Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an innovator in many ways. He was one of the first American authors that tried to write for a living instead of doing it on the side and this was big despite his financial troubles since it set an example for other authors whose true passion was writing and writing alone.  Besides from his lifestyle he was an innovator in his writing; he created a whole different type of short story that didn’t exist or wasn’t prominent beforehand. His stories were Romantic stories, so they protested something that was an issue and often times they tended to be traditional things or things that have always been done a certain way. One example of this is how in The Fall of the House of Usher he’s trying to say that maybe incest isn’t the best way to keep the blood line “pure” and that’s a practice that had been going on for hundreds of years beforehand. Poe showed another method of protest through writing that was peaceful yet entertaining. His stories often required you to just get loose and go with the flow for a little bit and pretend that his story is like a historical account or something. If logic was used in a lot of his stories, the scenarios would be very unlikely and coincidental, but with a little plot work it made sense. His stories also entertained the reader enough that they would really like them and to a person seeking it, it would reveal a much deeper meaning. Poe was an author that had much deeper meanings in his short stories and poems than what it first appears to be and that protested taboo practices in subtle ways. He was an innovator and a man authors still look up to today. Edgar Allan Poe was a writer to be respected. 

What is an American?

     When we think of an American nowadays, a true American, not just a stereotypical one, you think of a person that's hardworking, loyal to their family and their country, and that's earned all that they own in life. This is of course not the case the majority of the time but this is what we like to think of when we think of what an American is. When we want to identify what a group is like, we can look at the two ends of the spectrum and we can look at the average person. We can look at an alcoholic whose sense of loyalty to their family has faded or a slob who is lazy and not hardworking in the least or a snob who has had everything handed to them their entire lives. We can look the perfect American who we might think of as a blond person with blue eyes who is hardworking and patriotic but who also live a wonderful and fairly easy life. Or we can be realistic and look at the average person, which is really the best way to label someone as an American or a member of any other nationality. The average American really is hard working and loyal to somebody. It may not be their family or their spouse but most of us are loyal to someone. The average American has earned what they have in their lives. Their possessions were earned through hours of labor; they weren’t just given to them. The average American is proud to be an American. It is a title that they carry with pride and when they look at the current events of the world, they think “hmm, good thing I’m safe and sound here in America.” The average American feels cared for to some extent. They may not receive aid or work for the government or be connected to the government in that way, but they still feel cared for. We don’t worry about a nation attacking us or taking over our city today because we know our country is more than capable of handling itself. We trust that the government will take care of our basic safeties. The average American is well aware of their basic rights such as the right of speech, of press, of assembly, and of religion, and aren’t afraid to fully utilize those rights. These characteristics are just a few of the true American because, to me, being an American isn’t just about following suit to the template of the ideal American, being an American is doing what you would normally do anyway and just happening to find out that millions upon millions of other people are just like you. That’s what being an American is to me. (I was sick with pneumonia all of last week so that's why this blog entry is so late.)

Modern Day Puritan

 The Puritans were a strict group of people. They were all ruled by a theological form of government and as such everyday aspects of life that we might consider secular were in fact religious. The judicial system of the town was a good example of this since the laws were based on morals and not actual justice like our judicial system today is.

 The whole concept of theocracy wasn't a bad one in my opinion, i think it could realistically work, just not in the way that the Puritans played it out. They played it out as if the world we live in is perfect and the people in it are flawless. They tried to build a utopia and as history has shown us time and time again, its just about impossible to  build a utopia, as hard as people may try. They might not have tried to build the most perfect setting but they tried to build one where there wasn't forgiveness or mistakes and the law was harshly enforced. What ended up happening was that the people become more lax and lenient and allowed for more and more rules to be bent and broken until they really didn't matter anymore.

 The United States as a whole also kind of tried this. When it first started out, a constitution was written with specific wording to ensure that the voice of the people was heard and that the government was truly run by the citizens. This was a Utopian idea to be honest and it soon became clear why. As time passed, it became prevalent and this wasn't the case and that people were corrupting and manipulating the system so that they gained from it and the general public didn't. This is still going on today and the question of a perfect government system is one that we still don't really have an answer to yet but the gradual withering of a Utopia on paper is the thing that both the United States and Boston have/had in common.

Note to Mr. McCarthy: This is the Post that i accidentally saved as a draft for a week