Lina

I found Lina's chapter to be particularly interesting.  Although it is not told from a first person perspective we get the sense that Lina is a very observant character in the novel.  She pays close attention to so may things, and has her own way of interpreting them.  She reminds me a lot of Magawisca because she does think highly of nature, and even at one point on page 62 it describes a story she told to Florens, and she uses an eagle and her nest in the story, but really it is about orphans like herself and Florens.  She assures Florens that the eggs hatched alone, but they survived because Florens and herself are surviving without their mothers.  It also was interesting to see how Mother-driven Lina is in this chapter.  It seems the way she treats and thinks about Florens is in a very mother-like manner.  She is worried for Florens because she cannot protect her on her journey, that she can protect her from men.  She sees an evil almost in the blacksmith that Florens is too blind with love to see, Lina knows she is being careless but she cannot convince Florens that the man does not love her back.  It is also interesting how much resentment Lina has towards Sorrow.  It is hard to understand why, because I have not seen Sorrow do much to deserve the resentment.  Although it does seem that Sorrow is lazy and does not do much work, and in the beginning of the chapter we saw that one of the things that Lina learned when she was with the Presbyterians is that those that are idol anger God, and that it is sinful.  Lina works hard, and when Florens arrives Lina likes her and cherishes her because she is a hard-worker too, but Sorrow is not like that.  Sorrow doesn't seem to have very much skill.  Lina even tries to convince Mistress that Sorrow is the reason that her children died, that Sorrow is pure evil and she cannot help it but she is.  It just shows how much Lina thinks the natural world influences the things going on.  Just like she thinks that Sir became sick and died because he cleared out all those trees to build a huge house without asking the forests' permission.  Almost like she thinks that the natural world is exacting justice on the family because they have become careless with it.

Gerontion

First, I just want to say this poem for the most part was super confusing.  I feel like Eliot dropped a lot of names of people that we as readers are unfamiliar with, as well as lots of names of places.  I think the poem is very complex.  It was quite and interesting poem although hard to understand.  That being said there was one thing that I wanted to talk about, and it is about how at the end we kind of see that the "old man" in the poem is going to continue his work no matter his age.  This tells me that if we assume the narrator to be Eliot (we know him not to be an old man when he wrote it), then he believes that his work is never over.  I really like the line "What will the spider do suspend its operations, will the weevil delay?", because it really shows that he is dedicated to his work, just as a spider is to spinning its web.  These are actions that he portrays as ones that are never-ending.  This makes me feel like he thinks that poetry is never-ending, as well as that it is not always straight forward and uncomplicated.  There are a lot of intricacies in a spiders web, and I think that is something that we see in this poem.  It is very intricate, even the different types of meter employed throughout the poem show that Eliot developed it with careful thought and deliberation and that everything included was deliberate and serves a purpose (even though I cannot speak to exactly what that is!).  I am hoping that through discussion of this poem tomorrow I will have a better grasp of Eliot's intent with the poem, because I have read it several times now and much of it is still confusing for me.

Dickinson poems

The first poem was very confusing for me.  I am not sure why Dickinson mentions forgiveness in a way that makes it seem like it cannot be obtained.  She puts it in quotations suggesting that it may be false, and I am not sure why she would believe that.

The second poem seems to be talking about war, maybe the civil war since it mentions "The North began to push", but that may not be accurate.  It seems that maybe she suggests that with death you no longer have to worry about people seeking vengeance on you.  She could be speaking of soldiers who have fallen, and now they need not worry because the vengeance that is only natural to man cannot find reach them any longer.  I read this on as a war poem but also as one that suggest the true nature of people is to seek revenge.  I feel this way because the line "Where Nature's temper cannot reach".  It makes nature more human-like which suggest to me that she is referring to human nature rather than literal nature like that of the forests, etc.  It is strange that she suggest that humans are naturally vengeful and therefore not peaceful beings, and in this way she could also be suggesting that war itself is inevitable.  This would make sense with the way she talked about how the only way you could get away from this true nature is death.

The last poem is similar to the last one in the sense that it compares revenge to food, so to something that is vital in our lives and to the nourishment of our bodies suggesting that we need revenge.  But the poem does not seem to support revenge, rather it seems to suggest it is not as fulfilling as one would hope.  Maybe suggesting that revenge is not always the best way to go, it may be in our primal nature but it will not be fulfilling and fruitful to our well being.  Maybe in that sense this poem could be advocating forgiveness instead, maybe it would be a more fulfilling option although revenge may look more appealing at the time.

