How I Met the Standards in Unit 3

I use evidence in my post Dark Romanticism in the Black Cat, when I say: At one point in the story the main character, upon being bitten by his cat after he had grabbed it violently, proceeded to “deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!”. I Identify one of the theme of Transcendentalism in my post Dark Romanticism in the Black Cat, when I say “The Transcendentalists don’t believe in evil or insanity.” I Compare pieces of literature throughout that the same post.

Reflection on "The Raven"

I read this poem about a year ago, and I remember thinking that the poem was very strange. I thought it strange that in this poem a man goes insane because of an encounter with a raven that can say the word “nevermore”. What I didn’t realize until I read the poem again was that the man is already insane. He is so paranoid that he has to reassure himself "'Tis some visitor," that is knocking and not “the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore”.

Another thing that I found interesting is the raven itself. The man in the poem can’t decide if it is a “bird or devil!”. That is the same thing that I am wondering. Many different kinds of bird can be trained to say a few words. Then again, one of the scariest things thinkable is an evil that cannot be distracted from its cruel goal. So, is the raven simply a trained bird flown astray from its owner? Or is it truly a “Wretch” that’s purpose is to torment a disturbed man farther into his own insanity? Or is it simply a symbol of the man's own insanity?

The Raven demonstrates Anti-Transcendentalism very well. The Ant- Transcendentalists believe that evil is a very real thing. They also believe that people can be insane. In the poem, the man refers to the raven as “thing of evil!” and “Wretch”, as it haunts him. This would give the appearance that the raven is evil. There is also the possibility that the man is insane. As I stated earlier, the man is very paranoid, and believes in a spirit that is haunting him. That make him seem relatively insane.

Breaking Down Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is most likely the oldest form of racism in existence. It is also, in my opinion, the most ridiculous form of racism in existence. Followers of Judaism and ethnic Jews have contributed to society in great ways. They have been great scientists like Albert Einstein, and successful politicians like Ben Stein and Joe Lieberman. They have been great musicians such as Bob Dylan, Sammy Davis Jr., Billy Joel, and one of my favorite singers, Adam Duritz (lead singer of Counting Crows). They have also been very influential in things that are a bit less serious, like comic books. Some great comic book creators that are three of my favorites are Jack Kirby, Art Spiegelman, and Peter David. Although some would consider it stereotyping, they are also known today for being successful business men and women.

There are three main categories in modern society that Anti-Semites tend to fall into. Since this is a very historical subject, I will address them in chronological order. The earliest would be the Islamic extremist group. It all started in the Old Testament, when Abraham dismissed Ishmael, his eldest son of a handmaiden, Hagar, who was also dismissed. This was done after Abraham’s wife, Sarah witnessed Ishmael tormenting their son Isaac. Ishmael and his mother were not given any part of the promised land of Abraham and his descendents, while Isaac (who is one of the main patriarchs of Judaism) did. From ancient times to today, the descendents of Ishmael, who now make up a large amount of the Islamic extremists, fight the Jews for the promised land of Israel.

The next group would be the “Christian vengeance” group (skinheads, klu klux klan, whatever you prefer). Christ was put to death by the Roman appointed Governor, Pontius Pilot, after a crowd of Jews who considered Christ a false messiah, urged him to. This group came to be at some point after the death of Christ. Because Christ was put to death at a crowd of Jews’ urging, theses people consider Jews to be the murderers of their lord, and they desire vengeance for it.

The final group, whether it be Nazis themselves or the Neo-Nazis, are those who wish to purify the Human race, until there is one master race (Aryan). The race they consider to be the most inferior are the Jews. In fact, they consider them to be vermin. They rounded up and eventually killed over six-million Jews in work, and death camps. This event is infamously known as the Holocaust.

I will now explain why the grudges of the three main Anti-Semitic groups are so bewildering to me. The Islamic extremists still to this day hate and fight Jews for the simple reason that Jews are the descendents of the favored son of their great, great, great …. Grandfather Abraham. So essentially these Islamic extremists have been responsible for the deaths of millions because of their ancestor Ishmael’s sibling rivalry and abandonment issues connected to his father. And for some reason, they believe it is their responsibility to get for themselves, what they think Ishmael deserved.

