Henry David Thoreau "Civil Disobedience."

"Civil Disobedience" is a very long essay. There are three parts, which in my opinion is more of a paper or lengthy composition, on Henry David Thoreau's opinion on the government's control of people's life and how the people have the right and the ability to stand up to their beliefs (Thoreau Part 2). Thanks to my extensive knowledge of this time period due to (what turns out to be a very beneficial decision) AP United States History, I can understand Henry David Thoreau's reasoning behind his very opinionated thoughts. The essay was written in the year 1849 (Thoreau). This was a turbulent time in American history. Issues that led to the start of the American Civil were starting during this time. The Mexican American War and issues over slavery were dividing the country sectionally into the North and South, not the United States (Divine). Henry David Thoreau did not believe in slavery and was an abolitionist (Graves). When the United States government was considering allowing the newly conquered Mexican territory to be slave territories and states, Thoreau was not pleased (Divine). His home state of Massachusetts still recognized slavery and nothing was being done to abolish or at least recognize the inhumanity of the practice of slavery (Thoreau Part 1). To protest the ignorance of the issue of slavery, Henry David Thoreau did not pay state taxes and was arrested and placed in jail for one night (Gates). Using that experience, Thoreau came to the conclusion if "one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America" (Thoreau Part 2). Unfortunately that proved untrue, and the nation went to a civil war to solve that issue.

Henry David Thoreau's essay is a prime example of Transcendentalism writing because the entire essay is about self reliance and "rejecting authority" (Werlock). Henry David Thoreau actively encourages American citizens to rise up and make a difference (Thoreau Part 1). Alas, very few people take his advice and because change and compromise can not be reached regarding the issue of slavery (only pushed back farther with the Missouri Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas and Nebraska Acts) and Thoreau has "imagined, but not yet anywhere seen" a change in Massachusetts or in the United States of America (Thoreau Part 3). The only actions that were taken was to argue with someone with an opposing view, but not compromise on anything that would make a difference, only prolong the issue so that someone else can take care of it for you (Divine). Another Transcendentalist trait of the "Civil Disobedience" essay is that man is self reliant and independent (Werlock). By following the words of Henry David Thoreau, if a man decides to stick up for his point of view, in this case an abolitionist sticking up for anti-slavery and new territories being free, not slave areas, then he will be all the better for it (Thoreau Part 3). After all, "the individual as the basis of the empire" (Thoreau Part 3).


Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Graves, Roy Neil. "'Civil Disobedience'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Civil Disobedience." The Thoreau Reader. Richard Lenat. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "transcendentalism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 25 Jan. 2012.

Journal 26 - Breaking Laws

Under certain circumstances I think it is acceptable to break laws. But only certain circumstances. Somebody breaking into or stealing a car constitutes a law being broken no matter what. But an orphaned child who has to take care of her younger siblings stealing toothpaste and bread from a grocery store would not be in the same category as a thief or robber stealing diamonds from a jewelry store or people holding up a convenience store to get money. The homeless, parentless child needs those things to survive, but the robbers are stealing for their own personal gain. But as this situation game could go on forever. For every instance when the law could be broken, a reason to support the action of breaking laws could be given for people to be innocent or have a good reason behind breaking the law. Because of that, there are judicial courts where people are judged if they had the legal rights to break the law, or if they should be fully punished for breaking the law. It is never okay to break a law as the law was created for a reason. If it was safe to go 80 on Veterans Parkway or 125, then the speed limit would be 80, not 55 mph. Laws were created to help people, not to harm them (for the most part... Black Codes and certain racial laws in the 1880s did not help out African Americans, but harmed them to the point of death). If laws were meant to be broken then they would not have been created in the first place. Because situational reasoning could justify breaking the laws, there is always someone who can get away with it and beat the system. That is why the government needs to enforce the laws to a point. We do not need a Big Brother sort of government, but people need to have a respect for the laws so that they are followed.

