Aren't I a Woman Response

Dejection and anguish is a constant remedy presented to beings considered insignificant. Those who seek to disobey the decrees layed out will for ever in a day remember pain, as is the mind set placed into them to believe that brighter days do not exist. Of Course, there is always an execption: should you be a Caucasian or one belonging to true woman-hood, then the concept of despair does not apply. In Sojourner Truth’s text, “Aren’t I a Woman?” the author seeks to break that negative mind set that holds those of her own in bondage. Physically, slavery has ended for those in the African American community. However, mentally, they are still held. Truth does not focus on “Negros” per say, her attention is drawn more towards the women of her society. Who even when they are no longer bounded by slavery, they are considered to be at the lowest of ranks and continue to be dehumanized. This battle for recognition takes on a serious note. Truth gets her message of awakening the voice within women across using an unexpected use of word choice, a playful underlining tone, and tends to become thoroughly vivid in her use of imagery. The author structures her text in a way that it grabs oppressors presented in her tale that enough is enough.

“Well children, where there is so much racket there must be some-thing o’kilter”. (Sojourner Truths). Upon first reading this text, there is nothing beyond the ordinary about it. However, there is a purpose to why the sentence is structured in the manner that it is written. Without implying it the author cautions readers to remember the audience in which she’s speaking to. Truth is not speaking to children, but rather grown women. Her use of diction allows readers to understand that though the audience she speaks to are women, they still have the mental capacity of children. Truth in her own way has evolved. The now present author who was once a slave herself raised herself from the degrading state the world placed her under. Another keen perspective the author employs readers to take note of is that perhaps even her use of diction can conflict with her audience. She wants the women of her community to understand why the mind set of being worthless no longer affects her. Before Truth even opens her mouth to speak just by gazing on her skin color, the comparison of her audience to her skin color based on appearance will be “she is just like me”. However, when she begins to speak there is a difference. Though those in the African American race look alike, she has evolved in believing that there is a future for women where “they too will be lifted over ditches, and have the best place everywhere”. The writer does not require inspiration, she’s rather there to inspire since she is
not the one sitting in the crowd.

“Look at me”! These words do not present itself in the same playful tone as the writer gives her speech. Her words are commanding and not only does it take the attention that it deserves, it also creates a vivid image to readers that it is not a pleasant thing they are forced to gaze upon when the author asks them to look at her. Standing before the audience is not as one will imagine a graceful being who has managed to avoid all of life’s challenges and become successful. Truth can stand before these women because she shares the same scars as they do. Herself appearance is evident enough. The author has indeed increased in knowledge; however the scars to remind her how she got to that position will never alter. When presenting her own self as imagery, readers are introduced to how stern the author is. Truth takes a step back from the underlining playful tone she used to grab readers attention when she first began her tale.

There are those it has been said about them that they will never make it. The curse of society’s way structure and reason has set it in a way that that their mind has been embedded deeply to believe this concept. However, there are always those who know and have the right words to say to break that mental negative mind set and stand waiting until they see a future worth speaking of for all.

Negro Spiritual Verse

If it was left up to you-I would be dead
Was it left to you-already would I have been destroyed
But God is not like you-He will see me through

This life I am leading-in this lifetime
Wherever I pass- it ends ill
Oh God-come to my aid and every pain will subside
My God speak for me
Speak-save me and revive me
My God Speak and everything will be calmed

Slavery Response

Pleading a justified can be proved to be difficult especially when a person knows that deep down there right. There are those who fight for what is already theirs. For an illustration, property is not always the most valuable of assets. Sometimes, thought, words, and even emotions are equivalent to any priceless entity. However, just like any material can be stolen, so can the ones that are not even seen but rather felt. In the African American community, words and thoughts that were voiced by that slavery held bondage are in a way stolen as if they were literally a substance. Slave history consisted on selective information released by slave holders. The nature of cruel intent is seen through the fact that these slaves have been bushed to the very bottom and yet it is not enough. Though their bodies have already surrendered to Caucasians, their mental capacity to reason has also been stripped away.

“He took her into the kitchen, and stripped from neck to waist, leaving her neck shoulders, and back entirely naked.” Throughout the text, women serve as imagery to the abuse which they endured. As Douglas states “I hid myself in a closet. As Douglass watches, he uses this sense of imagery demonstrates that slavery for both Douglas and Jacob is not only a physical control but also a mental control. As Douglas and Jacob write, they witness the cruelty humanity is capable of, one can visualize the face of a horror stricken child who can do nothing but watch. It is made clear that slavery is sustained not through natural superiority of whites, but through natural concrete and contrived strategies of gaining and holding power over blacks.

