De Las Casas
Of all the stories so far, I can relate to the De Las Casas reading the most. De Las Casas was all for Native American rights. He actually witnessed the cruelty that the Indians of Hispaniola encountered from the Spaniards. I related to this story the most because it reminded me a lot of how African Americans suffered through the same cruelty as the Indians did. In De Las Casas "The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies" it talked about how Indians were separated from their families and beaten. Also, how some wives were raped by the Spaniards in front of their husbands. Very harsh images came to my mind while reading this. The Spaniards would even do harm to children and babies. The Spaniards would chop up women and children, stab them, drown them, and even burn them to death.
When I first wrote this blog I really didn’t realize just how bad Native Americans were treated by the Spaniards and it really opened my eyes.
Champlain/John Smith
There was a great deal of issues with the first encounters of the early Europeans of Native Americans. One encounter in particular I found interesting was Samuel De Champlain. Champlain was a Frenchman who went on expeditions through Saint Lawrence and made many Indian allies along the way. One group of Indians in particular were the Iroquois. He bonded very well with them and one day a combat broke out between the Iroquois and their enemies in which the Iroquois ended up being victorious. What I really found to be grotesque though was what the Iroquois did to their captured enemies after the combat. They ripped out their fingernails and would burn the penis. They would even scalp the prisoners, take out their heart, cut it up, and would make the brother of the victim eat it!! But in the end Champlain departed with the understanding of the mutual friendship he formed with the Indians and he promised to them he would be there for them like a brother.
Now we have the legendary Englishmen Captain John Smith who is most known for his establishment of the new colony Jamestown. As a little girl I was first introduced to John Smith in the Disney movie Pocahontas.
Oh yes I see the great resemblance (sarcasm). But there were some great similarities between the movie and from the actual events. John Smith was indeed a leader and encourager as in the movie. One day while Smith was looking for food along the river he was captured by the Powhatan tribe and taken to the chief. He also befriended the chief’s daughter Pocahontas who ultimately saved him from being executed by laying her head over his which also all happened in the movie.
I really feel this was one of my strongest blogs. At first, I really didn’t know much about Champlain. It was interesting to learn that he actually made allies with the Indians versus taking over their land as other explorers did. What I found even more interesting was the story of John Smith and Pocahontas. Up until the reading I thought what the Disney movie portrayed was actually true and it did have some truth but from the reading I also discovered way more detail and things left unsaid and uncaptured by the movie as far as Smith’s capturing and actual relationship with Pocahontas.
Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth”
Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 as the tenth son out of a total of fifteen children and he lead quite a life. As a child, Franklin attended Grammar School but was shortly put out and forced to work with his father. His father was a soap boiler which really was not much of Franklin’s interest. He eventually moved on and started working alongside his brother at his publishing company. Franklin had a natural knack for writing and science. One of his published works that really influenced me and was also very relatable is his “The Way to Wealth” because it contained various proverbs I found to be interesting. He writes it under the pen name Richard Saunders. The message Franklin tries to send through this essay is to basically work hard for your wealth, save your money, and be wise with the decisions you make in life, not only just financially but with everything. There were two proverbs that particularly caught my eye.
“Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse;
E’er fancy you consult, consult your purse.”
This quote was very applicable to me in that I am the typical woman and I love to shop. There was one time where my mom gave me a set budget for the week. I found myself in the shopping mall wanting this really pretty dress, problem was that the dress cost nearly my set budget for the week. So guess what I did? Yep! I bought the dress anyway; I just had to have it. When my mom found out though she really ripped me a new one. I definitely learned my lesson though and I understand that Franklin is saying that whatever luxury item you may want to purchase, consult your funds and make sure you make a wise financial decision. Some things you just have to wait to have.
“God gives all things to industry,
Then plow deep while the sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.”
What I got from this proverb is that working hard for the wealth you want, pays off and you have to. Every morning you may not feel like getting up going to work, but you have to do what you have to do. Let those that sleep in sleep on and you go make your money.
Reflecting back on this blog, it definitely taught me to spend money more wisely and realize what is more of a priority financially first. It also taught and reassured me that anything worth having is worth working hard for and sometimes we have to put our laziness aside and get out there and work to make a decent living.
