Journal #12

Name: Caleb Anderson

Journal #12 - “Young Goodman Brown”

1. “Young Goodman Brown” is an allegory (symbolic narrative). What do the following represent?

Young Goodman Brown –
Goodman Brown represents the Adam from the Bible. Brown starts out believing in what is good and right but after seeing that everyone is full of sin and it is inevitable that sin will conquer us he accepts this and lives the rest of his life in gloom.

Faith –
Faith represents faith and virtue. She is the light that Brown looks to. When Brown sees her in the woods with the others he begins to question her “faith” and he losses the only thing in his life that can believe in.

The Elderly Traveller/Fellow-Traveller –
The traveler is possible the devil. He represents the evil and sin in the world that he rules. He takes Brown and shows him that even the most righteous in the community are under his control because of sin.

Goody Cloyse –
She is the catechism teacher that is depicted as a witch when Brown sees her in the woods. She represents hypocrisy and sin because while she teaches young children about the Bible she also attends devil worshiping meetings in the woods.

The Ceremony –
The Ceremony is the representation of the Fall from the Bible. Both Faith and Brown succumb to the devil and sin. Just like in the Bible Eve or Faith are tempted first, and then they trick their husbands into following.

The Pink Ribbon –
The Pink Ribbon’s represent pureness. Faith wears these ribbons, further showing her purity and virtue. However, when Brown was in the woods he catches a falling pink ribbon symbolizing that even Faith failed to overcome sin.

Young Goodman Brown’s Journey –
Brown’s Journey is the representation of the journey everyone will take in life. At the beginning Brown was like a child believing that all people were good and righteous. However his journey in the woods shows how he matures and sees that people are not so good in actuality. Finally Brown reaches adulthood and realizes that sin is inevitable and even the most righteous will fall to it.


2. Identify the following for “Young Goodman Brown”:

Theme Message of Theme Element Used to Establish

The theme of the story of “Young Goodman Brown” is sin. The message is the sin draws us away from God and that sin is an inevitable process of the human condition. The use of Symbols and Characterize is used to establish the theme.

In addition, provide three direct quotes from the story that address your theme.

“My Faith is gone! Cried he, after one stupefied moment. There is no good on earth: and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for thee is this world given.”
“Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race”
“What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven”

Journal #13

1. What object symbolizes George Gray’s life? How is this object representative of him?

The object that symbolizes George Gray’s life was the furled sail. He had so many opportunities but he shrunk away from all of them. He is recounting his life and wishes that he would have taken the chances that life gave to him. He is unhappy an dissatisfied with his life. The image on his tombstone of the boat in the harbor, would normally represent a life that finally has come to an end. However, in Gerorge’s life it represents how he lived his life. He was so afraid of the bad in life that he shut himself so far away that he even missed the good.

2. How was Lucinda Matlock’s life different than George Gray’s? How do you interepret the last line of the poem?

Lucinda live a full life. She experienced the good and the bad unlike Gerogre Grey. She accepted the negatives but she did not let them define her. She had a positive outlook on life. George was so afraid of messing up in his life that he never participated in it. Her last line of “It takes life to love Life” shows that you need to be an active participant in you life to experiences all the good that life can give to us. The last line bacically uses the word life with two differenet meanings. The first life is referring to energy and emotion, while the second life is referring to actually living. Another way to look at the last line is, It takes an active participation and energy to love and enjoy the time that we have on this earth.

3. How are “George Gray” and “Lucinda Matlock” examples of realism?

Realism is the attempt to depict and show the average normal day life. It focuses on the normal, boring, average life of a person. Both of the epitaphs are example of realism. The stories of the two characters are normal. There is no idealizing there experiences, they just shared what there lives were like. In Lucinda’s life she lived a full life by accepting everything that came her way, where as in Geroge’s life he hid from life and ultimately died unhappy.