The Christian “vengeance” group hates Jews because a group of Jews helped put Christ to death. They seem to just ignore a few very important things; one would be the fact that Christ himself was a Jew! Another would be that in Christianity, the main purpose of Christ’s life was to die! So they hate the very people that their lord and savior came from, and they hate them for helping him fulfill his destiny.

What makes the Nazi and Neo-Nazi group different from the previous groups, is that they aren’t religious, they’re “scientific”. They hate the Jews because they believe that they are the most inferior of all races. So since they believe that their race is superior, those that are they believe to be inferior deserve to die. When you look in history books and read about Jews during WWII, all you see is people in ghettos and concentration camps. You don’t see the way they were before the Holocaust. Something that I think most people tend to overlook is that the supposed inferior Jews were not a bunch of homeless, gypsy like vagabonds, living in slums and ghettos. They were bankers, and factory owners. They were musicians and artists. They were restaurant and shop owners.

My main issue with Anti-Semitism is this; Jews aren’t a bunch of un-motivated people. They aren’t a group of uneducated and unintelligent people. They aren’t a cultureless annoyance to the world. They were, and to this day are, contributors to society.

Unit 3

the students use many different kinds of writing to show they understand the themes in liturature. The student writes different kinds of pieces of writing.

Dark Romanticism in the Black Cat

I thought that the story was disgusting, while at the same time interesting. In the story the main character gives in to his the darkest urges within him. By doing this he essentially makes himself seem insane. At one point he says the he went “into a rage more than demoniacal”, at which point he slammed an axe into his wife’s head.

The Black cat shows how Dark Romanticism disagrees with Transcendentalism throughout the story. The story tells the tail of a man giving into the evil inside him and going insane. The Transcendentalists don’t believe in evil or insanity. They believe that people are pure and without fault. At one point in the story the main character, upon being bitten by his cat after he had grabbed it violently, proceeded to “deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” I’d say that that would be pretty evil and possibly insane, thus illustrating how Dark Romantics disagree with Transcendentalists.

Transcendentalist or Dark Romantic

When Trying to figure out if you are more like a Transcendentalist or a Dark Romantic, one of the main things you should think about is, do you think that people can be evil. When I tried to think of an evil person, the first thing that came to my mind was Charles Manson and his followers. Charles Manson and his followers were widely publicized murderers in the late sixties. They brutally butchered numerous people because they believed the the music from the Beatles album, "the Beatles" (also known as the White Album), had spoken to them and told them to do those things. In my opinion it's safe to say that these people are evil and insane. Coming to that conclusion brings me to another conclusion, which is that I fall under the category of a Dark Romantic.

Transcendentalism in the Wilderness

There are a lot of things that reflect Transcendentalism in the Wilderness. One large part of Transcendentalism is being separate from society. Emerson talks about going into the woods to get away from society. This is essentially what Proenneke does, when he goes to Twin Lakes, Alaska to be alone for a year. He is completely alone with just the mountains, plants, and animals.

Another part of Transcendentalism is working hard, and that God also spoke through man's hard work. When speaking on this subject, Emerson says that "no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till". Proenneke works incredibly hard when he is at Twin Lakes. He built a house for himself out of logs from trees he cut down completely himself. He fished and farmed for food, and chopped down his own firewood. He work completely alone, and was able to sustain himself for the entire year, and later came back and did the same thing for thirty years.

Transcendentalism in the Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson has many aspects of Transcendentalism in it. The title alone; Nature is a big part of Transcendentalism. Being "in touch" with nature is talked about in much of this piece of literature. At one point Emerson says "In the woods is perpetual youth". Another aspect of Transcendentalism is being able to get out of the physical realm and make a connection with God. Emerson talks about this when he says "I am nothing: I see all" and "I am part or parcel of God".

The thing that I found most interesting was, when Emerson talked about the stars, and how people take them for granted. He said that “If the stars should appear but one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore” and “But every night comes out these envoys of beauty”.

Self- Reliance by Emerson also has aspects of transcendentalism in it. A very important part of transcendentalism is that people are pure and that God speaks through them. One of the main things that is talked about in Self-Reliance is basically being true to yourself, and not trying to be like others. This is illustrated when Emerson says "Accept the place the divine Providence has found for you" as well as "imitation is suicide". They belief that they are pure, and therefore pure enough for God to speak through them would make trying to be different from the way they naturally are about the worst sin possible.

