Review of Whitman's "Song of Myself"

While I began on the journey of reading Walt Whitman, I became fascinated and confused by his writing style. “Song of Myself” seemed to me to be one giant paradoxical statement. As stated in class, I recognized that Whitman definitely embodies some other infamous poets, like Emerson and Thoreau. His statement shows an insightful portrayal of democracy:
“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.”(Whitman 1240).
Whitman also portrays inception in “Song of Myself” by seeming invincible:
“I know I am deathless,
I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt
stick at night” (Whitman 1254). This passage to me seemed strange. It seems as though Whitman wrote this as if he was detached from reality, with the repetition and the common use of being invinsible.

"Men of Color, To Arms"

Frederick Douglass' speech, "Men to Color, To Arms" is an influential speech which in my opinion can be compared to the “Gettysburg Address.” Douglass dedicated his life to dissipate the “slave holding rebellion.” Douglass urged men to enlist in Massachusetts in Douglass’s Monthly. The impact Douglass had was unthinkable:
Two months later, on May 13, 1863, black volunteers mustered into service as the Fifty-fourth Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, under the command of Robert Gould Shaw. Eventually about 180,000 African Americans served in the Union army during the Civil War (1366).
The persuasion Douglass used was life changing to the Volunteer Infantry. The Infantry marked a crucial period in history, it marked the acts which allowed the enlistment of African Americans. One of my favorite quotes of this speech is as follows:
I am authorized to assure you that you will receive the same wages, the same rations, the same equipments, the same protection, the same treatment, and the same bounty secured to white soldiers. You will be led by able and skilled officers—men who will take especial pride in your efficiency and success. They will be quick to accord to you all the honor you shall merit by your valor—and see that your rights and feelings are respected by other soldiers (1369).

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Comparing and Contrasting Rowlandsons' and Jacobs' Narratives

I took a particular interest this week in the components of slave narratives.  As stated in class, slave narratives have similar elements to captivity narratives.  I have noticed that in both narratives religion is an important aspect.  Perhaps it is used as a mental survival mechanism to keep their hopes high.  However, I observed while comparing Rowlandsons' narrative to Jacobs’ narrative, that in slave narratives they have been more Biblical and spiritual based.  For example, slave narratives were more likely to use psalms as a method of healing, especially while doing labor.  In captivity narratives, I found it interesting that their captor seems to be viewed as a unknown Christian, and savage-like.  However, in slave narratives, the captor seem to be white Christians.  The hypocrisy is, like Douglass states, that capturing slaves and making them do labor isn’t a very “Christian-like” thing to do.  

Slave narratives also had a huge emphasis on literacy since it was prohibited for slaves to learn how to read and write.  Jacobs emphasizes this in the beginning of her narrative to emphasize that writing a narrative was difficult.  Jacobs had to also deal with the strife of her children being born into slavery.  The pain of watching her children grow up through a peep-hole was very apparent and definitely proved that this story was a sentimental narrative.  Jacobs also faced the issue of female chastity by being impregnated by a white man, who then leaves her.  This is vastly different from what happens in Mary Rowlandsons' narrative; she describes more of a culture-shock to her captors. It astounded me that the “woe is me complaint” is much more apparent in Rowlandson’s narrative, while Jacobs’ comes across as a more poised, put-together woman regardless of what she’s been through.  

Fuller: "Our City Charities"

         For this week's blog, I have chosen to analyze "Our City Charities" by Margaret Fuller, simply because I admire her poised writing style.  Fuller's writing reminded me of a modern day female activist.  Her descriptions and propositions for change really intrigued me and I also believe she is a true female role model; Fuller set a precedent for women activists and authors to come.  
        Even though there is a stigma held against people who are incarcerated, Fuller breaks that stigma and explains that those people have needs just like everyone else.  This was an abstract idea at the time because equal education was not yet a proposed idea.  Fuller states: 

Every establishment in aid of the poor should be planned with a view to their education.  There should be instruction, both practical and in the use of books, opening to a better intercourse than they can obtain from their miserable homes, correct notions as to cleanliness, diet, and fresh air(738).

