as it applies to the Monster. He wasn’t a wicked creature from the day of his creation, but he did not experience a single interaction with a human that didn’t have a negative result.
I did find a couple of good sources for my selected theme. One that most closely and plainly reflects my views on the subject is an article by Percy Bysshe Shelly titled, “On Frankenstein”. He begins the article inviting the reader to ponder what might have been the thoughts of the author, to produce such a work of peculiar nature. He then goes on to describe what I would call the tempo of the book. “We are led breathless with suspense and sympathy, and the heaping up of incident on incident, and the working of passion out of passion. We cry “hold, hold! Enough!”- but there is yet something to come; and, like the victim whose history it relates we think we can bear no more, and yet more is to be born.”(Shelley)
Percy Shelly explains that the direct moral of the book is “Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked.”(Shelly) I’m tempted to finish this posting with quotes from this section of the article because they so blatantly reiterate the theme of Nature vs. Nurture as it applies to the Monster. He wasn’t a wicked creature from the day of his creation, but he did not experience a single interaction with a human that didn’t have a negative result.
Frankenstein
Something caught my attention that I hadn't really thought about until we got our assignment sheet for our annotated bibliography and paper proposal. As I was reading through the list of topics we were provided with, I saw that one of them was about passion versus reason. I hadn't thought about it at all before I read it, but that is exactly what Frankenstein did when he created this monster, put passion before reason. He was very passionate about science after reading the works of Cornelius Agrippa, and even after his father told him he shouldn't be reading it, he continued to be consumed by it. His father said, "Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash" (Shelley 21). This seemed to have made it really strike home for Frankenstein and he continued to read other works, including those of Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. He learned all he could and then used this passion to use science to create his monster. He created this monster without even thinking about what the possible outcomes could be and he ended up hurting those he was closest to.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Frankenstein
The beginning of the book Frankenstein was kind of confusing and hard to follow. The letters Robert was writing to his sister Margaret had me thinking is was going to be this gay sailor writing his siter throughout the whole book. Robert was sad one moment and happy the next, I wasn't really sure if he wanted to be on the voyage or not. He saved a mans life and that man ended becoming something Robert loned for, a friend. Victor wanted to create something like himself. "I should attempt the creation of a human being like mysellf or one more simplier organization.(Shelley 31) So he created the monster, but he didn't know that the monster would act as he did. "How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I endeavored to form?(Shelley 34) The monster haunted Victor and his family. Victor thought he would fight the monster but he didn't, the monster killed his wife Elizabeth on their wedding day. By the end of the story everyone ended up dieing. I think the creation of that monster was very crazy, it took a intelligent man to create it though. The story was interesting after i got past the letters Robert was writing his sister Margaret.
Gullivers Travel
In the stroy Gullivers Travel, Johnathan Swift uses Gulliver, the yahoos and the Houyhnhnms to show the way people are in the world. I think the author may have been a little crazy himself. To me he uses Gulliver as the middle man. Gulliver is not exactly like neither ther yahoos nor the Houyhnhnms and dosen't look like neither of them. He does have something in common with both of them. The yahoos are hairy animals with no tail like apes, and are uncivilized. They were talked about like humans. They are ruled off emotions. The Houyhnhnms were a group of horses, animal like cfreatures. They were civilized and more like Gulliver than the yahoos. They rule and are educated and honest.The way Gulliver acted once he had been gone and the way he felt about humankind, the longer he was away really reminds me of people today. Some people move away or experience a different way of living and start to think badly about the the people they use to be around. The story was very interesting to me, because I can see Gullliver as a person in society today.
Frankenstein
The beginning of the book Frankenstein is interesting.My mind really wondered while reading these letters Robert wrote to his sister margaret. Is Robert gay? Why didn't his sister ever write him back? I think its very interesting the way they find the man . They were stuck between ice and when the ice freed the ship, they saw that they were closer to land than they thought. Robert always told his sister that he wanted, well the one thing he was missing was a friend. After the man he found was in the ship a while he begin to think of the man ass his friend. Robert didn't think he would find a friend. " I said in one of my letters my dear Margaret, that I should find no friend on the wide ocean, yet I have found a man who, before his spirit had been broken by misery, I should have been happy to have possessed as the brother of my heart."(Shelley 15) After reading that it has me thinking maybe just maybe Robert is not gay but lonely.
Frankenstein
The monster seems to mimic Victor very often in the story. More so of wanting a female companion. " You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathetic necessary for my being. This you alone can do, and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse" ( Shelley, 98.) He sees his relationship with Elizabeth and realizes that he is lonely and wants a female for himself.
The monster insists that Victor create a companion. " Shall each man, find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?"(Shelley, 116.) He feels abandonment from Victor and he wants someone that won't leave him. The monster explains to Victor that if he creates a mate/spouse he will leave and travel to an island far away so he will not hurt anyone anymore. Victor believes the monster and agrees.
Victor travels to England to create another being He soon stops his work and realizes that is his unable to trust the monster. He believes that they will marry. have children, and damage more lives. Victor doesn't feel he can take that chance, so he destroys his work. This upsets the monster which he threatens him. " Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful. I will watch the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict...It is well. I go; but remember that I shall be with you on your wedding night."" (Shelley, 116.)
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Frankenstein 2
One might say that Victor made some pretty bad or skeptical decisions throughout the book. One of these decisions would of course be to create Frankenstein. This proved to be not only a very risky situation, but also a very dangerous situation. The "monster", Frankenstein, haunted Victor and his loved ones.
With that being said, one could say that Victor is crazy or stupid, however others might say that he, Victor, is a brave soul. They might say he is brave to take on such an unknown, daunting task that many people would not take on. Either way one might look at it, one might be correct in assuming or thinking this. What can be said for sure, is that this mysterious experiment caused much grief and pain for Victor and his family. For this monster affected not only him, but it affected those around him too, especially those very close to him.
On his wedding night, Victor just knew he would face the monster and they would fight to the death. However this did not happen as he thought it would. Just as Victor had told his wife to go to bed he heard, "a shrill and deadful scream," which deeply concerned him since he had not yet seen his monster (Shelley 135). This is what Victor had to say when he heard the scream, "As I heard, the whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the blood trickling in my veins, and tingling in the extremities of my limbs." (Shelley 135). This shows his complete shock of what just happened, and it also shows just how detailed Mary Shelley writes. Clearly Victor thought he would be fighting the monster, but instead the monster took Victor's wife's life. Victor never saw it coming until it was too late. He was so adament about finding and destroying the monster, that he told Walton to continue his search for the monster after he was dead.
With that being said, one could say that Victor is crazy or stupid, however others might say that he, Victor, is a brave soul. They might say he is brave to take on such an unknown, daunting task that many people would not take on. Either way one might look at it, one might be correct in assuming or thinking this. What can be said for sure, is that this mysterious experiment caused much grief and pain for Victor and his family. For this monster affected not only him, but it affected those around him too, especially those very close to him.
On his wedding night, Victor just knew he would face the monster and they would fight to the death. However this did not happen as he thought it would. Just as Victor had told his wife to go to bed he heard, "a shrill and deadful scream," which deeply concerned him since he had not yet seen his monster (Shelley 135). This is what Victor had to say when he heard the scream, "As I heard, the whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the blood trickling in my veins, and tingling in the extremities of my limbs." (Shelley 135). This shows his complete shock of what just happened, and it also shows just how detailed Mary Shelley writes. Clearly Victor thought he would be fighting the monster, but instead the monster took Victor's wife's life. Victor never saw it coming until it was too late. He was so adament about finding and destroying the monster, that he told Walton to continue his search for the monster after he was dead.
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