journal- Nature in life cycle

Personally, I do not see much correlation between nature and the life cycle. This is most likely because I am a Christian. I believe my life cycle has little to do with nature, and much to do with God. One key component to the life cycle is death. Although death is a natural thing, it does not have much to do with nature other than that it is human nature for us to die, and that after we die we are buried in the ground, where we turn to dust. There is not much nature involved in dying. Although dying is a physical thing, it is very much so more than that. Dying is a spiritual thing. I say that because your soul is involved. Even though you are buried, lifeless in the ground when you are dead, your soul has to go somewhere. I believe that the somewhere that your soul goes is either Heaven of Hell. Many people may disagree with that opinion, but really, you have to believe that your soul goes somewhere. If you think about it, nobody believes that after you die, that is the end of things. It is almost unfathomable to think that when you die you are done forever. That is was thousands upon thousands of generations of people have debated and discussed life after death. Nobody can possibly imagine your soul not living elsewhere once we are dead. That belief is not something of human nature. I also believe that nature has little to do with being born and with life after birth and until death. Yes, it exists, but it seems of little importance to me.

I think that the people who must rely on nature as the answer to life's daunting questions are the ones who have nothing else to believe in. If you have a strong belief, then nature just exists, and hardly seems relevant. To someone who is a Christian, in the grand scheme of things, nature is utterly unimportant. But to someone who doesn't know what they believe, nature is one thing that is solid and constant for them to rely upon.

journal- communication tools

For our project, we have to collaborate with students from other classes, and even from another school. The students from the other school are from Farmington, which is too far away to actually have contact with these students. Therefore means of technology will be very imperative in the completion of this project. Luckily, we live in an age where there are many technological options available. One option would be writing letters, but that would be silly because there are quicker routes of communication. A few other quicker routes of communication that I can think of are e-mail, online chatting, Facebook, Twitter, text-messaging, and maybe even talking on the phone. Those options seem to be the easier, quicker, and more efficient choice over writing letters.

Online chatting is a good option of communication. For example "www.todaysmeet.com" could be used as a form of online chatting. It is an efficient way to communicate with others. It could definitely work as a way for all of us to have discussions together without actually physically being together. This could be a good source of communication, especially for the preliminaries of the project. After we have the big picture of the project figured out, we may need to use a form of communication that can help us be more detail oriented.

E-mail could be a huge help in the completion of this project. By using e-mail instead of some form of online chatting, we all have records of what the others said. That can be useful so we can go back and look to make sure we know what our assignment is, as well as being able to hold others to their duties. E-mail will probably be the most efficient way of communicating for this project. A problem may arise however, if some students don't check their email very often.

This is where Facebook and Twitter come in. We could use them to contact some of the students more readily than we would be able to contact them by email. In this case, social networking sites may actually come in handy, however, they may also be a distraction. It is probably not a good idea to mix school work with a social networking site. This could cause students to get distracted and not follow through on their project on schedule. Therefore, text-messaging or calling each other may also be useful.

Fireside poets and Rationalism and Puritanism

The Fireside poets had all had the same overall writing style. They all had romanticism writing. Romanticism writing was writing that involved love religion, patriotism, family, and usually had much to do with nature (fireside 211). Rationalism writing was very Deistic, and used much logic and reasoning, unlike the romanticism writing, which is very flowery writing and about emotion, not logic (Romantic v. rat.). The majority of Puritan writing was based around God and the Bible. The views supported in Puritan writing were solely Christian views, or Christian-Catholic views. The Puritan writing style showed much reliance on the providence of God (PAL). Unlike the Puritan era of writing, Romanticism writing did not solely rely on God. Although there was religion incorporated in Romanticism writing, it was not the main component of the writing (Fireside 211). The style of Romanticism writing is often very poetic and figurative. Often times, works of the Romanticism era were poetry, but not always. To most of the writings of the Romanticism era, there were literal meanings to the work, and always had a figurative meaning as well (Fireside 211). Figurative and flowery language is usually a sure indicator that writing is Romantic. Rationalism writing style is always very logical and literal. There is not figurative language used in Rationalism writing, like there is in Romantic writing (Romantic v. Rat.). Writers during the Romanticism writing era used common sense as the source of their writings, rather than emotions. Unlike both of the other two writing periods, Puritan writing was often very formal (PAL). The authors usually wrote about things that were very near and dear to their hearts. Puritan writing also used some emotion as the source of their writings. However, it was not the raw emotions that were used in Romanticism writing. The emotions used in Puritan writings were usually honest emotions but were well thought out, and put in relation to God, rather than just spewing out of the author like in Romanticism writing.


The poem "Flower-de-Luce" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a very good example of Romanticism writing. Romanticism is defined at "a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement in the 1700s emphasizing the imagination and the emotions, advocating feeling over reason, inner spirituality over external rules, the individual above society, and nature over environments created by humans" (Appleby). The poem "Flower-de-Luce" has much to do with nature. The author uses nature to help describe his emotions, which is a trait that many Romanticism writers use. "A Legacy" by John Greenleaf Whittier is another poem that helps show what Romanticism writing is. The entire poem is about what life will be like after the author of the poem dies. Death is something that is extremely natural, and is often a topic of Romanticism writings, or at least usually involved in them. "A Legacy" is a very emotional poem. The author uses much emotion and flowery writing to convey his thoughts. The Romanticism era of writing was very important in history and especially in the founding of our country.







"The Fireside Poets." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 210-211. Print.

"Romantic Vs. Rationalist." :: Free Essays :: Paper Writing :: Book Reports ::. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .

"PAL: American Puritanism: A Brief Introduction." California State University Stanislaus | Home. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .

Longfellow, Henry W. "Hawthorne. Flower-de-Luce. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1893. Complete Poetical Works." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More.

Whittier, John G. "A Legacy by John Greenleaf Whittier." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.

Thanatopsis

At first glance, the poem "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant seems to be a depressing poem. The word thanatopsis actually comes from the Greek word "thanatos", which means a meditation on death (define thanatopsis). So it would be very logical to assume that "Thanatopsis" would be a very morose poem about death that is very depressing. In this poem, much of the poem makes references to nature, uses nature in many analogies, and the poem in general is about death, which is a very natural thing. Knowing that the poem has many things to do with nature, is one way to identify that it is romanticism writing (Appleby). The poem starts off by telling of a man who is extremely worried about dying. In fact, the man is not simply worried about dying, he is utterly riveted by the thought of it and awaits this tragedy with extreme anxiety. Bryant says of the man,

"When thoughts

Of the last bitter hour come like a blight

Over thy spirit, and sad images

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,

And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,

Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;"

(Bryant, lines 8-13). It is in line ten that we realize the author is no longer talking about some man, but he is referencing the reader of the poem. He is saying that thoughts of death has come like a blight, or disease, to our souls (Shmoop). After the author addresses that he is talking to us, the readers of the poem, he goes into more detail of the things of dying that we fear. He even talks about being trapped in the "breathless darkness" of a coffin (Bryant, line 12) (Shmoop).

