"Do you know, boy, you have it in you to be a great sculptor, a great man?—do you understand?...to live a better, stronger life than I, or Mr. Kirby here? A man may make himself anything he chooses. God has given you stronger powers than many men,—me, for instance." -Rebecca Harding Davis, Life In the Iron Mill
"Life in the Iron Mills challenges the optimism of transcendentalism by showing how industrialism fueled by greedy capitalists destroys the natural environment and the human spirit." - NovelGuide.com
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
"Bartleby, The Scrivener" Herman Melville
"I might give alms to his body; but his body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered; and his soul I could not reach." -"Bartleby, The Scrivener"
"The reader never knows who Bartleby really is; his spirit and motives remain a mystery... "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is a story about the physical and mental degeneration of a man, an alienation of an individual from his own humanity." -Associated Content
In this story, there are two characters with whom we are to be concerned with. First, introductions are made to the unnamed narrator in this story, only being told that he is an "old man". The narrator introduces the reader then to the protagonist of the story as the only man that he believes a biography could not encompass, and at a loss to society that will never read it. At first Bartleby is presented as a peculiar , but reliably hard-working copy-writer. As the story goes on, Bartleby, when asked to perform tasks for his boss, he begins to decline by replying that he would prefer not to, much to the chagrin and shock to his coworkers, but most of all his boss. The Lawyer becomes frustrated at his lack of will to help out around the office. To make matters worse, Bartleby stops working altogether after his boss realizes that he indeed lives in the office and never leaves. He asks him to vacate the premises, even going as far as to offer money to his in excess of what he is owed. When he does not leave, The Lawyer decides to do a good deed and let him stay. It is only after Bartleby's presence starts to have a negative effect on business that it become
s too much altogether. The Lawyer relocates without Bartleby, but not without qualm. When Bartleby's presence becomes too much for the old building to take they send him to jail. Having been the last person wot have had a connection to the "vagrant" they call The Lawyer to the jail. Though he has become an unneeded part of of his life, The Lawyer still tries to take care of Bartleby by paying one of the keepers to feed him. Eating ends up being something that Bartleby prefers not to do, and subsequently dies of starvation on the jail grounds.It is in Melville's "Bartleby, The Scrivener" that the reader meets on of the most peculiar and thought provoking character to come out of literature of this time period. I have a certain fondness for unexplainable actions, and the absurd, so this story hit me in all the right places. My affection for this story goes only as far as the character as Bartleby and his affect on The Lawyer, and having found the generality of the other characters, I did not understand Melville's need to provide such in depth examination of each of them. By far, the heart of this story is, not in the interactions of the two main characters, but rather of the reaction of one to the other. Seeing as Bartleby was exceptionally taciturn and steadfast in him actions, the joy of reading this famous short story is seeing from seeing inside the person who was affected most deeply by those actions that defined the protagonist.
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a 
just God’s assistance in wringing bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, lest we be judged.” -Abraham Lincoln
“By identifying slavery as the cause of war, the speech stands as a testament to the transformative power of the Civil War - a war begun to defend the Union that became a war to end slavery. By focusing on God’s presence and agency in the war, the speech stands as Lincoln’s most definitive statement on the Civil War’s meaning to the Nation.” Primary Source Text And Expert Analysis
In this speech, Lincoln sought not to celebrate the victory that his side had gained in the civil war, but rather to mourn the loss that all had experienced in the 4 years of war that they had all been a part of. In Lincoln’s eyes, the real punishment was not just for the losers, but for both sides, and that these punishments were from God. He stated that both sides worked against each other, and that rather than fighting for a cause, they fought to destroy each other. When the war eventually became a war that was fought with cause, the cause became slavery, and the need to emancipate the slaves. At the end of his speech, when it would have been appropriate to tell his people that the Confederacy were the loser and to never forget who the real leaders of the new world were, he told them to forget those boundaries and to concentrate on making the United States, united again.
When I was reading this speech, I hear our president’s voice reciting Lincolns speech. I don’t do it intentionally, but I hear him nonetheless. And then I think, “How appropriate!” It sounds clichéd to say, but it is true, these words that Lincoln spoke 144 years ago, seem to be manifest today. We have accepted and fully preserved the sense that Lincoln wanted his people to feel. It is in this speech that the reader can really see the true feeling that Lincoln had for this war and slavery. And his modern sensibility towards people. He had higher expectations for his people, and that we can see in how he asks them to take the higher road, by letting them bring their confederate brothers back into their nation. He saw that in order to move past the horrors that both sides had created against the other, they had to "bury the hachett" and move towards the future together.
just God’s assistance in wringing bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, lest we be judged.” -Abraham Lincoln“By identifying slavery as the cause of war, the speech stands as a testament to the transformative power of the Civil War - a war begun to defend the Union that became a war to end slavery. By focusing on God’s presence and agency in the war, the speech stands as Lincoln’s most definitive statement on the Civil War’s meaning to the Nation.” Primary Source Text And Expert Analysis
In this speech, Lincoln sought not to celebrate the victory that his side had gained in the civil war, but rather to mourn the loss that all had experienced in the 4 years of war that they had all been a part of. In Lincoln’s eyes, the real punishment was not just for the losers, but for both sides, and that these punishments were from God. He stated that both sides worked against each other, and that rather than fighting for a cause, they fought to destroy each other. When the war eventually became a war that was fought with cause, the cause became slavery, and the need to emancipate the slaves. At the end of his speech, when it would have been appropriate to tell his people that the Confederacy were the loser and to never forget who the real leaders of the new world were, he told them to forget those boundaries and to concentrate on making the United States, united again.
When I was reading this speech, I hear our president’s voice reciting Lincolns speech. I don’t do it intentionally, but I hear him nonetheless. And then I think, “How appropriate!” It sounds clichéd to say, but it is true, these words that Lincoln spoke 144 years ago, seem to be manifest today. We have accepted and fully preserved the sense that Lincoln wanted his people to feel. It is in this speech that the reader can really see the true feeling that Lincoln had for this war and slavery. And his modern sensibility towards people. He had higher expectations for his people, and that we can see in how he asks them to take the higher road, by letting them bring their confederate brothers back into their nation. He saw that in order to move past the horrors that both sides had created against the other, they had to "bury the hachett" and move towards the future together.
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