Hawthorne "The Minister's Black Veil"

"The Minister's Black Veil" is a Dark Romanticism style short story set in Puritan New England. The short story is a Dark Romantic stylized story because of the townspeople's assumption that Parson Hooper's black veil was symbolizing death or secret sin (Hawthorne 281-283). A lady made a very interesting and accurate remark about Parson Hooper's veil when she said "How strange that a simple black veil, such as any women may wear on her bonnet, should become such a terrible thing on Mr. Hooper's face!" (Hawthorne 283). Her observation is a good one because a black veil could have meant many different things, but everyone assumed that the reason Mr. Hooper wore the veil was bad. He did not help things when he refused to take it off and shrunk away at his own reflection (Hawthorne 287). The psychological effects of the veil on the people of the Puritan town is mainly a negative on. The people believed the veil was covering up a big secret of Parson Hooper's and that it was too horrible for him to reveal (Wright). When Mr. Hooper's betrothed, Elizabeth, shows up and asks him why he wears the ominous black veil and then asks him to at least remove it in her presence, he refuses (Hawthorne 285). Parson Hooper claims that the veil is a "type of symbol... I am bound to wear it ever, both in lightness and in darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends" therefore he can not even remove the black veil in the presence of his fiancee (Hawthorne 285). Elizabeth leaves Parson Hooper, but does not abandon him as she returns to Mr, Hooper when he is in his death bed (Hawthorne 288). Elizabeth was the only person brave enough to ask Parson Hooper about the black veil (Hawthorne 285). That says wonders about the effects of the black veil on the town. The townspeople were either so afraid to inquire about the sin that resulted in Mr. Hooper shrouding his face, or just accepted the veil as Mr. Hooper's way of expressing what he needs to express and not worried about other people's personal business. Because this story takes place in Puritan times, the townspeople's first assumption of course relates to God. They wonder what "horrible sin Pastor Hooper hides" underneath the black veil, but because nobody asks Pastor Hooper, the secret died with him (Werlock).The Puritans believed that their life was centered about the Bible and God and as their culture firmly believed in that, the fact the townspeople were so intent on making Mr. Hooper's black veil be penance for a grave sin is not surprising (Langley). The Dark Romanticism aspect of this short story is the constant dark presence. The whole story is centered about a black veil which may or may not symbolize death and the sins that everyone commits, or could very well symbolize a deformity in Parson Hooper's face. As this story was one of Hawthorne's most ambiguous short stories, the readers, just like the townspeople, will never know the true purpose of the minister's black veil (Werlock).

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 280-289. Print.

Langley, John. "Puritans - Who Were They?" Lecture. Puritan Writing. Mr. Langley's Room, Pleasant Plains. 31 Aug. 2011. Google Docs. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.

"What Is Dark Romanticism?" Obscure Wonders. 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.

Wright, Sarah Bird. "'The Minister's Black Veil'." Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 22 Jan. 2012.

Journal 25 - Fear

Fear is something that everyone possesses. Without fear there will be nothing to overcome and the need to better oneself will be gone. Fear is terrifying and when someone overcomes their fear they feel accomplished and proud of themselves. There are no physical objectives/ inanimate objects that I am afraid of at this age. When I was younger I was afraid of snakes, but then I petted a snake at the zoo in Arizona when I was visiting my grandparents. Because I faced my fear of snakes I am not afraid of snakes. Although I declined to watch Snakes on a Plane just to be on the safe side. When I was about 6 years old I watched the Disney live action movie The Swiss Family Robinson. That movie made me afraid of my basement for months. In the movie there was a jungle scene when the dad got attacked by a panther or some sort of animal. While the dad was gathering wood or hunting or something then got attacked by the animal, the mom and sister got attacked by a huge snake! I think that is what made my afraid of snakes. I was afraid that in my basement there would be a giant snake or a leopard or a panther who would jump out at me and eat me. It was very terrifying. But then I realized that my basement was not a jungle and was able to go down there and not be consumed be a jungle animal. That was really the only thing that I was afraid of when I was little. Now I am afraid of mental and emotional things. I am subconsciously terrified of not doing well. But I try my hardest in everything so I guess I have not faced my fear as I have not failed in anything. At some point I will have to deal with that, but I am content on waiting until the time comes when I do really bad at something and have to face the fear of failing.