Fuller had the idea to educate those who have not received education to better themselves.  If this idea was still present now, I strongly believe we would have less crimes.  By educating someone who is incarcerated or poor, we are giving them an opportunity to better themselves that they might have never received before.  By doing this, they can learn tasks and possibly enter themselves into the working world.  Fuller was very adamant about the living conditions at the Penitentiary: 

...we entered one of the gloomiest scenes that deforms this great metropolis.  Here are the twelve hundred, who receive the punishment due to the vices of so large a portion of the rest.  And under what circumstances! Never was punishment treated more simply as a social convenience, without regard to pure right, or a hope of reformation(740-741).

    As one can tell, Fuller is extremely passionate about her reports at the Bellevue Alms, the Farm School, and the Asylum for the Insane.  She reports on these places with a tone of hope for the future, as she recommends what she thinks is best for the places with her suggestions about education and cleanliness.  I not only find Fuller brave for her visiting these places, which were stigmatized, but also quite poised in her descriptions and suggestions of these places.

 

Satire: Sedgwick and Seinfeld

      Satire is defined in the dictionary as, “a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which humanfolly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.”   Satire is commonly seen today in media and books.  Satirical literature is unique because authors have to possess a certain humor and irony in their writing to make sure it comes across to the readers. 

          Sedgwick exemplifies satire in “Cacoethes Scribendi” with tradition and gender roles.  The irony is that she portrays Alice to hate writing, although Sedgwick is a female writer.  Sedgwick also makes Alice to be a stereotypical female during the time period who just wants to better herself by becoming the perfect domestic woman, instead of being educated. This reminded me of the traditional story, Pride and Prejudice, where the male figures are often idealized, like Ralph in Sedgwick’s story.  This is also using irony, because Ralph is an average man, but is superior because of gender roles.  Sedgwick also satirizes the topic of marriage in culture because at the end of the story, marriage is seen as a simple thing to do when you are attracted to someone.  In reality, we all know this isn’t the case, but in satire this is a topic that can be easily poked at.

       

      Seinfeld, a popular comedy in the nineties is a renowned source of satire. Seinfeld pokes fun at relationships and uses hyperbole and irony at different things in culture.  For example, in the episode “The Soup Nazi”, Seinfeld pokes fun at the chic hole in the wall restaurant where you have to know exactly how to order or your frowned upon.  The popular show often makes fun of talking points in society, and uses hyperbole to make fun of the point.   Another example, is when the character Elaine, gets tested positive for a drug test after eating a lemon poppy-seed muffin. The audience knows this is ludicrous, but it is seen as satire and humor because of the irony.    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNwbjcuQUv8

Samson Occom: A Short Narrative of My Life

This week, I took a particular interest in Samson Occom’s narrative. There is an overall theme in this narrative of struggle in the Native American community. Occom tries to make a name for himself, but gets cheated by Mr. Wheelock. At the same time, Occom discovers his own religion and becomes a pertinent preacher in the Native American community. Because I also studied Occom in my Native American Literature class, I enjoyed studying him and analyzing the speech more in depth in this class.

Occom plays a very significant role because he set a precedent for Native American Literature in English. Occom was a Mohegan who wrote “A Short Narrative” to refute the claims that he was a showcase. This happened during the First Great Awakening, a religious revival that was focused on a burst of Christianity. The focus during the First Great Awakening was on the Bible rather than the church. This narrative resonated with other Native Americans because they were able to read it and interpret, and feel like they are connected to a bigger population.

The most famous and shocking part of Occom’s narrative is the anecdote he tells about a “Poor Indian boy”. “He said, he did not know, but he Supposed it was because hi could not drive any better; but says he, I drive as well as I know; and at other Times he Beats me, because he is of a mind to beat me; but says he believes he Beats me for the most of the Time “ because I am an Indian”(409).



I believe Occom tells the anecdote to convey a theme about inequality between the British and Native Americans. This anecdote is supposed to capture the Native American audience, and convey the theme of strife. As much as the “Poor Indian boy” tries, he gets defeated by his master because his master is known as the superior.

