Pratt: "Arts of the Contacts Zone"

      In this excerpt, Mary Louise Pratt talks about how language effects how we are. She says that language is a way to help people imagine other people in their lives, even though they will never meet or even hear of most of the people in their culture. She talks about her child learning how to speak, using the surnames of players of the cards she had.
     This reading relates to the idea that language is an inexplicable idea. One word, like tree can give many different people a different picture in their head. However, when words are used together, instead of mystifying it further, the idea is more clearly understood.
     Why did the student from the excerpt answer the questions so oddly?

T.S. Eliot: "Tradition and the Individual Talent"

        In this excerpt, T.S. Eliot writes on the tradition verses talent of English writings. He seems to believe that the tradition is important, however it is not nearly as important as the talent of the writer. He talks about past authors verses current authors (according to when this was written, that is), and compares their writings. The author argues over real emotion verses flat emotion.
        This connects with Shelley's "defence of poetry" very well. It deals with the poetry instead of focusing on the author, and shows that writing is in fact important and worthy of fame.
       What does this man believe about good and bad literature?

Shelley: "A Defence of Poetry"

      In this excerpt from "A defense of Poetry" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, she defends poetry as a form or art. She talks about the difference between reason and imagination, and says that "reason is the enumeration of quantities known", and "imagination is the perception of the value of those quantities" (Shelley). She goes on to say that poetry is a way to express imagination. Later, she also states that even though poetry is up to one's imagination, it also has a very certain order in which it follows. In explaining all this, she is saying that poetry is in fact a respectable and admirable form of art.
     Her idea that poetry being created by imagination, is closely related to Aristotle's statement in "from Poetics" that imaginative epics are better than real epics, in other words, fiction is better than nonfiction. This is also shown by the idea that tragics are better than epics, because they are fictional.
     Why do so many people, including present people, agree that fiction is better?

Aristotle: "from poetics"

        This article written by Aristotle outlines a play, mostly a tragic play. He outlines how to do certain things in a tragic play like arouse fear or pity, arrange the ideas (simple or complex), and many other things. Just a few things that he says are that a tragic play should be arranged in a complex form, so that the audience does not simply know everything that is going to happen in the play. Also, to arouse pity or fear, you must either do something amazing in the play, or do so in the inner structure of the play, which is a better choice.

        This article article can be connected to the idea of the banking concept. A "simple" play would be like the banking concept, effective but boring, and probably not well remembered. A complex play would be like the problem posing method, making the audience attempt to figure things out as it progresses.

        Why did Aristotle write this? who was his intended audience?

Crevecouer: "Letters from an American Farmer"

       In this letter, Crevecoeur writes about what an American is. Basically, he seems to believe that there is no one single standard for Americans, sense we all come from very diverse backgrounds, it is impossible to find a specific type of person to perfectly represent the American society.
        People that are American simply need to share one belief and goal;. They need to belief that the American country is a nation based on the needs of the people. No one can be an american without admiring the overall freedom of the nation.
        Why does it truly matter what "an American is"?

Thomas Jefferson: "Declaration of Independence"

        In this "Declaration", Thomas Jefferson is saying that the people of America are separating from England. In this letter he sends he does not simply address England, but he makes it seem that it is a general case. He does this in order to separate from England and gain support from other nations at the same time that he separates from England. He does this so that America will have a fighting chance in case England chooses to go to war with the newly independent colonies.
        This way of writing is similar to the way the captivity narratives were written. In which the authors would state something only to recant that statement by weakening it in some form. Thomas Jefferson is doing a very serious thing in this but he makes it "weaker" by making it a general case and not just based around the case they were dealing with.
       Why did people write such bold things, and then continue to try and hide them behind weaker writings?

Emmanuel Kant: "What is Enlightenment"

       Emmanuel Kant explains what he believes enlightenment in this article. He  says that it is a release from bondage, or "man's release from self-incurred tutelage". Meaning that you release yourself from this "bondage", that someone else has over you. In other words, you stop allowing other people to influence your thought and start finding the truth on your own.
       I do not believe that Emmanuel Kant has the right idea about what the Enlightenment truly is. Enlightenment is beginning to learn and find things out for yourself, however, it is impossible to truly get away from other people's influence. The Enlightenment is not just a certain period in history. Almost every person on earth will go through their own time of when they begin to realize, learn, and piece things together. This usually comes with age. The enlightenment was a period of maturation for the country. The saying "man's release from self-incurred tutelage" can be related to the story of Christ in some ways. It is usually impossible for someone to release another from something they have caused themselves, however, Christ saved all men and women on the earth from our sin, which we do ourselves.
        Did he imply this comparison to Christ? or did I just read into te saying to deeply?

Thomas Paine's "Common Sense"

          In this "pamphlet" written by Thomas Paine, He states that America needs to break away from the "mother country" England. He states that England is not a mother country at all, and even if one thinks that it is, it is a bad mother. He states that there should not be a king over America, but is careful not to just target the current king of England. As that would just cause the people to desire a new king.
          I do believe that there should not be a king over America, and agree with what Thomas Paine was saying, however, he certainly attacked this idea in a way that I do not support after reading the article. He attacks the people who he knows will disagree with him, and even makes several extremely sexist comments, degrading women down to next to nothing. He tries to get his point across by writing this to be short and even like a sermon, however, I have never heard of a sermon that simply insults the oppositions it faces.
          Why did he use such insults and sexist biased in an article meant to persuade people?

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