The first portion of the poem seems scary and can come across as being gloomy, but like I said earlier, "Thanatopsis" only seems to be a depressing poem at first glance. In line twenty-two, the poem starts to show a mild turn around. The author starts discussing what happens to our bodies after we die. He says that after we each lose what makes us human, we "mix forever with the elements" (Bryant, line 26). This means that after we die, our bodies are buried in the ground, and we become one with the earth. To some, this may not seem like a mild turn around in the poem, this may seem creepy and even more frightening. But during the time period in which this was written, the people reading this poem would have actually felt a certain peace about knowing that even after they die, they can contribute to nature and become one with nature (Appleby).

The main portion of this poem is about thinking of death and that everything, leads the author to think of death. He even goes as far to say

"The golden sun,

The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,

Are shining on the sad abodes of death"

(Bryant, lines 45-47). Even the sun reminds the author of death (Shmoop). Again, you may question my opinion about this poem not being depressing, but do not fear, with line seventy-three comes hope! In lines seventy-three through seventy-nine, the author challenges a call to action. He challenges us all to live! He states that all of us will die, that is a fact, so why don't we spend our time here on this earth living to our full potential! (Bryant, lines 71-79). In the closing lines of the poem, Bryant says,

"By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams"

(Bryant, lines 79-81). After working us up through the entire poem, the author ends on a rather soothing note, saying that we should approach our death like someone wrapped up in a blanket ready for a happy sleep filled with pleasant dreams (Shmoop).

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Thanatopsis Summary"Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 10 Dec. 2011.

"16. Thanatopsis. William Cullen Bryant. Yale Book of American Verse."Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. .

"Thanatopsis | Define Thanatopsis at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. .

Flower-de-Luce and Autumn

The poem "Flower-de-Luce" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the poem "A Legacy" by John Greenleaf Whittier have man similarities and differences. Firstly, they are both works romanticism writing. Romanticism is defined at "a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement in the 1700s emphasizing the imagination and the emotions, advocating feeling over reason, inner spirituality over external rules, the individual above society, and nature over environments created by humans" (Appleby). "Flower-de-Luce" is quite obviously romanticism writing. Nature is woven throughout the entire poem, and there are many details of the nature. Also, the author is very much so exerting his feelings over reason, he tells of his old companion who has passed away. He tells of how he misses him, and gets very emotional in doing so (Longfellow). "A Legacy" is also romanticism writing. It does not exhibit many allusions to nature, however, I believe that the whole poem is about the legacy the author will leave behind to his friend after he dies. I could not find any literary criticisms on either "A legacy", or "Flower-de-Luce", but I have inferred many things from the poems on my own, whether they be accurate inferences or not. I believe that "A Legacy" also exemplifies romanticism writing because it really did put the author's emotions over reason, individuality over society, and his inner spirituality over external rules.

Although "A Legacy" and "Flower-de-Luce" are written by different authors, they have many similarities. The most obvious similarity is that they are both about death. "Flower-de-Luce is about the author after one of his great companions dies. It is about his feelings and trying to cope with his death and realizing that there was no man quite like his friend was, and nobody can take his place. His legacy will live on. "A Legacy" on the other hand, is about death of the author. I believe that it is a poem for a friend of his and how his friend should handle the death of the author. I think he is giving him permission not to mourn, but instead remember the good times. The third line of the poem reads "Let me not leave, to pain and sadden thee" (Whittier). He is wanting his friend to know that just because he died, it does not mean that his friend must be sad. As well as being about death, both of the poems are about moving on. In "Flower-de-Luce" the author is lost after Hawthorne dies. He seems to just be living life without purpose. He does not know what to do after his friend dies, he is just aimlessly wandering through life. But eventually he realizes that Hawthorne is in Heaven with the angels and questions who will finish his beautiful writing for him. Only to realize that the writings must remain unfinished, and that nobody could do as well as Hawthorne. He realizes he realizes he must move on after Hawthorne's death. In "A Legacy" the author is telling his friend to move on after he has died. He does not his friend to waste his life being sad about him, and would rather him remember the good times that they had together and to continue living his own life. There are many similarities and differences between the two poems, but I believe that overall they are very similar because they both maintain similar writing style of romanticism.

Whittier, John G. "A Legacy by John Greenleaf Whittier." PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. Web. 09 Dec. 2011.

Longfellow, Henry W. "Hawthorne. Flower-de-Luce. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 1893. Complete Poetical Works." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. .

journal - 20

"Autumn" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is written in a figurative way. "Autumn" is a piece of Romanticism writing. I know this because the entire poem is about nature. The poem literally it is written about farmers and harvesting crops. The poem says,

"Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,

Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!"

The poem talks of an honorable king who stretches out his hand in benedictions to the farmers on his land. I think the "bridge of gold" could be referring to wheat that is so important to the farmers, which bridge the gap financially for the farmers. Also, when the poem refers to "thy royal hand", I think the author is referring to the literal king of the land and how he is the king over all of the farms. This great and noble king blesses all of the farmers through their harvesting season and gives them things to help keep them going throughout their season of harvest.

Literally, this poem makes much sense, it is about a king over a farming land. But figuratively, this poem has a whole different meaning. This poem is about the season autumn. This poem starts by stating "Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain". This means that Autumn comes in with the rain. Once you realize that this poem is actually about autumn, not a king, it changes things a little bit. Instead of a great king that the poem speaks of, it is speaking of a great season. Autumn is the one that stretches out its hand to the farmers. Autumn makes the farmers wealthy. Autumn is the one that brings blessing to the farmers, not a king. It is not a king that does all of these great and noble things, it is a season that is the hero for the farmers. It is Autumn that brings rain to yield the crops and that brings life to the harvest.

This poem is also very short and rolls off the tongue quite fluidly when read aloud. It is a neat little poem, that seems to bring the season of autumn to life.

The Chambered Nautilus

In my opinion, the poem "The Chambered Nautilus" is a divine poem with such deep meaning behind it that speaks to every life, no matter what stage of life the reader is in. This poem starts off telling of some shell, the chambered nautilus. In fact, from the entire first three stanzas the reader gains knowledge of this shell.

However, in the first stanza the writer, Oliver Wendell Holmes, points out that the chambered nautilus shell comes from the same place as do sirens and sea-maids. This suggests that what he is going to tell us about is not indeed real and is a legend (TCN analysis).

In the second stanza, Holmes is now referring to the shell as being a wrecked ship of pearl (Holmes). I believe that he is implying that the shell is cracked. He speaks of the sunless crypt of the shell being unsealed, which to me means that the shell has cracked and its inner chambers are now exposed.

