Thursday, November 25, 2010

Ralph Waldo Emerson - The American Scholar

    In the excerpt from "The American Scholar"  Emerson presents yet another view that is proven now by modern society. Emerson states that the United States should no longer be a state that is know for and based on its manufacturing and its productions, but that the country should also be known for its academic achievements. Emerson also presents that the idea that the development of a great nation always involves the ideas of great minds. He is holding the hope that there would be great minds that will strengthen the intellectual development of the nation.
    The United States is one of the best countries for academic studies and the vision of Emerson is fulfilled. Talented youth are trying to gain higher academic studies in the United States and the US is a country that high school graduates want to study in.
    Many great philosophers, thinkers, and influential people have also developed through the history of the United States. The Scholar was the term Emerson used to describe the intellectual development of a nation and today that term would certain qualify what it was meant to mean.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Ralph Waldo Emerson - Nature

    In the excerpt from Nature, Emerson gives a description of nature that I agree with high. Nature is peaceful and tranquil in the views of Emerson. I believe that nature can possess the qualities of tranquility and peacefulness, but I would also consider nature as deadly and cold-blooded. Nature seems peaceful and tranquil, but that is what makes it deadly. People do feel peace and tranquility when the move into the wild and I really like the peacefulness as well. You feel as if you are younger and more energetic than ever before.
    Nature can make people young and energetic, but it can also take the lives of people away. Nature changes at a very quick pace. It changes so quickly that humans cannot respond to it in time and that results in death and injuries.
    Emerson has a really good view of nature and I believe that he would be a successful man if he was to spend his whole life in the wild. I also learned something from his writing and that is: endorse the nature for peace but never go against it.

The 100 Thing Challenge

    My first thought toward this article was, "How is this possible?" Living with 100 items is basically living only with the necessities of life. There would only be a few items for intertainment and barely any items of liesure. It would be possible for somebody it live only with 100 items, but they would be living like people in the Middle ages. It would be an extreme simple life. So simple that people of modern society would not be able to live like that. It would be as if the only pupose you had for living was survival itself.
    I would not be able to live with only 100 items. It would be an extremely plain life and there wouldn't be much to do. People in modern society have too much liesure time and modern technologies have allowed people to experience more intertainment then ever before. It would be hard to live without these forms of intertainment.
    To be honest, it would be imposible for me to live without basketball and the internet. Those two things have become so crucial to my life. It would really be hard for me to just live with100 items.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html 

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Natural World


Peace and tranquility are feelings that I associate with the word nature, but images that I associate with the word are those that consist of preying and survival. On a trip in Malaysia, I experienced both the tranquility of the natural world and the deadliness of it as well. I was with my family on beach and we were enjoying the various activities that were provided to tourists. We were all amazed by the beauty of the sea and the tranquility of the waters. It was a nice day for water activities and most people enjoyed the nice weather.
We heard a sudden scream that came from the sea. It was from a woman that was placing her feet in the water. People were shocked by the screaming and it was not long after we knew what happened. She had been stung by a jellyfish that was washed close to shore and her feet were severely damage. Both of her feet were swollen and they were purple. It was a scene that I could never forget.
The natural world is silent, calm, and peaceful at times, but it can become extremely deadly when organisms start their quests for survival. We can enjoy the beauties of the natural world, but we must always be aware of it dangers.

Henry David Thoreau: Why I Went to the Woods

With extensive use of metaphors, Thoreau both clarifies his ideas and makes his ideas more complicated. Thoreau uses metaphors to create circumstances that clarify the meaning he wants to convey, but these metaphors would be complicated for someone who doesn’t have basic knowledge regarding the metaphor itself. When Thoreau uses the Spartans in a metaphor to state how people should live, it makes his ideas easier for me to understand because I know the Spartans led a plain and militaristic life. What would happen if someone had no knowledge of Spartan society? The metaphor would confuse those that have limited knowledge on the Spartans.
With some basic knowledge, Thoreau’s article is easy to understand due to the fact that most metaphors are easy to understand. The metaphors chosen by Thoreau have an important role in clarifying his article and the metaphors serve their purpose really well.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What are the characteristics or elements of American Romanticism? What the heck is transcendentalism?

    American Romanticism can be defined as an association to nature, a place in which people are free from judgment and restrictions. In other words, it can be said that people are moving towards a more liberal way of life. Without judgments from other individuals, people can live unrestricted lives and enjoy their close association with the natural world.

     Transcendentalism is the belief that an ideal spiritual state that results from physical and personal experiences. The ideal spiritual state can only be realized through an individual’s intuition rather than from theories or religion.

     Transcendentalism and American Romanticism fit really closely together because both believe in a more liberal way of life and both emphasize the importance of personal experience. Personal experience and freedom allow for more development and a better way of life.

Personal Response: The Last of the Mohicans Chapter 1-3


    James Fenimore Cooper, the author of “The Last of the Mohicans”, uses vary descriptive language and he writes accordingly with the theme of American Romanticism. The immense details that he uses to describe the landscape and the people are really overwhelming to me and it somehow confuses the readers. The attachment of the characters to the natural world is also in coordination with American Romanticism. I really like how the storyline goes, but the descriptive language is making the text really hard to read. The scene in which the Indians are hunting the deer is very intense and is full of action. The descriptive language for the intense action makes that scene very interesting. I like how the essay goes up until now.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Diaries and Journals

People write journals and diaries because they use them to keep memories that they want to remember. Diaries and journals are also used to express an emotion, an event, or a feeling that is very personal. I write diaries only when I feel stressful and angry towards something or somebody. I occasionally write when I want to express my feelings towards basketball and I almost never write about other subjects.

Diaries may sometimes reveal truths that people might not have known. The “Diary of Ann Frank” is an example. Diaries may be intended for certain people and these diaries also reveal the author’s attitude towards the intended audience.

Diaries are interesting to read because they show the emotional state of the writer, they show the events the writer has been through, and they show the personality of the writer in a general manner. The context of the diary may not be as interesting to the readers because the readers are not the people who have been through what the writer has been through, but the meanings the writer wants to convey is what interests the readers.

Self Evaluation for the First Quarter

What would you change about what you do to be more successful this time around? What course material did you like or not like? What was your favorite activity? What did you like the least? What’s one thing that you would like to see in your English classes? What did you expect from this class?

There have been lots of events going on and time is passing away really quickly. What I would like to change the most is the time that I spent on vocabulary and rhetoric. I’m not good at memorizing things and I have never done well on vocabulary tests, so I would have done much better if I spent more time trying to remember the material.

The thing that I like and dislike is the same thing. It’s the rhetoric. I really like the logics behind debate and I really like formal debate, but I don’t like the complicated ideas and concepts behind it.

I really like group work and there is a lot of group work that we have to do in class. Discussions and talks help me understand the material that I do not understand and learning from my classmates is really interesting.


Monday, November 1, 2010

Fallacies: Begging the Question and Ad Populum

Examples of Ad Populum:
  1. Nine out of ten of my constituents oppose the bill, therefore it is a bad idea.
  2. Nine out of ten of my fellow congressmen favor the bill, therefore it is a good idea.
Examples of Begging the Question:
  1. "The belief in God is universal. After all, everyone believes in God." 
  2. "If such actions were not illegal, then they would not be prohibited by the law."