Journal # 14

“Richard Cory“ (497)

In the poem Richard Cory is a well off, the “ideal” person. This causes last line of the poem to be ironic and shocking. He has everything and is basically perfect, but in the end he killed himself. Everyone aspires to be him because he is rich and gentleman like. The real of the poem comes in in the last line. It shows that you cannot judge by looking on the outside you must look to see what is on the inside. The “ideal” perfect person suffers just like everyone else in the world and is subject to the same fate that every single human being will eventually come to in the end. The theme is appearance verses reality.

“Miniver Cheevy” (497)

Miniver Cheevy was an idealist. He wished that he had been born during the Medieval time period. He wanted to live the life that is depicted in the Romance stories.He idealized the life of a knight saving his princess from some evil, to live happily ever after. He wanted this ideal life but he got reality. What he failed to see was that he could find similar situations in his daily life. Maybe not to the extent of what he thought knights would do, but he still could have live a life with adventure. The unfortuneate part in his story was that he had to turn to drinking to cope and he would escaped into his mind to follow his fantasies.

“Mr. Flood’s Party” (498)

Mr. Flood is a poor man who has lossed his grasp on reality. He is an old man that has lost all of his friends because of his drinking problem. He suffers froma very serious medical situation known as Alcoholism. His problem has driven all of his friends, aquaintances, and family away. It is sad to see that he has to create friends as he drinks so that he is not alone.

Journal # 15

1. Write a sentence that summarizes the story’s overall message, and provide three direct quotes from the story that best illustrate this message.

The overall message of the story is that war is not something that should be fanaticized and romanticized about. In the first couple of line of the story the short interplay between Editha and George reveals Editha’s feeling about war. “It’s war,’ he said. and he pulled her up to him and kissed her. She kissed him back intensely, but irrelevantly, as to their passion, and uttered from deep in her throat. ‘How glorious!’” She thinks that war is something that men go to, to become heroes and patriots that are brimming with courage. This quotation also reveals Editha’s feelings about the war and war in general “ But now, it flashed upon her, if he could do something worthy to have won her--be a hero, her hero--it would be even better than if he had done it before asking her; it would be grander. Besides, she had believed in the war from the beginning.” The quotation highlights that she wants her husband to be “a hero, her hero” she is do far removed from the war that she does not realize that people die, are injured and even emotionally changed because of it.

2. What tactics does Editha use to make George believe as she does about the war?

"But don't you see, dearest," she said, “that it wouldn't have come to this if it hadn't been in the order of Providence? And I call any war glorious that is for the liberation of people who have been struggling for years against the cruelest oppression. Don't you think so, too?” This illustrates the tactics that Editha uses to make George believe as she does about the war. She paints the war as something that will bring honor and respect to George. She claims that is is not so much about fighting an enemy but as liberating an oppressed people. The way the Editha explains war, she only highlights the good parts of is such as the courage that comes from fighting and freeing oppressed people. However she fails to even mention or give note to the horrors of war.

3. Is there ever a time in which Editha truly understands what she has done? Does she ever experience an epiphany?

Editha only truly understands what she has done when she goes to visit Mrs. Gearson, George’s mother. His mother explains to Editha that young women want to romanticize war, but in reality war is a terrible thing, the physical and emotional damage that it causes families, and society as a whole. She does seem to experience an epiphany and she breaks down and cries over her George’s death but she soon gets over her feeling and continues living a life in the ideal world.

Journal # 16

In “The Blue Hotel” the main character is the Swede. The Swede is governed by determinism as stated in the quotation. The Swede is a shyer individual, who is from the city. The trip out west cause the Swede to experience great anxiety because the stories of the time painted the social condition of the west as an outlaw filled, dangerous place. These factors caused the Swede to act very strange, which would lead to his death. To lighten the Swede up he was given alcohol. In the genes and traits of the Swede, when he became drunk he also became violent, aggressive and confident. After winning a fight be becomes even more confident, which will lead him to be killed after trying to pick a fight with another gentleman. All of the actions of the Swede were beyond his control. He was a victim of determinism. His fear of the west, his reaction to alcohol, and the popular social condition of the time that showed the west as a scary rough and tough place all eventually lead the Swede to his death.