The third stanza tells of the "silent toil" of the chambered nautilus, as it continually builds new chambers as it grows (Holmes). It is here, half way through the third stanza that we start seeing information that is applicable to life. Holmes spends the rest of the poem speaking to our lives. The entire third stanza tells of the chambered nautilus, who after building his next chamber to grow into, cannot go back to his previous chambers, just as we cannot turn back after acting and cannot relive past events in our lives. The choices we make change our future, and once a decision is made, we cannot easily go back.

The fourth stanza brings with it an allusion of Triton, in which Roman and Greek mythology believed was the protector of the sea. (TCN analysis) Sailors of the olden times who lived in the era of Roman and Greek mythology would pray upon Triton during fierce storms in hopes of being delivered from it. They're last hope they would cling to would be the sound of Triton's horn, which would mean deliverance and protection from the fierce sea storm. Holmes refers to Triton's horn as being a wreathed horn, which suggests that his horn was indeed a chambered nautilus. Which brings the focus of the poem to the chambered nautilus, and that it is the saving grace of our lives. That leads to the big question of the poem, which is "What is our goal in life?" (TCN analysis).

The fifth stanza is something beautiful. "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul" refers to life. It means to build bigger and better things for your future. Do not be stuck in the present, strive for the future, start your better future now, by working hard and building it. I believe that "As the swift seasons roll!" refers to life as well, and how quickly it does go by! So do not wait, life goes by too quickly to waste it away, so "leave thy low-vaulted past", or the small and insignificant past that you had for yourself. Instead, "let each new temple, nobler than the last". Make every season of your life better than the season that came before it, just as the chambered nautilus makes every new chamber bigger and better than the previous. "Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!" (Holmes). Live here the best life you can, until one day your soul is free and resting with the Creator in Heaven, rather than here in this cut-throat world. Make the best of your life now, and better yourself each day, otherwise, what is the point of this wearisome life?

Holmes, Oliver W. "801. The Chambered Nautilus. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 1909-14. English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. .

"The Chambered Nautilus Analysis Oliver Wendell Holmes : Summary Explanation Meaning Overview Essay Writing Critique Peer Review Literary Criticism Synopsis Online Education." Writing Workshop, or Something. Web. 09 Dec. 2011. .

Romanticism, Rip Van Winkle, The Devil and Tom Walker

The stories "Devil and Tom walker" and "Rip Van Winkle" have very much in common. Both stories include much vivid and quite extensive detail. They both describe nature at length. In each story, the author aims to describe one attribute of nature, and it ends up being an entire paragraph of details of that attribute in nature (Definitions of Romanticism). For example, at the beginning of Rip Van Winkle, instead of Irving just telling us that there are mountains, he says "Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Catskill Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change o weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory" (RVW Irving 2). Also, in Romanticism writing, the writing is less idealistic, and more practical. The writing style was down to Earth, rather than some high up and exalted form of writing (Definitions of Romanticism). In "Rip Van Winkle", the the summation of the story, Rip was not affected by the knowledge that he now lived in a free country. To him that seemed unimportant compared the the knowledge that his wife was no longer in existence. Instead of gaining his life and liberty from a free country, he gained it from knowing that the nagging woman he had been enslaved to was no longer a threat (The Van Winkle Project). Just as in the two stories, Romanticism writings tended to be about more common things that many people could relate to. (Definitions of Romanticism). The writing styles of both stories were so clearly written in the Romanticism era of writing.

In both stories, there are many common threads. It appears quite obvious in reading them that they very well could have the same author, which they do; Washington Irving. In "The Devil and Tom Walker", the devil comes to make a deal with Tom, and his wife wants Tom to bargain with him. Since Tom's wife wants him to, he defiantly rebels. It was not of his own moral compass or honor that he refused the offer of the devil, but because he wanted to defy his nagging wife in every way possible (The Devil and Tom Walker). Likewise, in "Rip Van Winkle", Rip also defies his wife. Although he was a "henpecked" man, who grew in character out of the tragedy of having a nagging wife, he still defied her. After Rip could not take his wife's nagging anymore, he retreated to the mountains, which were described in the first paragraph (RVW Irving). Just as Rip no longer had to deal with his wife, Tom Walker was also freed from his, when his wife disappeared after trying to bargain with the devil (The Devil and Tom Walker). In both "The Devil and Tom Walker", and "Rip Van Winkle" both men were stripped of the things that they prided themselves on. Rip was proud of knowing everyone in the town. He loved helping others and knowing everyone personally. The story says that even dogs in the neighborhood would not bark at Rip (Rip Van Winkle, 2). After Rip returns from the mountains, he no longer has that security. He hardly even recognizes, and absolutely nobody recognizes Rip. Also, both stories seem to be legends, and there is a lesson to be learned from each story.

These two stories are very similar in writing style, content, theme, and detail. They are both of the Romanticism writing style and both Written by Washington Irving.

"Literary Analysis of Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving." The Van Winkle Project. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. .

"Definitions of Romanticism." Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 07 Dec. 2011. .

Irving, Washington. "The Devil and Tom Walker." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 240-250. Print.

Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." Bartleby.com. Web. 06 Dec. 2011.

journal - 14 Apprentice

To be Benjamin Franklin's apprentice would be quite an accomplishment, especially back in Franklin's time. In fact, it would be near impossible, considering that I am a female. Back then, women did not have the rights that men did. Women could not hold jobs, they did not have that right. For the most part, women had only two basic rights. One being able to divorce her husband, and the other to be able to own her own land. Those two rights are not necessarily rights that a women even needs, or would want to be in a position to use. So since I would not be able to have a job, I feel like there would be no need for me to be an apprentice, because the whole point of an apprenticeship is to learn a trade from someone who has more experience than you do, in hopes of being able to learn the trade well enough to be able to one day have that trade be your job. So frankly, I do not think that I would be able to be an apprentice to Benjamin Franklin. However, hypothetically speaking, if I was able to be Benjamin Franklin's apprentice, that would be very neat! It would be so interesting to learn straight from a man who has invented so many things! I would learn so much simply from watching him and listening to him. Benjamin Franklin created so many things that are vital to America today, and it would be very interesting to learn about those things, and maybe even gain some understanding about how they work. I feel like after being an apprentice to Franklin I would gain much. Even if I did not gain knowledge or was not more smart after working under him, I would definitely gain wisdom. After all, Franklin was the man who tried to better himself, by following thirteen virtues. Working under a man who has such high self standards as Franklin did, would definitely result in causing me to see things in a whole new perspective and think outside the box from what I'm used to.

