The Minsters Veil

I am a Minster, and I have to say I got a lot out of this story. I did not see it as eerie of depressing like many of my peers did. I instead saw faith and commitment to ones thoughts of morality. I saw sacrifice, and self denial so that the Minster could draw closer to God. I saw a light being shed on fear for those who are different from us, or even from our preconceived notions about how someone should look, or how they should act. I saw a small piece of cloth show the true side of humanity, and how we fear the unknown. Now with all that being said I think that he went very far to prove a point, but that's just my opinion.

To Rhyme or not to Rhyme

To Rhyme or not to Rhyme, I guess that is the question of the day. I have to be honest poetry is one of my least favorite things in the literary world. I not only struggle in reading poetry,. but honestly I hat to write it. Now with that being said I kind of enjoyed Emily Dickinson. Many of my classmates thought that her work was hard to follow but I felt like it had a nice flow to it and was somewhat easy to read. I also like that you could see her faith shine through the writings time after time.

Uncle Toms Cabin

This work by Stowe could be one of the most important things ever written in American history. When Abraham Lincoln meet Harriet Beecher Stowe the first thing he said to her was the little woman that started this great war. Her story of Uncle Toms Cabin is moving and helped to change the way people viewed slavery, and the way it is viewed today.

Fern, Fern, Fern.

I found Fern very interesting, in one work she seemed to buck every known standard of femininity, and social roles. In another work she seemed to defend the woman's role, and the social status. It is evident that Fern did not like the ideas that society held about women. The other thing that is evident about Fern is that she had a issue with men in general, most of her works make them look like idiots at best.

Thoreau, the Anit-politician

I found Thoreau very interesting. While he was not for the war that was going on at all, he also was against anything that resembled "big government". I have to say that I can relate to that. One of Thoreau's statements was “That government is best which governs least…that government is best which governs not at all.” so in other words let the people pursue freedom for themselves and allow them to live free. While I am a minimalist when it come to government, and I believe that when the government get involved in to many things it can, and most of the time does become disastrous, I believe that Thoreau was an extremist.

Abraham Lincoln The Life That Never Was

For all of the things that Lincoln did in history I cannot help but wonder what type of things that Lincoln could have done if his life would not have been cut short. I think that the shortness of the second Iinaugural Speech is ironicaly comparable to the shortness of Lincolns life. the speech was heartfelt and understood how awful the Civil War was on this country, even though Lincoln lead the country during the Civil War he understood it was the worst possible way to end slavery.

Protestant reformation

I enjoyed this portion of the reading, I am a United Methodist Pastor so I was happy to read the sections on reformation, and the church. However when i read some of the information and how the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures in some of the writings were so off based I was almost offended. I am a very strict follower of the Theology of John Wesley, and It just seemed that the reformation characteristics seemed to leave out a lot of important characters in history.

Was Poe Crazy

One of my favorite things about this class has been the section on Poe. I think he does an amazing job when it comes to making people understand what it is to be consumed by madness. However I have to ask the question; "could anyone truly understand this level of madness if they themselves were not a little off" I did some research on Poe's life and one of the interesting conversation sites I visited is called enotes.com. The conversation revolved around Annabelle Lee, and if Poe himself was insane. One of the blogers seemed to know a lot about Poe's life. He pointed out a few historical facts such as: Poe was an alcoholic, he lost his wife at a young age, and dealt with depression, however do these things make him mad? I guess I have to believe that for someone to project insanity so well, they themselves would have to be a little insane. I mean think about it, can you imagine what scares Stephen King?

http://www.enotes.com/annabel-lee/discuss/was-edgar-allan-poe-insane-2095