Music Describing Stowe's Writing

  

         I wanted to change some of my blogs up from what I have been writing about. So I decided to describe certain music styles in literature that fit with Harriet Stowe's writing. When I decided to write about a different topic and saw this choice on the list of possibilities, Stowe's writing immediately came to my mind. The reason I thought of her is that she wrote during a period when slave owning was a common practice and a sensitive topic. Their have been popular songs that the slaves would sing with each other to keep up the moral. Songs such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Wade in the Water" are still sung today in many different forms of music.
        These songs weren't just to keep their spirits up, but also to help some escape. Some of the songs held secret codes in them that would tell what directions to go for the underground railroad. I think this is a really ingenious strategy that enslaved African Americans used to escape wherever they were being kept. That is why I think their songs define that particular era, they held so much meaning to them in more ways than one.

                                                          

Creation Stories

 

    In the first Pod we did we had the chance to read about creation stories from earlier people. I decided to read "The Iroquois Creation Story". I enjoyed this story because it gave me a view of how the Iroquois lived and was a lot of fun to see how earlier people explained how they thought Earth, humans, and space was made. I have always enjoyed learning new theories other than by just learning what the Bible says. For example, Greek Mythology has always interested me and still does today. As for the creation story in our literature book I mentioned at the beginning, it is really unique to any others I have learned about.
    I will just give a short summary to explain the main points and to not spoil much. It tells how their is a lower and upper world. A woman ends up being pregnant with twins in the upper world and falls into the lower world. The monsters end up catching her on her way down and one of the twins forces itself through her side. the twins are basically God and the Devil so it explains how they fight and one of them eventually ends up winning. I really enjoyed learning about this view the Iroquois had of how everything was created. It was a very interesting story which I would recommend.   

                                                        

Discovering Emily Dickinson

        I have said in one of my past blogs that I enjoy short stories the most. After reading through some of Emily Dickinson's poems for Pod eight, I surprisingly enjoyed some of her poems. I know that you can't make someone enjoy reading a style of writing and I thought that the only poems I would ever enjoy was Poe's "The Raven". I think that everybody should attempt to read them though even if it's not their favorite style. That is what I did with Emily Dickinson's poems and I learned that she is really talented in the way she wrote.
        At first I was just reading them to be able to finish my assignments but I had to really think about Dickinson's poems in order to understand them. I normally don't enjoy having to reread something multiple times to understand it but I didn't mind with her poems. For instance, "I'm nobody - who are you?" really had me thinking about how people go through life. It is such a short poem but it holds a lot of meaning, and that is true for a lot of other poems of Dickinson. Overall, I am glad that we had a Pod for just poets. I have heard of Dickinson before but never really read any of her work.     

The Insperation for Sojourner Truth's Writings

                 I enjoyed reading Truth's story about what she had to go through and her experiences with battling slavery. She was a slave for almost her entire life, but that didn't stop her from trying to create a family and as normal life as she could with her circumstances. She ended up getting married and having three kids, a boy and two girls. Eventually, Truth was able to escape to freedom with one of her daughters while the other two stayed behind. She later learned that her son was illegally sold so she took the issue to court and was able to get him back. She was the first black woman to successfully challenge a white man in court in the United States. The time that she lived in was the reason of these events happening and why she wrote about her experiences.
               This all took place in the early 1800's when slavery was a very common occurrence. Truth knew it wasn't right and did her best to fight slavery and save as many slaves as she could. Her real name was actually Isabella Baumfree but changed it in 1843 to Sojourner Truth when she began fighting for women's rights. I originally didn't think she did a lot, but after reading about her I think she had a big impact on the issues that she fought for. I am not sure but the wourld could be different without her doing what she did.
                                                                   

A Dangerous Man

        This short story is not one that we have read in our class but it is a classic short story and one that I really enjoyed. I am talking about "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. I want to talk about General Zaroff and why he is my current favorite villain in short stories. Zaroff is a big game hunter that goes around the world and hunts exotic animals for the thrill and sport of it. His home is covered in trophies of different types of animals he has killed. He explains all of this to Rainsford, a man that had to take shelter in Zaroff's home after his ship crashed.
      Eventually, Zaroff explains that he hunts humans now because regular hunting was too easy for him and explains to Rainsford that if he can survive three days, then he can leave the island. The story explains how Rainsford tries to hide and trick Zaroff but Zaroff is too skilled. He always manages to find Rainsford no matter how much he tries to cover up his trail. I don't want to spoil the rest of the story but this is why I chose Raisnford as my favorite villain. He is smart and very skilled in hunting and decides to take it to the next level by adding humans as the prey. Not only that but the people he hunts always have a chance to fight back, which is what Zaroff wants when he hunts. A good challenge from his prey. I would defiantly recommend this short story to anybody who likes a good action story.

      I decided to start my first blog with an author that I have grown very fond of over the years. I am talking about Edger Allan Poe. I remember first reading some of his stories in junior high for one of my English classes and I think the first piece we read from Poe was his poem "The Raven". It is an interesting poem that I think most people will enjoy if they read it a couple times. A lot of his poems and stories are written in a strong gothic style. They usually take place during the night time and are told through a first person perspective. Poe also has a different vocabulary compared with writers of today. Since he lived in the early 1800's, there are definitely moments in his writing where I had no idea what he was talking about. It can make understanding some of his work challenging, but I can still manage to figure it out after reading over it a couple times. I think Poe was a very talented writer and it is amazing how his stories are still read regularly by people today.