journal - 18

Autumn is my favorite season. There are so many qualities of Autumn that make it the best season, in my opinion. The perfect Autumn day for me would be one where I wake to the feeling of crisp autumn air on my face, as my body is snuggled up in a soft quilt. I would then take my time getting up, and eventually mosey my way down the stairs. There, I would smell a delicious smell of my mom making breakfast, and hear the sizzling bacon in the pan on the stove. I would also smell the bitter and fresh coffee that my grandma would be brewing in the coffee pot. There, I would eat breakfast and socialize with my family. I would then spend the day in Missouri at my brother's football game. Our family would watched the game all day and have fun! We would eat nachos and hot dogs, while enjoying watching Missouri's win against KU, their rival team. After the game, my brother and I would walk back to his dorm by the dim light of the setting sun. There, we would hang out and rest until our family would go out to dinner. After a delicious dinner and dessert, we would have warm hot chocolate and chai tea lattes, as the steam from them was rising up into the cool autumn air. After dinner, our family would go to church with my brother, and there I would get to meet socialize with many of his friends. After church, we would walk around campus as the dead, brown leaves crunch under our winter boots and tennis shoes. My family would hang out and watch a movie in our hotel, and spend time together laughing and talking. After that, we would go to sleep and leave the next day. That would be the perfect autumn day.

journal - 17

I am not quite sure how to depict bonding with nature, but in my own terms I believe it is something I have done before. Bonding with nature sounds like some sort of weird and creepy hippie thing, however I don't take it like that. I actually do not currently have a good way to define bonding with nature, but I can give some examples that might help show what I believe to be true about bonding with nature.

I have been in nature many times in my life. When I was young, I lived in a Suburb, and did not have very many interactions with nature. There was a small pond behind a neighboring house, I once saw a raccoon, and saw a deer there once, and that is about the extent of nature that I knew. However, when I was young I used to go to a summer camp in Wisconsin. It was at that camp that I experienced nature the most in my whole childhood. I spent the summer at that camp in a cabin, played games in the woods, swam in the lake, went horseback riding in the pasture, went camping, went rock climbing, and so much more. It was also there that I would go sit in hidden places in nature to reflect. I would read my Bible, pray, and think while in God's beautiful nature. Those were the times that I bonded with nature the most.

journal - 15

I think there will definitely be many challenges in working together with Farmington High School to work on a project. All of us will most likely have many similar ideas and opinions, but the trouble with that is that we are so far away. We will have to do things differently than we are used to for this project. I think it will be fairly difficult to accomplish the project efficiently while working with students who we are not directly involved with. Firstly, whenever working on a group project you always have to sacrifice things that you want to happen, in order to incorporate ideas of other students. I believe we will definitely have to cooperate well with the students from Farmington High School and will need to take charge of the project, but still involve ideas and thoughts of the students from Farmington High School as well as the other Pleasant Plains High School students. Also, we are going to have to use many means of technology to accomplish this project. I believe that e-mail will be very helpful in this project because it is an almost instant way of communicating through technology. Also, I think that texting and talking on our cell phones is also another way of communicating sufficiently. Another challenge may arise if the students from Farmington High School do not do their part of the project. That could be very unfortunate. Luckily there will be other Pleasant Plains students in my group other than me, so hopefully we will all be able to work together. However, if students from the other school do not do their part, we will end up having to do their work, since they are not here for us to directly talk to. Although there will be many challenges in accomplishing this project, hopefully it will all go smoothly.

Benjamin Franklin- Deism

Deism is know as the "knowledge of God based on our application of reason on the designs/laws found throughout nature. (Welcome to Deism) From reading passages from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, it seems clear that Benjamin Franklin was a Deist. It did not seem that he had a strong sense of religion in his life, but instead believed that people in their innermost being were bad, and that good deeds would not go unrewarded (Franklin). Franklin created a list of thirteen virtues that he vowed to strive to attain in his life. That shows that Franklin was taking matters into his own hands, and instead of letting God have control in his life, he was going to try to define the outcome of his future. And also, he set his own virtues to live by. Although many of the virtues were Biblical values, Franklin did not choose to live by values of a certain religion, but instead combined beliefs and implemented his own beliefs to serve as his moral code in life. In the thirteenth virtue, Franklin states, "Humility-imitate Jesus and Socrates" (Franklin 150). Although, he did want to model his life after Jesus, he did not state that his belief in Jesus went further than acknowledging that Jesus was a good man, like Socrates. This leads me to believe that Franklin was not a Christian, which is in line with the belief that he was a Deist. Also, he wants to follow the example of Jesus and Socrates, which shows that he does not have any one certain religion that he is dedicated to, but rather he is aware of God, but does not have beliefs of one certain religion more than another.

Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography tells of a Proverb that he held true to the values of in his life. He recalls the proverb from his father. The proverb is "Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shal stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men." (Franklin 143). Franklin still refers to the Bible ( a Christian book) even though he is a Deist. However, instead of applying all of the lessons from the Bible to his own life, he simply picks and chooses which of the things that he think will benefit him, and he uses those things in his life to live by. Deism is supposed to improve progress in society in helping people live their lives with goals and moral standards in mind, and allows people to decide what the truth is to them. (Welcome to Deism). Personally, I believe that this simply is a religion that cannot possibly be correct. It does not make sense that everyone can choose what works for them. If each person gets to choose the standards that they live by, that implies that there is not truth. Which I refuse to believe. What is true for me, cannot be different from what is true to you. It can't work like that. There has to be one truth.

Franklin, Benjamin, and John Bigelow. The Autobiography and Letters of Benjamin Franklin.London: Ward, Lock, 1891. Print.

"Deism Defined, Welcome to Deism, Deist Glossary and Frequently Asked Questions."Welcome To The Deism. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

Franklin's Success

I believe that it was a very good thing that Franklin implemented the thirteen virtues in his life, however, I think it is extremely difficult to determine if he by that, he was successful in becoming a better person. To be able to analyze that, I first need to define what it means to become a better person. I guess becoming a better person to me means bettering yourself not for the sake of others, but because you believe it is the right thing to do, even if it is hard. This entire topic seems to be a very controversial topic that people could have many different opinions on. I definitely do believe that Franklin was trying to become a better person by implementing the thirteen virtues in his life. Although, that claim could be argued by giving the counter-example that Franklin published his virtues and a book about himself, therefore he was not bettering himself for the sake of himself, he wanted the fame from others. Although that idea is a possibility, I feel like if Franklin really wanted to have a good impression on people, there would be a lot of other less time consuming ways to do it. Since he took so much time and effort in making the autobiography, and openly wrote about his views, without any care as to if people would agree with him or not, I believe that he wrote it for himself.

The thirteen virtues that Benjamin Franklin tried to implement into his life are temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility (Franklin). That is a huge list of virtues to try to implement into your life! I think it took a lot of Character from Franklin to even try to accomplish this whopping list of virtues. Implementing this virtues would take so much time and effort. It would also mean giving up things that he enjoyed, which is something that most people do not do. I think that Franklin must have been an extremely wise man to realize that these things were the keys to helping him become a better person, unlike all of the worldly things he could have been doing to become a better person. Although many would say that because Franklin failed and made mistakes while implementing these virtues into his life, he was not successful in becoming a better person, I would say quite the opposite (Franklin). I believe that even the act of trying to implement these virtues made Franklin a better person. Even though Franklin slipped up on a few of the virtues, at least he tried. I believe that trying something and failing at is is way more honorable than not even trying it in the first place. It takes character and it takes humility to try something new.

