Thankful

While I was planning on lazing about and spending my five day weekend doing relatively nothing, which I enjoy thoroughly,  I need to do some work in order to honor this holiday season of Thanksgiving, the wonderful reason why I have this long weekend. Though the things I’m really thankful for are the wonderful elements of my casual lifestyle, a warm home, good food, and loving family, but what I really need to be thankful for (in this entry at least), is my friends at school who I see almost every day, specifically my friends in Mr. McCarthy’s Seventh Period American Literature class.

                Now I can assure you that I love everyone in that class equally, they’re all fabulous people who I can talk about in every way for pages upon pages, but I’d rather not do that. So I’ll focus on just one them, Holly Situ. Holly, you are a strange, sad little woman. Trust me, I will talk about how you’re cool, but need to get that fact straight first. With that being said, you’re also a spectacularly entertaining person. No matter what the situation, you always seem to make me laugh or at least mildly amused. Just for that, I’d say that you’re worth thanking. Hope you and everyone else has a happy holiday weekend.

I Celebrate Myself

            When asked to define my identity, I often have trouble answering. So talking about how I celebrate that same identity that I myself don’t understand that well would seem pretty difficult. So to do so, I guess that I’ll have to define myself first.
            I see myself as a dreamer with high ambitions, but I can’t really say that I have any real talents or activities to do. I often find myself in my room thinking about what to do with my life, and end up spending quite a bit of time lying around doing nothing. From that alone, it’s hard to come up with something that I do to celebrate that person, the lazy good for nothing. But I notice that that boy changes quite a bit when he goes to school and spends time with his friends. I realize that care a lot for them, and can think of quite a good number of times where I’ve really done what I can to help them for the best. Such a contrasting character from my own norm has lead me to find something that I can proudly say that I celebrate about myself. That thing is spending my time with my friends and the people I care about. I can say this because I feel like I’m really doing something when I’m spending time with them. I’m achieving something when their by my side, and I think that that thing can be described as my own sense of self.

Poe

Dark, dreary, and dreadful, and alliteration filled, the works of Edgar Allan Poe are certainly something else, and their contributions to the movements of early Romanticism are undeniably large, but whether or not they’re really remarkable pieces of literature or just scary stories to be told around a rather sophisticated campfire is up for debate.

 I bring this question up because the stories and poems we've been reading have been filled with elements of fantasy and horror, but very unclear plots and undefined aspects of traditional story. I guess that in a way this unique trait about them is what makes them amazing, as they really emphasize the key aspects of horror and imagination over the normal styles of the time. This stylization goes hand in hand with the Romantic period of American literature, and as is explained and heavily influenced by the life of the author.

 To get a deeper understanding of his works, we need to get a deeper understanding of Poe. Edgar Allan Poe lived a financially and emotionally difficult life, mostly on his own. He experienced the frequent loss of loved ones and failure to find a stable career and happiness. Such a tragic life would definitely lead to inspiration for his dark tales, and would appear to give them much deeper meaning to both him and the reader.

            With this in mind, my own evaluation of Poe’s works has changed quite a bit. Overlooking their shallow depth with extraordinary detail is one thing, but the add on to that depth greatly with a sense of background and context is something that really enhances the reading experience to me, and makes me look at the stories in a greater sense.

What is an American?

            When you think of Americans, you might think of freedom and bald eagles and all other kinds of patriotic stuff. You might also think of gun-toting, overweight, rednecks but whatever. Many people also regard being American as its own ethnicity, but when you really think about it, America is a massive hub of immigrants, some of whom barely care for or understand what’s supposed to be American culture. So then we come to the question, what really is an American?
            Well in my opinion, an American is anyone who acknowledges and appreciates their way of life here in this country, regardless of what color their skin is, how much money they have, or where they came from. Our constitution states that the only thing we have to do to be seen as an American is to take a simple test about the country, and that’s it. With that in mind, it’s much more un-American to judge others based on their roots than them being here.

            Seeing how it is our constitutional right to be acknowledged as an American citizen, it seems easy enough to become one. But what about the people who are already living here? What makes them consider themselves more American than whatever place they came from? While I understand that some people would rather to keep close to their heritage and traditions than adopt American ones, I also think that people who embrace so called American culture are prevalent enough to warrant a side in this debate.

