Poetry Outloud

        Nightmare Flight, by Paul Curtis is a poem that I can relate to on a very deep level.  His poem discusses death, and the reaction from society to it.  Death is a frightening thing to the individual, of course becuase it is death.  But to society the death of another is more of a nuisance, or a reminder that everyone will go one way or another.  Literally, Curtise's poem is correct, in saying the masks on planes are only their to muffle the screams, the oxygen is to calm the people down and is merely for fighting panic.  Figuratively, the poem refers to society's view of death.  Which is the nuisance, hence Curtis's line saying: "They're only their to muffle the screams."
     I intend to convery the poem, by begining in a leaning stance with my head down.  From their I willl say my first line, than I willl look up and say my next line, then the third, then I will say half of the fourth, pause, and say the rest.  I will finish with my heaad down again.  I also intend to speak quietly to potray the frightening unknown factor of death.  I will speed my speech up in the middle of the poem, but finish sowly.  As if im cotemplating what I am saying.  I will use little gestures to symbolize the low energy of the poem and death.  Also the depresssion the author is trying to get across in his poem, a kind of hopeless death. 

Poetry Out Loud Questions

1.  The speaker of "She Walks in Beauty" is a man who is writing about beauty, a romantic, hopeless.
2. The audience for the speaker is perhaps the void, he is writing to sooth his own soul with no real audience
3. The speaker writes of her when she is walking and gives him a glance
4. The time is day because he describes the rays of sun upon her face
5. The setting is outdoors, in the city
6. The speaker is talking of this women's beauty, inner and outer.
7. The speaker is watching this women or recalling from memory, her beauty and relating it to nature
8.  The central idea of the poem is: This women is unearthly beautiful yet full of nature
9. The imagry is often relating to nature, or the heavens
10. One simile is: she walks in beauty like the night
11. The speaker alludes her to the heavens
12. The tone of the poem is yearning, it is created by the author writing about how beautful she is and then comparing her to heaven and nature, which are both things that give men happiness
13. In the first stanza the speaker is comparing her to the heavens, in the second nature down on earth, and in the last, a mind that is at peace with all down below
14. The poet was trying to express some of his emotions, and record her beauty into words.
15.This poem makes me think of all the beautiful women I have seen that have been out of my league and have wanted to right poetry about just to make myself feel better.

Nature/self-reliance

One point that I dissagree with is the fact that Emerson said to be an individual is the best way to go and one should not conform to society.  I believe that there are two types of individuals.  One, individaul A is the true individual, not conforming to society and not striving to be an individual.  The other is individaul B, the person who wants to be an individaul and conforms to society. 
Another point I disagree with is simmilar, Emerson says that too be a man you must be a non-conformist.  I believe that to be society's definition of a man, meaning strong, responsible, hard worker, and free of emotion, is of course conforming.  However to be Emerson's definition of a man, protective, self-reliant, is to be a true man and not trying to be a man.  Between the two points both can be pursued by society but to be a true individual or man you must just become and not strive to be it otherwise it is not a natural transformation and is conforming to society.

Essay Writing

    My development as a writer has had ups and downs.  For instance right now its in a steady decline as you can probably tell due to my terrible transitions, wacky word choice, and sensless spelling.  The decline I hope is just the residual effects of summer and will soon wear off however I feel as if I used to write with so much more ambition and humor.  Right about now I would say "however" and think up something clever to prove to myself and my readers that I still do have some writing talent and have not lost any.  I do not mean to sound like im fishing for compliments ( although they are welcome ) but it seems either through lack of excersice or mental decay my writing skills have fallen drastically. 
     However, even though my strength in essays has decreased it seems I have developed a knack for script writing.  This expedition into the arts of theatre started back in drama class freshman year.  A playwrite attended my class to teach playwriting of course and one of our assignments was to write a play.  Thats how it started.  Because of so many years of different kinds of writing I have learned the tools needed for a succesful persuasive essay, or entertaining script, etc. 

The Crucible: Injustice

         One unfair case related to the Crucible is the Dred Scott case.  In this case there was a slave named Dred Scott who had a wife and lived with his master and her wife.  Their master took them into free territory but Dred Scott never tried to escape.  Instead he decided to appeal to the courts for citizenship, he sayed that because he was in free territory were slavery was illegal he should be able to claim citizenship and become a free man.  The court told him that becuase of his skin collor he would never be able to become a citizen of the U.S.  Also becuase he was the legall property to his master he was owned and therfore it would be unfair if his master lost his property. 
         This relates to the Crucible mainly because the court made a mistake, and apologized for it after the fact just like in the Salem Witchtrials.  Secondly, the court ruled with a seven to two ruling.  So some people agreed with Dred Scott just as some agreed with Proctor.  The court used trickery and degrading tactics to claim that Dred Scott was property and therefore should not have his freedom.  Their ruling was wrong just as the rulings were in the Salem Witch Trials and unfortunatlly they both got away with it. 

