Final Essay

The Really Skinny Textbook Debate seems like an interesting prompt because it allows me to choose three writers that I feel had very interesting works. Some writers wrote about American history, and others had a big influence in what American Literature is today. Also, when reading the works of such writers we gain a bigger understanding about America itself, and we are able to develop critical thinking skills. I have chosen to write about Washington, Cochise, and Twain. I feel that talking about these three writers, will satisfy the objectives that the syllabus for next year requires. For example, Washington would expand our understanding about Americas history, culture, and difficulties during enslavement. Cochise would address many of these subjects as well, but it would also show the problems that America has such as greediness, lack of patience, and the need for being a dominating country. As for Twain, he is a writer that forces readers to think critically and at the same time, he forces the readers to ask questions. Aside from accomplishing the syllabus tasks, their works are very interesting, they speak truths, and they entertain the reader. They are great readings, and they would allow any student to really enjoy a semester of American Literature.

Hollow Men (pg 1599) 3-15-2010

The Hollow Men

While reading this poem all that came to mind was that Elliot was talking about life and the aftermath. From my perspective, I believe that Elliot thought that we as human beings are stuffed on the outside, but hollow on the inside. We are empty, quiet and meaningless he states. Elliot also states that we are violent human beings but that all this wouldn't be remembered once we reached the aftermath. We would still be seen as hollow men. We would be seen as men and women that had emptiness in life. It is interesting how Elliot also states that even though we are empty and hollow human beings, we don't want to be near the death kingdom up to the point where we don't even want to dream about it. It is as if Elliot was scared of death, since he stated that he wanted to wear deliberate disguises so that he wouldn't have to meet death.

Elliot also makes another interesting point. For example, he states that even though we don't want to get near death and we avoid it at all costs. When we do reach that point and when we finally meet deaths kingdom, we grope together and avoid speech. At the same time, Elliot mentions four different kingdoms, one of them being Gods Kingdom. This small detail states that even though we don't want to die, if we do end up dying, it is the wish of any sane man to acquire Gods Kingdom. Eventually, the world ends for us, even though Elliot considered that we lived long lives. However, our lives don't end with a bang, but with a whisper, possibly stating that this is the way most people leave the world.

Elliot's poem is a very interesting one that requires repetitive reading. I believe that Elliot thought that as humans we are empty from the inside. We go about our lives living them, but in the end we feel empty inside, possibly stating that many people die unhappy. We live our lives, and even though we wish to never see death, once we die, we hope to acquire Gods Kingdom. At the same time it is obvious that we want to avoid hell at all costs. Finally, if we are lucky human beings usually live 70-80 years. This is unfortunately not a long time, and for those of us that do reach that age, we have the option of dying peacefully not with a bang, but with a whisper.

Red Wind (Pg 1541) 3-8-2010

Red Wind is a story written by Raymond Chandler during the 1900’s. It is a story about mystery and murder, and very interesting. Chandler does a great job at telling the story little by little and allows the story to unfold by itself. The stories tone is an exiting tone and the way that Chandler begins telling the story allows the readers attention to be caught. Chandler presents the main character Damas as a private investigator that happens to witness a murder while having a drink. He is presented as a smart man that shows sensitivity to others. He is a man that shows tremendous courage and someone that in reality takes risks to find out the truth. Throughout the story, we find out that the man that got killed was Waldo. He was killed by a man named Al Tessilore. However, Damas doesn't know this in the beginning and he comes to find this information by investigating a case that he could have left to the law. However, his nature does not allow him to leave the case to the law and goes his own way to investigate this. Throughout his investigation he meets important figures such as Lola, the woman that was supposed to meet Waldo. He also meets Al but not in the most appropriate way. Al was a violent man that showed up at Damas apartment in order to kill Damas, because he wanted to leave no witnesses. However, it is interesting to note that Damas was helped by Lola. She escapes and Damas does well in calling Copernik, the investigator in charge of Waldo’s murder case. Damas presents Copernik with the murderer, in this case Mr Tessilore, but he also fills Copernik with some lies in order to protect Lola, showing that he was a compassionate being. Eventually, Damas does more investigating, finds out who Waldo, Al, and Mr Frank are and what their involvement with Lola is.