To despise and have a hate that runs so deep that it has the capacity to engulf and cause others to suffer is beyond true human intent. Fragile minds have no way to wrap their minds around this concept. Yet, there are those who do. It is rather impulsive that those who have to wrap their minds around this concept are relatively children. Such is the life of those slavery holds captive.

Self-Reliance Responce

To some level of indulgence, to be self-seeking is one of the most repulsive characteristics contained in a being. Though not realized, this trait is one of the key ingredients in the human soul. It is a necessity. Most humans consider caring for your self and looking out for your preeminent interest to be selfishness. However there is a thin line between to be altrustic and to be selfish. In Emerson’s text, the author challenges individuals that above all, including society, nation, religion, or even any other institution of thought, one must first have the capacity to manage their own affairs, make their own judgement, and provide for themselves. This ideology is not the equivalent to narcissism.

Words layered upon words are trivial with the speaker as though there is no unambiguous way to illustrate the neccessity for individuals to take matters into their own hands. Emphasism on this neccessity is drawn through Emerson’s use of diction. In no doubt are there infinite ways in demonstrating and voicing the author’s thoughts. “Do not look outside of your self”. The capability of another being does not disqualify another personally to be incapable. Candidly, to take matters into your hand, can be terrfiffying. Free will is wanted by almost all, but is not always wisely willded. The words “Do not” is in its self a command. It is a challenge from the aurthor to his audience to not allow society’s label be who they are. Emerson employs readers to consider them selves as precious. The author’s words are not a condemnation but rather encouragement. Despite all it is that hinders man from believing the author believes that there is a gift hidden in every soul. Should they hand it over to be exploited by any form of institution then it is the identical to saying free will is not essential for them.

To destroy a person, the best way is for them to have everything they want without quarrel or effot. When faced wih the real world, as a one steps out of their sheltered shell, everything they have come to know begins to crumble. Should that being be able to rely on them selves, then the key ingredient to defining themselves in society is discipline. The most difficult things to speak of are one’s own self. It is always difficult since life must illuminate good deeds to be considered. Perhaps even equivalnet to another in society. Society tends to have the ability of shaking any foundation, which is why when dealing with society discipline has to prevail above everything else.

There are times when expectation from society takes over, even free will that was never in a person’s hands is felt in some way to be taken away. To a great extent there is constant revelation towards how undemanding censure can be passed around. “Society somewhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its strangers”. Reflected in Emerson’s eyes, the world on its own does not favor its inhabitants. Thus, it appears rather odd to live a life that seeks to please those who seek your down fall.

The best way to win those whose mind are set tradittionally to leave decisions and choices in the hands of others, is to endow with flamboyant images. “Cast the bantling on the rocks”. In other words, emit burdens that were not even yours away. One can easily imagine that rocks do not feel. Something that does not feel is sure to avoid any pain. Such is with society. Society does not feel. It does not know the capacity of the pain it is capable of inflicting on those who live their lives shaped on what it has laid out to be the truth. When pictured, one can easily visualize the face of liberation a person living for what is expected of them, to what they are free to do for themselves.

Waiting can last forever and it is up to anyone to wait. However, it must first be understood that waiting for a change and allowing someone to change you are two different things. It is not selfish to seek one’s own self interest. It is rather wrong to wait and let someone lay down what your interest are and are not.

The Slave's Dream Response

“My spirit cannot rest in peace until I see you dead” These will be the words of one that persecution and condemnation has followed throughout their existence. It is a blissful notion in those who are oppressed sight but resentful to reproachable eyes. Sometimes it is easy to believe that revenge is the only escapable emotion that is left. However, not every individual would coincide with this ideology. There are those who enkindle their hearts for a better future. In Longfellow’s poem, “Slave Dream” the text reveals to the audience that perhaps believing in something better is more pleasurable than dwelling on present pain and sorrow. Longfellow gets this idea across through his use of diction, pathos, and imagery that there is always something better to believe in.