Tahitian Island

I was particularly interested in a quote from the book on page 299:

"For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies on insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed  by all the horrors of the half known life.  God keep thee!  Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!"

I really liked this quote because I think it really shows that Ishmael truly thinks that whaling is life, at least life as he now knows it.  It seems to me that maybe a part of Ishmael is content with going whaling and another part is horrified at the dangers he has found.  It almost seems as if with these dangers he has found that he feels he can no longer return to his "Tahiti" because of how the horrors of this life have changed him.

This was confusing for me because we talked about at the beginning of the novel whether we thought that Ishmael's decision to go whaling was one that he was content with, really something he wanted.  We wondered if it was something that would bring him peace in the sense that it would clear the "drizzly November" in his soul.  Now I am coming to think that there is more significance in that first page than first meets the eye, maybe even some foreshadowing in it as well.  He describes this adventure as his version of "pistol and ball", so referring to suicide, and saying that instead he just takes to the sea.  Maybe the sea in this case is more of an escape than any other time, maybe it will be his last.  I may be reading too much into that but I just thought that it was interesting how these two kind of tied in together.

Another thing I want to say about this quote is that I think it is truly one that can be applicable to all of us.  I think it is a way that the author is trying to get us as readers to be able to connect the novel to our own lives.  Our Tahiti is like our comfort zone, our place where we feel we can truly be ourselves and we feel safe, and the ocean of horrors surrounding us is everything else.  I mean in that case it seems that maybe Ishmael suggests it is safer to stay in your comfort zone but I actually think that throughout the novel he shows us that he believes the opposite.  He is an adventurer, and we see that through each of his adventures he has made unexpected friends, and learned many new things.  I do not think that this quote is to be taken seriously but almost as a mockery to those who so not go to seek out things in life.  You have to face the oceans to truly experience life, and although you are peaceful in Tahiti you are not truly living.

"Thoughtless child"

     I found it very interesting how the author portrayed the character of Hope Leslie, especially towards the end of the novel.  During the whole event of planning and freeing Magawisca, Hope fools a lot of people to eventually be successful with this criminal act.  She starts by convincing Mr. Cradock to leave late from the Governor's home with her to go to the visit Magawisca without a pass from the Governor.  Mr. Cradock knew that the pass would be necessary for them to get into the jail but he kept moving just because Hope said so.  She seems to wrap the male figures in this tale around her little finger, and they jump when she says jump.  It was especially interesting to watch Barnaby Tuttle melt because she began to cry on page 319-320.  It was also interesting to see how little Mr. Cradock fought Hope when she took his clothes to dress Magawisca for her escape. 
      It's just interesting how the author uses Hope's gender as a way for our heroine to always get her way with the male characters in the story, as well as a way for her to follow what her heart believes.  She felt that freeing Magawisca was the right thing to do, for she knew her friend was innocent and did not deserve imprisonment.  But it was a criminal act for her and Everell to conspire to free who the colony believed to be a fugitive.  After the governor found out that these events had transpired in the night he went and spoke with Barnaby at the jail to speak with him about the events.  Barnaby described Hope Leslie as a "thoughtless child", which sounds as if the author is showing that the people in this novel see Hope as a child of innocence.  There is not a moment in the novel where Hope is portrayed in a negative light, she is portrayed like a lamb without blemish, at least by most characters within the novel.  I believe she did the right thing freeing her friend and following her heart, but as a reader I can see that she portrays innocence to the characters in the novel but in reality she is very smart and tactful in her schemes for getting things done.

Nina Nicholson

Hi! I'm Nina Nicholson and I am a senior from Snow Camp, NC.  I am a biology major and am seeking to attend nursing school.  I just recently applied to UNC School of Nursing in December and I am anxiously waiting to hear back from them.  I would like to eventually work as an oncology nurse because cancer has touched many people in my life and it is something that I would like to learn more about as a nurse providing care to those patients.  I am taking this course because I really enjoy reading and I thought taking this course would expose me to books that I might not normally chose myself, and I am hoping that some of them will pleasantly surprise me.  Most of my free time is spent with my friends I have made in Kappa Psi, a co-ed fraternity I joined my first semester at UNC.  I also love to sing, and listen to music.  One of my favorite bands is Blink-182, but I listen to pretty much everything.  I also like to do colorguard, and I had the opportunity to perform with the band last semester and it was a really great experience.  I am looking forward to an exciting semester with all of you!