"The Pit and the Pendulum"

"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a very well written suspense story. Personally I am not a fan of the ending, as I expected something more dramatic to happen, but I like how it is unexpected. Edgar Allan Poe's short story can definitely be classified as Dark Romanticism. The poem has supernatural happenings, which is a characteristic of Dark Romanticism writing ("What is"). The narrator is imprisoned in Toledo by the Spanish Inquisition and sees angels and judges that morph from candles and sounds (Poe 263-264). The supernatural visions that the narrator (he needs a name, the reader becomes very invested in the emotions and thoughts of this man, but lack the personal connection of a name) envisions follow the Dark Romanticism model. In this short story the narrator vividly imagines how he will die in the prison. He goes through many different types of death including buried alive, falling into a deep pit, being burned alive in an autos-da-fé ceremony, or later being chopped up (Poe 263-266). The unnamed narrator builds up the suspense of the story by vividly describing the scenarios. The great detail of the scenarios is another characteristic of Dark Romanticism. The constant loom of death also is a classic Dark Romanticism trait ("What is"). The narrator is consumed with different ways the Inquisition can kill him, and by the end of the story, ways that he can thwart their plans. The weirdly, very uncharacteristic, Poe short story ending is happy, unexpected, but happy. The unnamed narrator is saved by General Lasalle, the "enemy of the Inquisition", who pulls him away from the deep pit as the narrator was about to fall in (Poe 273). Hats off to General Lasalle for having amazing timing entering this particular dungeon with a man about to fall to his death, saving him in the nick of time. That takes some skill. But as this is a work of fiction, I know there is a high probability that General Lasalle did not grab a falling man over a pit of death. The happy ending is a Romanticism writing quality that is rarely used by the master of horror stories, Edgar Allan Poe ("What is").

Psychologically, the unnamed narrator is in a hallucination state where he does not know what is real and what is not (Poe 263-267). That psychological state is an unstable one, which explains why the narrator keeps having mirage like visions and is sometimes unable to distinguish what actually happening (Sova). "Days passed - it might have been that many days passed" when the pendulum was swinging above the unnamed prisoner narrator (Poe 269). He also had a "full memory of the trial, of the judges, of the sable draperies, of the sentence, of the sickness, of the swoon" after he 'saw' judges and angels in the shadow of imaginary candles (Poe 265). Then the next thought that the narrator has is "then entire forgetfulness of all that followed; ... have enabled me vaguely to recall" (Poe 265). The unnamed narrator can't differentiate between reality and the nightmare that he could possibly be having. The fear of being in the Toledo prison could have triggered some sort of subconscious response that the narrator used by creating false realities and to not be able to tell what is real (Sova). Poe did a good job portraying the narrator in a suspenseful way that has the reader guessing if what the narrator claims as true is truly what happened.


Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 263-273. Print.

Sova, Dawn B. "'The Pit and the Pendulum'." Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

"What Is Dark Romanticism?" Obscure Wonders. 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

