Richard Cory Blog

This poem, "Richard Cory" was very sad. It is really short, but in all it was about a guy who was as rich as ever. He walked down the street and people looked at him, wishing they could take his place. They all wanted to be like him; to have meat and bread like him. He was loved by all of them. He was always so genuine and clean cut too(Edwin, Robinson). He had the perfect appearance and the perfect life, from everyone else's point of view. This is where the story takes a turn, one night, Richard Cory goes home and puts a bullet through his head (Edwin, Robinson).

This story makes me think of one someone so loved would cause so much pain to himself and the people that loved him. Then I think about his material things. Emerson and Thoreau were keen on not being caught up in material items. They tended to go back to the natural things like nature, self reliance, and intuition. I think that Richard Cory was too caught up in his material items. I think he knew that people liked him because he was rich and had such a great appearance, but no one seemed to take the time to really get to know him, they just looked on the surface. Material things got in the way of his true happiness, so he ended his happiness altogether (Edwin, Robinson). Even though he was better off than all of the people in the town, he was not truly liked for being himself, and he ended his life because he knew this. Also, Emerson and Thoreau did not believe that violence was the answer. Even though in some of their stories violence was involved, they did not take kindly to it for they believed it solved nothing. In this story, the character tragically takes his life. He ended his situation by violence and by taking matters into his own hands. The views of this character shy away from those of Emerson and Thoreau. The only thing I do give the character credit for is his self reliance. He believed in himself enough to say that killing himself would make things better. This is the only thing he has in common with Emerson and Thoreau because they valued people who would take a stand on something and who could  make their own decisions.

Robinson, Edwin A. "Richard Cory." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2002. 575+. Print.

The Darling Blog

"The Darling" was about a woman who was married to many different men, some of which died. She has always had a love for people and many of them were fond of her, hence why she was called "darling" (Anton, Chekhov). When he dad died when she was a child, she inherited their townhouse where she lived with her husband Kukin, who was a theater owner. He was always in a sullen mood because it always rained and he left to go to Moscow to hire some actors. Olga was informed of his death one night when she was woken at her house. She was very sad, but quickly moved on to Vasily Pustovalov, a timber merchant who she developed feelings for and they eventually have a son (Glencoe Literature). Vasily soon dies when he develops a cold that triggered a long term illness. So Olga is by herself again and mourning.

The story was very sad to me because everyone kept dying and for someone that was loved by so many people, I think she had a hard time loving others. Even though she mourned and felt alone when these people were gone, she got over them really fast. I think that she had trouble loving other people because what she really needed was a sense of belonging and having someone there (Glencoe Literature). She seemed like she always needed the love and passion of a man to keep her happy, which is unlike the views of Emerson and Thoreau, who said being an individual was the most powerful things. She was not an individual in this story, she relied on the people around her for her happiness, and when she was happy, she was liked by many. I tend to feel bad for the main character because she had such a rough time in her marriages. They always started off happy, but they would eventually die and she was left to pick up the pieces, but she quickly moved on. She did lot it keep her down and she would search for new guys.

Chekhov, Anton. "Chekhov Stories." SparkNotes. SparkNotes. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section7.rhtml>.


Chekhov, Anton. "The Darling." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2000. 557-66. Print.

I will Fight No More Forever Blog

I like the story by Chief Joseph, "I will fight no more forever." It is a surrender speech saying basically he is tired of the fighting and tired of the struggling that he is experiencing and that other people around him are experiencing too. He is not giving up on fighting, it just does not suit him anymore. He wants to have a life and have time to find his children and do the things that he has yet to accomplish. I think the story is pretty inspiring. I like how he knows what is good for him and how he wants to surrender.

What really interests me about this story is the fact of how he looks at the youth. He says that the old men who led the youth are dead and now it is the youth's choice to say yes or no. This shows that youth is beginning to have more power, and I can tell that it frightens some of the people, including him. I think it just shows a different point of view. There were things evident in Thoreau's theories and Chief Josephs that suggest the future of the world and how it did not look good.

