Learning to Read and Write Lit. Response

“Education and slavery were incompatible with each other” is a quote from the excerpt, Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born a slave in 1818. Back in those times, a slave being able to read and write was like a crime. For Frederick Douglass to be able to do both tells you a lot about his character before you even read the passage. It tells you that he’s a very ambitious and strong-minded man. He found ways to accomplish his goal to learn how to read and write. In his writing, he appeals to the three parts of the rhetorical triangle: ethos, logos, and pathos.

Douglass appeals to ethos in this passage. His character can be determined through the title of this excerpt and even the first sentence of the story. “I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years.” This implies that he is like every other slave though he still managed to go beyond and find a way to learn. This sets the tone of the story. His reason for writing was to show how he had goals but went beyond what any other slave had done to try to accomplish them. He tells about his experience and journey of coming to literacy. Also, this grabs the attention of his audience and makes him as an author credible and trustworthy.

The reason for writing this story is was to show the audience the steps he took on learning to read and write thus appealing to logos. He gives examples on what he had been through to get to where he’s at. “The plan which I adopted…was making friends of all the little white boys whom I met in the street. As many of them as I could, I converted them into teachers” This is an example of a step he too to reach his goal. He makes it clear to his audience that this is what really happens to him and what he had to do.

I feel this passage mainly appeals to pathos. Because this is a true story, it grabs the audience’s attention. At one point in the story, he tells about himself finally learning to read. You would think this would be a big accomplishment for him and he would be proud of himself. Douglass says that he found himself regretting his own existence and was wishing himself dead. This is the turning point of the story. The audience would not suspect him feeling this way at all. By Douglass learning how to read, he has found out so much information about slavery and what the whites have done to his people. He is appalled by some of the information he has found out but soon realizes that he can’t do much about it because if anyone was to find out he could read it could “injure” him. It took many steps for Douglass to be able to read and write. His mistress, who was said to be kind and tender-hearted, was the one person who supported him and even taught him the alphabet. Ironically, there was a change in her character. She stopped teaching him things and even hated to see him with a newspaper.

I feel this was an inspirational story. I feel the message was to inform the audience that anything is possible and to never let anything hold you back. This story was filled with emotion and I really enjoyed reading this passage.

Spontaneous Me Lit. Resp.

Spontaneous Me, written by Walt Whitman, was a very metaphoric poem. Throughout the entire poem, he compared a human’s (man) sensuality to the beauty of nature. In the very first line in the poem, it says “Spontaneous Me, Nature”. I think he purposely made that the first thing the audience knew about the poem. As the audience continues to read, it is apparent that he is comparing two types of nature: the sensual human side of nature to the beauty of non-human nature.

Whitman definitely appealed to pathos throughout the whole poem. This poem is about the passion in a man. Whitman grabs the audience’s attention by the abundance of emotion within the writing. He focuses on the sense of touch the most. For example, the quote “Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep, one with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other” implies a sexual experience between the two lovers and explains the way they touch.

Throughout this poem, there is an ample use of figurative language. This poem basically consists of metaphors, or it can even be said that there is a use of personification. Nature is compared and is given human characteristics. For instance, the line “The hairy wild-bee that murmurs and hankers up and down, that gripes the full-grown lady-flower, curves upon her with amorous firm legs, takes his will of her, and hold himself tremulous and tight till he is satisfied” shows sensuality in a human-like way.

Whitman used diction to show imagery in his poem. Every noun in the poem was described by many adjectives. The audience got the exact picture and knew what happened and how it happened just by his choice of words. “Dead leaf”, “Hairy wild-bee”, “limpid liquid”, or “vigilant eyes” are all examples of the way he thoroughly described things to keep his audience’s attention.

This is a really passionate poem and I think it is even better because it was written by a man. It shows the softer and more sensual side of a man and not just the hard core. Whitman got his message through to his audience well because of his use of diction, which painted a visual picture. This is an easy piece to read and I found this poem to be very interesting.

