Intro To Modernism and Poetry- Project Letter

Siarra Williams
January 11, 2009
AP English III Period 11
Intro to Modernism and Poetry

Dear Whoever This May Concern,

The name is Anna Smith. The date is March 3, 1900. These new innovative inventions just changed the whole world as I know it. When the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, it was like my whole world expanded. I was opened up to new modes of transportation, new linking systems, and new cultures. I was able to travel to different regions and learn more of the traditions of different heritages. It was like the world had opened doors for me and encouraged me to learn more about the treasures that it possesses. I couldn’t help but accept this great offer. I mean, the world transformed from slow-moving to rapid speed. It is a great revolution that I feel is necessary. The states were filled with inhabitants, and it is only essential that the technology changes and increases to fit the lifestyle of the people that it serves. The Brooklyn Bridge was one great way to enhance the way of transportation, but we can’t forget the infamous “S” curve that they concocted to amplify traveling via trains. I consider this to be very proficient so that the rail cars can turn corners and travel on curves when necessary. This invention makes it possible for others to create ground-breaking gadgets that could increase the elements of railroad travel. Trains are able to travel in two different directions side by side and even switch over from one rail to another when needed. This is quite an accomplishment. The exhilarating feeling that I have when I think of the world’s possibilities is just so overwhelming. I’ve become a joyous and optimistic person just waiting to get word of a new development. Now the next thing I’m going to inform you of will knock your socks off. It was unbelievable, unheard of, unforeseen, and even unprecedented. That’s right; I’m talking about the subway. The subway people! It was an underground way to travel via train. I personally considered the “S” curve to be enough but the subway just really opened my eyes to all sorts of possibilities. I was excited! The idea of not having to stand outside in cold, rain, sleet, or snow just to travel to work and home. I can still go where I need to without being affected by the weather. It has really been an extraordinary and pioneering couple of years during this time. And so I just thought I’d share my passion and love for new technology with you, people of the future. I know that if you feel how I feel, this letter would be much appreciated and of use to you. Who knows, you just may be an inventor looking for inspiration when this letter comes into your hands. I hope that I can help you understand that life during my time period was full of great advancements and I can only wish that it will progress throughout my years and yours.

With great optimism for the future,

Anna Smith

Crap!

John A. Roebling is best known as the designer and civil engineer of the Brooklyn bridge. Completed in 1883, It took ten years to build this innovative and greatly appreciated linking system . For many years the Brooklyn Bridge was known as the longest structure in the world stretching to 1,595 feet long. This bridge connects Manhattan to Brooklyn making it easier for transporting things as well as for people to travel.


What would life be like before the advancements in transportation in the late 1800s/early 1900s? What effects did such technological breakthroughs have on individuals in their local and larger worlds?
Life would be different without the advanced transportation in the late 1800s/ early 1900s. The people in certain regions would be deprived of economical needs before the advancements in transportation was very slow moving and time consuming. It took well over weeks to transport people and supplies across the United States. They traveled via ferries and horse-drawn carriages. (The effect that this lack of technology would have on individuals locally is ???????? <-----Khadija i need help here.) The effect that this lack of technology would have on individuals in a larger world is that they will not learn of other cultures and societies. They would not be able to share their knowledge with other parts of the world as well as vice versa.


My adjective is innovative. I choose innovative to describe the rise of transportation during the late 1800s/early 1900s because it was something new, creative, and original to improve the shipping of goods.

Short Answer Study Packet

The relationship that European explorers had with the Native Americans was one of acquaintances. They were warm and friendly around each other. The explorers were optimistic to learn of the ways of the Native Americans. They even took part in the daily life of Native Americans by dressing as them and eating as them.


European colonizers used their narratives to mediate their relationships with authorities back in Europe by relying on ethos and pathos. They vividly described the lives of these Native American tribes so that the authority figures would feel pathos. They describe the life of Native Americans as being less fortunate than the lives of those back in Britain. Especially with the colonies constantly stealing land from the tribes. The colonizers rely on pathos throughout their narratives to get the authorities to stop the colonies from taking land from the tribes.

The Europeans envisioned the New World as being a place where they can star anew. They were surprised to see that the New World was not as advanced as Britain. They had to plow the land themselves and go hunting for food. These preconceptions affected their experiences in the Americas because they were not prepared for what they found when they got there. The Native Americans occupying the land before the Europeans were a definite surprise to them. They were not prepared to fight for land nor the new diseases that they came across.

I think the narrator suggests answer rather than providing it so that the reader analyzes the story more. The narrator wants the reader to get a latent meaning of the story; to think for themselves. When the reader finds the hidden message of the story, the plot comes together more and they begin to notice the writer’s style of constructing a story line.

Due to Chopin’s restraint on how Desiree and the baby died the reader learns of the deaths, not through her writing, but through their own analysis of the story. This affects the reader quite a bunch. Depending on the reader’s experience and knowledge they may come to the conclusion that Desiree and the baby died or that they made it through the willows to the other side of the bank.