Even though the story is very interesting, what interests me the most was Damas character. Like I mentioned in the beginning, Damas was a man that displayed courage and sensitivity. Damas showed courage in various occasions throughout the story. For example, when the murder left, he was the first to go after him and take the license plate numbers. He investigated Lola, Miss Kolchenko, and Mr Frank. He encountered death when Mr Tessilore threatened him and during all these events, there is no sign that Damas ever carried a weapon or a friend with him. It shows tremendous courage to go after a murder, especially when we consider that Damas was not acquainted with any of the subjects that he dealed with.

Damas also showed sensitivity during the story. He did his best to cover up Lola since she had saved his life. He wasn't going to take this act for granted, and actually helped her out in may ways. From investigating who she was to searching an apartment for her, he did everything possible to help her out, showing that he appreciated what she had done for him. However, Lola was not the only one that was helped by Damas. His compassionate and helpful spirit helped other people such as Miss Kolchenko and Mr Frank, even though he did acquire money from the latter. In fact, he helped all of these people out that he eventually acquired a deal from Mr Copernik and Mr Ybarra that these subjects would not be mentioned.

Feminist Manifesto (Pg.1502) 3-2-2010

Feminist Manifesto

Feminist Manifesto is an interesting letter written by Mina Loy during her lifetime. Even though the letter was never published during her lifetime, it did come out years later. Mina Loy demanded sexual freedom for women and urged women to embrace maternity. I find that the letter that Mina Loy wrote was written with passion, anger, and there is no doubt that she demanded freedom. I found it interesting how she would highlight, underline, and capitalize some words. Maybe she did this because she wanted to stress the importance of what she was saying in some of these words. For example, when she writes that professional and commercial careers were opening up for women at the bottom of page 1502 she then asks the question if that is all they want? Another example is when she writes about women and men inequality. She clearly states that woman and man is not equal. It is clear that Mina Loy was very feminist and I liked the way that she told women to look within themselves and seek what they really were. Mina Loy also encouraged women to make their own decisions, to gain independence, and to not rely on men. She wanted women to destroy the desire to be loved and I believe that this is because she thought that wanting to feel loved, hindered women from gaining certain rights. Mina Loy mentions this herself in a passage on page 1504. She states that a woman gains many rights from a man when she offers her virginity, but what about those that don't have that “advantageous” bargain? Those that don't have that bargain were debarred from maternity and this is something that deeply bothered Loy.

Mila Loy firmly believed that every woman had a right to maternity because she felt that women in general had superior intelligence and didn't need to rely on men. She didn't want women to rely on men and wanted them to lead their own lives in an independent way. She stated that women had to lose the desire of honor, sentimentality, and pride. At the same time, she stated that women had to lose jealousy, sentimentality and grief. Finally she stated that there was nothing impure in sex and that people saw sex as impure simply because it was a mental issue. Mila Loy did a great job in writing this letter and many things that she wrote about are easy to agree with. Women don't have to rely on men, they do deserve the same rights as men, and in this case they deserve the right to engage in maternity. This is her race responsibility and it is something that Loy believed should not be taken away, regardless of the situation that a woman was in.

Robert Frost pg.1388 (2-23-2010)

First and foremost, we have to remember that Robert Frost believed in naturalism. He was the type of person that believed that nature played an important part in our daily lives and that as humans we had to try our best to be in tune with nature. Frost uses a lot of imagery in his poems and he uses a traditional form of writing poems. Personally, I find Robert Frost poems extremely difficult to read but I have learned that we can sometimes interpret poems our own way. While reading his poems, I found Mending Wall and After Apple Picking to be especially interesting. I found that there was a lot of imagery, but I also found that these poems had a lot of meaning.

After carefully reading Mending Wall and doing research on Frost, I came to find out that humanity can relate to this poem. Mending Wall shows us that a neighbor is trying to fix the wall year after year because of the repairs that it needs. Frost continues to tell the neighbor that he doesn't see the reason as to why he is trying to fix this wall. It seems that Frost is trying to let his neighbor know that it is best to leave the wall alone. If the wall keeps mending year after year, then it is obvious that the wall does not belong there. As a human being, I can relate to this in every aspect. The poem can be applied to social, political, and personal relationships. As humans, we sometimes put barriers between us believing that these barriers will have a positive effect on us. However, these barriers can sometimes be negative and they can hurt us, causing us to weaken our relationships with others. When we soon realize that these barriers don't work, we then comprehend that it is better to improve our relationships with others rather than to stay distant. We realize that it is better to work out our problems, wether they are cultural, social, ethnic, etc. By doing so we become one with nature and in the end we are able to lead better lives and we are able to understand each other.

