Henry David Thoreau "Where I Lived and What I Lived for"

Henry David Thoreau is an author who is "a public servant, offering the English-speaking public the fruits of his experience" (711). He was an abolutonist who cared very much for nature. In one of his books The Maine Woods there is "very little satire" and the most "heightening passage" is "Thoreau's realization that the Maine woods were 'primeval, untamed, and forever untameable Nature'" (710).  Why is this the most heightened passage and what does it truly reveal about nature, or humans? How does this relate to Thoreau's abolitionist ideas and what he saw the world as in general?

Support, refute, or modify this quote: "No good reader will ever be entirely pleased with him- or herself or with the current state of culture and civilization while reading any of Thoreau's best works" (713).

Houskeeping Discussion

During today’s discussion, there were many interesting ideas brought up. One that struck me the most was Rebecca’s idea that Ruth and Sylvie reached their final destination and in doing that they reached death because it is impossible to find a final destination. When she said that I agreed with her, but then Ms. Parrish asked, “What was there final destination?” and Rebecca said the other side of the bridge, away from Fingerbone. I had a different idea of what their final destination could be. Going along with the idea that Ruth is in fact dead through the novel, I went back and looked through for textual evidence and I found this quote; “We would make a circle, and never reach a shore at all, if there were a vortex, I thought, and we would be drawn down into the darker world, where other sounds would pour into our ears until we seemed to find songs in them. And the sight of water would invade our bowels and unstring our bones, and we would know the seasons and customs of the place as if there were no others” (Robinson 150). To me this seems as if their final destination is the lake. Any body of water, including a lake is always moving somehow, just like a transient, so it makes sense that Ruth says she becomes a traveler, because she is always moving with the water. The lake would be a suitable place for her to die because her mom and her grandfather both died in it. This would all make sense if she was actually dead. She had always been surrounded by water living on Fingerbone, so for her to finally be completely encompassed by water seems  right.

"The Raven" By Edgar Allen Poe

In "The Raven" Edgar Allen Poe writes about melancholy. Melancholy is a feeling that experiences two very different emotions at the same time. This emotion is very confusing for the protaginist. He is not sure whether the raven is good or bad; the raven is both "stately" and "ghastly grim and ancient" (Poe 1-2). Poe's use of rhetoric in this poem, causes the reader to understand conflicting emotions; "Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow" (Poe 1). He wishes for two different things, just like the raven tells him two different things. It is because these confusing emotions are acceptable and Poe is trying to tell his readers that. He is using Pathos to write this peom; he uses his own emotions through the character and the raven and his own emotions are confused. But it is okay to be confused and that is why the raven keeps telling him "nevermore" (3). There aren't always going to be clear meanings to understand. Poe's poem describes the confusion of life and interpretation and the idea of conflicing emotions.