The American Scholar

"The American Scholar" by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a very solid speech the man gave for his recognition over his previous work entitled Nature. While it covers plenty of big topics such as "Man Thinking" (which I will note is a very thought-provoking term), I felt it could easily be summed up in one little segment toward the middle: "I have now spoken of the education of the scholar by nature, by books, and by action. It remains to say somewhat of his duties." He then goes on to prove that he is clearly referring to the idea behind "Man Thinking". The idea of "Man Thinking" involves a man actually thinking for himself instead of being a "mere thinker" as Emerson referred to in the speech. In this instance, Emerson is encouraging us to become more active in our thinking rather than relying on the thinking of someone else or becoming a "victim of society". This goes to show that Emerson's works are certainly ones for committing to memory for both intellectual and societal reasons that only we, as humans, can comprehend for ourselves.

Rip Van Winkle

It has been a long while since I've been able to post anything that I figured now I would take the time to explain what I thought of the first fiction piece we read in class. "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving was a remarkable piece of fiction so much so that I can't believe I missed it up until now -- surely, I had heard of it before, though I never had the chance to read it. Written for the collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Canyon, "Rip Van Winkle" is about a man who leaves his life behind to travel into the Catskill Mountains. Here he encounters a Dutch man whose group he joins to start drinking moonshine, and falls asleep for twenty years, soon returning to his town and recognizing no one. It certainly was a novel idea for the time and could even be told using an in media res introduction and still be effective. From reading and comprehending it, I feel I've been able to make out a valuable theme that the author may or may not have been intending: that life is too short so we shouldn't sleep too much or we may miss out on a lot. Just the plot alone got me to perceive the story as such, which is why I think "Rip Van Winkle" is certainly among the best works we've read thus far.

The Class So Far

Having taken my first exam for this class, I must admit that the whole thing has been an interesting step back in time for myself as an American. Between learning about America from different aspects in literature to figuring out who "we" is, it offers more than just factual understanding of American literature as a whole. It provides perspective on our country as a whole, our history, and how the outside world tends to view us as the "perfect" society. For example, De Crevecoeur's "What Is an American" tells of what America looks like to any European man (Englishman, Frenchman, etc.) migrating from their country to our own. They tend to view our society as a place of freedom, justice, and prosperity unaware of the many injustices and criminal activities that happen on the side. Regardless, we, not only as collective Americans, but also God's people, do our best to do the right thing and seek out the freedom and justice that everyone believes we have. It may sound like I'm just simply rattling on about the perspectives given in this story, but, personally, I feel it culminates a lot of what we've covered in class thus far and is therefore my favorite work based on how much it makes me think. If this one work could help me understand our class discussions better, I can't wait to see what we've got coming up!

Phillis Wheatley

After reading Phillis Wheatley's many poems about how she came to America via slavery, it amazes me just how positively she viewed the experience despite the sinful nature of it all. For one, her poem "On being brought from Africa to America" indicated that she, indeed, was bought out of her native country by force. Even back then, that would seem like a horrific experience for anybody who most likely did not anticipate anything to occur as such. Usually, people would hate an experience like this; she did not. The way I see it, which many others may not, is that it was all a part of God's plan. You see, I like to think of it as God's way of using another person's sinful nature to shine through to somebody in need and bring them to Him. If it worked for Wheatley -- and even Rowlandson -- it could somehow work the same way with anybody regardless of who they are.