After Apple Picking is another interesting poem that I found hard to understand at the beginning. After reading it several times, I came to the conclusion that the poem was talking about opportunities. Frost states that apples appear and disappear. This to me makes it clear that in life we all have opportunities. These opportunities are like apples in the sense that we choose which ones we want. Frost then mentions that there were ten thousand fruit to touch and that he grew overtired of picking them. In life, opportunities constantly show up. We pick some, we let many go, and in the end we sometimes grow tired of the decisions that we have made. However, we sometimes make the mistake of letting some go, and we sometimes choose the ones that we believed to be the correct choice. In letting some opportunities go, we realize that those same opportunities will never be back and that they have lost their worth, sometimes causing us to feel remorse and in turn causing us to lose our sleep.

Booker T Washington

After carefully analyzing both activists, I would have to agree by far with Booker T Washington. Washington suffered a lot since he was a child and into adulthood. But I agree with Booker T Washington for many reasons. First of all, he seemed to be a humble person that didn't show any anger towards the whites, especially considering that he was enslaved by them. Booker T Washington proves to be an optimist and he would view any situation in a positive way. He would constantly urge people not to get involved with politics which is ironic because in a way he was involved. However, we can view this as Washington having deep love for his people and at the same time we can conclude that he cared for them, therefore he was willing to fight for their rights. Even though I believe that equal rights towards black people was something important to Washington, I don't believe that this was his main concern. Instead, he wanted to earn these rights by proving his race useful to the whites. He wanted his race to work hard and gain education so that they could be better prepared to face the world, which in turn would eventually earn the respect of whites. In fact, when freedom came, Washington realized that this could very well be possible because the blacks were well prepared in almost everything since they would constantly work for the whites. Another interesting aspect is that Washington believed that his people were ambitious. This would enable them to learn, and ambition would enable them to try harder in life, therefore allowing them to progress in life. I didn't live during Washington's time but I sometimes think that Washington was looking towards the future and knew that it would take some time to soften up the white race. He believed that it was better to be democratic rather than demanding, and this is something else that I believe helped Washington. Little by little he earned the respect of them, and his wish was that eventually by his people’s acts, they would earn the respect that they deserved.

Up From Slavery/ Page 665

Up From Slavery

Up from slavery is a great story that tells the reader how the life of an African American was like during enslavement. Booker T Washington was a man that did so much for his people in order for them to live a comfortable life. I noticed that throughout his story, Washington uses a lot of imagery describing where he grew up and how his mother would constantly pray for freedom during the nights. Another place in the story where I feel that Washington uses imagery is when he tells the reader that the slaves would watch every victory of the Federal armies and every defeat of the Confederate forces. This serves as great imagery since it allows the reader to put himself in their place and see what was going on during those times. Washington also uses imagery when he is describing what he ate. He states that he would eat once in a while and in small portions. One of the passages that got to me the most, is located in the final sentence of page 668. He states that he saw two young mistresses eating ginger cakes. Those cakes seemed so desirable to him that if he ever reached freedom, his ambition would be to acquire those cakes. This passage made me think of how we sometimes take things for granted. It seems obvious that the mistresses didn't even think about how they were privileged to delight themselves with ginger cakes, and here Washington’s ambition was to eat these cakes as soon as he got out.

During the whole story, Washington's tone appears to be a passive tone. He doesn't appear to be angered, but rather he seem happy. For example, he states that there was a close bondage between a slave and his master. In fact, some slaves would beg for the privilege to sit up at night at nurse their wounded masters. This is a great act of kindness because as slaves, many could have displayed bitterness for not being free, but they didn't. In fact, I found it surprising when Washington in a way thanked the White men because they were taught so much. They were taught to sew, cook, take care of the house. This proved to be valuable when the slaves were set free because they were well prepared to face the difficulties in life.

Booker T Washington’s story makes me think about how great of a man he and his fellow black slaves were. His story makes it clear that slaves cared for their masters, were hard workers, and many were not in the least bitter. Washington shows us that he was a humble man and that he loved his people. At the same time, we learn that Washington was ambitious and this was the reason for him going to school. This is a great example for us because sometimes we face difficulties in our lives, but from his example, we learn that if we have the right determination and display hard work, anything in life is possible.