Rip Van Winkle/Self-Reliance
The story of Rip Van Winkle is a tale about a man from a small Dutch village who basically spends more time tending to other people’s business than his own. He does this and neglects his own farm and family, in particular his nagging wife Dame Van Winkle. Who wouldn’t want to get away from that right? Rip goes off and somehow falls asleep for 20 years and sleeps through the American Revolution. When he goes back to his village nobody recognizes him and believes he’s a spy. He tells his story to the village and they all just think he’s crazy. His daughter comes out of the crowd and explains everything. Rip then finds out that his wife Dame passed away from popping a blood vessel. He then goes on to live with his daughter and her family. The moral of this story I believe teaches you to not take what you have for granted and appreciate it. Rip’s adventure he has can symbolize a fantasy and escape through imagination.
In the essay Self-Reliance, Emerson really goes on to say that relying on yourself and your own thoughts and ideas is the ideal thing to do. He claims that having your own mind and thoughts can classify you as being a genius. Emerson also uses famous ideal figures such as Christ to basically say that history’s greatest thinkers were outcasts for their first ideas.Me being a Disney fanatic I thought of “Hakuna Matata” from the Lion King. I felt that ultimately Emerson doesn’t want us to have any worries about what other people think of our ideas and to just be confident with what you feel.
When writing this blog it really reiterated and illustrated how you really don’t appreciate what you have until its gone and how your whole world can change from it. Also, Emerson made me realize that it is ok to think differently than the majority, to speak your mind, and to have your opinions about things. It’s ok to be and think differently and we shouldn’t let that be a worry for us.
Young Goodman Brown/The Birthmark
Young Goodman Brown is the short story about a man who ultimately loses his faith and faces temptation along the way. In the beginning, he leaves his wife named Faith who is young and very trusting of Goodman, to go on an adventure. Goodman initially ignores Faith when she tells him of all the disturbing dreams he has, but later regrets it when he sees his wife participating in the evil ceremony. This short story teaches the lesson that by giving into to temptation sometimes you really don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. In the end, Goodman loses his Faith, in more ways than one. This story also brings up the issue of trust because in the end, after experiencing the evil ceremony, Goodman no longer trusts anyone. I feel that no one should be gullible and just trust in everybody or everything you hear, but at the same time everyone should have at least a few select people that they can trust with anything in order to be a happy and stable human being.
The Birthmark is a short story about a scientist that tries to change a feature about his wife into something he thinks to be “ideal”. Aylmer’s wife Georgiana is this beautiful kind hearted woman who really only has one noticeable flaw which is her birthmark on the left side of her face. She is fine with the birthmark as it is but her husband manages to convince her to get rid of the birthmark and he gives her a potion that ultimately ends up killing her in the end. Unfortunately this is even a problem in today’s society, more so with women. So many people have one perception of what they believe is considered the “ideal” look when in reality they forget to realize that everyone is uniquely and wonderfully made. Everyone is not meant to be a size 2 or be a cover model, but you have to learn to embrace your imperfections and except the fact you are amazing just the way you are. There is no way to please everyone, if your main goal in life is to do so you will be one miserable person and can end up killing yourself in a physical and/or mental sense.
Looking back on this blog, it made me realize how us as a people are so wrapped up on our looks and are really to go through extreme measures to look what’s so called “ideal” even to the extreme of possibly losing your life. There is no way to please everyone. All that truly matters is how you feel about yourself, how confident you are with yourself, and the person you are inside. We have to realize we are perfectly imperfect and to embrace our imperfections, not hide, change, or fix them.
Fanny Fern and Feminism
The famous and infamous Fanny Fern was a well known popular female feminist writer of the 19th century. Her birth name though was Sarah Willis Brown. Fern was very controversial for her time. The subjects that Fern would write about including events in her personal life were just plain unheard of for women during that time period. By the 1850’s she was the highest paid columnist in the U.S. What really caught my attention in reading her introduction is that when her first husband passed away from an illness, she remarried another man whom she said turned out to be jealous and repulsive. She left him after two years which was a very revolutionary act and quite ironic because normally you’ll see the opposite happening in a marriage. At the height of her success she remarried again and made him sign a prenup so he would not get any money from her writings, yet another controversial act for a woman of this time period.
“Aunt Hetty in Matrimony” Fern basically tells the story of an Aunt speaking to young girls about how awful marriage can be and how their husband will not show any appreciation for them. In “Hungry Husbands” she speaks about how basically a man that is full on food is very easy to take advantage of so feed him well and get him full and basically he’ll be under his woman’s spell. In “Male Criticism on Ladies’ Books” Fern basically states how male writers are criticizing her works and that they are envious because her works are doing better than hers. I love how at the end of this piece she is so blunt and tells them like is with no remorse saying
Finally in “A Law More Nice than Just” she tells the story of a woman who reads in the paper that another woman had been arrested for wearing men’s clothing which during that time was against the law. In turn, the woman puts on her husband’s clothes to make herself appear like a man and goes out in public. In today’s society it is quite normal and in style to see a woman wearing clothing inspired by men’s clothing, such as suits, blazers, boyfriend tees, jeans, etc.