In “To Build A Fire” the main character is also another victim of determinism. The man also has a distorted view of the world. Instead of involving himself with other people he, instead, ventures out into the wilderness in fifty degrees below freezing. He was not blessed with great foresight and intelligence to see that setting out in that type of weather was foolish. The only difference between the Swede and this man is that the man came to realize that he made a mistake in the end.

Journal #17

1. What is the significance of the poem’s epigraph? How does it relate to Prufrock?

The poem’s epigraph is significant because it shows that both Count Guido da Montefeltro, who gives the quotation, and Prufrock are in hell. Prufrock is not in the spiritual hell , but he is in a mediforically hell on earth. Prufrock is stuck in a world where, as he describes it, he does not fit in. He cannot confided in any other people because he feels isolated.

2. Make a list of questions that Prufrock asks. Do you see a pattern/theme to these questions or are they random?

In the poem, Prufrock asks many questions as listed here:
“To lead you to an overwhelming question…Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’” (10-11).
“To wonder, ‘So I dare?’ and, ‘Do I dare?’” (38).
“Do I dare disturb the universe?” (45-46).
“So how should I presume?” (54).
“Then how should I begin to spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?” (59-60).
“Is it perfume from a dress that makes me so digress?” (65-66).
“And should I then presume?” (68)
“And how should I begin?” (69)
“And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?...” (71-72).
“Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?” (79-80).
“Would it have been worth while,…after the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trial along the floor – and this, and so much more?” (101-103).
“Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?” (122).

The questions follow a similar pattern. All the questions are structured as an inner argument, where he is debating on who he should proceed with each action in his life. Prifrock is a fearful man who is insecure and questions all of his actions so that he does not make a mistake. However, Prufrock does realize that he has let time slip away from him, and because of this he as missed loads of opportunites.

3. What do you think is Prufrock’s main flaw/problem?

His main flaw is his lack of confidence. Prufrock spends all of his time examining all action and consequences to that he does not do something that is foolish or embarrassing. Because of this he misses so many opportunites and events in his life. If he would just make a confident choice he could experience so many more things that worold has to offer, to those who sieze the day. His lack of confidence also isolates him from others because he is afraid to make a mistake arounf them.

4. Why do you think this is called a love song? In what way is it a love song?

The poem is called a love song because of the irony of it. Prufrock is so unconfident in himself that he could never talk to a woman about love. He can admire women from a distance and he can write and talk about love all he wants but in reality he would never do this in person.

Journal #18

1. What is the significance of the story’s title?

The title “In Another Country” literally shows that Hemingway is in a different country. He is in Italy. The title also refers to the rehab center where the wounded soldiers go to get treatment. All the men were health before the war but after being wounded they have to travel to this new place where they must accept that they can never be what they were before coming to this place. During this period of time the Allies were looked at a bad in Italy. So they are in essence in another country that dislikes their allegiance to a different cause.

2. Which character do you think best represents the “Hemingway hero”? Why?

The major Signor Majore best represents the “Hemingway Hero”. The “Hemingway Hero” is someone that is honorable and courageous, but who has suffered from pain and suffering. This person will suffer through the pain and continue in their heroic fashion even if they know that they cannot win. The Major has suffered a personal loss, with his wife dying, and he also has suffered a physical loss in losing the strength and skill with his hand. The Major’s injury occurred in the line of duty. His physical wound basically destroys the very being of the man before the war. The Major was the best fencer in Italy before the injury. He suffers the knowledge that he will never be able to be as good as he once was, without even complaining. The personal loss was harder on the Major but after a brief moment where he breaks down, he composes himself and continues on is a very stoic manner.

3. What can you infer about the photographs the doctor hangs up? What is the significance of the major’s reaction?

The images that the doctor hangs up, which depict wounds that have been healed by the machine, are used as encouragement. The images are supposed to be a morale booster for the injured soldiers. The Major’s reaction to the images is indifference. He does not actually believe that the machines work, so he simply accepts his lot in life.