Wiki Follow-Up

So I have decided this week that Wiki Creation is not my calling in life.

However...

Our group works very well as a team. Initially when we decided upon our topic (Views on Death as Told by Early American Poets) we assumed that the information would be easy to gather and that the Wiki would be easy to create. Our format has changed multiple times, and is now entering into the final stages. We have created a home page that displays our four American Authors and Poets (Anne Bradstreet, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael Wigglesworth, and Edward Taylor.) From this page, viewers are able to naviage in various directions--
They may navigate to a page that displays biographical information about one of the aforementioned authors, or to a page that unveils the stance of each author in terms of belief in a higher power, belief in life after death, or the authors view: fear vs. acceptance of death. The greatest problem that we have run into up to this point is gathering in one meeting place. But, because each group member continues to be involved in the creation of the wiki, it is not that pressing of a problem. We have learned much about our own individual authors that we researched (Gabe=Anne Bradstreet, Me=Edgar Allan Poe, Ryan=Michael Wigglesworth, Caitlin=Edward Taylor.) But it has been really interesting to have discussion and collaborate with one another and determine how our indivual authors vary from one another. For instance, Bradstreet vs. Wigglesworth (Bradstreet harbors hesitation and skepticism; Wigglesworth is unsure about practically nothing.)
Our group will meet for the last time this week to finalize the wiki. Oh Happy Day!

www.impuritans.pbworks.com

The 19th Century

The nineteenth century was a vital time in terms of the turn of women's rights. It was becoming more common not only for women to wish to leave the home and fill a position in the workplace, but for it to actually happen. Women such as Margaret Fuller began to assume atypical roles of women in the period, making independence highly favored among the female population. Margaret Fuller displayed influence and inspiration of new age ideas... such as an appreciation for self reliance and self dependence. She demonstrates the effects of this sweeping movement in one of her most well known works: Woman in the Nineteenth Century. This piece explores the results of new age thinking on women of the nineteenth century in terms of their pursuits of the American Dream as well as the struggles and biases that they encountered.

The concept of equality between men and women in the household is explored by Fuller. Whereas men were initially held to a higher standard and more esteemed regard, Fuller seeks to equalize the standard. She even claims that women are considered to be a greater equal to children than they are to other adult men. In hopes of exploiting the effects of unequal household roles, Fuller claims "You are not the head of your wife... God has given her a head of her own" (Fuller, 729). Here, she claims that God's will for the life of a woman is not necessarily the same as God's will for the woman's husband.

"A house is no home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as for the body. The female Greek, of our day, is as much in the street as the male to cry" (Fuller, 732). Is Fuller suggesting that (had it not been for the role of women) society would have been atrophied in some way because there was no woman to nurture it? Fuller is firm in her belief that women should be willing to pursue a lifestyle of dependence because no one of any gender even obtains hope for pursuits of the American Dream if there is no good woman behind those pursuits.

This link gives the audience insight into biographical information about Margaret Fuller and presents other works of hers to emphasize her purpose as an author.:

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/fuller/

Melville- Bartleby the Scrivener

Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener gives the audience insight into problems in the workplace such as depression, denial, and the unavoidable laziness. Bartleby is a clerk who works in the generic office place of a seeminly wealthy and seemingly charitable business owner who goes unnamed and remains the narrator throughout the story. Bartleby's attitude is depressive, passive, and detatched from all happenings going on around him. Mellville explores passivness not only in the workplace, but in general amidst society by assigning a careless attitude and persona to Bartleby.
When asked to apply himself, Bartleby does not respond viciously or aggressively, but rather with "I prefer not to." This amplifies the frustrations and confusions felt by the narrator as he seeks to decifer the emotions of Bartleby. Not only does Melville explore passiveness in the workplace, but other emotions through the characters of Turkey and Nippers. Turkey is a drunkard who is only reliable in the mornings, before his consumption takes place. Nippers is irritable in the mornings, and only worth of applying himself in the afternoons. When all characters are combined, drastic extreme character foils reveal frustrations that take place within the office setting.
As we explored Melville's work, we were asked to research a current event in correspondence to themes revealed by Melville (depression in the workplace, mere silliness... depression in general... etc.) In an article published through Mental Health America, Depression as a result of the workplace is analyzed, as well as Depression and its effect on those in the workplace. The article can be applied to and compared with Melville's Bartleby the Scrivner as it explains symtoms of those with Depression (lack of energy, lack of interest, overwhelming fatigue...etc.) Bartleby experienced one or all symptoms at some point in Melville's work.