Bradstreet's Poetry: Repeated through Time?

Throughout American literature, poetry has been used as a creative outlet to express historic movements, change, friendship, grief, and among other things romance. One poet I took a liking to was Anne Bradstreet. As stated in class, Puritan poets are to instruct more than to delight. When writing “A Letter to her Husband” she used metaphysical symbols associated with the body: “ I, like the Earth this season, mourn in black, My Sun is gone so far in’s zodiac, Whom whilst I ‘joyed, nor storms, nor frost I felt, His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt”(183).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzF87zDXlUQ





I believe that Anne Bradstreet set a precedent for women in literature and poetry. Anne’s use of heartfelt symbols such as marriage might have set a precedent for thematically intertwining marriage and poetry. Bradstreet’s poem, “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment.” The style and rhythm of this poem was very similar to me. From looking at the poems of Anne Bradstreet, I immediately related them to those of Gjertrud Schnakenberg, more specifically the poem “Love Letter.”

I studied Gjertrud Schnackenberg in a Poetry class last year, and was fascinated by her ability to convey strong emotions onto the readers. “Love Letter” is strikingly similar to “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment” because they are both odes to their men whom they wish were closer to them. Not only that, but there use of minute objects around them come to life, such as Schnakenberg's sheets, or Bradstreet's zodiac symbols.



Love Letter: Gjertrud Schnakenberg

Dear love, though I am a hopeless correspondent,
I found your letter habits lacking too
Till I received your card from H.-lulu.
It made me more-than-slightly-less despondent
To see how you transformed your ocean swim
Among dumb bubble-blowers into meters
And daffy rhymes about exotic tweeters
Beyond your balcony at 2 a.m.

I went to bed when you went to Hawaii,
And shut my eyes so tightly I saw stars,
And clenched my sheets like wadded-up memoirs
And made some noise like wah-wah-wah, i.e.,
I find your absence grimly problematic.
The days stack up like empty cardboard boxes
In ever-higher towers of cardboard
Swaying in senseless-lost-time's spooky attic.
I'll give the -atic rhyme another try.
To misconstrue the point-of-view Socratic,
Life is a painful stammered-out emphatic
Pronunciation of the word Goodbye.

Or, as it came out on the telephone,
Sooner-the-better is the way I see it:
Just say, "I guess not"; I'll reply, "So be it."
Beloved, if you throw this dog a bone,
TO readopt the stray-dog metaphor,
I'll keep my vigil till the cows come home.
You'll hear me howling over there in Rome.
I have no explanations, furthermore--
But let me say I've had it up to here
With scrutinizing the inscrutable;
The whys and how-comes of immutable
Unhesitating passion are unclear--

I don't love you because you're good at rhymes,
And not because I think you're not-so-dumb,
I don't love you because you make me come
And come and come innumerable times,
And not for your romantic overcoats,
And not because our friends all say I should,
And not because we wouldn't or we would
Be or not be at one another's throats,
And not because your accent thrills my ear--
Last night you said not "sever" but "severe,"
But then "severe" describes the act "to sever"--
I love you for no reason whatsoever.

And that's the worst, as William S. the Bard
Wrote out in black-and-white while cold-and-hot:
Reasons can be removed, but love cannot.
The comic view insists: Don't take it hard,
But every day I'm pacing up and down
The hallway till I drive my neighbors mad,
And evenings come with what-cannot-be-had
As lights blink on around this boring town,
Whence I unplug the phone and draw the shade
And drink myself half-blind and fantasize
That we're between the sheets, your brilliant eyes
Open me and, bang, we have it make--
When in reality I sit alone
And, staring at my hands, I think "I think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink"
While hating everything I've always known
About how you and I are sunk as well.

