English module 3

3.03 Two Idealists: Double Feature
Part 1
1.According to the first sentence what does every person realize at some moment in his/her education?
That envy is ignorance and imitation is suicide. Every person must realize that they must make something of themselves apart from commonality.

2.What is the opposite of "self-reliance," according to Emerson?
Cowardice and conformity... both of which has no muse, hope, nor peace.

3.What does Emerson see as the most sacred aspect of a person?
The integrity of one's own mind.
4.What does Emerson think of people who call for consistency in thought and action and who fear being misunderstood?
People who have nothing to do and would not be a man.
5. Emerson makes many of his points through a series of figures of speech - comparisons between two things that are basically unlike. In "Self-Reliance" what does he compare with the ordinary things and events listed below? Be sure to respond in complete sentence format.

Example: He compares cannon balls to words: "Else if you would be a man, speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon balls, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today."
A.planting corn
He says that a man cannot get nourishing corn unless he relies on himself to plant it without imitation, for better or for worse.
So the nourishing corn is something, like a reward, a man gets when he takes on self-reliance.
B.an iron string
He compares an iron string with cowards fleeing before a revolution.
I think that an iron string is like a person along in a world of conformity, but they are strong; they are a nonconformist.
C. clay
Pious aspirants are compared with noble clay; something that can be mold into its own shape.

3.04B Frederick Douglass
Reading about Frederick Douglass can give some insight, as he explains and lead us on his journey of agony. However, even thought we find ourselves pitying those that went through slavery and shocked by the cruelty, it does not give us a full understanding of what it is like to be a slave. In Frederick Douglass's story, he has a friend who decided to help him, someone who went through those torturous times as well. I believe that one who has gone through what he has can truly understand what slavery was. A true insight cannot be exchanged with words. It is experience that will make you flinch, wash fear over you, and spark your determination, as was with Frederick Douglass.

