Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Minister's Black Veil: Characteristics of Dark Romanticism

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil is a dark romantic short story filled with dark romantic characteristics. There is also a huge psychological aspect to the story.

A young minister to a church decides to wear a black veil one day to church. All the people have no idea what he is doing. They are all scared by the dark and mysterious veil. The minister's fiance asks him why he wears the veil, and he says he cannot tell her. He says to just have patience with him. He says the veil is only a mortal thing, but when he dies he will be able to take it off. -Weird. His fiance becomes very mad at him for this because she cannot understand why he is wearing the veil. She tells him they are done. For the rest of the minister's life, he hides behind his black veil and watches as life goes on. Once he is finally on his death bed, with his ex fiance, Elizabeth, at his side as the nurse, another priest asks if he can take off his veil yet. The minister freaks out and says no. Then he dies. They bury the minister with the veil still on his face.

This short story is really weird. It has a lot of characteristics of dark romanticism though. The black veil, is obviously a characteristic of dark romanticism. It is mysterious, black, and kind of spooky. It is just a symbol, but it makes all the people freak out when they see it. For example:

"Such was the effect of this simple piece of crepe, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them" (Hawthorne).

"At the close of the services, the people hurried out with indecorous confusion, eager to communicate their pent-up amazement, and conscious of lighter spirits the moment they lost sight of the black veil. Some gathered in little circles, huddled closely together, with their mouths all whispering in the centre; some went homeward alone, wrapt in silent meditation; some talked loudly, and profaned the Sabbath day with ostentatious laughter. A few shook their sagacious heads, intimating that they could penetrate the mystery; while one or two affirmed that there was no mystery at all, but only that Mr. Hooper's eyes were so weakened by the midnight lamp, as to require a shade. After a brief interval, forth came good Mr. Hooper also, in the rear of his flock. Turning his veiled face from one group to another, he paid due reverence to the hoary heads, saluted the middle aged with kind dignity as their friend and spiritual guide, greeted the young with mingled authority and love, and laid his hands on the little children's heads to bless them. Such was always his custom on the Sabbath day. Strange and bewildered looks repaid him for his courtesy. None, as on former occasions, aspired to the honor of walking by their pastor's side. Old Squire Saunders, doubtless by an accidental lapse of memory, neglected to invite Mr. Hooper to his table, where the good clergyman had been wont to bless the food, almost every Sunday since his settlement. He returned, therefore, to the parsonage, and, at the moment of closing the door, was observed to look back upon the people, all of whom had their eyes fixed upon the minister. A sad smile gleamed faintly from beneath the black veil, and flickered about his mouth, glimmering as he disappeared" (Hawthorne).

These two quotes show the agitation and confusion the parishioners feel when they see the minister's black veil. They have no idea what to think of the veil. They wonder if he is hiding from a terrible sin or from God. The mystery of the veil almost drives them crazy (as seen when the women gets up and leaves in the middle of his sermon). When the parishioners see his black veil they think of some of their darkest thoughts. The veil is some type of psychological thing that drives them mad. Because they have no idea why the minister is wearing it or what it is for, they let their imaginations run wild with crazy ideas as to why the minister wears the veil his whole life.

""Why do you tremble at me alone?" cried he, turning his veiled face round the circle of pale spectators. "Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!" (Hawthorne).

Not until the end of the story do we see why the minister wears the veil. As the quote above tells us, the veil symbolizes the lies and sins of everyone. The minister makes an example of himself by physically wearing the veil, but he says he sees a veil on everyone because everyone is guilty of something.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister's Black Veil” In American Literature. Willhelm, Jeffory, comp. McGraw Hill. Columbus, 2009. Print.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Wearing A Mask

People pretend to wear a mask all the time. Most people do it because they are afraid to do something, they are embarrassed, or they just do not want to be noticed. I cannot think of a time when I wore a mask, but I can think of some examples when you would wear a mask.

Sometimes you wear a mask when you do not want people to see your emotions. So here is an example of a time when you would wear a mask.

You wake up in the morning. You are still sad and really cranky from the day before when your boyfriend/girlfriend broke up with you. You go downstairs to eat breakfast. Your mom says good morning and how are you, and you just shrug and say fine. You finish eating, and you get dressed. After brushing your teeth and doing all the rest of the usual getting ready activities, you get in your car and drive to school.

