Barn Burning

In the story Barn Burning the father goes around town to town and burns barns. He drags the kid in with him too which is wrong. The kid knows that it's wrong and doesn't want a part of it but doesn't know how to tell his father no. He's faced with a conflict. Either he can turn his father in or continue letting his father keep burning the barns. It's a tough decision but if I was in his shoes, I would know that my father is scum and would turn him in.
Abner Snopes, the father, is just a bad spirited person. He has a lot of anger built up inside of him and feels that everybody's out to get him. An example of a bad thing that he does is that he wipes his dirty feet on the governor's rug. It's to show him that he doesn't support his gov't. The family is part of the lower class and are white trash. That's why Abner Snopes has to resort to bad things because he feels so low about himself. He also sees himself as better than black people because they are the discriminated race and that's what he does to feel better about himself. He says that he's at least not black. It's just such stupid thinking.
I'm very glad that in the end Sarty runs away and doesn't join his father and his father gets shot.It's good because his father got what he deserved. Sarty kind of becomes a man when his dad dies because he's on his own and is in control of the family.

Dry September

Dry September was an interesting story. I couldn't believe that they white men just immediately jump to the conclusion that the black man,Will Mayes, raped the white woman. They just have that tendency that if a person is of that skin color that that person is bad and should be treated differently. It's amazing that they had no evidence to jump to a conclusion like that and yet they just do it anyway. I found this quote to be amazing too. "What the hell difference does it make? Are you going to let the black sons get away with it until one really does it?" In other words he's the rape might not have even taken place but the black person probably will do it. It's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I think the kid was right to stand up for the black guy and say not to kill him. He knew it was wrong and I'm glad he didn't back down and didn't take part in the awful act. No matter what names they called him he just never backed down. In the car he actually jumped because he just coudn't take part in it. I really look up to him for that.
I found it weird that the woman was happy that she told them that he raped her and that they killed him. She's also seen as high and mighty because she did that. I think towards the end though she knew it was a bad thing to do and regretted it. She didn't like all the attention she got. She realized it was a bad thing and knew she shouldn't have got that attention for it.

Kate Chopin

I think Kate Chopin is a very good writer. She introduced things that not many authors of her time said. One example was how she ended the stories. They ended with bad things happening. For example in the end of "The Storm" the two people get away with having an affair. The husband and wife don't find out. Also in "Desiree's Baby" the woman kills herself and the baby. So both those stories have not good endings as far as morals and happiness go. Kate Chopin does another thing that not many authors of her time did. In the storm she goes into great detail of a seduction scene. For example, "The contact of her warm, palpitating body when he had unthinkingly drawn her into his arms, had aroused all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh." I couldn't believe the detail she went into because I never have read something like that in a book before. You could picture what was going on. I thought it was very sad in the story "Desiree's Baby" that the husband left the wife because of the skin color of the baby. It's very upsetting that race had such an effect on people. Everybody should be equal no matter what color skin a person has. I'm glad times have changed now and everybody is viewed as equals. This story also reminded me of the story Thomas Jefferson wrote because it was all about slavery and how the blacks were treated unfairly. "The Storm" was like that because the wife was thrown away because the father blamed her for the baby's color. Meanwhile the father is black too and he didn't even look at his own self. He just assumes it's the wife that made the baby black because she's a woman and they were viewed as less then men.
I also found it interesting to learn about the class status that was in the stories. In "The Storm" the creoles were viewed as the wealthier group and they were the descendants of the Spanish people. The cajuns were lower than the creoles and were the peasants and farmers. It was interesting to see in the story how no matter what the classes, the creole went with the cajun. It was because they had a special connection with each other. I like how they defied the rules and, in the end, went with each other. Also they didn't get caught. They got away scot free and were very lucky that their husband and wife didn't find out.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick was another one of the literary giants in the south. He was one of the biggest writers of the African Americans. Him along with many other of the leading black writers had to leave the south and go north to begin their writing.
I can't believe all the things that Frederick Douglass had to go through as a slave. It's really traumatizing what he had to deal with. One think that was very traumatizing was that he had to see his aunt be beaten to a bloody pulp. I don't know how he got through such hard times. A quote from the book is,"I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, who he used to tie up to a joist, and whip her naked back till she was literally covered with blood." I can't imagine even putting myself in that situation. It's just so horrible. He even to go through many beatings of his own.
Another thing I had trouble understanding was how difficult to please the masters were. For example when the master is describing things that were not perfectly done to the horse. "He has not been sufficiently rubbed and curried, or he has not been properly fed, his food is too wet or dry." It just really annoyed how nothing would ever please them. These things are also irrelevant and stupid too. Then, because of this, the slaves would get whipped and beaten. Another thing that surprised me was that the slaves were not clothed properly for the weather. If the masters want to keep the slaves and not have them die then they should have them wear a lot of layers in the bitter cold and not a lot of clothes in the summer. As described in the story Douglass didn't even have shoes on his feet in the winter.
I really admired Frederick Douglass because even though he was going through all these hard times, he still managed to learn how to read and write. He didn't want to be illiterate, he wanted to be smart. If I was going through all that that would probably be the last thing on my mind. I wouldn't care about learning how to read at all. Another thing I admired about Frederick Douglass was that he fought back and started fighting his masters. An example from the reading is,"I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so I rose. He held on to me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected, that Covey seemed taken all aback." I'm glad he didn't feel like taking the abuse and stood up for himself. I'm also glad he ran away and made it to the north where there is no slavery. He had to make a decision to either get killed while trying to run away or continue getting beaten by the master and he chose to run away. I'm glad he did because we would of never known about this courageous man if he didn't.