When comparing his views to those of Thoreau, I do not find much of a difference. They are both determined people, but in very different ways. Thoreau was a very hard core person. He wanted to do what was right and was determined to accomplish things no matter what the cost was, even if that meant going to jail or dying for what he believed in. Chief Joseph on the other hand was more a compassionate person. He saw his life through his eyes and did not like to waste any time like Thoreau. He was not giving up, just the conditions got to hard for him to handle, and it was not worth seeing children freezing and dying of starvation, so he surrendered himself. I find both the men very inspiring though because they follow what they believe.

McCloskey, Mary. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Welcome to Georgia State University. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www2.gsu.edu/~eslmlm/chiefjoseph.html>.

The Hill- Spoon River Anthology

I read "The Hill," which is an excerpt from the "Spoon River Anthology." I found it a very disturbing story. Usually things associated with nature seem to be calm and understanding, but this story was very different. The hill was a big symbol in this story. It ultimately represented all the people who died. All of the writer's family and friends had basically died a tragic death and were "sleeping on the hill." I almost wonder if the hill represents like hell because of the tragic deaths they all died from, or if it represents heaven because they are peacefully sleeping  on the hill. The fact that the setting is Spoon River, Illinois, which is our state, has a more personal effect because he includes Abe Lincoln and historical instances that are significant to the state.

When I tried to compare the work of this particular excerpt with those of Thoreau's ideas, I could not really make a direct connection between the two. I find Thoreau's philosophies were more words that were spoken and he made people listen. This story on the other hand was just like telling people about what happened. Like he was wondering where all the people around him had gone. I just did not find that there was really a connection between the two stories because they both have very different topics and viewpoints. In Thoreau's story he was close to death and he realized and accepted it because he was fighting for something he believed in. In this story though, many people had already died and there was nothing really significant about it other than the fact that hill represents the death and the author represents the ongoing life. The hill in itself is significant because it shows the variety of people who are on the hill. There are kind-hearted people and fighters, and alcoholics, and musicians, and veterans, and yet each one died a different death, tragic in their own way, and they are all together on the hill as one.


Masters, Edgar L. "1. The Hill. Masters, Edgar Lee. 1916. Spoon River Anthology."Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Bartleby.com. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. <http://www.bartleby.com/84/1.html>.

Two Views of the River Blog

The memoir by Mark Twain shows the point of view from an average person looking at the river, and then from the view of himself looking at the river. All the things in the river used to mean something to him. The sun, the moon, the water, and the surrounding areas all had characteristics that meant something deeper than just their appearance. In the story, Twain starts to look at all of the things surrounding the river as symbols instead of just scenery. This was also a story about romance though too. He viewed the river with a sense of passion and now that he has come to realization of what these objects mean, he says all the romance is gone(Twain, Mark ). I think that the character in this story had lost a loved one or someone very important to him. I think that he used to come to the river and he was so happy that all he saw was the scenery and how beautiful everything looked. I think that once he lost someone he loved, he would go to the river and criticize the scenery and look for the hidden meaning instead of what he saw on the surface.

I think the views in this story are not really similar to those of Thoreau, but they are like those of Walden, who used a lot of nature. This story uses nature to incorporate different meanings. For instance, the sun means that there will be sun tomorrow, the floating log tells that the river is slowly rising, a slanting mark on the river is a reef that will swallow someones boat sometime in the near nights, and the old dead tree with a single branch is reaching its point of death (Twain, Mark). I think in these instances, he has anger behind his words. When he talks about the dead tree and how no one would be able to survive by this river without that landmark, it seems like he is slowly losing hope.

Overall, I got a sad feeling from this story. It started off so well, and then all the beauty was lost and the mood changed. I feel the character in the story was once a very happy person, but slowly became sad. Even though it is not completely evident why, there was some sort of romance lost in his life that made him lose the beauty in the other aspects of his life. It is a really powerful story and it shows that the romance with his special person was very powerful and real.

