An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is written in a flash forward which is when the character floats away from reality and plays out how they want the event to happen and then it switches quickly back to reality. Peyton Farquhar tells his story in flash-forward of his death. Farquhar wanted to become a part of the war effort and was given the chance by some soldiers who prompted him with the idea of blowing up the bridge. This seemed like a good idea because he was a Southern plantation owner and wanted to prevent the Northern's to enter the South and cause chaos. This taking control of his own ideas and doing something about want he believes in is something that Thoreau and Emerson believed in. Peyton also lived in the wilderness but was a big politician, who was something that Thoreau and Emerson was not exactly a fan of. "Peyton Farquhar was a well-to -do planter, of a highly respected Alabama family. Being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause"(Bierce 391). The man was involved in the political world at wanted to keep his rights in place of owning slaves and to remain a part of the South and that was the culture of the South. Having slaves was a symbol of power and wealth in the South the more slaves you had the more money and political sway you had. Thoreau and Emerson were opposed to slavery and the idea that the government should have a say in the lives of the people. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is split between Thoreau and Emerson who are antislavery which this Southern is against and pro government staying in their own business and not worry about everything and what everyone is doing just like the man in the story. The beliefs of this story and Thoreau and Emerson are some what divide on a line similar to that of the North and South during the Civil War.

Bierce, Ambrose."An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.389-396. Print.

Letter to Robert Lee Blog

The Letter Robert E. Lee writes to his son describes his opinions of the War and the South. He talks of his feeling of the succeeding states and how he believes that the Southern states have been wronged by the North. Robert E. Lee was one of the South's best generals throughout the Civil War. In the end he eventually had to surrender to the Northern General Ulysses Grant. Robert Lee attended West Point College which made him an incredible leader in the art of war and strategy. "Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war ate to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me" (Lee 385). This passage from his letter to his son shoes his disliking of the Union and their ideas of trying to control the people with government laws that say it is illegal to have slaves. This idea of the government controlling the people and their decisions are ideas that Thoreau and Emerson did not agree with they believed in the people making decision and that the government should not but into to such affairs of the people. "The framers of our Constitution never exhausted so much labor, wisdom, and forbearance in its formation, and surrounded it with so many guards and securities, if it was intended to be broken by every member of the Confederacy at will"(Lee 385). Robert E Lee was angry with the founders of our nation and the people interrupting the laws because he believed them to be making new rules that the founders of our great nation did not talk about in the Constitution. Lee believes that it is okay that they secede because there is no law against them and that the people of the past do not understand the time they are now living in. The letter of Robert E Lee shows his feelings against the Union and the government similar to the feeling of both Thoreau and Emerson who were anti-government control over the people.

Lee, Robert."Letter to His Sone" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.385. Print.

And Ain't I a Woman? Reflection

Sojourner Tuth spoke to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention talks about the inequality among women and the African American women. She see the white women fighting for freedom and inequality towards men and wants to fight with them for her rights as a women. The African American women not only have to fight for their rights as women but also for the rights of Afrcian American slaves. "I could work as much and eat as much as a man- when I could get it- and bear the lash as well" (Truth). Truth believes that she can do anything that a man can and is just as equal as him and deserves to have the equal opporunities as any man. The separation of the women is also something she sees as wrong and wants them to unite together to form a stronger bond and revolt against the issue of equality together. "If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again" (Truth)! This is a perfect example of her idea of how God wanted saw the woman as a strong figure who can turn the world around and make a true difference. Emerson and Thoreau were pro womens rights because of their beliefs in the people controling their world and working to help themselves and win their rights against the government. "But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society"(Grant). They know that the men control the government and the laws and the social position of many people. Emerson and Thoreau knew that the government was holding both the women and the slaves back and prevent them from doing what they wanted to achieve in life. Truth wanted a chance at a better life and to success in America were the pursuit of happiness was everyone's rights.

Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of
Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Truth, Sojourner."And Ain't I a Woman?" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.370. Print.

Sweet Chariot and others Reflection

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "Go Down, Moses", and "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" are old slave songs that were sung by the slaves when they were picking cotton in the fields. The slaves were waiting for their time to rise from slavery and become free men. The songs "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Go Down, Moses" are all about the stories in the Bible of the slaves waiting for their time to be free. "When Israel was in Egypt's land, Let my people go; Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let my people go" (347). This common part throughout the song is about the Israelites who were enslaved by the Egyptians and are forced to work for the Egyptians just like they were enslaved to the white man. Emerson and Thoreau were anti-slavery and wanted to free the slaves. "Thoreau and his family were committed to abolitionism and, along with the Amos Bronson Alcott family and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, among others, assisted fugitive slaves through Concord" (Wayne). They did not want see slavery continue and felt that it was wrong. "Keep Your Hand on the Plow" was also the dream of freedom and the hope that God would one day set them free like he did for Paul and Silas. Paul and Silas were being held in jail wrongfully held and God set them free with an earthquake that broke the jail and allowed them to go free (348). The slaves were waiting for their chance to be free and make their own decision in their lives. Emerson and Thoreau were antigovernment and wanted the believe to live according to their own rules and morals. The African American slaves were wanting their chance to be free to live in the land of the free man. "Coming for to carry me home, BUt still my soul feels heavenly bound; Coming for to carry me home" (346). This line in "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is talking about the free home in heaven waiting for them and that they will be free if not in their life in their afterlife.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.346. Print.