All of the virtues that Franklin chose to try to implement into his life were things that all took much character and restraint to implement. It is a very honorable thing to sacrifice your desires and things you want, for the sake of bettering yourself. That is not something very many people do, and I believe that doing so did indeed make Franklin a better person, even if the implementation of the virtues were not permanent.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Henry Altemus. 1895. Print.

journal - 13

What is today's American Dream? Describe what it means to be successful today.

I believe the American Dream is just a skewed vision of what people think our lives should be like. Most people believe that if they attain all of the aspects of the American Dream, then they will be happy. I feel that in our culture, people are constantly searching for happiness, as if that is what will truly satisfy their longing desire for something more in their life. In reality, happiness is short-lived and usually quite dissatisfying and not all that it has cracked up to be.

Today, I there are many different aspects of the American Dream. One aspect is having a big and beautiful house with granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, wood floors and of course, the perfect family. Part of the American Dream is to have a perfect little family that is very proper and always happy. However, actually attaining that dream is hardly possible. I believe the American Dream actually is different for different groups of people. As an example the American Dream would look different from a teenager's perspective than it would look from the perspective of an adult. A teenager's American Dream may be to have a perfect looking body and all of the latest and most expensive clothes. It might be to have a lot of friends and be a star athlete. Whereas the American Dream to a forty year old would most likely look different and have to do with family, work, houses and cars.

I think what our culture has defined as being successful is not actually what it means to be successful, however that is a matter of opinion. These days people are successful if they have a lot of money. Success is also defined by happiness. If people are happy, then they are successful. I think happiness is a good thing, but most definitely not the means of which to define success. In my opinion, our culture has become very shallow, and has a skewed thinking pattern on success, but it would take a lot to change that thinking pattern of Americans.

Journal

If I were to make up my own rules about right and wrong, they would be very messed up and selfish rules. I say this because it is in my nature to be sinful. And it is in my nature to be selfish. It is in my nature for me to be the first person I think about when I wake up and the last person I think about before I fall asleep. It is human nature to be that way. Therefore, if I were to make up my own rules about right and wrong, I would not use myself as the source of the rules and would not be the one to determine right and wrong. I do not have the power to determine that. Only God has that authority.

So if I were to make up my own rules about right and wrong, I would use values from the Bible. I would not only use values of the Bible to determine right and wrong, but I would have the Bible set the rules, not me. In fact, this is how I try to live my life now. I know that if I let myself choose rules and moral standards for how I live my life, they will be very skewed. But if I let God choose the moral standards for my life, I will be living a life of much more value than anything I could ever try to come up with. One way I help myself determine what God wants me to do versus what I want to do, is by comparing my life circumstances to those in the Bible.

Why I would let God choose the rules between right and wrong in my life, instead of choosing them myself is because God has the ultimate say in my life. What does my opinion count for anyway? In the grand scheme of things, I am just Morgan Demczak. But God is God, the creator of the universe and everything amazing in this life and the life to come. So why would I rely on my own rules. when following God's rules promise so much more than I could ever find here in this world.

Journal - 11

A common aphorism is "no gain without pain". This aphorism is actually quoted by Benjamin Franklin in the "Poor Richard's Almanac". I have found this aphorism to hold true in my life. I have yet to find a time in gaining something without some sort of pain. My greatest example is in track. I run track, and there is no way I could gain by minimizing my times in track if I did not have any pain. Conditioning for track is extremely brutal and very painful, but for me it is worth it. Without conditioning for track I could not experience the great joy of cutting down time in my races and being able to contend for first place in my races. This example of "no gain without pain" seems to be quite extreme, but there are many other examples of it.

I sincerely have found that there is almost no gain I can make without pain, even if it is the smallest gain. If I gain a friendship, there still is some small pain involved in that, because I sacrifice my selfishness for putting my friend's needs before my own. If the gain is good grades in school, you must first face the pain of hard labor and a good work ethic. If it is gaining a good reputation, you must endure the pain of having good character. It sounds strange to say that having good character is painful, but good character is not easy to have. It is something that you must work at. To me, it really seems like you cannot make a gain without some form of pain, and there are countless examples I could give to show that to be true.

I believe that Franklin was correct in saying "no gain without pain". "It has definitely held true in my life and for that matter, I believe this aphorism to be true.

reflection - 9

I believe that Paine wrote this piece to all of the people in the newly found America. He wrote it to inspire a revolution in them. To inspire a revolution against Great Britain. People from England had already inhabited America for some time now, and Paine wanted them to join together and rise up against Great Britain. Paine wanted independence from Great Britain and wrote this to help others see that we should have independence even if it means war. Paine felt very strongly on the topic, and gave a strong argument as to why it should be that way.

Paine's writing was most definitely not written in Puritan writing style, and clearly reflects writing of the Rationalism Period. In one instance, Paine states "Throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but show your faith by your works, that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home ties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike." (.....) The values that Paine implies in the above quote are not values of Puritans. He says to not rely on the providence of God, but to show your faith by your works. (...) This is a passage from the Bible in the book of James. However, this is not a belief that Puritans held true to. The Puritans solely believed in the providence of God and that is everything that they hoped in, counted on and believed to be true. They entrusted their whole lives to the providence of God, and in one sentence, Paine rids of that belief all together and opens the doors to the belief that the people should show their faith in God by the works that they do. (...) Also, when Paine says that it does not matter what rank you hold, you still will receive evil or blessings all the same, this was strongly against the Puritan ways. (....) Puritans believed that only certain people were going to be saved and go to Heaven. Puritans believed that a select group of people were more righteous than the others. (...) This way of thinking is not as Paine thinks. Therefore, Paine is clearly not of the Puritan era.