Under the aspect of eternity
The world has already ended anyway.
And, without you, my life can go to hell
On roller skates, as far as I'm concerned.
Two things are clear: these quatrains should be burned,
And love is awful, but it leads us to
Our places in the human comedy,
Frescoes of which abound in Italy.
And though I won't be sitting next to you,
I'll take my seat with minimal complaints.
May you sit in the company of saints
And intellectuals and fabulous beauties,
And not forget this constant love of Trude's.

The Emphasis and Correlation of Religion and Education in Puritan Times

     


 As I was going through this week’s readings, I realized that religion and education were prominent and essential aspects of Puritan life.  I found this intriguing, because as stated in class, Puritanism started out as a minority religion, and rapidly grew in popularity.  As strong as religion and education are in our society today, they were even more essential for Puritans because they would often go hand-in-hand. Nowadays however, teaching religion is controversial and frowned upon.


While reading, I was engrossed with the Puritan correlation between religion and education.  For the Puritans, they not only went hand-in-hand, but they “viewed education as a means of promoting religious orthodoxy and social stability”(100).  I found this interesting because much like today, as one increases their capacity for education, they are more likely to feel social stability.  In the 1600s however, education was an instant variable to be more proficient in religion: “they placed great emphasis on the ability of individuals to read and interpret the Bible”(99).  The Puritans had an incentive to learn because it would bring them closer to God, as well as being able to interpret the Bible.  

Initial Thoughts on Native American Literature

When defining American Literature, one has to keep in mind that the topic has many layers and definitions.  We cannot simply define American Literature because it does consist of cultures from the North, South, European, African and more. While analyzing the readings from this week, I took a particular interest in Native American literature and history.  


I am deeply fascinated with Native American oral culture.  This is almost unheard of in this day-and-age, simply because we waste away our precious time with technology.  Everyone is too busy, our society doesn't look up from their phones, we don't pay attention, and so often we interrupt when someone is telling their story. Who or what has turned us into these creatures? And how are we going to survive in the future if no one is paying attention now? 


The Native Americans created this oral culture to pass along ideas and stories, but also to persuade others of their stories.  Although outsiders may have copied their story-telling, tribes had a captivating way to entertain that no one else could emulate.  While learning about oral culture, I started to reflect on American traditions that could have derived strictly from Native Americans.  For example, improvisational comedy, slam poetry, or plays.  Can we necessarily call these "American", or do they derive from the tribes who discovered America first?  Comedy in general reminds me of Native American oral culture, because comedians tell their stories to an audience, strictly for purpose of entertainment.  I strongly believe that Americans try to claim that everything is theirs, when really a lot of our culture derives from other cultures who don't receive enough credit.  


As my last point, I would like to talk about Native American culture and how it is romanticized.  In my Native American Literature class, we discussed the fact that it is romanticized because people don't have a full idea of what exactly the different tribes do.  Some people might think that it is spiritual or "Native American-like" to have a dreamcatcher (as Dr. Long stated), or to sit around a fire, or go hunting.  When in actuality a lot of tribes don't hunt all day, instead they fish.  My Native American Literature teacher, Danica Miller, introduced us to a Sherman Alexie poem, "How to write the great American Indian novel", a poke at what outsiders think of Native Americans:


"Indian men are horses, smelling wild and gamey. When the Indian man
unbuttons his pants, the white woman should think of topsoil.
There must be one murder, one suicide, one attempted rape.
Alcohol should be consumed. Cars must be driven at high speeds.
Indians must see visions. White people can have the same visions
if they are in love with Indians. If a white person loves an Indian
then the white person is Indian by proximity. White people must carry
an Indian deep inside themselves. Those interior Indians are half-breed
and obviously from horse cultures. If the interior Indian is male
then he must be a warrior, especially if he is inside a white man.
If the interior Indian is female, then she must be a healer, especially if she is inside
a white woman. Sometimes there are complications."  

This is a classic example of the stereotypes that are correlated with Native Americans.  Sherman Alexie pokes fun at this, but he does it to raise a point.  Because a lot is unknown about Native Americans, we are quick to judge, or make up stories, or romanticize their culture. However instead, we should be intrigued and willing to learn about the primary people who came to America.