3.05 The Fireside Poets
Fireside Poets questions
1.What metaphors does Holmes use to describe the ship in stanzas one and two of "Old Ironsides"?
"The meteor of the ocean air" and "The eagle of the sea!"
2.In 1830, the 44-gun American warship Constitution, the inspiration for "Old Ironsides," was scheduled to be scrapped - that is, stripped of everything valuable or reasonable. What proposal is put forth by Holmes, in the last stanza of his poem?
Holmes proposed that the Constitution should be allowed to sink below the sea, where her flag stays attached to her mast.
3. What do you think Holmes want the ship to symbolize?
A symbol of patriotism, of America. I think that Holmes wants the ship to symbolize courage and victory.
4.The term, "Harpies," in line 15 of "Old Ironsides" is an allusion to predatory flying creatures in Greek mythology, which have bodies of vultures and heads of women. The name meant "snatchers" or "robbers." Why do you think that Holmes uses this allusion in his poem?
"The harpies of the shore shall pluck
The eagle of the sea!"
These lines bring out most the allusion's meaning. The harpies of the shore are the government officials plotting to destroy the Constitution, which he wrote as the eagle of the sea, a possible insight that it symbolizes out nation with its glorious moments that represented fearlessness that the warship went through.
5.In Longfellow's "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls," how does the title foreshadow the fact the traveler will not return?
I guess that "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" is like a traveler rises to set his journey forth, but in the end falls; he doesn't return. If he doesn't return, it could mean that he fell, perhaps suggesting that there was a shipwreck or that he fell to his death during the journey. If the traveler falls, then the journey falls. So it would be the end of the journey. The title foreshadows a placid, but sad ending.
6.Do you think Longfellow's poem is about one specific traveler, or could it apply to all in general? Explain your answer.
I think that Longfellow's poem refers to a specific traveler, maybe one that he has known. But if taken into the general perspective, it could mean that soldiers who served the Navy didn't make it back ashore. Back to what I thought, he mentioned, "The traveler, so it must be a singular noun, therefore implying that it was someone he knew who was lost at sea.
7.Personification is a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes. Cite an example of Longfellow's use of personification in "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls."
"The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands..."
8.How does the division into stanzas reflect the passage of time in the poem? Example: Stanza One presents twilight darkening into night. What do stanzas two and three represent?
Stanza two represents the town and its sea swallowed by darkness as night sinks in and stanza three represents the morning arriving, conquering the fading night, but with happiness of the light, there is a quiet absence.
My poem
Defiant Drusilla
Sometimes with materialistic glee,
one isn't bound to liberty,
to make choices of theirs,
when they are entitled heirs.
There on the throne sits an heiress,
and although she sinks in cheerfulness,
her happiness in love was far much less,
when her marriage fell into a loveless mess.
Her family thirst for royalty like light of dawn,
that her life was destined to take part as a pawn,
and so away into the woods she ran,
and there she found a caring man.
Preferring her new life instead of old,
her audacious moves were disobediently bold,
She ran from everything once precious like gold,
to find new treasures misunderstood if told.
The life she found was on a thread,
but so much better than when married,
for if she stayed indulging elegance instead,
someday the king might decide to take her head,
Her betrayal has brought revenge,
and only by her husband would she be daggered,
to please him as it was his amends,
to separate her and her other man in different worlds.
To his kingdom there he rids of the faithless,
for it was under his law to enforce morals,
but past him would he never guess,
that his wife cursed him with laurels.
3.06 Moby Dick
1.In this video, we immediately learn of an obsessed captain who wants revenge. Why does he want revenge and against whom or what?
He wants revenge because he lost his leg to a great white whale, to whom he is against, known as Moby Dick.
2.Who is the narrator of Moby Dick and what is the first line of the novel?
Ishmael is the narrator and the first line is "Call me Ishmael."
3.There are two significant Biblical allusions mentioned in the film. To whom do these allusions reference? How are the names significant?
In the Bible, Ahab is a wicked king who goes against God's will. The white whale may be a symbol of all that thwarts human intentions. Ishmael means "outcast" or "wanderer".
4.The narrator states that Moby Dick symbolizes three different meanings for three different characters. List the characters and the meaning which Moby Dick symbolizes for each of them.
To Captain Ahab, the whale represents all that is evil in the universe.
To Starbuck, the whale's just an animal to be killed for oil.
To Ishmael, the whale's nature in all its wonder——beautiful, yet terrifying. "The ungraspable phantom of life."
5.Why did Melville choose to write about whaling? Why was the industry significant?
Melville's New England was at the height of the whaling era. The United States dominated the whaling trade, supplying the world for its lanterns, streetlamps, and all kinds of machinery. It was a major industry in New England in the 1850s. When Melville wrote Moby Dick, New Bedford was the richest town in the United States. Whale oil was the oil of commerce.
6.What did Melville do when he was 21?
He set sail for the South Pacific.
7.What established writer did Melville befriend while he was writing Moby Dick?
Nathaniel Hawthorne.
8.Comment on the four harpooners of the Pequod; politically, why were they significant?
Each represented a different culture, a different race. The Pequod becomes a symbol for the ship of state, almost like a little democracy.
9.What happens to the Pequod towards the end of the book? Ahab? Ishmael?
The Pequod attacks Moby Dick. The white whale was so enraged, he attacked and sinks the Pequod, killing all the men on board. Ahab and Ishmael watch helplessly from their small boats. Suddenly, Moby Dick turns and surface next to Ahab. Ahab strikes the whale, and the rope caught him around the neck. He was shot out of the boat ere the crew knew he was gone. All but Ishmael vanish into the sea. He is the only survivor of the Pequod. He floats alone until he is rescued by the whaling ship, Rachel.
10.What were the final years of Melville like?
15 years after the publication of Moby Dick, his book has fallen into obscurity. The American public did not understand it. He was broke, and the father of four children. He took a job as a customs inspector for $4 a day at the port of New York. He continued to be a prolific writer until he died at the age of 72,after writing 15 books.
Interview questions for Ishmael:
1. If you could, would you stop the whaling industry?
2. Do you think that Ahab deserves his ending?
3. What are the differences in terrifying for Moby Dick and the blubber room?
4. How was the whale a mystery of the universe?
5. Which did you think was more dangerous to Moby Dick, Ahab's obsession with revenge against the whale, or his shipmates' view that would be like Starbuck's, endangering whales for their well-being?