The Adventures of Mary Seacole

WOOW!! Today in class, I was greatly moved to hear about such a courageous woman. Mrs. Mary Seacole to be exact! As said in class today, Mary was extremely motivated and wanted to insure to make a difference in society. She took the time to make and establish a name for herself by her entrepreneurship investments. She followed her pursuit of happiness by engaging in being a traveler, a nurse and a business woman. While her time as a nurse, she worked closely with the British and African American communities.

With that in mind, in Gorgona, Seacole established a women's only hotel for the women that were sick.

Also, she displayed confidence in her knowledge of tropical medicine by investing in it because she knew that it could be useful. After finding out about the poor medical provisions for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War, she took pursuit to London to volunteer as a nurse. As she volunteered as a nurse, her background experience in the Caribbean is what she relied on. Furthermore, she applied to the War Office and asked to be sent as an army assistant to the Crimea. Unfortunately, she was denied because during her time period, women were still treated unequal and there was a great sense of prejudice acts in women's involvement in medicine.

Moving forward,  The British Government later decided to permit women to travel to the affected areas, but again she was not included in the party of 38 nurses chosen by Florence Nightingale. So she took it amongst herself to still pursue her happiness. So, she borrowed money to take the 4,000 mile trip by herself. How remarkable is that? This here is a woman that wont let her goals be altered by rejection. As she pursued her journey, she distinguished herself by treating battlefield wounded individuals, and also nursing wounded soldiers from both sides of the war.

When the war ended, she found herself stranded, alone and living without the basic elements of life, while still trying to pursue her dreams. She was able to confide in a friend from the Crimean War who organized a benefit concert.

In later years, she expressed her desire of wanting to work in India after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, but was unable to raise the necessary funds.

Something that I find to be extremely ironic is the fact behind her sickness of Cholera, which is an infection in the small intestine. She spent her entire life protecting and nursing sicknesses, she became sick herself.

Mary Seacole was a remarkable woman who made major moves to establish herself in society. Im so very proud of her and she has made the women culture very strong as a whole just from her life story alone!!

Post #8: Zombies

Today in class, one group presented on the topic of zombies, colonialism, and popular culture.

Zombies were originally a Haitian folktale. Basically, if you were a slave you might be able to travel back to Africa and paradise with the help of Baron Samedi, the god of the cemetery, after your death.  If you offended the Baron before you died, he would not allow you to go back to Africa, and you would become a zombie, a perfect slave.

If you are interested in the history of zombies and their transition into the zombies we know today, check out these articles:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/zombie.htm
http://news.discovery.com/history/history-zombies-12-6-4.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/opinion/a-zombie-is-a-slave-forever.html

And now for a story:

There I was, minding my own business at the Writing Center with Corey and Paul, when three students walked in. Paul looked up at the students and asked: "Do you need help with a paper?"

The students just stood there, groaning. Confused, I did a double-take to discover that they were dressed up as zombies! How fun! Still, they must have come here for a reason.

"Do you need help with a paper?" I asked. More groans.

Well alright then. We all shrugged, and went back to our phones and laptops to check facebook for the 37th time that hour.

Then they ate Corey.

"OH NO. OH NO, ZOMBIES," I said.

"Is this like, a normal thing in America?" asked Paul. "In Norway we don't really have any zombies."

Paul and I killed the zombies with office chairs and dragged their bodies out into the hallway.

"So what do we do now?" asked Paul.

"You never took a zombie survival class in Norway? Geez, Paul."

I pulled out my phone and checked my email. WSU had issued an emergency warning, telling everyone to go to Beasley. So we did. Then the local police force killed all the zombies. Life returned to normal.

A few weeks later, Paul and I were sitting in the writing center. I stopped what I was doing, and looked up at Paul.

"Isn't Corey supposed to be here today?" I asked.

"He was eaten by zombies, remember?" said Paul.

"Oh yeah."

THE END.

The White Heron

After reading The White Heron, the theme of nature continues to be underline some of the literature we read. When reading, I was sure that Sylvia would give up the white herons location and spend the money making her and her grandmothers life better. After finishing the story and find out out that she could not give up the heron, I started to understand that nature and the purity or preservation of nature is more important than money.