Personally, I really love and enjoyed Fanny’s works. I am all for women being treated equally as men and it is nice to see a strong courageous woman of this time period speak out against the norm. It was very encouraging and inspirational for me.
This blog just reminded me of how inspired I was by a woman who was all about feminism and women’s right, especially during that era where women were looked upon as inferior to men. Fanny Fern was a woman that was not intimidated or afraid to speak her mind either. Also, as I mentioned in the blog I just could not get over the fact that she made her third husband sign a prenuptial agreement! I just found that and still find it to be so hilarious.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass’s Narrative really revolutionized and introduced a whole new genre of literature, the slave-narrative. His narrative influenced other fiction slave narratives such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Douglass himself is known today as one of the greatest leaders of the abolitionist movement. In the Narrative Douglass speaks about his real story of being born into slavery and eventually getting himself out of it along with all the obstacles he overcame along the way. Douglass came across to me as a heroic figure in this story and also was very inspirational to people of the time it was written and even now to this day. He was very determined to get himself the best life he possibly could have and would stop at nothing to do so. When he was told he shouldn’t learn how to read, he went and found a way to do so anyway. Frederick even finally stood up to one of his masters and told him that he would no longer tolerate being treated like an animal and be beat. Those two events alone were very inspirational to me and very reassuring that I can do anything I want to do as long as I stay determined and work hard for it. I am also the type of person like Frederick in that if someone tells me I can’t do something, I have to prove them wrong, I’m determined to prove them wrong. Especially with me going into the medical field which is really white male dominated, and myself being a black female, I’ve already heard from people that I will never make it and that I should choose another route and that further just motivates me to prove them wrong and work even harder than I have been. Its individuals like Frederick Douglass and other leaders of Civil rights that really keep me going and also prove that anything is possible.
The subject of this blog was very emotional and an eye opener for me as well. Of course I learned about the general things about Frederick Douglass through past history classes but not nearly to the extent as what I discovered from the reading. I never knew his whole life story and it was so inspiring, especially me being an African American as well. I love how even all that he went through in his life he never gave up. Also, as mentioned in my blog he was told that he couldn’t do something and that just made him want to do it more. That’s exactly how I am as well.
Emily Dickinson/Louisa May Alcott
Emily Dickinson was probably the most prominent romantic poet of her time. She captured people through her own emotions and rhythmic techniques. She gets her point across in her poems using a very small amount of words. Most of her poetry dealt with the subjects of nature, sexuality, religion, and death. Even though Emily was born into a Protestant family, she was very alone. She stayed upstairs in her parents house all alone for most of her life. She was diagnosed with Bright’s disease and because of that she felt that society would not give her a chance or understand her. I can relate to that personally because there are plenty of times where I feel I am misunderstood. A lot of her poetry would deal along the lines of death because she witnessed all her family and close friends dying before her. From reading her poems I could tell she was very interested in sex and passion and probably had many lovers, at least one being female. Poem 269 she used a compass and a chart to illustrate love making between a man and a woman. As far as death, she personified it and was at peace with it. She said she would be ok if death came and whisped her away because she has not paid much attention to it.
Louisa May Alcott was and American novelist and best known for her novel Little Women. Alcott was very much so an abolitionist and a feminist. Her short story My Contraband was about a nurse who has interest in a black contraband, Robert. She shows Robert great affection and comfort but however she knows that she cannot love him. She knows that she cannot get caught touching and soothing him although Robert is 3 quarters white. Clearly Nurse Dane is an abolitionist as well just like Alcott. Ultimately Nurse Dane views Robert as a lower form of human existence but doesn’t really realize it. That can go for anyone. We always do things and mean no harm by it, but ultimately it could be affecting or hurting someone else without us even realizing it. There are just a lot of things we are blind to.
Lastly, Emily Dickinson and Louisa May Alcott. Since this is my most recent blog, I really don’t have many reflections. I can just say that from Dickinson, she made me have different perspectives on love, nature, and religion the way that she viewed it. I never thought of any of those subjects in any other form. I just thought she captured her thoughts in poetry so beautifully. As for Alcott, “My Contraband” was really shocking how the caucasian nurse had feelings for the African American contraband being as that was not normal or even accepted for that time.
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