On your way to school you listen to sad music, but then you start to feel annoyed, so you turn up some angry music as loud as your ears will allow you to. You get to school at around 8:00, and your best friend comes up to you because he/she can tell that you are feeling bad. They ask you what is wrong and you say you just had a bad morning. Your friend can still tell that something else is bothering you, but they decide to leave alone for now. You go to your first class, which just so happens to have your ex-boyfriend/girlfriend in it. You feel terrible and you want nothing more but to leave, but you put on your mask, and pretend that everything is okay. You do not want your ex to see how upset you are about the night before. You laugh at everyone's jokes and pretend to have a good time in class.

So far that is a pretty bad beginning to a day. The main character in this story is wearing a mask because he does not want anyone to know about his true feelings from the night before.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is a dark romanticist, so the story obviously has some dark romanticist qualities. The story is about a man who is put in jail. At first the cell is very dark. The man makes his way around the cell to try and see how long it is. He then tries to walk across the cell. He stumbles and realizes that he is right in front of a giant pit. Scared, the man returns to the wall. He is given something to eat that has a type of drug in it to make him fall asleep. He awakes to find himself tied to a table with a giant pendulum swinging high above him. After struggling for a very long time the man realizes that he has to wait for the pendulum to get very close to him so it can cut off the rope around his hands. He manages to free himself of the ropes of the death from the pendulum. The pendulum then rises back up to the ceiling. A little while later the walls start to move in slightly. They are metal and very hot, so the man cannot touch them. The walls are trying to force the man into the pit: a horrible and tragic death. Right before the man is about to be forced into the pit, the walls stop and a man grabs his hand and saves him.

There are many characteristics of dark romanticism in this short story. There are black robed judges. Black is a very dark color. (Obviously).

"I was sick, sick unto death, with that long agony, and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The sentence, the dread sentence of death, was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears. After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum" (Poe).

This quote shows some characteristics of dark romanticism because it talks about death, being sick, long agony, being sentenced to death, and loosing one's senses.

"And now, as I still continued to step cautiously onward, there came thronging upon my recollection a thousand vague rumours of the horrors of Toledo. Of the dungeons there had been strange things narrated -- fables I had always deemed them -- but yet strange, and too ghastly to repeat, save in a whisper. Was I left to perish of starvation in this subterranean world of darkness; or what fate perhaps even more fearful awaited me? That the result would be death, and a death of more than customary bitterness, I knew too well the character of my judges to doubt. The mode and the hour were all that occupied or distracted me" (Poe).

This quote also shows some characteristics of dark romanticism. It too talks about death. It also says that the man heard stories about the prison, Toledo, that he was in. He says he heard weird stories of things he thought were a myth. This statement from the man brings a lot of scary pictures to the readers' minds. I know it brought some sick pictures to my mind...pictures of horrible death traps and other unimaginable things.

I final example of dark romanticism in the story is when all the rats come and kind of attack the man. That part is extremely nasty. When the man is tied to the table, all the rats come running up from the pit. They run and jump all over the man, but the man cannot do anything about it because he is tied down. The rats eat almost all of his food. One of them even goes in his mouth! Sick! I do not know about other readers, but when I read this part, I freaked out. Poe uses a great amount of imagery and other devices to make the reader really sense everything that is going on. It was a great story, but very, very disturbing.

Works Cited:

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature. Ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill. 2010. 263-273. Print.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Raven Literary Analysis

The Raven is a poem written by Dark Romanticist poet, Edgar Allan Poe. The poem is about a man who is reading in the middle of the night and trying not to think about his lost love Lenore. He soon hears a knocking at his door, and he becomes frightened. After sitting in terror for a while, he finally goes over to the door and opens it, but there is no one there. He soon hears the knocking again. This time he thinks it is from his window. He goes over to this window and opens it, and a raven flies in. The raven flies up to a bust, or statue from the chest up, of Pallas Athena (the goddess of wisdom and war). The narrator has a conversation with the raven and all the raven says is "Nevermore".

I read a critical analysis from Bloom's Literary Reference Online called Review of "The Raven" by P. Pendleton Cooke. Cooke had nothing but good things to say about the poem. I would have to agree with Cooke in some of the points that he makes. Cooke says,

"Observe how artistically the poet has arranged the circumstances of this opening—how congruous all are. This congruity extends to the phraseology; every word is admirably selected and placed with reference to the whole. Even the word "napping" is well chosen, as bestowing a touch of the fantastic, which is subsequently introduced as an important component of the poem. Stanza 2d increases the distinctness and effect of the picture as already presented to us. The "Midnight Dreary" is a midnight "in the bleak December," and the "dying embers" are assuming strange and fantastic shapes upon the student's hearth. We now pass these externals and some words of exquisite melody let us into the secret of the rooted sorrow which has led to the lonely night-watching and fruitless study" (Cooke).