A couple of ideas or symbols come to mind when I think of the preservation of the heron. THe hunter represents the urban life and Sylvia decides to not hinder the rural environment with the urban killings. THis will preserve the beauty and simplicity of the woods and what sylvia defines as home. The hunter comes from the urban setting and is taking the beauty away from the rural woods.

Another idea that I thought the story might represent is the gender roles that are given in this short story.  The cow, grandmother and Sylvia are all doing fine and don't mind their simplistic lives. The only way it gets skewed is when a male, the hunter, comes into their lives. When the hunter comes into their lives, they have to make him dinner, give him a place to sleep, find the heron and show him where it nests so he can fulfill his interests and goals. Sylvia decides not to give into what he wants and stands for what she believes in. THe heron represents the purity and strength woman can have on their own and not giving into what the man wants.

Ultimatley, The White Heron opens up an array of themes and connections between nature and people. The heron itself is white and pure and represents nature, but the hunter represents man and the destructive mindset that wants to destroy or end nature.

Blog #6 The Luck

Bret Harte's "The Luck of Roaring Camp" tells the story of a community that comes together to raise a child that is born in their camp. Tommy "The Luck" inspires the men to become well-behaved and clean, so as not to be a bad influence. The men, who are extremely misogynistic and prideful, refuse to bring in any outsiders to help raise the child. Stumpy and the rest of the town tale care of the boy, using goat's milk to feed him. Of course, in the end of the story Roaring Camp is flooded, and Tommy dies. Kentuck holds the dead baby in his arms as he dies, claiming that he's "got the luck" with him.

The truth is, he is dragging the luck with him into death. The camp got greedy, thinking they had all the luck they needed. In their hubris they refused to bring in a woman to care for the child, and they refused to leave when they knew the flood was coming.

At first, Tommy induced a positive change, but good fortune went to the heads of the men of Roaring Camp. I believe that Harte's story is a cautionary tale about mob mentality, pride, and hubris.

Hard Times

In Charles Dickens’s Hard Times, we are exposed to several themes: education, wealth, women and femininity, morality and ethics, etc. Of these themes, the first one we notice is education. In the first paragraph of the first book, we are presented with Mr. Gradgrind’s opinion of how education should be structured: “Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts” …and he continues… “Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.” Mr. Gradgrind speaks metaphorically using nature. The educational structure Mr. Gradgrind speaks of is exactly what his model is hoping to avoid. In using this educational structure, there is no room for creativity, therefore, this structure can be considered conformist.  

Dickens’s use of the nature metaphor appears as a faint theme throughout the novel. The title of each book – Sowing, Reaping, and Garnering – suggest an interesting sub textual meaning. The first chapter, Sowing, is meant to inform the reader of Dickens’s emphasis on the education structure. Typically, when a farmer (or whomever) is sowing something, they’re doing one of two things: 1) planting seeds by scattering them or 2) creating something. Mr. Gradgrind doesn’t necessarily “plant” as much as he dictates. In an abstract sense, planting (to me) suggests the object grows freely whereas a dictator controls the rate at which the plant grows. In the first book, Mr. Gradgrind assumes the identity of someone wanting to control things (hence the headmaster). Nowadays, his name refers to one that is concerned only with facts and numbers. This suggests Gradgrind is a well-grounded man in terms of morals. He learns that if students aren’t taught morality that they won’t learn it. Though a simple concept, it’s evident in the book that those that have excelled in his educational program end up making bad choices either by betraying him or disappointing him in some way or another. For example, Lousia gets involved in a terrible marriage and Tom steals things and blames others for his actions. 

Though I haven’t entirely finished the second and third book, I shall provide a few comments about their names. The second chapter, titled Reaping, traditionally means to cut or gather. This rather blunt meaning denotes Mr. Gradgrind’s attitude toward education: only harvest ripe crops, don’t take those that aren’t perfectly ready. In Gradgrind’s education ideology, he wants students to only know the facts. Essentially, facts are the core to education. Without knowledge of specifics, students have a hard time forming an opinion on the subject. So, Gradgrind pushes for students to know facts so they they’ll be ready to be taken out of the classroom and into the real world. The final chapter, Garnering, is a word used to gather or collect something, especially information for approval. This third book relates back with Gradgrind’s theory of education in that he rethinks his theory after Louisa’s emotional breakdown. So, in theory, I think Gradgrind is considering changing his theory of education.

I think that in relation to the theme of education, this text serves as valuable source to analyze in order to find out more about the educational system of the time.

