The End

This class I would have to say was absolutely the best. We have read so many great stories by so many great people, such as Edgar Allan Poe,  Sojourner Truth, Nathaniel Hawthorne and many others. We have also read poems from two of the best poets Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. I also got to see what others thought about the stories and poems they read. But sadly this semester is drawing to a close which all things must end at some point. But I really want to say I enjoyed this class so much and I really would suggest this to other students. I hope everyone enjoys their Christmas and continue to read on this coming New Year!!

Some Christmas Reading

There are so many wonderful Christmas stories to read. There is one that I love to read every year which is The Night Before Christmas. We all know that wonderful story of Christmas eve night when the man watched Santa. I think what makes it really special to me is that we had a book that she would read to us which was really heartwarming. Then I discovered a Christmas story in our library that I may read. Christmas with the Kranks by John Grisham. Sadly I have seen the movie before even knowing it was a book. Regardless of that fact I really want to read the book. So Merry Christmas everyone and happy reading.

Poe in the Media

I have seen Poe in movies and TV shows. I have seen a couple. There is a movie staring actor Wes Bentley called The Tomb. It is an adaptation of the story by called called Ligeia. It is about a college professor who falls under the spell of a beautiful woman who is trying to fight death by stealing souls. It sounds weird, I know but I really liked it. At the end at the credits Wes recites a poem that is in the story Ligeia. Another thing I have seen of Poe is in The Simpson's. They did The Raven in one of the Halloween episodes when they were telling stories and Lisa read The Raven. I thought it was funny, especially when Bart played the raven and said Eat My Shorts. I really love seeing our favorite writers' works being made into movies and put in television shows, especially the great Edgar Allan Poe.

Dickinson's Quote

One of the activities we had to do in the pod about the poets was our interpretations of Emily Dickinson's quotes from her poems. I really liked the 10 I chose but the one that stuck out to me the most was the quote from her poem Unable are the loved to die. The quote was For Love is Immortality. My interpretation for that was is this. In life, what had a beginning must have an end. One of the many things in this life that begins but never ends is love. Love goes on forever whether it be a mother's I've for her child or children, a husband's love for his wife, or even a love for a pet. We as humans will die away but love goes on forever and ever no matter what.

Hester's True Love

Technically Hester and her husband who later goes under the name Roger Chillingworth were married, but we're they truly in love? Maybe they did truly love each other before they got married or maybe they didn't but they thought they did we didn't find anything behind that in the book. Of course he went off to pursue one of his desires while leaving Hester at home and that couldn't build up any relationship. I think the one she truly loved was Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. He has been there for Hester and with Hester when she went through her trials. I also think you see it in the way they reconciled in the woods. I think Hester would have been better off with Dimmesdale than her husband in my opinion.

What I Have Enjoyed So Far

We have read so many wonderful stories by so many wonderful and bright authors but I want to list my top three favorites. Number one is, of course, Edgar Allan Poe. I have read the Tell Tale Heart in 10th grade and fell in love with his writing since. We had a big book full of his incredible writings in my library in the dining room or what used to be the dining room. But ever since reading that story in 10th grade and reading more to the point of time where we read more in our online English class made me a lover of more of his dark tales. The second one I have enjoyed reading was The Gettysburg Address. I have learned about it before but what I liked about it was that one of the activities we had to was to put ourselves in the shoes of either a former slave, soldier, the wife of a Union soldier, or someone attending when Lincoln gave the speech. I chose the view of the Union soldier. I listed the things I would have seen and heard as well as things from the battle such as gunshots and the groans of the soldiers that were wounded. The third one I enjoyed reading was an aphorism by Ralph Waldo Emerson. As I have written ina previous blog I chose the aphorism of the civilized man being more dependent on the carriage than in his own feet. I will not go to deep into detail but we as Americans have become to dependent on technology than in the natural resources we were given a long time ago. I would rather read a book in my hands than on a tablet. I have enjoyed reading these and many others and I am really looking forward to reading more amazing stories in the last couple sessions!!

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My Other Favorite Work by Poe

Of course you all know that we have read so many stories written by the greatest Gothic writer of all time Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. I have to mention one of my other favorites written by him. The Raven. As you know (and I will try to be accurate with the story) it is about a man who is being haunted by something of a form of a raven who keeps coming and repeating phrases ending with "never more". As the raven kept coming the man kept demamding the raven to tell what its purpose was for being there. In the beginning of the poem he was dealing with depression and heartache from losing someone he had loved a long time ago and I think the raven driving him to the brink and eventually into insanity did not help his situation that much. Like I have mentioned before and what I will mention over and over again I truly admire Poe and his writing. He is the type of author that I could read over and over again.

Emerson's Aphorisms

I had recently done one of the blackboard discussions for this session and it was about Ralph Waldo Emerson's aphorisms. The one I wanted to discuss about was the civilized man has built a coach but has lost use of his feet. Even though sometimes the technologies are good for when it is needed we often tend to use them too much to the point were that is all we depend on and we just sit there. It kind of reminds me of the movie Wall-E. Time had advanced as well as all modern technology and all that mankind has depended on were robots to get them the things the needed instead of getting it themselves and floating chairs to get them places instead of walking. Another example is in Back To The Future part 2. When Doc and Marty went forward to the year 2015 they have shoes that have power laces were it just tightens your shoes instead of you tying it for you. I truly like that one of many of Emerson's aphorisms. He has a lot more good ones but this one stuck out to me the most*

A Great Activist

So far we have read so many stories and speeches written by so many great people, but one of them has truly struck my fancy. The women's rights activist Sojourner Truth. The thing that truly like about her was that she has been through so much in her life including slavery and she came up strong. She also held onto a strong belief: that women can work just as hard as men can. I think she can be one of the many historical women that today's women, especially women who are strong in the rights of women, can really look up to her.

In the wonderful world of literature, there are many authors out there that we all admire. One of the many amazing authors that I truly admire is the one and only: Edgar Allan Poe. He writes such dark stories and poems that makes me want to read and read over and over and over again. I am not much for dark stories or anything dark in general, but Poe is the only one I love to read. One of the many stories he wrote one of my favorites has to be The Tell-Tale Heart. I love how the character grows crazy over someone's crazy looking eye that he kills him, chops him up and puts his parts in various parts of the floor, including his heart. He begins to hear the heartbeat late at night which causes him to grow insane which could have came from his own guilt of murder. Another one I love is Annabell Lee. For me it is kind of like a love story between two children and loss of a loved one. Poe is such an amazing writer and I could read him over and over again!!