A Secret World

It's days like today I wonder if I can be a teacher of English teacher. It's days like today I question my choice to be an English major. Poetry days are the days I question whether I am in the right field. After reading the selected poems by Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot, I felt as though I had just finished an advanced assignmnet in Greek. I put down my anthology with no more knowledge than when I picked it up. After class today, I walked out questioning my ability to even read. I am wondering if there is some hidden secret as to how to read poetry. If anyone reading this knows that secret, please let me into the secret world of poetry.

Some poetry

Never being a fan of poetry, I for some reason enjoyed Frost's poetry. The struggle he has with the idea of a divine being seems to be the same struggle so many of us have with our own faith. Frost really touched home for me. Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, we're going to hit sour ones, we're going to hit rotten ones, and don't forget the pits. The idea of perfecting one's self isn't always in our hands, or is it? Frost and I agree on that. I think I am now a fan of some poetry. Not all, but some!

Hard on the ears

As easy as it is for me to read Washington and to agree with him, it's even easier to agree with Du Bois. Washington speaks of peace, don't fight for equal rights, work for them. Du Bois says that working for equal rights is not an option. A black man will always be a black man, there will never be true equality. As much as I hate to say it, it's true. I will always be a white woman. We will always be what our physical image is and we will always be judged with the stereotype that goes along with that physical image. It stinks! Washington is very easy on the ears. He makes us feel as though equality is going to happen, it won't be that hard to achieve, cooperation is key. Du Bois points out that this is not the case. Equality will never happen. There will always be a difference, no matter how hard we try. Affirmative Action is one example. Upon trying to grant equal rights to the blacks, our government has been trying to make up for the past mistakes. Affirmative Action, instead of discriminating against blacks, points out that they are black and they deserve more of a chance than someone else equally qualified. This does not only work for blacks, women suffer from the same acts of favoritism. A woman will be given admission to a college over a man with equal qualifications. Our physical appearance will always matter and there is no true equality. Ouch, that's hard on the ears!

The fall of man

Upon reading the description of Pap being like Adam, I though of Pap as being made from mud. Adam was made of mud, God formed Adam out of mud and breathed life into him. Then it hit me. Adam was the fall of mankind. Pap is sinful and is Huck's fall. Yet, even with this awesome referral to Adam's original sin, Twain had more to say with this. Twain wanted to make a point that Pap is bad, but so is everyone. Adam sinned and so do the rest of us because of that. No sin is worse than another. In fact, Jesus said, "those who are without sin cast the first stone." Twain was pointing out that we are so quick to judge Pap because he seems so easy to critique, when really we should take a step back and look at our own lives. Pap is bad but think of some of the things we do that are not so great and go against God's plan for us. Adam was the fall of mankind, therefore we all are sinful, ALL our sinful.

What a brave man

It's interesting to me that a runaway slave becomes the moral center of Huckleberry Finn. In a time where blacks were the considered the scum of the earth, Twain uses a runaway slave to preach the moral law. What is right in society's eyes is not always moral. I like this. Twain made a very bold statement in using a black man in his writing for something other than a slave. What a brave man. I envy this.

Eureka!

Eureka! I have found it! A literary period that makes sense to me has finally come to my attention. I never understood the idea of transcendentalism and romaticism. Realism is my kind of writing. The truth will set you free. I truly enjoy the eye opening we, as readers, receive through the writing of this time. Twain addresses that no human being is perfect, essentially we are all failures in God's eyes. We, as a society, look down our noses at other people becuase they seem to be "less" than us, the gutter rats, the prostitutes, the single parents. Twain bluntly points out, no you are no better than the man who spends every night in the bar. I like this in hiw writing. I like the idea of the truth and not putting any on up on a pedestal. I like that Twain is also writing during a time where the nation was split on such a controversial issue, slavery. Huck Finn befriended a run away slave and even though that was wrong in society's eyes at that time, Huck knew what was morally right and morally wrong. It is morally wrong to judge someone by the color of their skin rather than their true character. Twain made some amazingly bold statements in a novel that could be considered a simple story with no underlying theme. I like reading realist writing. Eureka!