This is a very good observation made by Cooke. The certain words and phrases like "in the bleak of December", "dying embers", and "Midnight Dreary" do portray a kind of dark and mysterious tone to the poem.

I, personally, like the dark and mysterious tone of the poem. I really like Dark Romanticism, and Edgar Allan Poe is actually my family dark romanticist. In all honesty, he is the only dark romanticist I know right now, but I have read a few of his works over the years and I liked them a lot. I really like mysteries in general, and his poems and short stories are really good mysteries. I also love ghost stories because I am kind of weird like that, and I like that kind of stuff.

Cooke goes on to say,

"The rhythm of this poem is exquisite, its phraseology is in the highest degree musical and apt, the tone of the whole is wonderfully sustained and appropriate to the subject, which, full as it is of a wild and tender melancholy, is admirably well chosen. This is my honest judgment; I am fortified in it by high authority. Mr. Willis says:—"It is the most effective single example of fugitive poetry ever published in this country, and unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent sustaining of imaginative lift. It is one of those dainties which we feed on. It will stick to the memory of every one who reads it...I hear of persons haunted by the Nevermore, and one acquaintance of mine, who has the misfortune of possessing a bust of Pallas, never can bear to look at it in the twilight" (Cooke).

While I would have to agree with the writing style of Poe's The Raven, I would not be so over exaggerate as Cooke is. I feel he goes a little over board in praising Poe's poem. I am not saying that the poem is not full of wonderfully colorful words and great poetic devices, I am just saying that I would not be so crazily enthusiastic about it. I am also not so sure about the part where people were actually haunted by the word "Nevermore". I did not find the poem very spooky at all. The setting makes the poem pretty spooky, but, in my opinion, I think the raven makes the poem really stupid. Maybe back when Poe was alive it was creepy, but today, not so much. For people to actually be haunted by the word "Nevermore" is pretty ridiculous. I mean, come on, it's just a poem.

Works Cited:

Cooke, P. Pendleton. "Edgar A. Poe," Southern Literary Messenger (January 1848). Reprinted in The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Eric W. Carlson (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966): pp. 21–23. Quoted as "Review of 'The Raven'" in Harold Bloom, ed. Edgar Allan Poe, Bloom's Major Poets. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1999. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BMPEAP21&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 22, 2010).

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Walden

Henry David Thoreau was, among other things, an American author, poet, abolitionist, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist. Thoreau is best known for his book Walden and his essay Civil Disobedience. Thoreau wrote his book Walden about the times he had living in a cabin near Walden Pond. Thoreau said, ""I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" (Wayne).

Wayne says,

his most lasting literary legacy would in fact be the account of his stay at Walden, an account that has come to represent the core of a Transcendentalist perspective on self-reliance, frugality and economy, humanity's relationship with nature, and environmentalism. In going to Walden to live alone in a one-room cabin, Henry David Thoreau sought to separate himself from what he and other Transcendentalists saw as the increasing materialism and commercialism guiding antebellum American life. Thoreau wanted to get back to the basics and live in the simplest manner possible so as not only to remove himself from those negative values he associated with a capitalist economy but to look within himself and to nature for his physical as well as spiritual and intellectual needs (Wayne).

From this account, I would believe that Thoreau was a true Transcendentalist because he wanted to isolate himself to ponder the real meanings of life. He wanted to live a simple life in order to see what was really important to him.

Wayne continues to say, "Thoreau, of course, intended to spend his free nonworking hours and days in bettering himself through study and through spiritual communion with nature. It was as a poet, one who drew his inspiration from self-sufficiency and from nature, that Thoreau was most effective in presenting the main theme of Walden" (Wayne).

I would have to agree with Wayne here. I think that because Thoreau isolated himself so much and thought about the real meaning of life all day made him a more effective writer. I do not think that someone who just decided to write about Thoreau's topic, and did not go through what he did, would be as effective as Thoreau was.

