Penultimate Draft of the Final Portfolio!

Attending this class is giving me the knowledge of American literature. This is the first time I am taking the opportunity to read about it and I am enjoying it. I can see the evolution from the beginning of the class so far. I am picking up the practice of reading older texts, which to me means a more thorough reading and understanding of the context as a whole.  

“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.” Henry David Thoreau.  This quote truly describes my experiences in this class, what I am learning here. I fully expect to carry over to everyday life.

            Learning about Poe, nature, and slavery is giving me another view of the world. Beyond doubt, it caused a lot of fighting, lots of blood, many sacrifices, much stoicism and many vicissitudes, which have become magnificent triumphs.

            As I post on my blog I can show the progress of my learning and the evolution of each one. I think the one that I could best express my opinion about something was the post talking about an American social problem (Immigration in America) where I exposed this as a problem to the United States, because the illegal immigration has been treated as a disease in society, but the authorities should go and analyze the bottom of the problem and then come up with solutions to reduce the problem. I came up with three ideas that I think would help and alleviate the situation.

                Another one where I showed knowledge about the reflection we had during the week was the post talking about a full life (Living the Full Life and Defining Your Best Self.), where I inserted the nature theme and did a mix with my opinion of life. There we had free opinion to express what an American is and how they live their lives to the fullest.

Brilliant essayist and philosopher, Thoreau (1817-1862) sought in the wild, the primitive aspects of which are linked, their motivation to talk about what is living and being human in a society in constant progress. To escape the city and the "lies" of which we are caught, the writer decided to take refuge in a hut on the shores of Walden Pond and surrendered himself to the contemplation of nature in its pure and raw - a recurring element in his small (and Not therefore less interesting) poetry, which can be very well compared to some of the best verses of the great American poet Walt Whitman. Renaissance soul, since it was endowed with the most diverse interests, Thoreau, who was born and lived in the U.S., wrote treated sociological and philosophical; had inflection naturalist and stirred with the historiography and literature, besides being a poet. In the posture in relation to society and its behavior as a contemplative writer, philosopher preached around the rustic, primitive, simplicity and beauty of simple things.

Edgar Allan Poe was the most romantic of the major American writers. In his works, he did not bother to address the problems between good and evil, or to give lessons in behavior. He believed that if he were able to create beauty and touch the sensibilities of his readers, was enough. The poet believed that nothing could be more romantic than a poem about the death of a beautiful woman. Many of his works explore the theme of the suffering caused by the death of a lover. Another characteristic of his poetry is the music, giving the impression that the sound is more important than sense. Edgar Allan Poe is considered the "creator" of the police story, but its chief merit lies in the skill with which he was riding his stories. He planned to a good architect plans a building, involving the reader in such a way that leads "hypnotically" the outcome of the story.

This reveals the duality of his art and personality: on one hand "visionary and idealistic" poems steeped in sadness and horror stories and police. He was a man in a troubled life, dominated by addiction to alcohol and excess of opium. On the other hand, was a demanding craftsman, a writer who prided himself on his technique and rationalism that created his stories. It is this duality that the projects as one of the masters of world literature.

Participating in the general assembly is a big point of the class as you can express yourself and read the opinions. I have written questions and answered others.  After writing about Edgar Allen Poe I decided to take a visit to the museum dedicated in his name. I have taken on a new found love for his poetry because of this class. After finishing this class I hope to pursue other English curriculum as a minor.

            The Discussion on slavery I think has been the most intriguing topic thus far this semester. Slavery is still a very sensitive subject to many people as the students could have see on the General Assembly. There is a lot of questions still surrounding slavery.  I come from another country where we had suffered with slavery as well; with this class I had the chance to read about the slavery issues here in America. It was not until I was here, that I realized the issues still stand today and they are very similar. My initial thoughts were slavery was a thing of the past, but it has never been more present.

             One activity that I find most interesting of all is the discussions we have at the General Assembly. No doubt this is one of the most helpful things in the class, where students share their opinions and not always they agree, which is very interesting. With that I have learned how to accept others opinions, without changing mine. Each individual has the right to believe in what they want. I think that the discussion about slavery was one of the hottest where opinions diverged, as seen at Week Six: Questions and Answers about Slavery and the Reading.

                On the other hand some other discussions are taking place very smoothly, especially the ones we are talking about religion. I did not know, but I thought that might be some divergences but for my surprise everybody is sharing the same beliefs (Week Fifteen, Discussion Starter, Part A). On part B we chose another religion view, different from ours, that we would agree. I chose Deism for the following reason: (I'm tending more towards Deism. In Deism the existence of God is real. But unlike the theist Deism tries to prove God by reason, following philosophic teachings, away of illusions and fanaticism.
I have always believed that God exists and the acts of God guide our lives. He loves us unconditionally. He gave us the nature as beautiful as it is and discernment. What matters is what you feel in your heart and when you know that He is up there tracing the paths for you, regardless religion.) This is my post to the general assembly.

We also learned about Enlightenment literature and self- and community- help. We made a list of virtues and chose one or two to practice and improve over the course of the weeks. This task was very important to help us to realize that the virtues are not only an own benefit, but social. Helping ourselves we are also contributing to the harmony in the community. This post to my blog show a little introduction to Virtues, I got at Wikipedia as suggested by the professor, and also shows 12 of the virtues that I believe to have. ("Short List of the Virtues Necessary for Well-Bein...”).

The past weeks we have learned about Thomas Paine and “The American crisis” and his “Common Sense”. We were encouraged to write a polemic like Paine’s in our blogs. That was the most fun assignment in my opinion, where we played the role of a proud citizen that wants the best to his/her own nation. I put the problem out there and offer the solutions I believed were helpful. “Hopefully, we can reunite as one and fight these issues as a country.  In order for us to succeed as a nation, I feel it is in our best interest to take action now!” To a full look on my work go to Attention America..time has come!.

Our latest assignment was to write a blog post talking about our belief. We had to write a profession of belief based on Thomas Paine’s: The age of reason. I really felt engaged to this one, I felt as if I were the freest person in the whole world and I put everything I had in mind out there. For a sneak peek go to Public Profession of Belief!.

What thing that has helped me a lot to interpret the texts is the research that I make on the internet or in other books on the same themes that are being studied. Whenever I write an essay I begin to consider the points I want to address by summarizing the general idea, subsequent to I initiate to write what comes to me in the head, finally I edit my own ideas and text, making it a substantial and coherent text.

                 I hope to be doing a good job in the production of texts and also in how to expose it to the other students and professor. For me the greatest reward is to reach readers and make them interact with me so we can exchange experiences and opinions. Before I took this class, I would of not felt comfortable writing to the public. This class has made me want to pursue public speaking, so I can work on my presentation skills. I think by crafting those skills, it will help me when I graduate college and start to pursue my career. It has challenged me, however, in how much effort and time I have put towards it. I am not saying it was a bad thing, but I will not deny that it was very hard to keep up with sometimes. Some weeks I had a hard time to understand the readings and writing them down, but I did it and now I see it was worth it because I do see improvement and how I changed since the begging of the course.

                I believe I deserve an A on this class for my hard work. On the top of that I am pushing myself on the readings to learn and absorb as much information as I can, so I can finish this semester saying that I know about American Literature and all the history involved. I am always doing my best to fulfill the requirements as always turning in assignments on due dates, interacting with other students, reading for the week, posting concise texts on my blog and participating on the general assembly, very actively. Last but no less important I consult the professor when I have an intriguing question and need help.