Desiree's Baby Lit. Response

The story of Desiree’s Baby, by Kate Chopin, is a short story filled with ironic twists and turns. The story starts off with her mother reminiscing on times when Desiree was a little girl, and now she’s a young woman having a child. But they run into a problem. People start to notice the baby’s skin color is starting to look like one’s of a quadroon. This imposes a major conflict in the plot of he story. It also relates to the theme of the story, which is mainly race and the mixing of racial groups.

Kate Chopin appeals to pathos in this story. The plot is emotional throughout the story. Chopin shows how passionate and caring Desiree is in the sentence “. She did not just neglect her baby when she found out the baby was perhaps a quadroon. She remained loving and cared for the baby. Though, the father, Armand, starts to not care for the baby anymore. At first, it was said that he was really excited, and now that he has found out the baby is a quadroon, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. This takes a major toll on Desiree. The sentence “Desiree was miserable enough to die” shows how bad she hurt and feels about the situation. It also shows how she reacts to certain situations and what type of person she is.

Also, you can say that the theme of this story is also feminism. I believe it’s another one of the main themes because Desiree was the first to be blamed for being black. Why couldn’t her husband have been black? In this story, Chopin made her the underdog because she is a woman. Though, we do have clues that could suggest that her husband was actually the one who was had black in them. The quote “But Armand’s dark, handsome face…”gives the audience a clue on how he looks. But later on in the story, Desiree tries to prove to him that she’s not the one who’s black. She tells Armand to look at her hair, which is described as “long, silky brown hair that hung about her shoulders”. She also describes her eyes as gray, her skin fair and being whiter than his. These are not physical features a black person would have. You can assume that her husband was actually the one who was black but didn’t get blamed for it because he’s a man. That also had something to do with the time period they were in.

Chopin’s diction throughout the story was sometimes vague though she did use a metaphors and similes to express imagery to the audience. There were times where I was unclear on something. For instance, throughout the whole story, the baby never had a name. It was always referred to as “baby”. I think she may have done this to imply that the baby was not worthy enough to get a name because he was a quadroon. Another reason may have been to show that they baby was not going to stay long. “The blood turned like ice in her veins, and clammy moisture gathered upon her face” is an example of a simile used to show the audience the emotion she was feeling.

Desiree’s Baby was a very interesting and ironic story. At the end, it turns out the husband was actually the one who was black. Chopin definitely grabbed the audience’s attention by her use of pathos. She also created imagery for her audience using similes and metaphors. This was a great story and really opened my eyes to how the world used to be (or is) and what was accepted and what was not.

The Story of An Hour Lit. Resp.

The Story of An Hour by the author, Kate Chopin, was very interesting and had unexpected twists and turns throughout the story. Chopin used irony to get the plot of the story across and to describe the setting and characters. The first thing the audience learned about the main character, Mrs. Mallard, was that she has heart trouble. This implies to the audience that she’s weak and might not be able to handle the news of her husband’s death. Her sister, Josephine, cannot exactly tell her what has happened to her husband and gives her little hints. However, Richards didn’t have any problems breaking the news to her. This action shows you Richards’ character and how he feels about Mrs. Mallard. He didn’t consider her feelings or how she would’ve reacted to the news. Mrs. Mallard “wept” in her sister’s arms, showing the audience how she reacted and how emotional she is. This is another characteristic given about Mrs. Mallard.

Chopin used an abundance imagery to describe the setting. You can also say her imagery is ironic as well. She describes the day of the incident. “…aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air…There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds…” This whole quote symbolizes the start of a new life. Chopin used the season spring to symbolize growth and a fresh start. I also think the patches in the clouds represented new doors opening in her life. Chopin describes Mrs. Mallard sitting in her room in a “comfortable, roomy armchair” facing the window. So what does this say about how she’s feeling? I think this is meant to show the audience her longing for her husband.

The start of suspense is in paragraph 9, where it says “But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.” Now the audience is wondering what that something was coming after her. Then, she repeats “free, free, free”. I think that freedom is the “something” coming to her. Now since her husband has passed, she feels freedom. In the next couple paragraphs, its explaining the joy she’s feeling. It is even described as “monstrous joy”. Mrs. Mallard was living for her husband and not for herself. Her husband was taking over her life and now he had no power over her since he was dead. The sentence “And yet she had loved him--sometimes.” implies that she had love for him but didn’t care for him much when he took away her freedom away. And again, she says “Free! Body and soul free!” This shows how excited she is to finally be free.