When Paine tells the eople to show their faith by their works, so that God may bless them, (...)it may elude the reader to think that Paine is a Puritan. However, this is incorrect. Just because he mentions God, does not mean that he is a Puritan. He is a part of the Rationalism era. It may also seem to the reader that all people that partook in the ways of the Rationalism period were not Chrisitians, however this is not the case either. The people in the Rationalism period were exploring their world and trying to see what things were like on their own. Although many people did drop God or make assumptions on their own not according to God, I believe that many of the people in the Rationalism period were Christians.

reflection - 8

Personally, I do not actually know very much about the time period when the Declaration of Independence was written. I actually know quite little. I did not take World History like most other students did in freshman year, and I am not in AP History like some other students are this year. In American History class, we are currently learning about the Puritan Era, and have not yet moved onto the Rationalism period. This is the first time I have read the declaration of independence, and it actually came as quite a shock to me. All I knew of the Declaration of Independence was that it was a document that declared America's freedom. So clearly, I did not have an extensive knowledge of what it was, nor do I still. But upon reading the Declaration of Independence, I have a different perspective on it. I know that many people view the Declaration of Independence as a great document and something that people can look back on as a great literary work as well as a neat historical document and something that we can keep in mind as we look at our country today. However, when I was reading the Declaration of Independence, I did not see any of those things. I am sure why I did not see those things was because of my lack of knowledge of the topic, or something like that, but as blindly reading the document, I interpreted it as quite the opposite. Honestly, when I was reading it, instead of seeing what many Americans see, instead I kept getting hung up on all of the propaganda techniques and errors of faulty logic that the writers of this document used. To me, it seemed like an immature way to write a document. I guess the writers could have been all amped up about America when they were writing it, but I still do not think that gave them good reason to slander other countries in the document that founded our country. One of the first propaganda techniques I see in the Declaration of Independence is the use of a glittering generality. In the second paragraph the writer says "all men are created equal" (Jefferson 120). I believe that all men are made in God's image, but to me things get a little trippy when someone says all men are created equal. Especially when the someone saying it calls the King of Great Britain a tyrant a few paragraphs later. In this time, Jefferson, and other men like him who were founding America were killing Indians so that we could own the land. That is such a selfish thing to do and shows that they certainly did not think the Indians were as good as they were, yet they had the audacity to claim that they believe all men were created equal. And the fact that they called the King of Great Britain a tyrant, multiple times in this document, in itself is the propaganda technique of name calling. There are many Propaganda techniques used in this document as well as errors of faulty logic. I do not think that those things cause the document to lose its credibility, but in my book it makes me question the character of the men who wrote it.

Jefferson, Thomas. "Declaration of Independence." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 120-124. Print.

"Recognizing Propaganda Techniques and Errors of Faulty Logic." Cuesta College. 06 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 Sept. 11

journal - 10

In my opinion, I strongly believe that the vocabulary assignment should be due next class. I am not saying this out of laziness or because I simply do not want to do it, but because I, and many other students in our class, are already quite overwhelmed by the amount of homework that we already have. Personally, I am already so far behind on all of my blogs, and by simply adding a vocabulary assignment on top of it all, makes it even more overwhelming. I have been sick for about a week now, and last week I missed a day of class. I am still behind from missing class, and am really struggling to catch back up on my work. It is not that I am not willing to do it, but so much of it is extremely time consuming, thought provoking, and even difficult to understand, comprehend, and respond to, that it is just too much right now. To be honest, my life is just crumbling in on top of me right now. I feel so far behind on things and I really need time to catch up on all of my school work, cleaning my room, Bible reading, and I need to take time to just relax so that I can get mentally prepared for the week to come. I am physically and mentally exhausted at this point. What I am striving for right now is to make it to the weekend. I could totally use a weekend to catch up on things and to feel prepared for life. The past two weeks I have been out of town, and have therefore not been able to catch up on all of the things that I need to do. As you can see, my life is clearly stressful right now and things are just crazy. A few things that I am trying to do to combat that is memorizing scripture, staying in God's word, and staying in a constant dialogue with God. Those things are very helpful to calm down the things in my life that I have not control of. But with my homework, I cannot help it and I simply have to do it, just like the vocabulary, if you make me turn it in this class.

reflection - 7

how patrick Henry's speech exemplifies the Rationalism writing style

The Speech to the Second Virginia Parliament by Patrick Henry is quite a fired up speech and I can feel the power in Mr. Henry's thoughts as I read this. This writing most definitely reflects the writing of the Rationalism period. It is incredible to see the immense difference between the writing style of the Puritans and the writing style of the Rationalism era. There is a huge difference between the two and they take place so close in time to each other! In the Puritan era, the people fully believed in God and believed that he had a plan for everyone, his hand was completely interfering with the way people lived, they all thought obeying him and his commands and having faith in him was the sure way to salvation. They also never questioned God's authority, or any authority above them, for that matter. They believed that God was with them through everything and that his providence would help them through life if they had faith in Him and were living for Him.

As the reader begins reading this speech by Mr. Patrick Henry, you see him set the stage for his speech by setting a tone of what his speech will be like and basically prepares the men for what is to come in his speech by indicating that they will be offended but they should listen to his standpoint because he believes he is raising many good points. In his opening two sentences he states "And in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country" (Henry 112). This statement was certainly a lofty one, at that! The Puritans believed that God was the one who held the truth and He was the truth. For Henry to suggest that debate is the key to finding truth, is an immensely bold move, and frankly a risky statement. For him to boldly make this case is a sudden indication of the difference in the Puritan era and the rationalism era. Henry knows that people will disagree with his claim of debate, so he then says "Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and as an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly things" (Henry 112). The Puritans would commonly keep back their opinions, for they believed it was not their opinions that mattered, but God's. However, Henry is saying that for him to keep back his opinions would be committing treason to his country! This I'm sure is used to get the attention of the people listening to his speech and to get them thinking about it. And then on top of that, he says that it would be disloyal to God for him to keep his opinion to himself. This now makes things interesting, because he is combining reason and religion. The people are not used to this, for Puritans only followed religion, not reason. Henry's speech puts the people in an interesting position. The people had thought always that religion was correct, but Henry's case was so logical and rational that they could not discard what he said, even if they wanted to.

As another act of persuasion Henry at one point, asks, " Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?" (Henry 112). This is a very good persuasion technique, because he basically is asking the people if they should live like dumb people and not question and dig deeper to see what the truth is. He uses rhetorical questions many times throughout his speech. This is another way to show that this is a writing of the Rational era, because he is raising such a point and questioning his authorities, which people never before would have done.

Henry, Patrick. "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention." Comp. Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. Glencoe Literature. AmericanLiterature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 112-113 Print.

journal - 9

a time when someone was emotional and the situation was solved by a rational approach

There are many times in my life that I have witnessed emotional people or people acting emotionally. In fact, I act on emotion quite often, which I know is not always a good thing, but sometimes it can be. Some people are more emotional than others, and some people are more rational than others. I think that in general, girls are usually more emotional than guys are. And as far as it goes for me, I think compared to many other girls, I am more rational than most. Not to say that I do not get emotional, because I do. Most things in a girl's life revolves around emotions. Where as guys on the other hand usually are more rational than girls are. However, I have a friend who is a boy who seems to be more emotional than a majority of guys his age. In this journal, I will call this boy Fred, although that is not his real name.

