Home of the Free (-slaves...)

After this week in Humanistic Studies, I am uncharacteristically patriotic. I thought the Declaration of Independence, regardless of its undertones, was still very moving.  I really like the changes made, such as saying "self-evident." And even though Thomas Jefferson wasn't the best person, I think that I'm not going to base my views on the Declaration on him.  After watching the movie in class and also discussing the French revolution in the cultural history class, I think that America has an inspiring road to freedom.  If they followed the French example, they would have simply killed the New York and Pennsylvania representatives. Besides Brazil who gained independence peacefully, most country can't be that radical and yet successful.  The Americans actually stepped up to the challenge and really made themselves men of their country, rather than making a country for their own purposes. I really thought that what Dr. Svelmoe said about George Washington and John Adams was also really insightful.  Obviously they have their own character flaws, but they were to work past that for the good of the nation. The voice of the people was heard and addressed, although they didn't mention anything about the voices of the slaves, but they had to see the big picture. I guess I'm proud to be an American today. 

(the picture is admittedly obnoxious)

Voltaire

After finishing Candide and discussing it in class, I was left with a lot of questions.  I was concerned with the ending, but also the last chapter in general. I'm still unsettled by it.  To me, I still believe that it was a happy ending.  I felt like Candide really did grow throughout the book, and I think that it was interesting the similarities that arose from Candide's garden and Eldorado.  When he arrives in Eldorado, people are treating jewels like they are unimportant and when Candide attempts to pay with gold, they refuse him because no one has to pay.  They have no need for money because they're risen above it.  They give Candide the money in the sheep so that he can go along his journey, and he slowly has to let go of the money, but it seems as though he starts to give it up more generously and with thought. Which is why I'm surprised by Candide's reaction to Cunegonde is because perhaps his idea of beauty had changed and that's why no one else has realized. Maybe he realizes that the thing he has been basing his journey off of has been as frivolous as the money he gave away.  The fact that Cunegonde's brother still thinks Candide isn't at Cunegonde's level wouldn't make sense if Cunegonde was ugly.  But if isn't an inner beauty, who knows. I don't know. I'm still caught up in the ending. 

Alexander Pope: A Natural Man

This was definitely an interesting read, as far as poetry goes.  I must say that I was surprised by his form and his choice to use an A-A, B-B, C-C, etc format. I am not sure if there was a language barrier or not from a change in pronunciation but there were certain points where his words didn't actually rhyme, for example, sphere and bear. This could just be a time period difference, though. 

Out of all four of the epistles, I think the third was my favorite. I felt like Pope had a lot of really good analogies and a lot of really great lines of imagery.  The way that he weaved nature in and out of the poem in combination with man was really striking. In the beginning, he begins by describing man as emerging from foam and describing the sea. Throughout the poem, he brings back the image of water, as well as fire and lightning. He also describes man as a vine that society is growing on.  I wasn't sure initially why he had chosen to insert nature in that epistle, but he did a good job making sense of it. It seems as though he is saying that man came from nature, but then over took nature because both an and nature come from God, but man has the ability to rise above.  But in the same way that man comes from God, so has nature, so it should be respected. It had a nice little ending of things with man and nature co-existing and supporting each other under the reign of God.