Thoreau vs. Ghandhi

I do not think that Thoreau's writings were very similar to that of Gandhi. I think that they were both two totally different writers, and did not have a lot in common when it came to their writings. The only thing that I can pick out that was kind of similar in their writings was that they both had issues with the government in some ways. The main difference in Thoreau and Gandhi's writings was that Gandhi was more of what we would call a peacemaker, and Thoreau was did not care really about peace and he was more about himself. Just by reading Gandhi's writings, you could tell that he was just a totally different person and he wrote in more of a peaceful way, and Thoreau was more loud, demanding, and get to the point.

I read Thoreau's Civil Disobedience in the book, and I picked up a lot from his writing. I think that most of his writing's were based on what the government is and all of its effects on people. I picked up one line that really stuck out to me. "The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it" (Thoreau). I think about how laws change and how their are so many laws when I read this quote. I think that what he was trying to say was that we do not even have time to act on laws or learn about them, before someone has changed them. I really agree with him, I think that the government is changing so much, and is going to get to the point where we can not do anything.

In Gandhi's Dindi March I also saw a lot of Gandhi's philosophy in that. I did not even have to pick a quote from his clip to show you that he was more peaceful than Thoreau, you could just tell from his writing styles that he was a lot more peaceful. He was not so demanding. He would come to a conflict, but then he would stop and say how there should not be a time with no peace. "But let there be not a semblance of breach of peace" (Gandhi). I think that he knew the government had issues, but he thought that those issues could be resolved in peacefulness.

I think that even though they both have different writing styles, I find myself agreeing with both of them. I think that the government does get a little carried away like Thoreau says, but we do not have to be so demanding like him. I agreed with Ghandi in that we should be peaceful in our writings and also peaceful when it comes to being in government or having anything to do with it. I think that they were both great writers, and had an influence on all of us, even though they both told us what they were trying to get out in a different way. I like that they had different writing styles, I liked seeing different opinions on their thoughts.

Thoreau. "Civil Disobedience." American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. November 14, 2010.

Gandhi, Mohandas. "On the Eve of Historic Dandi March." American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. November 14, 2010.

Journal #23- Unplugging Things

I think something that I would unplug for a week would be my cellphone. I think that cellphones have became more of a stress than they have anything. I think that my cellphone is defenitely something that I could not live without, but something that might relive a little bit of stress and drama if I did not have it. I think that we have our cellphones out twenty- four seven, and to the point where all we care about is our cellphone and who is going to be texting or calling us at that moment. I think that we get so wrapped up in our cellphones sometime that we do not even know what is going on around us in the world. I know that my parents get mad at me sometimes, because they will be trying to talk to me or something and I will talk back but I will not really be "there" in the conversation. I will be thinking about something else. So, I think that cellphone would be the best choice for me to unplug for a couple of days. I do not think that I would necessarily have to go somewhere to be totally un- plugged for it, but just turn it off and set it somewhere that I would not see it a lot. I think that would be enough for me. I think that going even a day without a cellphone seems like forever, so I think that a couple days would really help me chill out and relax from it. The only thing bad about un- plugging from the cell phone is that I would always be thiking about it, even when I did not have it. I would always be wondering who was texting me or if anyone really needed seomething from me. I think that I would be ok, and I should probably consider un- plugging from my phone at some point for a couple of days.

Journal #22- Write About A Time When it Was Ok to Disobey the Law

I do not think that there was ever a time that you could just deliberately break the law. The last time that I checked there was not a time when people just thought it was ok to break the law. They would get in trouble, because that is not legal at all. We have never written a law that said most people need to obey this law, but it is okay for some of you to just not even worry about it. Even though there are laws that were only written for certain groups or people, we still all have to follow them because we could be like that one day too. I think that we have all broken laws before, whether we knew it or not.

I think that there is a lot of times when people break the law, though and do not get caught. I think that is a different story. We break laws such as being on the phone while driving, the number of people in our car, and being out past curfew. All of these are examples of when we did not obey the law like we should. Even though we might break the law, it does not mean we had someone there telling us that it was ok. When we break those laws, we know that it is wrong and we really can not justify ourselves because we know that.

I would try to say a time when it was ok to disregard laws, but there, once again, was never a time where they said "oh, just go and disregard that law, it does not matter." If there was ever a time like that, it was way before I ever knew about it, or someone just never filled me in on that rule! I think that people might have disregarded to rules a long, long time ago when there was not really a written law. People probably did a lot more wrong, but only because there was no set law, and they did not know any different.

Emerson

I looked up the definition for transcendentalism, “any system of philosophy, esp that of Kant, holding that the key to knowledge of the nature of reality lies in the critical examination of the processes of reason on which depends the nature of experience “ (Dictionary.com) I think that this is very related to the works of Emerson. I thought that the definition was going to through me off, but it just made me realize how closely related Emerson was to transcendentalism. Emerson was very big on experiences. He always thought that we should have as many experiences as possible in life, because we are lucky to be here. Like I said before, I think he was this way because he lost his wife at a young age, and it just made him realize that he should have a lot of experiences. We all are here for a reason, and he knew that and he was trying to let all of his readers know.