http://www.nmha.org/index.cfm?objectid=C7DF951E-1372-4D20-C88B7DC5A2AE586D

Emerson -The American Scholar

Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers a speech of great significance to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard University, informing the members of the society that their duties as scholars and citizens lies not in the past nor in the future, but wholly in the present. By suggesting that man is responsible for that which takes place in his own society, Emerson implies that the actions and words of generations before and after our own are obsolete. Emerson states "As no air pump can by any means make a perfect vacuum, so neither can any artist entirely exclude the conventional, the local, the perishable from his book, or write a book of pure thought that shall be as efficient, in all respects, to a remote posterity, as to contemporaries, or rather to the second agte. Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this" (Emerson, 673). Here, it is suggested that (such as the work of a dedicated artist) a book is relevant only to its time period. As an artist would create what he or she has been inspired by NOW. The work itself is not the art... but rather the fleeting moment of the creation of the piece. During the time of creation is the work at its most relevant peak because it is the newest and most inspired. Emerson encourages all scholars to do such with their words and actions. After the fleeting inescapable moments of the delivery of such actions or speeches, they will be obsolete and not as treasured. Emerson emphasizes that it is key to obtain appreciation for the present and the "Now" in order to be a true American scholar.

This is a link about the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard University in an effort to obtain background information of the reasons for Emerson's lecture there:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~pbk/

Poe...Death... Ravens... and Wikis.

This week our group decided to compose a wiki based on the views of death of respective American authors. We began to analyze the work of Wigglesworth and then went on to talk about the works of Bradstreet and Poe. Although all three authors have obvious fears, understandings, and opinions on death, similarities are also expressed. We plan to discuss Wigglesworth's adamant exploitation of judgment and the wrath of God as well as God's sovereign control over all aspects of life in comparison with Poe's fear of death and the concept of life after death. Bradstreet was deemed the "middle ground" as she was striving to break away from Puritan life but wanted her faith and belief in a higher power and an afterlife to be sustained. Because these three authors come from relatively different time periods, they will express different views on a common subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p99rf63jCE

The Flesh and the Spirit

I truly enjoyed reading the poetry of Anne Bradstreet this week and gaining some insight into her view of limited Puritan ideology. The poem entitled "The Flesh and the Spirit" presented two conflicting sides of the Puritan way of life. This poem tells of two twins, Flesh and Spirit. Flesh is consumed with the desire to acquire as many earthly approvals, material items, etc. as he possibly can. His focus is on the flesh and his hopes are superficial and will not continue beyond this world. Spirit demonstrates knowledge and understanding of hopes that will surpass all that is current and all that will die along with this world. His focus is truly on the "spirit." Because the Puritans believed that knowledge of the spirit would invite happiness in the flesh, their ways of living and ways of believing were slightly askew according to Bradstreet. With sort of a Joel Osteen take on living, the Puritans believed that if they pleased God then he would satisfy them materially. Superficial? I think so. Selfish? Slightly. Bradstreet was able to recognize this and her frustrations are expressed through verse here. Do these two twins present conflicting views and conflicting sides of ONE internal battle?

John Smith, Pocahontas, John Rolfe

Through the readings this week, we were given new insight into the realm of sixteenth century exploration. As we take in the words of John Smith (From The Generall Historie of Virginia New-England, and the Summer Isles) we are introduced to to someone whose well-known reputation has been contorted and misinterpreted. Naturally, we uncovered this week that it was not Smith whose love story involved Pocahontas, but John Rolfe. Because of this, the tale of Pocahontas is no longer a weepy, engrosing, lazy-smiling, love story, but one of an easily influenced native who is said to have "turned her back on her people."



Cool Link: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/images/apr5_pocahontas_disney2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/pocahont.html&usg=__Vw5IWASzYy4gtHKx1hLCBAN4Eag=&h=330&w=496&sz=18&hl=en&start=12&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=m-qCXecEZLGbAM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpocahontas%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1R2SKPB_enUS339%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1