Twain, Mark. "Two Views of the River." Glencoe Literature. the Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2000. 504-05. Print.

The Red Badge of Courage Blog

"The Red Badge of Courage" was a different story. The detail was so overpowering that the illusions the reader gets are so vivid. I found the story somewhat disturbing. The story starts out with this guy who is basically on a mission. His thoughts are veering off from him as he is in the Civil War. He is fighting when all of a sudden he gets hit in the back of the head. He was mistaken for the enemy and hit by someone of his own troop. His first act in the war was running because he was scared. He was a coward at first in this story and overcome by the powerful feelings that come with the war atmosphere. After he got hit in the head, many people thought he was wounded. He was not wounded with a battle scar, but by the mark of his own stupidity when he ran away from the fight rather than with it. When he starts to run again, he gets this overwhelming feeling. He runs into the fight, not really taking care of himself, and begins to shoot his rifle. He fires freely and many times, creating a cloud of smoke. As he emerges from this cloud of smoke, he now begins to feel foolish. He had just killed so many people by shooting his rifle carefree. His act of bravery though in this scene helped his troops though. So the Red  Badge of Courage in this story is the wounds he gets when he runs into the war firing his rifle at the oncoming people running towards him. The very last sentence is the most powerful line in the story because the part where it says "the swirling battle phantoms which were choking him, stuffing their smoke robes down his parched throat," is one of those feelings that no one really gets to experience unless they are engaged in this war. 

I think that this story is not like the views of Henry David Thoreau because Thoreau believed that acts of violence were not necessary and that there was always some other way to solve the problem. Thoreau had more power in his words than he had in his actions. Stephan Crane, though, thought that violence was the answer in the end. When he completed his act of courage, even though he did not have that great triumphant feeling, he had helped someway in the war. I think the views are different mainly because of their outlooks on violence and when it is necessary to take action and when it is necessary to back off and just let things be.

Crane, Stephan. "The Red Badge of Courage." Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Douglas Fisher. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 492-93. Print.

The Story of the Hour

"The Story of the Hour" is refreshing, but tragic. The main character in the story has a heart condition. With a heart condition you really do not know how long you have to live. Her family and friends all know that her husband has died in an accident, and they are figuring out the best way to tell her, without sending her over the edge. Like any woman would be, she is very upset. She goes up to her room alone and locks the door. She cries to herself and she prays, mourning the loss of her husband. She then has this reoccurring voice in her head that says "free" and "free body mind and soul." These powerful voices that she hears coming to her give her a sense of reassurance. The mood in the story quickly changes. The woman becomes happy. She wishes for a long life, and she stands to unlock the door. She held her head high and for a moment she was the strongest person. She walked down the stairs with her sister, and when they reached the bottom, a guy named Richard was waiting at the bottom. He had not heard of the accident of the husband. The woman then drops down, dying of a heart attack. Her heart condition was what gave her strength and it ultimately killed her.

I find the story very powerful because the woman found strength in one of the darkest times of her life. She got a sense of hope and freedom. She was very strong anyway because of her heart condition. She knew that life could be long or life could be short, and she did not let her heart condition get in the way of her life. She found a new light with the acceptance of her heart condition and the dying of her husband. She felt free.

I find the word free in this story is used kind of freely. I am not too sure if she was sad at first that her husband had died, but she got happier because she realized she was free from him, or if she felt free and hopeful that she would see him again when eventually her heart condition would bring her back to him. Either way the story reflects romanticism because it shows how life really is. There was no sugar-coating anything in this story. It was a good example of explaining the process of death and grieving. I do not think her views were like Thoreau's though. She was very calm and accepted things how they were whereas Thoreau was a motivational person and looked for change everywhere he could.

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of the Hour." Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and Douglas Fisher. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 554-55. Print.