So says Wayne,

Walden Pond itself served as the best example of Henry David Thoreau's dual perspective of nature as having both physical and spiritual aspects, but also of having both knowable and unknown qualities. The pond itself is the symbolic center of the text, a place that Thoreau had known as a child and thus was, in a sense, part of his own self that he had come to learn about in new ways. The pond symbolized for Thoreau the human spirit or soul. Local legend was that the pond was bottomless, but Thoreau had set out first to measure the pond's depth—which he found to be more than 100 feet—and then to see that not as a limitation but as representative of holding specific identifiable truths that just have not yet been fully comprehended or mined. The fact that these truths remained unseen, in this case literally underwater, was the source of their mystery (Wayne).

I thought this quote was very interesting, which is why I put it in my blog. I did really think about the symbolism of the pond or anything, so I thought Wayne had a good grasp on what everything meant, which helped me to understand the story a little bit better.

Wayne, Tiffany K. "Walden." Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= ETRA402&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 17, 2010).

The Raven: Evaluation

Literal Meaning:

The narrator is reading a book around midnight when, before he is about to fall asleep, someone taps at the door. The narrator tells himself that it is only a visitor and nothing else.

It was a December night, and his fire was burning in the fireplace. The narrator wished it was the next day; he was reading because he could not stop thinking about his lost love Lenore.

Every movement scared the narrator, so he kept telling himself it was only a visitor at the door and nothing else.

The narrator finally got a burst of courage and opened the door, but no one was there. The narrator became very scared and started thinking about the worst things he could when he said "Lenore" and then something whispered "Lenore" back.

The narrator went back into his room then hurt the tapping again, but it was louder this time. He then thinks that the sound is coming from his window. The narrator opened the window, and a raven flew in. The raven flew right in and landed on top of a statue of Pallas above the narrators door.

The raven makes the narrator laugh because he looks so serious. He asks the raven his name and he says "Nevermore". The narrator was surprised and a little excited that the raven spoke so clearly to him.

The raven did not say anything else until the narrator said that all his friends have left him, so the raven will leave him too in the morning, but the raven said "Nevermore".

The narrator says to himself that "Nevermore" is the only word the raven could speak. That someone taught only that word to him. The narrator then pulled up a chair and sat beside the raven, and he thought about what he meant by saying "Nevermore".

The narrator sat and pondered and wondered about Lenore.

All of a sudden the air grew denser, and a scent filled the room. The narrator says, "Please give me things to help me forget Lenore!" and the raven says "Nevermore".

The narrator asks if there is any relief for his suffering, and the raven says, "Nevermore".

The narrator asks if Lenore is in heaven, and the raven says, "Nevermore". The narrator then becomes mad and tells the raven to leave. The raven says, "Nevermore".

The raven still stays completely still on top of the statue, and the narrator stays there with his soul never being lifted again.

Poetic Devices:

symbolism: I think the raven symbolizes death, because he comes when the narrator is thinking about death, and at the end of the poem, I think the last line kind of means that the raven and the narrator become one, which means that the narrator dies.

Personification: This is used when the raven speaks and says "Nevermore". I know some birds can actually talk, but I do not think ravens can speak.

Imagery: A great example of imagery from the poem is "Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor." This is good imagery because I feel like I can see the the incense floating around in the room, and I can almost smell because I know what incense smells like.

Figurative Meaning:

I think the figurative meaning of this poem is that the narrator is thinking and feeling sad about his lost love Lenore. A raven, whom I believe symbolizes death, knocks on his window because it is his time to go. The raven says "Nevermore" to all of the narrators questions because he is about to die too. At the end, the raven and the narrators soul kind of become one, which means that the narrator dies because I think the raven symbolizes death.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Emerson and the works of Melancholia

Ralph Waldo Emerson was considered a Romantic poet. Romantic poets write a lot about nature, love, patriotism, God, religion, and feelings. Later in his life time though, he was considered a Transcendentalist. Transcendentalists usually thought things through with their intuition, and it took them a long time to evaluate and examine things. Emerson moved over to becoming a Transcendentalists through his life experiences. All people change, and for Emerson, he changed from a Romanticist to a Transcendentalist. His changes (obviously) showed up in his writings.

Emerson started to become very melancholy in his works. He starts out with "Self-Reliance" by saying that all men should think on their own and not follow in other mens' footsteps. He says men should have a mind of their own and work well independently. Soon, Emerson starts to hide a bit of grief in his works:

"The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character. If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible society … I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are. And, of course, so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat [sic] you have stated in this or that public place?" (Emerson).

