The Battle with Mr. Covey

“Mr. Covey took up the hickory slat with which Hughes had been striking off the half- bushel measure, and with it gave me a heavy blow upon the head, making a large wound, and the blood ran freely; and with this, again told me to get up.”

The quote above speaks for itself. It is so descriptive to the point that it makes your stomach turn. “…but the blood so matted my hair as to stop the wound. After lying there about three quarters of an hour, I nerved myself up again, and started on my way, through bogs and briers, barefooted and bareheaded, tearing my feet sometimes at nearly every step…” I feel that the imagery demonstrated in this quote is enough to make anyone’s eyes open up and realize that there was an obvious problem with slavery.


Slavery has been one of the most important issues in US History. Realists focused on the issues and problems that were going on at that time. It is obvious that The Battle with Mr. Covey is a story focusing on slavery. I think the reason the other master of the slave came into the picture was because Douglas wanted his readers to see that slaves were treated like animals and property. His other master basically said he was giving him to Mr. Covey for a year for pay. On top of that, Mr. Covey was so cruel to him.

I think that maybe Douglas wrote this story to tell people that one day, all the slaves would rebel and the outcome would be worst. The slave in the story fought his master and he was never whipped again. If all the slaves would have rebelled against their masters, the outcome might have been different. “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning- point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self- confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free.” Douglas wanted people to realize that slavery was wrong and that no human being should be treated like that.

The Story of an Hour

“She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.”

Mrs. Mallard is grieving her husband’s death, but when this scene is described, it shows springtime and something beautiful. I think it may symbolize the beginning of a new life for her without her husband. She realizes that now she is free from being dominated by a male and this is a new beginning for her. Unfortunately, she has heart problems and then in the end dies of heart disease.

The subject of living in a male-dominated society in Kate Chopin’s time is a very important. Many women felt dominated by men and women did not even have a right to vote. The story does not directly say that her husband was a dominant man, but it does have a moment of realization for Mrs. Mallard. “When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” Mrs. Mallard realized she was free and got very excited by it. In a way, this hints that her husband may have been very dominant of her.

Example of Realism

A perfect model for modern realism would have to be the movie The Day After Tomorrow. I think it does not get more real than what is going to happen to the planet if we do not try our best to conserve it the way it is. Global warming is a modern day issue that is very big and focused on daily. Realists believed we should focus more on the real issues that were going on at the time. Global warming is a modern day issue and The Day After Tomorrow is very realistic and does not require imagination for us to see what is actually going to happen. It is very scientifically accurate as to why all these changes in weather patterns will occur. The scene where the large hail begins to fall or when the sea level rises in New York is very realistic of the storm that is approaching. These are events that are inevitable now. It is not impossible to stop these events from happening but the things that everyone would have to do in order to stop it is almost impossible.

The Man I Should Have Married

I just finished reading the book The Man I Should Have Married by Pamela Redmond Satran.It is about a woman named Kennedy who is going through a separation and goes back to someone from the past, Declan. Her husband left her for a younger woman and on top of that, he left her the day after Christmas. In the beginning, that seemed like a bad thing because her husband, Frank, had a stable job at the time at a law firm and provided for Kennedy and her two daughters, Amanda and Maya. The separation, though, was actually the best thing that happened to her. After the separation, she became more independent and even brought her own home. On one of the drop offs of Amanda at her dad's house, she decided to go back to where she lived ten years ago. She also went back to the restaurant of the man whom she had worked for and a little something else, Declan. Declan was better looking than ever and Kennedy wanted to be with him. After many ups and downs in their so called relationship at the time, in the end they got married and moved in with his own daughter, Katherine, into Kennedy's house.

This was a very interesting book to read because it is real life. None of the events that happened are unrealistic regarding relationships and I can relate a lot to Kennedy. Independence is what many women strive but are all caught up in the housewife role that makes it almost impossible. I think this book is a great inspiration for those women who are afraid to move on forward after a separation or a divorce. It shows that we are as strong or even stronger than men not only emotionally, but physically as well. Kennedy was able to renovate her new home completely all on her own and discovered a real passion for renovating. I think this part of the book was included to tell women to find something that motivates you in life. Being able to find something you love to do and that can make you forget your problems is what we all need. I also believe that every woman has a man they should have married, unless they already married him.

Raven

I remember having read The Raven some time ago, but I had never really known much about it. Now I realize all the poetic techniques he uses to capture the reader. He creates a scary and weary mood at the beginning of the poem by describing this tapping at his bedroom door. He goes on by saying that he was almost asleep, so he is not really sure of whether he even heard it. It makes the reader wander if everything that was about to happen was even real or just a dream. He uses a lot of repetition and these lines stuck out to me. “Eagerly I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the lost Lenore” We hear the repetition of the letter “s” and it creates a sound that is actually a little creepy. I have to use my imagination of course and that was one of the aspects that Dark Romantics focused on.

When he starts speaking to the raven, I actually feel bad for him. He wants this raven to give him answers and the only answer he is getting is a no for everything. “"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee--by these angels he hath sent thee Respite--respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!" Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."” He asks the raven if he will ever rid himself form the memories and the pain he bears for the loss of Lenore, and all the raven can say is “Nevermore.” It feels like the narrator is trying to find some comfort with this raven and the raven just makes him feel worse by saying that the pain he feels will never go away.

The Raven is a good example of an Anti-Transcendentalist writing because it is speaking about a person who is half-asleep. We do not know really for sure that he is not dreaming all of these things. Transcendentalist believed that their intuition was the voice of God and that everything they did was because of God. They believed everything was good. In the poem, here comes this raven who is speaking to the narrator about how the pain he feels will not go away. I think this poem is Edgar Allan Poe’s way of saying, everything is not good and everything we do is not necessarily God’s doing. “Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."” Edgar Allen Poe’s life was not at all the life anyone would like to have lived. He had so many deaths that had occurred around him that he knew everything that happened was not necessarily God’s doing and that it was not good. He has all these sorrows to live with and if I were in his shoes, I would have probably been insane.

Dark Romantics

As soon as I began reading The Tell-Tale-Heart, I thought the narrator was crazy. It is uncertain of whether it is a male or female, but for the purpose of this response, I will assume it was a male. He tries throughout the entire story to convince himself that he is not insane. His actions speak otherwise when he decides to kill the old man in the story. “For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.” I think it is so insane to kill someone just because of the old man’s “Evil Eye”. But that was the whole point of this piece of writing. Dark Romantics focused a lot on imagination, but they also believed that everyone had evil inside them and that some were even insane. The old man in the story had an “Evil Eye” that the narrator did not like and therefore the first thought that came to his mind was to kill the old man. Edgar Allen Poe is just trying to prove that not all thoughts are good and that you should not act on every thought that comes to mind.

The part that I thought was really interesting is how the narrator’s plan was so perfect for killing the man. If it wasn’t for his conscious, no one would have ever known he killed the old man. Obviously the man was insane, but to a certain extent intelligent. He found a way to hide the man’s body beneath the floor boards and even managed to fool the police. “Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased….” The narrator was hearing something in his own head that no one else could hear. I think it was probably his own heart beat continuing to go faster and faster just like the old man’s heart rate also accelerated when he was about to kill him. Edgar Allan Poe took us to this moment and very vividly described everything that happened. That is a focus on imagination and as I read the story, I could hear the heart beat of the old man as well as feel the suspense building up inside the narrator.