Extra Credit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esKlF1a4_ok&feature=related

My video from 0:00-5:25 is from the movie: The Mist.  The plot to this movie is that there is a sudden and mysterious mist that descends upon a small town.  Out of this mist comes all sort of beasts and there is a group of people hiding in a small store in the middle of town.  Everyone is full of fear and does not know what is happening.  One woman goes mad I think and claims to be God's finger, just as Abigail did in The Crucible.  Slowly more and more people congregate around her and begin to believe her just out of fear because what she says does not make any sense.  At one point one of her followers accuses an officer of bringing this: "Gods wraith" upon them.  Just as in The Crucible Abigail's friends would mimic her actions and follow her.  Also the fact that the officer was of high rank and known by everyone in town, just as Rebecca Nurse was accused of witchcraft.  There is a small group of people that do not believe the religious fanatic and try to save the officer just as John Proctor and others tried to save their wives in The Crucible.  Also the officer was killed becuase he denied all accusations, maybe if he had falsly confessed he could have been saved.  Such is the fact in The Crucible when all the "witches" were hanged unless they confessed.  Throughout the whole movie and in that scene there is mass hysteria running rampant just like in The Crucible.

The Crucible

One way my life relates to the crucible is that a couple of years ago my sister made a bad mistake and blamed it on me.  She got away with it and I had to take the blame, she was older and so had the power of trust against me.  It was her word versus mine and my parents sided with her.  Abigail in The Crucible parallels my sister by the fact that Abigail accused many innocent people with no evidence against them. 
            After my sister got away with one thing she started to do it for everything she did.  Letting the dog out and blaming it on me, breaking a bowl and blaming it on me.  Just as Abigail began to accuse people of higher and higher status, court officials became suspicious.  My parents also became supicious of my consant mistakes when they were not around and began to question my sister.  Fortunatly, like Abigail and the other girls and the court officials my parents finnally saw through the deception of my sister and reprimanded her for my needless punishment.

Brad's American Literature Blog

The American Dream.  Pursued by many and redefined over the years, it is basically the goal of the pursuit of happiness.  As an American I strive to be happy and take advantage of the opportunities presented to me in this great country.  I also want to learn more so that I can become an intelligent voter and better the country.  As a people we have some in common but also we are much different with our versatile culture and people.  One thing we have in common is fads.  People are always keeping up with the fad and wearing the hip clothing.  A second thing we have in common is patriotism, or national pride.  As screwed up as the country can seem sometimes we know how this country started and what it is capable of. 

Like most people in America one of my goals is to become successful in my work, whatever it is, and helpful in my community.  However I go about this I hope to with respect for myself and others and pride in my work.  One thing that seems common in my life is "half-assing" things.  I see it in others too, not finishing their work or just doing it not to their full capabilities.  This laziness I can relate to seeing as how I do not do everything full heartedly as well, but I have been watching the news lately and foreign movies and it seems as if the stereotype of Americans is overweight, lazy, and unintelligent.  Sure, I am lazy and sometimes slightly incompetent but far from stupid and overweight, as is many Americans.  Not everyone is white, and a Christian, this is a country of many different peoples and religions.  I do not think you can stereotype America because the minority is still very large.  One thing I need to learn more about is politics.  I must be educated to vote correctly and there are some issues now days that I just do not understand, however see both sides of the issue.  For instance the popular immigration laws.  I understand everyone in the U.S. at one time was an immigrant, and it seems as soon as we get in we shut the door on everyone else.  The only true Americans were the natives and we wiped them out.  If immigrants take our jobs then so be it.  They worked harder for it and why should we keep them out of a fantastic country?  Of course, there is the fact that most of them are uneducated and produce even more uneducated children.  So than how about some law that teaches people how to function in the U.S. and teaches us how to work harder and be smarter.  Negatives aside, America is the land of opportunity and full of hope.  The opportunities are endless, and sometimes I feel like a king.  I imagine children living in some rural country such as Africa in the slums, and how they eat clay just to stop their stomachs from growling.  This brings me to another point and stereotype.  One, that is that many American teenagers and children take for granted what they have complain about their lives when they would be considered extremely wealthy in some other time period or place.  Basically it is never enough for Americans.  Not enough oil, not enough land, not enough food, energy, children, cars, things.  Sure, the lifespan of an average person has risen in the past one hundred years but what about the quality of life.  It seems people are more depressed, striving for more now than before.  Back in the 1840's most middle class workers were content with living out a meager existence living off the land.  I am by no means saying the middle class does not work hard or should suck it up because the middle class is the backbone of the country and I happen to be one.  I am saying that maybe we all lost something along the way.  Something a big screen TV or drugs cannot fix.