Swallow Barn

Swallow Barn is the perfect american village. It has a mansion that is very old and worn out. Kennedy says that it should have been abandoned a long time ago. The roof was caving in and the door was falling off its hinges. The village has beautiful shrubs and a stream. The barn has terrible trees and a barn that is disjointed.
Kennedy was a very interesting author. He said that slave women were portrayed as being happy and liked working for him. He also stated that the women liked being home and taking care of the young, mischievous kids. Kennedy wrote about the stereotypes of the south. He wrote about people's places in society.
Frank is the owner of Swallow Barn. He has a good temper, good cheer, has a comfortable figure, and is handsome. A quote from the book states,"I think he prides himself on his personal appearance, for he has a handsome face, with dark blue eyes, and a high forehead that is scantily embellished by some silver tip locks."He dresses new and glossy. He goes to Washington one day because he wants to investigate politics there. He gets disturbed by what he hears. He comes back very pissed off at Congress. When he comes back he says he agrees with the things that John Adams says. "Frank relapsed into an indolent man of opposition." Frank became a public man and now thinks that a good citizen shouldn't solicit nor decline office. He thought that Virginia supports the Constitution very much. He agrees with the things that John Smith says. Frank still is very indecisive about congress though. When he's with his friends he goes back to his old self and the beliefs about congress that he once had before. He is all the stereotypes of a southern gentleman. He also is nice to his slaves so he's seen in good light with them. Frank thinks of himself as a high churchman and says that he goes all the time but nobody sees him there. He contradicts himself a lot.

John Smith

It was interesting to learn about John Smith. I learned about many things that I did not know about him. I did not know that he wrote many myths and that he was one of the first ones to do that. A quote from The Literature of the American South states,"Although he was born in England and spent only three years in Virginia, Captain John Smith is generally considered not only the South's but also North America's first important literary mythmaker." In his myths he wrote about how people should colonize and that it is there duty to farm. He said if they don't do that then they're disobeying their religion and God. I also didn't realize how much John Smith was like Columbs. He behaved just like him in that he invaded the Native Americans land and took advantage of them. Killed many of them and took there land. Through all this he didn't realized that he was being the same bad man as Columbus. He lead an army and founded Jamestown. His pholosophy was that men that had good spirits and were hard working would get farther. He got recognition from England readers because he always wrote in the third person about himself and so people thought of him as a hero. He always said good things about himself and so they looked up to him. He also made many good comments about Virginia that it was a good place to live.
My feeling is that John Smith was a good man in that he taught people how to live life to the fullest and that they had a good life in Virginia. He was bad because he stole territory from the Native Americans.