The thing that I found most interesting about Self-Reliance was in the last paragraph. Emerson talks about being misunderstood for saying what he believes even when it contradicts things that he had previously said. Hes say's "Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther", "and Newton". He say that it is not bad to be misunderstood, because great people are often mistunderstood.

Why Just Diet?

I am sure that just about everyone at Classic City High School is aware that we are privileged to have our very own Jittery Joe’s. It is a great perk that everyone enjoys and appreciates about school… but, I have an issue with Jittery Joe’s that I feel needs to be addressed. Jittery Joe’s offers a large amount of items for the students and faculty to purchase. Customers can buy anything from a standard coffee to an iced coffee, from a pack of Pop Tarts to a granola bar, and from Capri Sun to diet sodas. My issue with Jittery Joe’s is that they don’t sell regular, non-diet sodas, and there is not one good reason as to why.

I have wondered for a while what the reasons would be for this. First I thought of the basic
reasons why people drink diet drinks: because they are dieting, or because they are attempting to not be put into a position where they might need to start dieting. If the school was going by this kind of logic, they are essentially saying that the student body needs to be dieting, or are pretty much at the point where they would need to do something preventative. If that is true, then in my opinion the school is wrong, and insulting both the student body and their judgment.

Not everyone needs to diet. There are alternatives, such as exercising, portioning and I’m sure the list goes on. There are other reasons why people don’t need to diet. One of which would be that many people, me included, can maintain fine physical fitness without the help of diet drinks. Another one (although probably the strangest one), as weird as it might sound, is that people have the right to be unfit! People even have the right to be obese! I am not at all recommending that anyone make use of this right, but I am saying that it is theirs to use, or not, as they please.

Another reason why the school may be choosing to not buy non-diet sodas is that diet is healthier… well, isn’t it? Not necessarily. Mayo Clinic nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D said that “some studies suggest that drinking soda of any type leads to obesity and other health problems”. One of the most widely used artificial sweeteners used in diet sodas is aspartame. Editor-in-chief David Zinczenko of Men’s Health magazine has stated that “The FDA maintains that the sweetener is safe, but reported side effects include dizziness, headaches, diarrhea, memory loss, and mood changes. Bottom line: Diet soda does you no good, and it might just be doing you wrong”. Even when it is with good intentions, is it right to sell just diet sodas in an attempt to give a healthier alternative to the regular sodas? Is the School actually helping improve the general health of the student body? Or are they just making themselves feel better about a matter which is solely the business of the students, while at the same time making it more difficult for the students to get what they want?

How is the school making it more difficult for the students to get what they want? Well, take me for example. Many times when on the way to school I feel the need for a little caffeine, so I pull into the Golden Pantry that’s on the way and grab a nice Coca-Cola. On certain occasions, the combination of both the stop and bad traffic, have caused me to be late and receive a tardy. A tardy is not just bad for me, it’s bad for the whole school, because it goes on record for the yearly attendance. The thing is that every tardy that has taken place for this reason, in the entire school, could have been prevented by Jittery Joe’s simply selling Coca-Cola, and or other non-diet sodas. I or any other student could just come to school, then get a Jittery Joe’s pass, get the bottled caffeine that we crave, and do it without getting a single tardy.

Putting aside the issue of diet sodas being unhealthy, let’s think about if the school was right, and diet was healthier. Also take into mind that the average age of Classic City students is eighteen and a half. Which essentially means, that the average student is considered old enough to buy cigarettes outside of school, is old enough to vote, and is old enough to fight for our country in the military. In spite of this, they are not considered to be able to make the choice to buy a drink that the school doesn’t consider very healthy, at school. In a School where the majority of students rush to the edge of campus to smoke cigarettes during breaks, the students are making the choice to not care about their own health. I am not asking the school to sell cigarettes (something that is known to cause throat and lung cancer, as well as emphysema); I am just asking them to sell non-diet sodas. Is that so bad? Why just diet?

How I Met the Standards in Unit Two

I met ELAALRL1 by giving evidence in my earlier post Romanticism in Rip Van Winkle. Then I met ELAALRL2 in my posts Romanticism in Rip Van Winkle, and Romanticism in Thanatopsis.