Janie has so many dreams, she, herself, doesn't even know what they are; this shows through all her different journeys in life with her three very different husbands, and her relationship with them. She can never be happy without fulfilling her imaginary dream. Her dream of perfect love. Janie never brings up the mistakes she's made with her former husbands; never even thinks about them let alone mention them, she just keeps on living, waiting for "happiness".

Jody starts getting old and is extremely self-conscious about it. Janie knows that he is getting old and it makes her sick to look at him. However, Janie observes that she herself is not getting old and still looks quites young. With his new self-consciousness, Jody starts to become more controlling than ever constantly yelling at Janie. One day, in the store, Jody yells at Janie for the littlest thing and Janie lashes out at him in front of a customer subsequently telling him how old and fat he looks. Jody responds by striking her in the face after an urging from the customer. Jody and Janie now sleep in separate rooms in the house and Jody will no longer eat Janie's cooking, due to a rumor in the town that she is trying to poison him. At the same time Jody's health is deteriorating and a doctor tells him that he is close to death . When he is on his death bed, Janie just yells at him about all the horrible turmoils he has put her through, but Jody doesn't want to hear it. Janie isn't sad or remorseful when Jody dies.

When Jody becomes mayor, Janie's whole life changes. When Jody came to Eatonville his expectations are very high, yet when he sees the town he is greatly disappoint with the conditions that its in. therefore, he organizes everything and builds a store, a post office, and other important buildings. Due to there things, the people elect him mayor of the town making him some what of a noble. At first, Janie didn't think that this new position would change her life. However, Jody started to be more controlling of her and where she went, how she dressed, and he tried to control her actions and emotions. Yet, Janie didn't like this form of control, that was one of the reasons why she left Logan; she now had to run the store and was not allowed to fraternize with the everyday people. She wasn't allowed to attend certain events of go certain places. Such as the time when Jody holds the funeral for the mule, she was not allowed to attend since a lady of her status was too good for it. Also, she had to wear a bonnet to cover her long hair, so that the men don't look at he. Overall, Jody becomes much more controlling now that he is mayor and Janie doesn't necessarily approve of this drastic change; Jody went from being this free-spirited guy to now this controlling monster ta ht she had already lived with before, he had changed a great deal.

2. "[Janie] was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid." (page 11).

During this time under the pear tree Janie started to experience loving feeling. She was dazed and confused with no real idea in what she was doing and where she was going; she was blissful. She starts noticing the little things around her and relates them to love and marriage and what not. She then later goes on an expresses these feelings to a young boy known as Johnny Taylor. These feelings of love and lust overcame Janie to the point that she had to kiss this boy. The tree and all of nature symbolizes what she was feeling in this passage, yet Janie could not control it. Ordinarily she would have no kissed this boy, but the tree mad her feel this way.

pg 197-214

"Set her loose, Jim! we're all right now!"

The "duke" and the "dauphin" get into a fight. Therefore, Huck took he opportunity to run away from the two men who were holding him hostage. He runs down the road to get Jim from their wigwam. To his surprise, no one came out. Huck realizes that Jim must of escaped! However, he wasn't too happy about this. this was because no he was all alone, him and Jim had become pretty close. So he asks a young boy if he has seen a slave running down the street. The boy responds that he has and that the slave, Jim, has been captured.

"It's Tom Sawyer!"

When Tom goes to the Silas's farm to free Jim, he got lucky. Sally, the mistress of the house mistaked him for her nephew named Tom. Little did Huck realize that it was his best friend, Tom Sawyer. However, when Huck's grandfather came in, and was like who the hell is that, Sally answered Tom Sawyer. Tom was so surprised at this information. He felt that being Tom Sawyer was easy and very comfortable. however, to his dismay he hears the steamboat coming up the river and is afraid that Tom Sawyer would get off that boat.

Huck Finn pages 71 – 91

When Huck and Jim vowed to “give things back” by dumping them in the river.
Huck’s dad had always said that it was ok to borrow things as long as one planned on returning them one day or giving them back. On the other hand, the widow said that stealing was horrible and that “no decent body should do it.” They decided to drop crabapples and “p’simmons”. After they performed this task they felt better since before they were feeling a bit uneasy.