Journal 24 - Spooky

I was trying to think of the last time that I was spooked and realized that I can not remember a time when I was spooked except for many years ago when I was home alone. I had just watched a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode when Data takes off his "skin" on his arm and expose the circuitry to fix something or other. For whatever reason that freaked me out. I turned off the TV and made myself a snack to get my mind off the creepy image. I think I was having a flashback to Star Trek Nemesis where a similar thing happened to Data, but the skin was organic and burned off. I saw that movie in theaters and it creeped me out. As I was eating my snack I kept hearing noises. The typical branch against a window, a possible intruder on the porch looking in the window, etc., etc. I was spooked and as I was home alone, of course I became even more scared. I decided that the safe thing to do was to just go to bed. I left the lights on downstairs though not only because my parents were coming home later, but because then it looked like I was still up to burglars or people who would want to break into my house. I tried to fall asleep, but I kept hearing noises! I did not have a cell phone at that time (back in the day before everyone had texting and individual cellular devices) to contact my parents and did not want to call them on the home phone as I wanted to show that I was responsible enough to handle being by myself at night at home. Finally I fell asleep, a restless sleep, but I was able to ignore the noise. Until my parents came home and when the garage door opened I jolted up in my bed, fully awake. Of course I did not want to admit that I was scared and stayed in my room pretending to be asleep, until my mother came in to check on me and I pretended that she woke me up and I pretended that I was fine. In reality I was fine now that other people were in the house.

"Eldorado" Edgar Allan Poe

El Dorado is a mystical lost city of gold that Spanish conquistadors, pirates, and later men across the world have been in search for to no avail. The ideals of El Dorado is what the similarly titled poem, "Eldorado" by Edgar Allan Poe, is about. In the first stanza, the "gallant knight" was joyfully searching for Eldorado (Poe 2). At this point in the poem, the reader only knows that Eldorado is something that is worth questing for. In the next stanza the reader learns that the knight has been searching for Eldorado for many years, but without success as the "knight grew old" (Poe 7). Also in this stanza the reader learns that Eldorado is some sort of geographical location as the knight could not find a "spot of ground" that looked like Eldorado (Poe 11). The third stanza helps the reader better understand what Eldorado is. By calling Eldorado a "land" that he can not find, the reader knows that Eldorado is the city that the knight is questing for. The third stanza also informs the reader that the knight is near death as his strength was falling him (Poe 14). Then he meets the pilgrim shadow, which literally represents fading image of explorers of the past who tries to aid the knight (Huff). "Eldorado" was written by Poe in the midst of the Gold Rush in 1849, so the pilgrim shadow also represents the American dream of becoming rich and well off. The pilgrim ghost was going to show the knight the way to riches and help the gallant fellow to a better life (Poe 19 - 24). The last stanza is the pilgrim shadow telling the knight where to find Eldorado (Poe 19). The description the pilgrim shadow gives leads the reader to believe that Eldorado is a fictional place, and can not be reached in life. "The Mountain over the Moon" is possible to get to in today's times as man as walked on the moon, but in 1849 the thought of ever going to the moon was ludicrous (Poe 19-20). When the pilgrim shadow tells the knight that he can only reach Eldorado by "boldly riding", the pilgrim shadow tells the aging knight that he can reach Eldorado in the next life, in the "Valley of the Shadow" (Poe 21-22).

If the pilgrim rider represented the American dream, then Eldorado represented the excess of greed that comes with wanting too much and not being happy with what one has (Huff). That aspect of the poem is what makes "Eldorado" a Dark Romanticism poem ("What is"). There was no happy ending where the hero accomplished his task with great moral character and everyone ends up happy. The gallant knight of "Eldorado" unsuccessfully searched for Eldorado until he grew old and his strength left him. That was not a happy ending. The knight was "bold" and "gay" with a joyful exuberance, but that did not help him accomplish his task (Poe 1, 8). The poem also deals with death, a common Poe Romanticism feature. The knight is on death's doorstep when the pilgrim shadow comes to him and basically tells him that his task was useless as he was not going to be able to get to Eldorado. The hero not finishing his quest, instead knowing that he won't be able to finish it in this life, is a quality of Dark Romanticism writing ("What is").


Huff, Randall. "'Eldorado'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "Eldorado." PoeStories.com. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

"What Is Dark Romanticism?" Obscure Wonders. 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.