Sarah Jewett

I think Sarah Jewett had a neat scenario as she grew up in South Berwick, Maine.  Growing up in the mid to late eighteen hundreds and getting to help your father with his numerous patients everyday would be an awesome experience to have.  She was sick a lot of the time as a child and missed a great deal of school because of that.  Many stories and sites would be gained at a young age and be useful to start a career in American Literature.   I like how this story is about a girl named Sylvia that came to love nature and the outdoors after she moved from the city when she was nine years old.  I think people from the city are missing out if they are not able to venture outside of the busy and loud city into the country for some kind of outdoor activity and all the interesting things nature has to offer.  In the story, I think Sylvia was really able to find herself when she moved to rural New England to live with her grandmother.  By moving, she was able to help her grandmother out in doing some chores.  The one that stood out the most to me was finding Moolly the cow every evening from grazing in the field and bring her home.  When the hunter came up looking to hunt some white heron, he was going to pay money to the person that led him the rare bird.  Since Sylvia knew where the birds where she was sure to make the money, but this is where she decided she cared too much for nature to be the cause for a rare bird to be killed.  The moral of the story that I learned was no matter the amount of money involved it’s not worth killing nature.   

Mary Freeman

I think Mary Freeman lived in a difficult time in history.  The civil war would be a tough time to live in much less be a writer in.  I like the way her writing is very detailed and descriptive.  The New England Nun starts out with Louisa maybe in the kitchen looking out the window, waiting for Joe to come back so they can finally get married after she waited 15 years on him.  She seems like she only has one speed of doing things no matter what or who is coming over because that is the lifestyle she is used to.  It also seems like she had been alone for a long time other than having her dog around whose name is Caesar but has to be chained up because it bit someone 14 years ago when it was a puppy.   I think it is odd to be engaged to someone for so long, but she is waiting on Joe Dagget to return from Australia where he has been trying to make his fortune.  I think Louisa has got used to her way of life without Joe and when he returns she doesn’t want to change it because when he comes to her house she is worried about what he is messing up more than seeing him.  It seems like the only reason she wants to marry Joe is because she told him that fifteen years ago.  When Louisa finds out that Joe is in love with Lily Dyer the women who had been taking care of his mom, I think she get some sort of relief because she has been by herself so long she doesn’t want to change that.  Also I think that since she was set on her ways because of their separation they endured over the years, and she didn’t want Joe to be lonely after he returned.             

Emily Dickinson

I think Emily Dickinson is one of the first people that come to mine when I think of American poetry.  The intro on Emily was mostly about her family and her lifestyle.  She is a very interesting person to learn and read about because of her many differences than other poet writers in her time.   I think it’s odd that she spent most of her life in the town she grew up in which is Amherst, Massachusetts.  I think one reason that she spent most of her time alone was to concentrate on her writing and not have any detraction from her work.  I think it is unique how most of her work didn’t become published until after her death in 1886.  She only had 8 poems published while she was alive.  Only half of the poems she wrote were published at all.  It is very hard to try to comprehend the words in most of her poems to me.  She wrote on specific topics such as love or death.  She also spent a lot of time later on in her life in her garden at her family house and wrote about nature.  I like her style in writing poetry but I do think it’s a little weird.  In the poem 324, I think she is trying to kind of explain why she doesn’t like leaving her house.  She would rather stay home even on Sunday.   Poem “1732” is one of my favorite out of the reading we did.  I think this is one that was discovered after her death and she wrote it in her last days of life.

  

huck finn

The conflicts in the story are what make the story so intriguing to read for me.  Growing up with a dad that is a drunk would be a hard thing to deal with.  With Huck growing up a “free bird”, I’m sure being adopted by two elderly women was not what he wanted or really needed at the time.  Huck didn’t understand the help that Widow Douglas was trying to give him because he was so independent already in his young life.  She was trying to teach him how to be a kid and I don’t think Huck understood that or just didn’t care.  I think since Huck basically grew up alone he didn’t want any help from nobody at first.  With the Widow adopting him he was starting to adjust and make some progress in school, until the day Huck saw footsteps in the snow near the house and knew it was his father. One big conflict was between Huck and his father.  I think he resented his father for drinking and beating him and not having a dad.  When Huck’s dad found out about the treasure Huck and Tom found and the money they received he tried to kidnap his own son so he could try to get it from Huck.  Huck went to the judge and sold his small fortune and decided to run away because he didn’t know what else to do.  This is where Huck runs away to Jackson Island and he learns many things about life and becomes a better person.  While Huck was hiding on the island he discovers that Jim is also on the island because he thought Widow Douglas was going to sell him.  These two decide to float the river in hopes of reaching Cairo, a town at the mouth of the Ohio River. 

introduction

My name is Daniel Lewis and I am attending the watauga campus of Caldwell community college.  I am wanting to get my associates in science and then transfer to UNCC to start engineering school.  I don't read much but I do like reading stuff like our state magazine and most things that are history related.