After Huck and Jim get separated, Huck reunites with Jim.
Huck finds Jim asleep when he returns to the raft. Jim wakes up and is thrilled to see that Huck is alive and all well. Huck tries to convince Jim that they were never separated at all and that it was all a dream and that he was imagining the whole thing. Then Jim recited to Huck everything that has happened. All Huck could do was laugh and Jim realized that Huck had fooled him and scolded him for making an idiot out of him.

Huck Finn pages 5 – 34

When Jim talks about the witches taking his hat.
One morning when Jim wakes up, he finds his hate was put in the tree over night. He starts telling stories by telling everyone that a witch put it there and what not. Soon, he had people from all over coming to listen to his story. Due to this new variable, he starts to elaborate on the story saying that he flew all over the world in one night and what not.

When Tom Sawyer makes up his club.
Tom Sawyer makes up a club of bandits, including Huckleberry. The club is based off of all the books and the wild imagination of Tom Sawyer. He makes up all these crazy rules about killing and kidnapping people that the reader knows is just purely illogical. In addition, he then claims that they will rob people and carriages yet the farthest they’ve gotten in taking food off of women’s carts.

"Detailed representation of 'real' world."

Realists often related to the everyday person and not just the upper class. They would usually write about problems that affected everyone during everyday life such as social problems and politics. In addition, realists would criticize the upper class and how they dressed and the lavish lifestyle that they lived. Therefore they could relate to the lower class since they didn't approve of the upper class and would somewhat mock them.

"'We began to wonder whether... in a country without caste or legal aristocracy, the sufferings of the poor and humble could touch our interest, our pity, our emotions, as sharply as the sufferings of the rich and mighty...'"

This quote was written by realists by the name of Jules and Edmond Concourt. They dictates how he feels that people are more interested in the lives of the rich compared to the lives or the poor or everyday people. Some people could view this as disturbing since the majority of Subsequently that's why they feel that this is considered disturbing due to fact that people don't care about themselves, but care about the lives of those considered better than them.

Dickenson…transcendentalist?

Emily Dickinson could be considered a transcendentalist. She was very closely connected with nature, which happens to be a big transcendentalist quality. She refers to the Earth as if it were alive; “When it comes, the landscape listens…” Also, to agree with Emerson, she talks about how she is in the woods she is reminded of childhood and can relate to one, with the feeling of virginity all around her. In addition, Dickinson states that she has never conversed with God which demonstrates that she was not a believer of any specific religion, showing that no idea controls her thoughts, she thinks for herself; self-reliance (Thoreau).

Song of Myself: Quote response

“And of these one and all I weave the song of myself.”

Earlier in the passage, Walt Whitman was describing the routine that people go through daily. Generally it is the occupation of that person and what they do everyday and for their job. In this quote, he is stating that he has a routine too. The “song” or process that he goes through everyday fits in with all these other people. Everyone makes their own song. No one has to participate in the occupation they have or the actions that they chose, but they do and that’s why they are labeled and have a “song.”

“The past and present wilt – I have fill’d them, emptied them. And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.”


Whitman describes how he has used the past and the present. He got everything he can out of both, therefore they’re wilted, like a salad; old and used. He goes on to state that he can only hope for the future and what it holds for him. That is the only thing that he can look forward to and employ in his actions. Overall, that’s not the best way for one to go through life, since one would only be living for the future and not the present, now is what one should be living for since it affects you at that very moment in time.

"Each member ofo the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of harded breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought."
This quote describes the fear that people possessed for Mr. Hooper and the veil he would wear around. The people felt that he was crawling under their skins and trying to pry lut all fhteir deeoest, darkest secrets. Every person in the town had this feeling, not just one but all. Everyone used to love Mr. Hooper, yet now people are afriad to even look at him.

"At length Elizabeth sat silent. For a few moments she appeared lost in thought, considering, probably, what new methods might be tried to withdraw her lover from so dark a fantasy, which, if it had no other meaningm, was perhaps a symptom of mental disease."
Elizabeth was concerned about her husband's, Mr Hooper's, well being. he never acted like this before and now that he is acting strange he won't tell her the reason for his veil or show her his face. Therefore she has come to the conclusion, the he may be mentally ill. However, she will not give up hope ro stop trying to get her husband out of this "dark" place.

"Well, she's a blessed angel on earth and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heave."
Here, Goodman Brown is referring to his wife and how good she is to him. They had just gotten married and already he is jeopardizing their marriage and his well being to perform his bad deed. In response to her actions, Goodman Brown claims that he will never leave her and that he will be so good to her since she is supporting him at a time like this. This shows that she will always support him in everything he does subsequently he believes that she is a splendid wife.