"Go Down, Moses" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.347. Print.

"Keep Your Hand on the Plow" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.348. Print.

Wayne, Tiffany K., ed. "Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson." Critical Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Walt Whitman Reflection

The Cavalry Crossing a Ford by Walt Whitman shows the military approach to war and that was different from the view of the war and his feelings towards violence. Walt Whitman was a medic during the Civil War and was extremely patriotic towards his country and believed in the American system of government unlike the writers of both Thoreau and Emerson. " Scarlet and blue and snowy white, The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind" (Whitman 7). This line in his poem describes the American flag and the love that Whitman has for his country. The great description of the colors of his nation's flag are bright and pure just like the nation. He was a fighter and hoped that the country could be successful as a whole where as Emerson and Thoreau were were more into the personal rights of the individual and against war. "Thoreau, hopeless of any good coming of the United States Government, thoroughly sympathized with a man who had courage to break its bonds in the cause of natural right" (Emerson). Both of these men were against slavery and they wanted to attack it in different way like Emerson and Thoreau wanted to go fight slavery by individual rights and through a way without violence and war. Where as Walt Whitman was wanting to fight against slavery as a whole and with the nation behind him carrying the flag. He went out and joined the fight as a whole and wanted the change to happen for a nation and not just in little individual spots. "They present new aspects of things, or at least old familiar objects in new dresses, the various subjects of thought and inquiry in new relations, break up old associations, and excite to greater and fresher mental activity"(Brownson). Emerson gives people new options to the rules that they have been taught. Whitman was for the government and having the government be in control where as Emerson and Thoreau were against the government and having their own ideas and creating their own laws.

Emerson, Edward. "Henry Thoreau as Remembered by a Young Friend." 1917. Quoted as "Henry Thoreau as Remembered by a Young Friend" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Brownson, Orestes Augustus. "Emerson's Essays." Boston Quarterly Review, July 1841: 292. Quoted as "Emerson's Essays" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Whitman, Walt. "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.341. Print.

Gettysburg Address Reflection

The Gettysburg Address is definitely one of the most widely known speeches and one that reflects a time in history where the freedom of man divided an entire country into a Civil War. The Gettysburg Address was spoken by Abraham Lincoln after the Battle of Gettysburg a turning point in the war for the North. "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here" (Lincoln 402). This line is a strong statement and gave people the motivation to finish the war and fight for the equal rights of the free man. The rights of everyone being equal was a theory that both Emerson and Thoreau shared and also Abraham Lincoln (Brugman). Abraham Lincoln was a man who stood up for what he believed in and was not going to conform to what everyone else wanted and this was another theory that was shared by Emerson. "The danger, he warns, is in conformity because through conformity, the individual is lost: "For non-conformity, the world whips you with its displeasure" (Brugman). This conformity to the people around you is what Emerson fears and believes destroys the man but Lincoln did not fall victim to this conformity. Emerson is all about individuality and doing what you believe in and not exactly following the government and their rules. Lincoln was a government official and he still remained his own person and avoided the most of the corruption of the society around probably mostly because he was dealing with a large scale war. "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate we can not consecrate we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract"(Lincoln). The greatest of the men who dead at Gettysburg are the real heroes of the war and Lincoln wants to honor that and show what they did for the nation and also what they did for the people they were freeing from the battles. The battles of the Civil War give hope for the slaves like Emerson did he gave a voice for the people who could not stand up for themselves and give them hope that maybe someday they could be free (Brugman).

Brugman, Patricia. "Nature in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Lincoln, Abraham. "The Gettysburg Address" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.402. Print.

Meaning of the 4th of July Reflection

In "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" the author Fredrick Douglass claims that this is their day and time of independence of the white man, but he is still enslaved. "This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.."( Douglass 337). When he made this speech in 1852 slavery was still a common practice and the Civil War had not begun but the tension was rising between many groups of people and this speech probably influenced more people to join the fight against slavery. The Fourth of July was also a significant day for Thoreau because on that day he took on his own independence from society and ventured out of society living in the woods away from the society he believes is corrupt. The movement away from society by Thoreau was his witnessing of the people being ruined by luxury and heedless expense, which he felt was wrong and that the people should connect more with people and nature (Grant). The Fourth of July is the holiday used to celebrated the independence of the nation and its people and Fredrick Douglass sees this as wrong and that what they are really celebrating is the freedom of the whites because his people are not free they are slaves and property in the eyes of the free white man. The Constitution states that all men are created equal and Fredrick Douglass wants to see that equality that does not exist among the people because of race. Fredrick Douglass also makes a point in saying that the Americans are hypocritical because they do not practice what they preach it says all men are created equal yet the people are enslaved and we cover up all the crimes with a thin veil and if that veil was uncovered all that would be left is a nation of savages. The views of both Fredrick Douglass and Thoreau about the quiet kept secrets of their governments that hide the evils of the government and hurt the society's freedom and keeps them captive to their materialistic lives.

Grant, P. B. "Individual and Society in Walden." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed. Encyclopedia of

Themes in Literature. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Douglass, Fredrick. "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.337. Print.