WebBlog #4 BARTLEBY

Throughout this course, I have gained a lot of profound and essentially several different aspects of British American Literature. As we focus solely on Bartley: Herman Melville we begin to notice a few things about the character. This particular chapter starts off by stating, " I am a rather elder man. The nature of my avocations for the last thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men" (18). Once we attempt to break this quote down, we realize that Bartleby was trying to show and persuade his audience that he believe he stands out and is essentially different from other men. He also tells his readers that he has a high level of maturity because be puts an emphasis on his age. He wants to assure the fact that he includes elder. For most, we relate age with wisdom and wisdom, in a sense shows your maturity.

Later, we are also able to grasp the fact behind Bartleby consistent laziness. When Bartleby was first employed, we learned that he is a hard worker, but then his work ethics and lack of motivation begins to take its turn. Each time he is asked to do a task, or help with a particular document, he takes no part in assisting help. He begins to show his readers that he see's himself as less important or a sense of depression. As the story moves forward, we then realize the main attribute that ignites this depression. Previously,
 Bartleby occupation was working in the Dead Letter office, which essentially outlines his depression. Most individuals would REFUSE to work in that branch of work. Mostly because in a sense, you are doing a job that is "illegal" in a sense.

After a while, we soon realize Bartleby lifestyle beginning to take a negative turn and spirals down. After "ditching" work for a few days, Melville returns back into his life to catch up, and we realize Bartleby is now in prison at The Tombs.

Furthermore, today while in class, me and my group discussed several distinctions that were made from the author Melville, and the ways in which Poe describes a certain scene. As we look further into Bartleby, we realized that the author believed that he should stress the importance of Bartley keeping quite about the business he has been invested in; which was being employed at the Dead Letter Office. But, if we go into a visual representation of this story, Poe changes the importance of the story line. Barleby was no longer "embarrassed" about working at the Dead Letter Office, he admits to this with no problem. The difference in this aspect changes the interpretation of the novel because the main source of the story line has changed.

Weblog #3: Frankenstein Reloaded

The more my group and I discussed Frankenstein, the more interested we became in the idea of hubris and how it persists in modern pop culture. Our society is obsessed with the idea of playing God. Stories like I, Robot, Battlestar Galactica, The Matrix, and so many more are based off of the idea of man creating life in his own image, only to have that life betray him. These plots echo that of Mary Shelley's masterpiece in a certain way.

The only way that I could think to do justice to this topic was to write a short sequel to the original novel. This story was in part inspired by the in-class discussion today.

Frankenstein Reloaded: Captain Victor, Space Cowboy
by Caleb Palmquist

Victor exhaled for the last time, allowing the sweet release of death to take him into the beyond. He would never catch up with the monster, but at least it was over. That's what he thought, at least.

Victor bolted upright, gasping for breath. He was covered in a pink goo, which he began to claw at furiously. He was totally naked.  The air was cold and damp.

"Hello Victor. Welcome home," said a strangely familiar voice. Victor turned to see himself kneeling next to the pod that he had woken up in. The other Victor was smiling, and offered his hand toward the first Victor. How could this be? Is this what heaven looks like?

"This isn't heaven, Victor. You are on board a Cylon resurrection ship."

"What is a Cylon? I don't understand."

"Just take my hand."

And he did. And then he understood everything. But Victor didn't want to be part of an evil armada bent on the destruction of the human race, so he escaped, stole a cargo ship, and hauled ass back to Earth. When he got there he picked up the monster just before he died in the ice. They both apologized to each other and promised never to fight again. From that day on they explored the stars, robbing from the rich and spending the money they stole frivolously. Victor used Cylon technology to create a gross monster Cylon so the monster could have a mate. All was well in the Universe.

The end.

Oh and also in the very end Victor was being a brat so the monster and his new robot wife ate him. And they were too far away from a resurrection ship or some other convenient sci-fi excuse, so Victor couldn't be resurrected and was dead forever. And that's how Frankenstein's monster became a sweet cannibal space pirate/ terror of the skies.