"Goodman Brown cried out, and his cry was lost to his own ear by its unison with the cry of the desert."
Goodman brown cried out, but it couldn't be heard. This was due to the fact that his cry of loneliness and abandonment overpowered his cry of help and frustration. The scream was drowned out by desire to be with Faith again, and how upset he was that she was gone.

“Thoughts accidentally thrown together become a frame in which more may be developed and exhibited. Perhaps this is the main value of a habit of writing, of keeping a journal-that so we remember our best hours and stimulate ourselves.”
When one begins to think, at first, thoughts come slow. However, after a while, ideas tend to flow with ease and soon just become a natural practice. This is due to the process of attaining innovations off one’s previous ideas and merely just building off them. In addition, the journal can provide and prove to be a very valuable object. It enables one to look back at the previous days and remember the exact thoughts that they were thinking at that moment; it provides insight, for the reader, about the author and allows the reader to really get into their mind and discover the author’s deepest philosophies.


”My desire for society is infinitely increased; my fitness for any actual society is diminished.”
Here, Thoreau somewhat contradicts himself subsequently making a paradox. He states that everyday his yearning for human contact and society increases yet at the same time he states that he is not capable to interact with society anymore. Everyday his desire for society grows, but his ability to interact with society is depleting. In this situation, he placed himself in a very bad spot. On both sides of the scenario he is faced with two hardships, they both cancel out each other in the manner that he wants to be with society yet cant interact with them making himself more socially awkward and liking society less and less consequencely, placing himself back in the same situation.

What i want to get out of this course consists of the following. I want my outlook on the writers of America to improve, generally when I think of good literature I most always think that it was written in Europe or anthe country. In addition, I would like my writing skills to improve so that i may write better essays and what not. On the whole, I think that this course will be very helpful to my education.

2. Comparison. Emerson and Thoreau are the most recognizable proponents of Transcendentalism, but each emphasized different features of the movement. Take some aspect of their thought or writing and explore the similarities and differences their works exhibit. In the process, you should arrive at a clearer understanding of Transcendentalism in general and these two writers in particular. Topics to consider include self-reliance, individualism, and the importance of nature.

Alissa Walker September 18, 2007

Henry David Thoreau quotes from Walden

“Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men…”

Thoreau believes that men pay too much attention to detail, that they should slow down their lives and attend to themselves. He believes that an honest man doesn’t need to learn about everything; that all one needs is to be honest and able to count their 10 fingers and toes. As a result, they will be successful in life.

“We do not ride the railroad; it rides upon us.”

Man doesn’t need the railroad if he is self-sufficient. It goes along with what Emerson says about being self-reliant. If we just used the things around us to fulfill our needs, then we wouldn’t need railroads to get the things that we want or do the things that we want to do. The railroad wouldn’t exist, if we didn’t need it.

Alissa Walker September 17, 2007

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance and Nature

“Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a join-stock company =, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.” – Self Reliance

Here, Emerson is describing how society is suppressing the liberty and independence of the people. Then, he further goes into dictating that society is the way it is since all members want to eat and lead prosperous lives. Basically, society is willing to surrender its freedom in order for certain members to sustain wealth. Society is greedy and selfish, subsequently all men should focus on their own needs more than the needs of others and the community.

“To be great is to be misunderstood.” – Self Reliance

Being misunderstood isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to Emerson. According to him, some of the greatest beings were considered misunderstood by society including Pythagoras, Socrates, Jesus, Luther, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and ‘Every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.’ When a person is misunderstood it usually means that their ideas and innovations are just new ways of thinking. The people of society are not always familiar to these thoughts, which can pose as a threat to their current society.

“Few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.” - Nature

This quote explains that adults see only specific parts of nature. Where as in a child, they notice all the little details that nature has to offer, and it doesn’t take them much time to notice these things. Think about it, a child is usually the one pointing things out to you rather than you to them. This is because they aren’t focused on other things in their life that may distract them from these beauties and minorities.

“He is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight. “ -Nature

Nature is always changing. Emerson feels that man should always be happy with nature since change is good. If the weather was to be the same everyday, then man would be bored with nature. Yet, since it is different everyday man should be thankful to change and each weather pattern represents a different state of mind and reflects how nature is feeling, all day, everyday.