Emerson's grief is obvious because he is talking about death and dead things. He asks why a man should be concerned with things that are dead (or just not of use) and drag them on along side them when they do not need them.

From his essay, "Compensation", Emerson says:

"Every soul is by … intrinsic necessity quitting its whole system of things, its friends, and home, and laws, and faith, as the shell-fish crawls out of its beautiful but stony case, because it no longer admits of its growth, and slowly forms a new house. In proportion to the vigor of the individual, these revolutions are frequent, until in some happier mind they are incessant…. And such should be the outward biography of man in time, a putting off of dead circumstances day by day…. But to us, in our lapsed estate, resting, not advancing, resisting, not cooperating with the divine expansion, this growth comes by shocks" (Emerson).

Here Emerson is saying that our mind wants to make its thoughts be like real things. Whether the real thing is church, nature, or anything else. Emerson says that to think these things are the absolute truth is where our chief sorrows lie.

As the reader can see, Emerson starts to reject the ideas of Romanticism. He becomes a lot more melancholy, and he asks questions about why men do things, or why they think things that make them feel sad or sorry. He becomes more like a Transcendentalist because he goes over these questions and ideas several times in several essays, and he tries to find the meaning behind it all.

"Emerson and the Work of Melancholia." Raritan (Spring 1987). Quoted as "Emerson and the Work of Melancholia" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Updated Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= MCVRWE007&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 17, 2010).

Journal # 24: I'm Scared!

During my childhood, there were a lot of times where my mind played tricks on me, and I became scared. As a child, I had a very active and crazy imagination. I remember one time in particular when I got really scared at night. I still lived in Florida, so I was seven or younger. There was not a bathroom near my room, so I had to walk over to my parents room to go to the bathroom. In order to get to their room I had to walk through our living room. Because we lived in Florida we had a lot of windows looking to our backyard (so we could see all the beautiful nature stuff outside). So when I was walking back from the bathroom, for some reason I imagined a wolf with red eyes looking at me, and I ran back to my bed as fast as I could. My mind was obviously playing a trick on me because I am pretty sure there was not a wolf with red eyes in my living room.

Another time I was scared at night was when I moved to Illinois and I got some American Girl Dolls. At night, those things are scary!! I have three American Girl Dolls, Molly, Kaya, and Kailey (I think that is her name). In other words, I have the one that was from WWI or II..not sure, the indian one, and a special edition surfer girl one. At night I would think that they turned their heads to stare at me sleeping, or that they would crawl up onto my bed to get me. I imagined them being like Chuckie Dolls. THAT is why you should not allow your children to watch things that they should not be watching.

Obviously, my dolls were not going to magically come alive to get me during the night. Most children have over-active imaginations, and they imagine that their toys come to life. Things like that can thank Toy Story and other children's movies/books for those false ideas. Don't get me wrong, I love Toy Story, but sometimes I was a little freaked out to be around my toys by myself...

Monday, November 15, 2010

Journal #23 Unplugged

I think it would be pretty awesome to go camping without any appliances. Of course, it would take some getting used to, but it would be pretty fun. I do not use my phone very often, so that would not be an issue for me. I mean, if all my friends were there too then why would I need to text anyone? Eating food only from a fire is not that big of a deal either. I actually like to go camping, but my family does not do it very often.

So if I had to go on a camping trip without any technology, I would probably just go somewhere by a lake. I do not really know where. Just somewhere where it is not going to get too cold or too hot. I hate extreme weather. I would take a bunch of my friends and my parents...not my siblings because they would get really annoying.

To pass the time I would swim in the lake A LOT. I love swimming. I would go hiking and have fun little adventures. Yes, I just said I would have fun little adventures. I would go fishing and canoeing also. (Because I can canoe because you do not need electricity or anything to canoe..so ha.)At night everyone would gather around the campfire and sing songs, tell stories, and eat smores...the usual camping stuff. Ummm, I can not sleep just straight on the hard rocky ground...so before we would leave for the trip, I would blow up an air mattress for myself. I do not care if that is cheating, and I do not care if you say that it would inflate eventually or that it would not fit in my car....in my story, everything goes perfect.

So yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. I also think it would be even more fun to go camping with just my friends, but like somewhere close to where our parents are so we do not die. It would be fun to just hang out all day with my friends. The only thing that is really gross and bad about this situation is that you can not take showers, or go to the bathroom in a real bathroom. That is just straight up nasty. I can not handle that.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Journal #22 Breaking the Law

Breaking the law is bad. It is bad to break the law. I do not break the law. Sometimes you have to break the law though. I have never had to break the law. Sometimes you have to break the law to save someones life..at least I guess you do. I do not really know. I am not an expert on breaking the law. I do not really care about it. I just want to go to sleep because I have had boring musical practice all week and I am so tired. I am about to fall asleep, and I am about to start crying because I am so tired. I have no idea what to write for this blog. Breaking the law is bad. Sometimes you have to break the law to save someone's life, or get rid of bad people. Like I said, I do not know anything about this at all. I do not go around and read newspaper or something about people breaking the law for the common good. I am pretty sure there is not a newspaper in town that would have a heading like that. Only superheros can break the law and get away with it. But superheroes are not real because that would be too cool. Instead we live in a boring world filled with boringness.

I do not even think I have seen a movie or anything where someone has had to break the law for good. So I have nothing to go on. Okay I guess you could say in those action packed movies with huge car chases. Car chases are against the law because they drive really super fast and they weave in and out of traffic which is bad and they run away from the police which is bad. That is against the law, but the person being chased by bad people is kind of doing something good because they are trying to safe someone I guess. I do not really know. This is a dumb blog and I am sorry that my writing on it is really bad, but I do not know what to say and I am so tired and I just want to go to bed and I am not in the mood for anything. I am not inspired to write anything so how am I supposed to write something that is actually worth writing?

Friday, November 5, 2010

Journal #20 Self Reflection

It is important to be self reflexive and take time away from society. When you take time for yourself, you can reflect on many things.

I usually do not get a lot of time for myself because I do a lot of things. During the day I go to school (obviously)so I am not alone there, then I go to work, then after work I have been going to pit band practice, so I do not get home until 8:30ish. Once I get home I have to do homework. Usually if I am going to do any self reflecting, I do it on the weekends. During the school year I am really busy, so during the weekend I like to just hang out at home by myself, or go do something really laid back with my friends. During the weekend I work on bettering myself and catching up on my homework. I usually like to make plans for things I want to do later in life and what I can do now to make that happen. I practice my clarinet a lot on the weekends too.

When I actually do some self reflecting, I do it when I am alone. Usually I just kind of space it while I am doing something, like watching T.V. or doing homework, or even taking a shower. Yes I self reflect while taking a shower, and no, it is not nasty you sicko. It is nice and quiet in the shower because I am away from my family, and no one can disturb me while I am taking a SHOWER.

So yeah self reflection is really good because you can reflect on what you really do value in life. If you have been having a bad week, you can sit and reflect about it, and decide on what you will do next time that you are in the same kind of situation. I love doing some self reflection because it keeps me focused on the things that are really important to me in life. For example, sometimes I feel annoyed when I see couples walking around and stuff, but then I do some self reflecting, and I think to myself, I really do not need that right now because I need to focus on my grades and music to get into college. It is way more important for me to get into any college I want then to have a boyfriend. I have my whole life to have a boyfriend, but right now is the time for me to be preparing for college.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Journal #19 The Ideal United States

In the ideal United States, everyone is actually created equal. There is not any racism or prejudices against religion, culture, or anything else. Everyone gets a long just fine. We will all speak english because it will be easier for people to understand each other. Yeah...I do not really know what else to say for this. This is kind of super hard subject. I will be more creative with this then...

So the ideal United States will have all the things that I said above, but it will also have the following. Free ice cream days in the summer every Wednesday. Um, holidays will be celebrated to the max. There will never be school or work on holidays, or the five days leading up to the holiday, and at least one day after the holiday. That way, if Halloween is on a Sunday, we can still stay up late and stuff and not have to go to school the next day. I think that is a great idea. People will look after each other very well. If someone has a terrible addiction or something, someone will always be there for them to get them help because addictions are really bad. In the ideal United States nobody should have an addiction.

The zoos will be decked out in every animal that is on this earth. Scientists will be really smart, so they can even bring back some of the nice extinct animals. The amusements parks will have a perfect ride for everyone, and there will always be an amusement park at least twenty minutes from your house. I love amusement parks.

If you do not live by the ocean, there will be a huge, cool indoor beach thing. It will be like a beach inside. It will have salt water, and there will even be nice marine life in the fake ocean so you can go scuba diving and stuff. I love to scuba dive.

So that is MY ideal United States. It sounds pretty awesome to me.