As I said earlier, Fred is more of an emotional guy than most, and I am more of a rational girl than most, so it turns out that Fred and I are a lot alike. Fred and I have always been able to talk to each other about things and and especially have been able to talk to each other about relationships and girls and guys. Being able to talk to each other about things like that, yet solely remain friends and only friends is a rare thing this day in age. I often seek advice from my friend Fred and Fred often seeks advice from me. We both help each other make good choices and stay on tack, as well as remaining good friends and having fun.

One time Fred was texting me about a girl that he liked. In fact, he thought he loved her. He was fairly certain that this was the girl that he was going to marry. Keep in mind that Fred is in high school. He really liked this girl and wanted my advice as a friend, a sister, and a Christian. Fred was acting very emotional and was very caught up in this girl. I however, saw the situation very realistically and rationally. I told Fred that this was not the girl for him and that if he was seriously planning on marrying her, he should reconsider. And this girl had already played him three times before and there's no way she would stick around for marriage. I also told him that I knew his walk with God was not at a strong point in his life and if he wanted a girl who was a christian and wanted a relationship based on Christ, it is not good to start the relationship when he was away from Christ. He took into consideration all of the things that I said and saw that they were very logical points. This was about three months ago that I told Fred these things, and now he already has himself another girl.

journal - 8

Each of the four seasons have their perks. In summer, there is no school, and it is hot outside, so it is fun to do things outdoors. In the winter, we get Christmas break and do not have school for a week. Also, in the winter is Christmas, snow, hot chocolate, snow days, and boots. I also like spring because spring is track season. I run track and spend all year preparing for that one time of the year. Spring is also neat because the weather is finally warmer and the air is crisp and everything seems to get a fresh start. Autumn, however, is my favorite season. There are so many things that are great about autumn. One great thing is the weather. It is not too hot and not yet too cold. The weather is perfect for football games and bonfires. Which brings me to another reason that I love autumn: football. I really enjoy football. My brother plays football, so I have grown up watching football and cheering him on. Football is a very common thing in my household and in America. In fact, it is the only sport designed to be played throughout the entire weekend. On Fridays in the autumn, I go to the Pleasant Plains High School football games. On Saturdays I either go to my brother's college football game, or watch it on t.v. And on Sundays, I watch professional football while I either take a nap, do my homework, or just rest. I like football, and all of the things that come with it. That is the main reason why my favorite season is autumn. Also in Autumn, there are bonfires. I love bonfires. The weather is kind of chilly, and perfect for standing around the fire to bond with your friends. Another thing about fall that I really appreciate is the clothes. Fall clothes are my favorite. For me, there are so many cute fall clothing options to choose from. Autumn clothes are fun. There are so many wonderful things about Autumn, and it is definitely my favorite season.

reflection - 6

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" has many similarities to "The Crucible". Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon, talks of How we are held by the hands of God suspended over the pit of Hell. His entire point to the sermon is that we have no control, God is in control, and that we need to live our lives here on Earth for God. He believes in a direct correlation between our actions and thoughts here on Earth and where we will end up; Heaven or Hell. He states that many of the people in the Church will not be going to Heaven. He is basically calling them fakers. But not just fakers, but more so, lazy. He says that even if people are reading their Bibles and praying every day, they still may not go to Heaven. He does not believe that it has to do with just our actions here on Earth that get us to Heaven, but the motives of our Hearts. He points out that if we are just going through the motions of our faith, we may be surprised to find where we will be spending the rest of eternity. John Proctor also shares some similar views of salvation as Jonathan Edwards does. In the closing section of the book, John Proctor is faced with an extremely tough decision. He must either confess to witchcraft, which is a lie, and his life will be spared, or he must deny whichcraft, which is the truth, and and his life will be spared. John Proctor is a very upright man. He wants to admit to witchcraft, so that he can continue to live, but he knows that if he admits to witchcraft, he is lying. He does not want to have to go back home to his boys as a liar. He knows that he could never raise them to tell the truth if the only reason he was there with them was because he lied to spare his own life. He also knows that if he lies and admits to witchcraft, then he is also condemning his fellow neighbors and friends and then he puts them in the position to either lie or die. John Proctor eventually admits to witchcraft, but shortly after, he changes his mind. He tells them that it is a lie and that he never had anything to do with witchcraft. He told the truth. He told the truth because he, like Jonathan Edwards, believes there is a strong correlation between our actions and our salvation. John Proctor knew that he would already get judged harshly because of the lechery that he commited, and did not want to have another thing to have to be held accountable for in the life to come. He realized that he would rather suffer here in this earthly life tahn have to spend eternity in Hell. Jonathan Edwards and John Proctor hold true to their values, and actually share many similar values about life, death, and eternity.

Edward, Jonathan. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. Print.

journal - 7

Bullying is a serious problem today, and has been in the past. In fact, the headline today on AOL.com was about a boy who committed suicide because he was bullied. I hate that. I do not think things should ever get so bad that a person's only option is suicide. That is absolutely terrible and there is no reason for that to happen. Anyone who bullies people has no excuse to be bullying them, and they deserved to be immediately punished. Also, I believe it is not just the responsibility of the bullies to not bully people, but I believe that bullying is the responsibility of others who witness the bullying and/or who know that bullying is going on. People that know bullying is happening are just as responsible for the bullying as are the people that are actually inflicting the bullying. They have just as much power to stop the bullying as the bully does, therefore is held to the same level of responsibility. I hate bullying. It is one-hundred percent unnecessary. I have witnessed bullying before, right here at Pleasant Plains High School. Bullying is gross and disgusting and I wish more people would report bullying or would at least stand up to the bully and tell them what's up. Bullying can have such a serious effect on the victim of bullying. As I shared earlier, people sometimes kill themselves because of bullies. That is serious. If any bully thinks that bullying is not serious, they are wrong. Bullying can be a life or death matter. There is nothing about that, that is not serious. People can be emotionally scared from bullying for their whole life. As humans, we carry emotional "baggage" with us. We have excellent memories, and do not forget the things in our lives that were extremely painful, embarrassing, degrading, or memorable. We just do not. We think about those things over and over again and want to hold the people accountable who were responsible for the pain that we felt. Emotional things stay with us for our entire lives, and bullying is one of those things that definitely can stay with a person emotionally forever, and can have a drastic outcome on a person and can change a person a lot.

reflection - 5

how is human nature expressed in the events so far in the crucible?

Human nature is much depicted and expressed in the events so far in The Crucible, by the characters and how they react, respond, and behave to certain things within the play. A big way that human nature is expressed, is that most of the characters in this play respond to things on impulse. They do not stop to think about things or to thing logically, they simply reply. Most of their responses are on pure emotion, especially Mr. Parris. Mr. Parris even within the first few pages of the book responds out of emotion. He snaps at Abigail, and does not believe the things that she says or even take them into consideration. Later he is very obnoxious and responds to all of the other characters on impulse.