Web-Blog #2

As we continue to study 19th century Britain/American literature, we are starting to get a clear picture of how some of the authors depict "heroes." In one reading, "The life and adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated bandit," we struggle to find the obvious hero characteristics that are seen throughout the other stories. At first, I did not think Joaquin had any hero characteristics. I had the thought that  if someone was beaten and witnessed his significant other getting raped, they would fight that battle with kindness and not stoop to their level. I felt the best way to respond was to get up, dust yourself off and keep doing what you're doing--give them no satisfaction of seeing you down.

As I started to discuss the story with my group members, they strongly believed that he had some characteristics of a hero. The determination it takes to take matters into his own hands and threaten the people who he was threatened by doesn't exactly show how a modern day hero would act, but in this setting, others found that to be inspiring. They found that showing no fear and not letting them win was inspiring. I find it interesting that others can see characteristics that i did not originally see and think of that completely changed my mind on what I thought a hero was. I definitely see some of the hero characteristics that my peers were talking about. Instead of giving in and thinking that he was less than, he decided to stand up for himself and not take anything from anyone.


Speaking of "heros," the conversation/presentation on Robin Hood was interesting because of the different perspectives of different classes had of him. The fact that both sides of the spectrum, the rich and poor, used him for different reasons. The British used him as an example to showcase the weakness in their justice system and that they needed to build British nationalism among the nation. The lower class enjoyed telling stories and embracing Robin Hood and what he stood for. Robin Hood is the epitome of what it means to be the opponent of the establishment (Seal, Graham). It makes you think about what you depict as a hero. What characteristics do we value in the ideal hero? We grow up thinking that the ideal hero is strong, tough and has super power heroes. The idea of what a hero is, is evolving and changing. It comes back to the different perspectives of others that I encountered through my group members. People see and admire different values and beliefs and that in tale, changes peoples heroes.

According to "Outlaw Heroes in Mything and History," by Graham Sea, it tells us that the concept of an outlaw hero is something that has been around as Roman Empires stood. Some people view the Gladiator of that time as heroes and something to value. Those heroes themselves had heroes of their own.

Weblog Post #1!

Before this course, neither one of our group members has had much experience with British American Literature. Majority of the poets we have discussed thus far—Wordsworth, Emerson, and Coleridge—are names we, as a group, recognize. Our "literature knowledge" mainly stems from previous literature courses, which consists of a combination of the following three courses: 1) ENGL 370 - The Making of English: Literature, Language, and Culture Before 1600, 2) ENGL 371 - 17th and 17th Century Transnational Literature in English, and 3) ENGL 373 - 20th and 21st Century Global Literatures in English. Despite our somewhat different literature-based academic backgrounds, we have collectively decided that William Wordsworth's "Resolution and Independence" is the most interesting thus far.

In "Resolution and Independence," the first two stanzas inform the audience of the setting. The previous night was stormy, but since then, the weather has cleared up. The third stanza is when we are introduced to the narrator, who experiences a sudden mood change as he begins to fear some elements of life because he remembers Chatterton--a poet that died at a young age. As the poem continues, the narrator encounters a man that looks out of place. The narrator begins a conversation with the man and asks him, "'What occupation do you there pursue?'" in which the man says he is a leech gatherer. Upon finishing the poem, the purpose of the leech gatherer is to demonstrate that one can persevere through hard times in life. As a result, the leech gatherer is an example of resolution and independence. Among the first few stanzas is the line, "a happy Child of earth," which goes back to a theme of romantic poetry: nature. This line ties the world of man into the world of nature. This poem is also captivating in the way it is written, which is through use of iambic pentameter and an ABABBCC pattern. As we learned in class, the last line has an extra syllable, therefore, making it an alexandrine.

The parody of Wordsworth's poem by Lewis Carroll is worthy of noting when discussing "Resolution and Independence." One difference between the two poems is Carroll's places more emphasis on the aged man, whereas Wordsworth's places more emphasis on the protagonist. In Carroll's poem, the aged man is abused, but despite this abuse, the aged man says he will gladly drink "Your Honour's noble youth." Carroll does not romanticize the poor, but rather suggests that they need money.

I decided to do some further research about Carroll because I feel like I don't know much about his other words. As I researched, I found that one of Carroll's poems ("The Walrus and the Carpenter") makes an appearance in a Disney movie titled Alice in Wonderland. This connection between Carroll and Disney reminds me how much I am exposed to things that have roots somewhere I am unaware of. I've actually come to find that some Disney movies have literature-based connections, such as The Lion King and Shakespeare's Hamlet.