The turning point of the story is when her husband walks through the door. It turns out that her husband really wasn’t killed in the railroad incident. Irony takes place when Mrs. Mallard dies when she sees her husband. The doctors said that she died “of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” The doctors may have said this for the interest of her husband. They may think she died because she was happy to see that her husband is still alive. The heart problem was the first thing we learned about Mrs. Mallard and now it’s the reason for her death. The end of this story had a very ironic twist.

Sojourner Truth Lit. Response

Is the speech Sojourner Truth gave at the women’s right convention called “Aren’t I a woman?” or “Ain’t I a woman?” This was a very powerful speech, but I feel it was even more powerful when it was in written in the way that she spoke it. The word choices that were in the speech relates to pathos. The language that was chosen appeals to emotion, gaining attention from the audience. It shows her character and it also gave the speech more meaning. It showed the audience that she was human, as well as a woman.

Sojourner Truth appeals to logos as well. Multiple times in her speech, she repeated the phrase “Ain’t I a woman?” This was reiterated about four times throughout the speech. She did this to get her purpose across to the audience. She constantly reminds her audience the reason on why she is speaking. She gives several examples of experiences she has gone through as an African-American woman and how she has done things for herself. For example, she said she had thirteen children and cried out for them when she almost saw them get sold into slavery. I think she said this to prove just like any other mother, she would have the grief any other mother would have. She wants to be treated as if she was equal and this is what this speech is suggesting.

Also, during her speech, she showed her audience her muscle inferring that she was jus as strong as a man, so why shouldn’t she be considered a woman. She even said she did the same type of work a man could do. This point appeals to ethos. She tells about her experience and knowledge making her more believable and her speech sincere. The audience would probably pay more attention and take what she has to say more seriously. Another thing that makes this speech appeal more to ethos is her character. Sojourner Truth was an abolitionist and women’s right activist. This demonstrates that she’s trustworthy and credible in what she’s saying. She would know a lot about the subject she was talking about. Sojourner Truth does not use a different persona. She is just herself and was expressing her point of view on the subject.

I really enjoyed her speech and I thought it was powerful. She got her point through to her audience and relates to all the parts of the rhetorical triangle thus making this an excellent speech.

Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley is considered American’s first black poet. She was very intelligent and learned how to read and write as a child. She wrote her first poem at the age of thirteen. She became famous when she wrote the poem on Reverend George Whitefield’s death in 1770. Three years later, her poems were published in London as a book called Poems of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. It was the first book to be published by a black American. Her life experiences influenced most of her poetry like her poem On Being Brought from Africa to America. It talks about her experience and how she felt.

Wheatley’s poetry would be considered as concrete poetry. The poems, On Being Brought from Africa to America and To His Excellency General Washington, rhyme and have almost the exact same spacing in each line. She does use plenty of punctuation in her poems, making them easier to understand and to show how the lines should be read. Therefore, she is connecting to pathos. The use of punctuation illustrates the emotion within her poetry. In the poem, To His Excellency of General Washington, she has four lines that are indented. I believe they are indented because they may be a start to another idea.

In the poem, On Being Brought from Africa to America, she talks about how all of the slaves got taken of their land by the white people and how they didn’t like the African race. “Some view our race with scornful eye…” In To His Excellency General Washington, she honors him and his efforts to make America a free country. She talks about how he is standing up for America to become free, referencing to the French and Indian War. Her purpose for sending Washington this poem was to give Washington confidence in what he was doing for the country and how she was behind him the whole way. For example, “Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side, Thy every action let the goddess guide…”

The persona is not different than the author. She expresses her own emotions and point of views. In the poems, she has a poems based on a character. In one of them, she writes about herself and other Africans and their experience on being brought to America. She writes about Washington in the poem and also refers to a “freedom goddess”.

Though Wheatley’s poems were a bit hard to understand, I felt the emotion she tried to get across to her audience. She used pathos to grab attention from the audience. Her word choices were confusing, like when she said “Columbia” instead of just saying America. Also, she must have been well educated on the subject of Washington. That poems was written very well.