Grammatical Comparison

Professional
Student

# of words
935
529

# of sentences
50
120

Longest sentence
49
41

Shortest sentence
6
5

Avg. sentence length
28
13

<10 words over the avg. length
3
4

% of sentences over the avg. length
6%
3%

>5 words below the avg. length
22
2

% of sentences below the avg. length
44%
2%

Paragraph length
- longest paragraph
3
8

- shortest paragraph
1
5

- average paragraph
2
6



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/business/04saturn.html?_r=1&ref=us

Two Page Lit Response: Of Our Spiritual Strivings

Siarra Williams
November 24, 2008
AP English III Period 11
Two Page Literary Response: Chapter 1, Souls of Black People

In the first chapter of the Souls of Black Folk by W.E. B. DuBois, he speaks of the slaves’ view of the status that they hold in the world. He speaks from a first person’s point of view of how he remembers the first time that he realized he was different from the other kids, in terms of his skin color. He also inferred that he was going to be like the white people when he gets older, when he began to talk about his future professions.
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.” (DuBois Page 45) Dubois uses great detail to describe the way a Negro slave looks at himself. He uses a various amount of metaphors and words to connect the same idea that a Negro man does not have a unique definition for himself. The slave does not know how to view himself in a society that condemns him for the color of his skin before he even speaks. He is already discriminated against without having the opportunity to prove that he is more than what you see.
“One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” (DuBois Page 45) Dubois has a sassy tone when describing the American Negro slave. He starts off the statement by asking “One ever feels his two-ness.” It’s almost as though he states this already knowing you never have felt this man’s “two-ness.” It never occurred to you to see that he’s not just a slave, not just what you see. He continues by describing that this “two-ness” is hard to control and keep under way. For a man to have to decide which side of him he should allow to be seen by those surrounding him is time consuming if not aggravating at times. When a person has to conceal a piece of their identity, it becomes harder for them to find their true selves. It’s even harder when all society ever tells you is that you are worthless and you will never amount to anything. Not only does this “two-ness” pains him externally but internally is even worse. He has two thoughts and two ideas running through him and all he may ever get the chance to do is speak of one, if even allowed that.

Two Page Lit Response: The Atlanta Exposition Address

Siarra Williams
November 24, 2008
AP English III Period 11
Two Page Literary Response: Booker T. Washington

In the Atlanta Exposition Address by Booker T. Washington, he address the people at the expo and give a speech on his view of the coming together of the races of the South. He believed that the races would eventually come together and realize that they depend on one another for survival. He expresses in his speech his values and ideas for this new union of races.
“To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say: ‘Cast down your bucket where you are’- cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.” (Washington Page 1) Washington includes this example of “Casting down your bucket” to show that every man should be open to help from others, even the people who you feel have betrayed you in the past. He wants the colored people to have an optimistic outlook on things because he believes that the way to get ahead is with the help from those who know more about the surroundings than them, no matter the past situations or the setbacks that they have experienced. He feels the only way to grow as one and move on is through unity.
“I think, though, that the opportunity to freely exercise such political rights will not come in any large degree through outside or artificial forcing, but will be accorded to the Negro by the Southern white people themselves, and that they will protect him in the exercise of those rights.” (Washington Page 7) Washington includes this opinion to show that he believes that the only way a colored man will be able to share in political rights is if it was offered to him. And not just offered to him by any white man, it must be a Southern white man, so that the white man will support this decision and protect the colored man as he is exercising these political rights which were presented to him. He believes at the end of the day that if the Southern white man agrees with the colored man taking part in political rights then everything will be ok. If the public requests that a colored man be offered any form of political rights, the Southern white man will feel obligated to consent. The obligation to give a colored man any type of rights is the most degrading thing a Southern white man could find himself doing. He feels this way because it pains him to see a man who was just beneath him, rise to a higher level in society. And it just pushes the knife in deeper when the rest of the country compels this man to give this Negro any sorts of rights, when just last week he was working the plantation. Washington was only stating that in order for the Negro to receive any sort of political rights, he must do so at the consenting of the Southern white man if he wishes to keep peace while doing so.
In conclusion Booker T. Washington’s address at the Atlanta Exposition gave a whole new view on the relationship between the Southern white man and the colored folks. He showed that colored people did not receive all their freedom at once. And although they were no longer property of the white man, they still depended on them mentally so that they may get ahead or even are on a leveled playing field with the white man. He brought to light that the colored man still needed the aid and approval of the white man.

Two Page Lit Response: The Yellow Wallpaper

Siarra Williams
November 17, 2008
AP English III Period 11
Two Page Literary Response: The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an interesting short story. She wrote about herself during her depressive state, which was known to her husband and others as a “nervous condition” She and her husband, John, spent their summer in a far off estate so that she would get better. She spent most of her summer cooped up in a nursery turned temporary bedroom with the most disgusting yellow wallpaper. The author uses imagery and dialect to get across to the reader her feelings during her depressive state and how she felt cooped in that room.
The author spent a lot of time describing the wallpaper. It’s intriguing that her first feelings toward the wallpaper were that of disgust and dislike. She expressed to her husband her concerns but he just disregarded them. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.” (Gilman Page 3) She describes the wallpaper with such imagery and dark words to get across her detestable feelings to the reader. She wants the reader to understand that it was the worst wallpaper she could have ever imagined. She describes it with such dark words to create an odious image of the wallpaper. “There’s one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wall-paper.” (Gilman Page 7) The fact that her baby does not have to sleep in the nursery is a high point for the author. She’d rather she sleeps there than her child. Gilman finds the room to be so horrific that she wishes it upon herself rather than her child. Although she hates the room with a passion, she’d rather suffer than have her child see such wallpaper.
“He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get.” (Gilman Page 2) The author includes this to display how her husband felt that her rest was a necessity. He wanted her to get better and he rented out the estate for her well-being. “John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall.” (Gilman Page 6) The author includes this to show her husbands’ feelings toward her recovery process. If she were not to recover in the time that he allotted he had the control to send her off to another physician. She expressed in her story that she did not wish to see this physician because of the rumors that she heard about from her friends.
In conclusion “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an interesting story. I love the entire concept of the story. She used so many descriptive words to get her point across. In reading this story I could imagine the yellow wallpaper with all of it s fungus and cracks along the wall. She brought the pages to life and I understood her depressive state more with the intensity in which she described the scene. Her feelings became my feelings, her words became my words. I just connected with her the whole time of the story and throughout her writing style.