Emerson was not a big mourner, in fact it was one thing that he was almost against at most times. Emerson had been through a lot in his life that made him no want to mourn. His wife named Ellen died in 1831 at the age of nineteen. She was way to young to die. Five years after his wife died he lost his closest brother, Charles. (Edmundson). Emerson had cried many tears over this, and he finally just realized that life was too short to be doing that, and he decided that even though he loved those two he needed to move on. He had mourned so much, that he could not mourn the rest of his life. I think that he just wanted to teach others that before they had to go through it. He wanted others to know how lucky we are for being her

"Yet Emerson doesn't just preach against mourning. He offers a philosophy of aggressive perpetual motion by which we can throw off circumstances before they have become confining. This strategy of ceaseless self-creation, which, it should be added, is always accomplished through the systematic destruction of the existing self, is the subject of a remarkable passage from the essay "Compensation." (Edmundson). I agree with this statement in that Emerson did not preach against mourning like we some times think he did. He just offered his philosophy that after something happens we pretty much just need to forget about it before we become to confined in it. He was trying to say that we should know that it happened and think about it for a little bit, but then we have to let it go. If we do not let it go we get stuck with thinking about it all the time and it almost becomes a sickness. He wants us to stop before it gets that way. He had to learn the hard way with his mourning, and he does not want anyone else to have to go through that.

I think that Emerson has a lot of good to say, and if we would listen to him we could really learn a lot. I think that we mourn a little bit much too. I know that if something happened to someone I deeply loved I would mourn forever, though. I think that we should just know that God has a plan and that even though it is hard to accept it sometimes, he does.

"Emerson and the Work of Melancholia." Raritan (Spring 1987). Quoted as "Emerson and the Work of Melancholia" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Updated Edition, Bloom's Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=1&iPin=MCVRWE007&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 11, 2010).

Journal #21- Discuss Reflections

The works in Emerson's Self Reliance are some what similar to that of the works of Franklin. I think that they were the most similar because they were both very confident in themselves and others and they also always believed in people. I think that they both tried to make people happy a lot. They think that they should try to make up for the bad things that they might have done with a lot of good things. I think that they thought if they were a better person and a good example to others, that others would want to be like them. I think that they were worried about being a good example to others, and being remembered forever. As you can tell, they did it all right because we are still talking about them. We still talk about all of the things that they have both done that still affect us now. They both had quotes that we still remember today. I think they are different because of their romanticism views. They both believed in it at the beginning, but that actually ended up changing. Emerson wrote about romanticism and some of his stories were based on romanticism, but he ended up rejecting it in the later years of his writings. Benjamin Franklin always was for romanticism, and that is what his writings and also a lot of his life was based on. I think that they were pretty much similar writers.

I liked writing a reflection on Emerson because he was kind of a creative guy. I liked how he was worried about having good relationships. I think that relationships are important in life. We should focus on having those people that we can count on at all times. I did not necessarily like how he said that we should do a lot of good to make up for our bad. I do not think that we can make up for our mistakes, I think that we can be forgiven though. I think that we should not try to make up for the bad, but just learn from our mistakes. So, I did agree with them a little.

Journal #20- Self Reflecftion & Taking Breaks from Society

I think that self reflection is a really important to do because we all need to look at ourselves every once in awhile. I think that we should think about ourselves and see if the way we behave is okay to society. I think that we are always quick to judge others, when we need to judge ourselves sometimes. We need to make sure that we look at ourselves and make sure we are perfect before we look towards others for their mistakes. I also think if we self reflect ourselves and we know our mistakes, it will work out good for us. If people were to come at us with what we do wrong, we already know what to say because we have already thought about it. I think that we should stand up for ourselves.
I also think that taking breaks from society is not a bad thing at all. We get tired of things, and sometimes it is okay to relax and take a day off. I do not mean we just shut the world off and everything going on around us, but we let go of all the worldly things. I think that we should all take days away from the computers, t.v's, and cell phones. We should just sit them down and not worry about them. I think that we get a little too obsessed with the things of this world. We could not live without some things, and we should be able to just live without some things. I think taking a day off from school is not a big deal, because we seriously can have too much going on in our brains and we just want to shut down. We get a lot of homework, especially being in advanced classes, we get a lot of burdens and it can be very stressful. I think that we just need a day of every once in awhile that we can just sit and not have to worry about so much. I like school, but I think that we need to get a little less sometimes.

Journal #19- Perfect America

America being perfect is something that we all wish for, but we all know that nothing is perfect, so we know that will never happen. I think that there is too much that you would have to fix for it to be perfect. I love the country that we are in though, and we have one of the best in the nation. We are pretty lucky to live in this country and have all that we have. I think one thing that would help if we could change it in America is the way that we are always wanting more. I think that we have gotten a little greedy lately, and we are never satisfied with what we have, and we always want more. I wish that we would just be a little more satisfied, because there are countries that are a lot worse. I think another thing that would help our country is less fattening things like fast food joints and unhealthy things like that. Now, do not get me wrong, I love fast food places, but I also know when to stop. And, not many people in America do. Our obestity rate has gone up a lot over the years, and it keeps increasing. I think that we need to know how unhealthy things really are for you, and have a lot more healthier options, not just junk. I also wish that we could handle our money better. I do not think that money is a situation in all of America, but here in Illinois it is. I know that our state is really behind on some money issues, and I wish that we could figure it out or have someone help us figure it out. I do not know much about it, but enough to know that it will soon affect us all. I think America is pretty awesome, and I do not have much to complain about, but we still could all work together to make it even better.