Also, in this play, many of the characters lie. This shows that it is in our human nature to be sinful and to lie. When the characters of this play are under pressure, instead of being honest, they just lie. We see the lying begin with Abigail in the beginning of the play as she lies to Mr. Parris about what the girls were doing in the woods. After she lies about it, so does Tituba, Mary Warren, and all of the other girls. Instead of taking their punishment of a whipping, they continue to lie, which eventually leads them to the courthouse and to jail. Also in this play, the women lie. They blame other women for things that supposedly happened, when really they know the truth that the other woman did not do the things they accuse her of. They lie and falsely accuse each other because they are trying to save their own butts. They do not want to get into trouble or to get blamed, so instead of being honest, they blame someone else in hopes that they can shift the blame from them to the other woman so that people will forget about them and focus on another woman's inequities. Lying is definitely a part of human nature and this play really helps to illustrate that. Another thing that is somewhat incorporated within lying and is covered in this book is selfishness. All of the girls and women that were lying only lied to keep themselves safe and out of blame. They lied for selfish reasons. They were all being very selfish and did not think of others before themselves. Selfishness is a part of human nature. The men and women that were on the board to decide who was guilty and innocent and who should be hung and who should live were extremely selfish. I have a feeling that most of these people were not actually fully convinced that the people they were blaming were actually guilty. The only one of them to ever look at it at a logical standpoint was Hale, and he ended by pleading with people to confess so that he would not feel guilty. All of the other people did not look at it logically. They looked at it selfishly and thought that if they could keep the blame on others, they would not get hurt, even to the point of killing others. It was ridiculous how things went down. If everyone would have just told the truth instead of lying and pretending, nobody would have to be lynched. Instead, everyone would have a better understanding of each other and they could just try to figure things out another way. Telling the truth would have been so much more beneficial to all of the people than lying. The problem was that the lying was an epidemic and it got to the point that if people did tell the truth, there was nothing they could do to stop what was happening because it got to the point that people were in the lies so deep that things would have unravelled if people started to peel back the lies to look at the truth.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. Print.

journal - 6

There are many possible repercussions for blaming someone for something that they did not, in fact, do. However, someone should not even be blaming someone for something that they did not even do. I think people need to step up in who they are and actually own up to the things they have done that are wrong. I do, however, understand that sometimes it is very difficult to take on the responsibilities of your actions, even when it is the right thing to do. The right thing to do usually seems like the hardest thing to do. If someone does not step up and take responsibility for their actions and ends up blaming someone else, I think there are many possible repercussions. One possible repercussion is that people will find out that you did the thing, and then they will find out that you blamed someone else for it. If that happens, people seem to get even more angry and misunderstanding, and often you will get in even more trouble for what you did than if you had simply told what you did in the first place. I think in many scenarios people discover that it would benefit them to just tell the truth in the beginning. Another possible repercussion would be that the other person would receive punishment for something that was your wrongdoing. In this case, the perpetrater of all of it usually feels very guilty and quite often ends up telling in the end that it was them who did it. So yet again, we see that it is often better just to confess and take responsibility for your actions than blaming others, because it is the right thing to do, and because people usually will find out anyway. Another possible outcome of blaming other people for things that you did is that the person you blame could find out, become angry, and seek revenge on you. That is certainly something that people do not want happening to them, and is simply just not worth it. Just tell the truth, it helps make life less stressful and helps you live free of guilt and makes you a more honest and real person.

Reflection Blog - 4

I will start with the character that has the color that is easiest for me to define. I believe Putnam is a gold. He is extremely strong willed. When they are trying to take his wife away, Putnam will not let them. Putnam does not waver in his opinion on that. He does not let anyone else sway him. He knows what is just, and will not hear otherwise. An attitude like that is very "gold", so to speak. He also cares for his family a lot. He is trying to protect his wife, and has great protective instincts. He also cares for his kids. He seems like a man of routines and is somewhat narrow-minded. This is why I believe that Mr. Putnam definitely has some "gold" qualities about him.

I believe that Mr. Parris would show up on the true colors quiz as a green. Parris is a very inquizitive man, and questions everything. Rather than taking his time to listen and to understand Abigail, he instead shuts off all emotion and tries to anylize everything that Abigail says. I do understand how he could do that, considering the very stressful and frightening situation with his daughtor, but Parris was analyzing things so much that it went a little over the top.

I believe that Abigail is a blue. She is very emotional. I am not just saying that she is emotional because she is a teenage girl, buy I think she is very emotional down to her inner core. Everything that she said was geared around emotion. She would not say anything and would lie to cover up for the things she did because she did not want to get into trouble. But doing that seemed to be eating her alive, and she eventually had to spill her guts, which was a very emotional thing to do. Abigail was very soft spoken before she spilled her guts, and that also showed that she was a blue. Blues tend to be very caring and loving and emotional. I think Abigail was all of those things. She also had many emotions tied into Mr. Putnam and she cared for him and was not always rational in her thinking about him, but very much so more emotional.

I think Mr. Hale is a gold. He is a very methodical man and does everything by the rules. He does not jump to conclusions, but instead looks at every possibity before looking ahead. He seems like a very just man and lives very much so by the rules. He was ok with puting the women in jail because he knew it abided with the law. He was also naive and thought that the women would not get senteced and would get let out the next day. I do think that if he knew the reality of the situation he would have been more proactive in helping Elizabeth Proctor get out of it, and he would take a more firm stance and try to stop the injustice that was happening.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. A Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. Print.

journal - 5

what is a fair 21st century punishment or what should it be?

First off, I would like to point out that this is not a good question and could be phrased in a better way. Because firstly, what is fair anyway? Fair is not something that can be judged or compated. There is no definite answer when it comes to asking if something is fair or not, and I would just like to point that out to start with.

Secondly, I do not believe that there is a certain format of how to punish your kids. There is no template of punishments for your kids that all parents should follow. I believe punishments should be child specific. This makes no difference if it is in the twenty-first century or not. All punishments should be child specific. What I mean in sayin 'child specific', is that the punishment for all of your kids does not have to look the same. They may look the same, but they certainly do not have to. It depends on each child as an individual. What may be a punishment for one child, may be nothing to the next child. For example, if both of your children were misbehaving and you give them both a time-out, it may not be the right choice. For one of your children the time-out may be extremely boring and the child would learn their lesson from the punishment, whereas the other child may spend his time being useful and use it as a time of reflection or a time to be productive. In this case, the punishment was most likely not actually a punishment for the child, and he probably was not taught a very adequate lesson from this.

Now in the twenty-first century, there are so many new ways to punish your kids that never existed before. For example, parents now have the opportunity to take away from their children the priveledge of modern technologies. For example, if a teenager or pre-teenager has disobeyed, a parent can now take away their cell phone, their laptop, their facebook priveledges, their car, or many other modern technologies. This form of punishment has never existed in the past as it does now, and that can be used as an advantage or a disadvantage.