The title of the poem “Slave Dream” can be interpreted or misinterpreted in various ways. “For Death had illuminated the Land of Sleep.” (Longfellow). The denotation of dream is defined as images, sounds, thoughts feeling experienced while sleeping. On the other hand the connotation of dream can be interpreted as aspiration or even a wild and vain fantasy. Long fellow’s diction reveal that it is rather the connotation of what is meant by a dream that is being used. The use of diction reveals that though the slave is being whipped to the point of death, his unconscious mind still dreams of a better future. They say your life flashes before you before you die, however, in the author's text, the audience realize that the protagonist of the poem is not remembering the breakdown or wretchedness of his life, but rather this particular character is dreaming of a promise land. Sequently, the author has a distint way of exalting the oppressed through diction. “The Lordly Niger flowed”. (Longfellow). This statement on its own is an oxymoron. One can not be “lordly” and have a name that degrades after it. It is some what of a comfort perhaps to the author that there is a sense of authority given in the tone of a physically defeated man. This use of diction in a way entwines the protagonist’s and the authors thoughts that there is always a way to a better tommorrow. It starts with a positive mind set. Should the character present be one with the lowest rank in society then he can be the crown of his own mind.

Commiseration is also one that can't but be felt for the character presented in Longfellow’s wording. Without much analyzation effort, a reader can determine that the predicament of the disposition provided is a slave; that is kept in bondange. “A tear bust from the sleeper’s lids and fell into the sand”. (Longfellow). Here lies a collasping man who is at the border line of life and death. Through his last moments, memories of his wife and children flash across whats left of him. The author first begins by expressing the man’s love for his wife and refer’s to her as “his dark-eyed queen”. Even when close to the grave, his love still returns to his loved ones. Everything he holds near and dear, he will soon be departing from it. Longfellow’s compelling way of evolking pathos from his audience is done not soley through the protagonist’s eyes but in some way through the wife. Readers are put in a position to imagine what its like for a wife to look into the eyes of a soon to be dead husband.

There’s no better way to understand what an individual goes through unless there is a first hand witness present. Apparition is the best remedy for reader to interpret the pain and sorrow flowing through the author’s passage. To carry out this conception Longfellow does so through the use of imagery. “His breast was bare, his mattered hair was buried in the sand.” (Longfellow). It is not hard to depict the oppressed under the hands of their oppressors. The oppressed seeks liberation and Longfellow make is lucid for readers to see the clear ache and ill-treatment that this individual slave is suffering from. This revelation of sorrow, should readers to take time to understand, is one that causes even the author to be remorseful while composing his poem.

Happiness is whatever any entity wants it to be. Longfellow makes this clear when he introduces his audience to one that is gone through all that is beyond hell but still manages to dream the best of dreams.

Literature Links

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ro/romantic.html

http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/c19th/realism.htm

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761562615/Gothic_Art_and_Architecture.html

Abraham Lincoln's Ghettysburg Adddress Question Response

1. Keeping in mind the occasion of Lincoln’s speech one might have perhaps expected him to talk about former confederate soilders and office official’s partaining how former loyals should have been treated concerning betraying the union. Lincoln could have also mention the fact that the union won the war or even some thing along the lines of the declaration proclamation. Instead, He went back into history rather than what was becoming of history.

2. Lincoln’s concluding sentence merges lots of ideas. If spoken out loud it’s a continous thought with infused ideas. For a sentence that is meant to sum up a speech, it reinforces the ideas mentioned as well as leaves a lingering thought to encourage the audience present to take a lesson in patriotism. Readers can notice the accessive use of dashes used in the sentence which signifies that the speaker was jumping from thought to thought as he wrote his speech. This sentence rather beckons his audience to judge themselves instead of those they thought were their enemies in the war they just fought.

Example of sentence: It is most becoming of one so furiously indulged in groteque passions –a candeavor of thought, will and mere sympathies,-would in mind assign and feverently accomplish all that is far reaching and death sent- a note arriving unscorched enflamed wings-to the most auspicious of occasions on the edge of sanity.

3. The last line in the Declaration of independence is a promise for those mentioned within the text and those to live after. It’s a command or perhaps an instruction of how thing should be hence forth. In comparision of Abraham Lincoln’s address and the Declaration of independence were both written after a period of difficulty and trail to begin a new chapter in American history. Each was also written with hopefulness of continious assered independence and an always flourishing unity in the United States. In contrast however, the Declaration of Independence was written extensively and quiet detailed. The Ghettysbury address however was minute’ and to the point.

4. As compared to Lincoln’s speech they were all passionate. However Lincoln’s speech is not a judgement nor a condemnation but rather a thought for the American people to carry in their hearts.