            So when we get down to it; what is an American? To me, being an American just means that this is where you live and where you can call home. You can practice whatever you want, no matter where you are from, and I would still consider it American.

Modern Puritans

From what we've been reading about them, being a Puritan in today’s fun-long, liberal society would definitely be a drag. We've been reading about their way of life in stories such as The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter in class, and we've learned a lot about the strict, conservative policies they live by. To put it simply, they hate fun, and how they would live in the present is beyond me. But despite my doubt, there are clearly many examples of their lifestyle that remain leftover from the past.
                While the Puritans would likely believe doing anything we consider normal or, dare I say, fun, to be heretical signs of following the devil, they would seemingly approve of some aspects of our life. This is of course seen in several religious or conservative aspects in today’s media and culture, specifically, those who believe strictly in practices keeping the close to God and by their standards, “normal”. While these beliefs are in direct contrast to the way many tolerant and open-minded people live their lives, they’re still very prevalent in our society. Though to be fair, their beliefs are much less rigorous than they used to be, a clear effect of time. Whether or not they will stay around forever is definitely a question that only time will answer. However, I’m sure that as time goes on, people will surely embrace having a lenient, fun lifestyle.

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge

In “The Crucible” the character John Proctor can be viewed as a deeply conflicted character, but whether or not his final actions before his exaction can be viewed as heroic and noble or dumb and pointless is questionable. We've all read the book in class, so don’t complain about spoilers; Proctor lies to authorities by signing his confession to witchcraft and is to be kept from execution and eventually let free, but by doing so his confession will be posted for the whole town to see his guiltiness. Despite being urged to bear with this by his friends so he can escape certain death, Proctor refuses to allow his name to be sullied for a crime he did not commit and instead tears up his confession papers, which he sees as a final act of defiance against the law system of Salem, and is left to his fate, much to the chagrin of his peers.
            While this is meant to be seen as one last heroic stand, it is easy for today’s readers who have very different views on things like pride and chivalry to see this action as a very dimwitted move. Though this can be easily argued for, I view Proctor’s decision to be a respectable one of courage. Because many of the other accused did what Proctor did not and feigned their criminal actions to save themselves, Proctor went against the stagnant and corrupt flow and fought for something he believed, sort of in a way to give himself retribution for his other heavy sins. Since he did such a bold thing, I feel that his end was that of a hero.

"There Goes the Neighborhood"

Put yourself in this scenario: You’re at your house, just chillaxing without having a care in the world, and all of sudden you hear some ruckus outside. You get up and look outside your window, and you notice something odd. Whether it’s a group of young hooligans, general weirdos  or whatever other outcasts you aren't familiar with, it’s a group of people you and your neighborhood have never seen before. Now, you’re not biased, you are a kind and welcoming person who is excited to meet and greet these new people and make them feel at home in their new society…
            They however, are not nearly as courteous, and despite you and your neighbors attempt to welcome them, they don’t pay you any heed or respect as they trample all over the things you find precious without much care, taking your food and resources, making their own settlements over your land, and blatantly disregarding your existence and best wishes.
            This scene that you’ve imagined yourself in is that of the Native Americans when the explorers of Europe came to their continent. This is of course a major injustice towards humanity in general, and a completely shameful occurrence to the Native people. What makes this even worse if how their history is taught today, as us settlers aren’t painted in such an ugly color. It’s unfair for events like this to happen to any group of people, but the only away for us to realize that is if it happens to us.

Me

"Me"

I never thought I'd ever write a blog, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be doing, but this is just for school, so I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be too casual. Anyway, this post is supposed to be about me.

I guess that I'll tell you who I am, where I come from, and what I'm looking forward to this year. Growing up in Beverly and living there from Grades K to the 6 was pretty fun and easy, and I have lots of great memories with my friends. I spent my last 2 years of grade school at Lenart where I met several friends who go with me now to Whitney Young. I had an amazing Freshman year here and especially enjoyed my first English class, so I'm really looking forward to working with Mr. McCarthy.

Now as a Sophomore, I feel like I'm a lot more experienced and deal with high school work much more easily, so I'm definitely ready for any challenge. Although I'm not too sure what we'll be doing with these blogs, I'm hoping that this little bio will be and okay start.

Here's hoping for a good new school year!