Journal 37: Civil Disobedience

Civil disobedience sometimes is better than non-violent rebellion. Che Guevara for example rebelled through violence for what he think is right, a Marxist society where everyone is equal and where unfair and unjust treatments don't exist. I believe in his cause but I don't believe in his action. I believe that although he fights for a good reason and that inequality is a really depressing and serious issue, violence should not be condoned. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Violence should be condoned if the tyrannical government slaughters more people than the revolution itself and the people that died for the cause are people that would equally kill people for the opposite rule. Another exception is that if the movement is for the establishment of a democracy. Although many people would argue that democracy is the most unfair system in the world but democracy's upside and the most valuable advantage is that although it might be unjust to some people, it doesn't give anyone absolute ruling rights that can prevent a total control by government. Also, through democracy, everyday citizens have a chance, even if it is only a slight chance if the democracy is a bad democracy, to change the country into a better place and to solve unjust little by little through amendments and legislatures.

Journal 36: Red Badge Film

The mental pictures in my mind were not really different form the movie. However, the atmosphere were kind of different. To me, I imagined the scenes to be always dark and gloomy and an awful lot of rain because Henry is always depressed and scared in the book and I feel that rain and dark sky would really portray the atmosphere and set the mood. Also, a dark atmosphere can really let us in Henry's feeling and really feel his depression and his dilemma. The actor for Henry were kind of older then I expected because I expected a 16 year old barely able to join the war effort with small arms, short, and an over-sized jacket and helmet.  I think the movie did a good job in remaking of the novel because the movie uses narration to tell the audience about Henry's feeling and basically the novel is about the mental struggle that Henry experiences throughout the film. However, I feel like the movie should make Henry look more like a coward by constantly showing him trying to hide or run away or showing a scene of him getting caught while trying to run away. The movie did not show about Henry leaving his mom which I think is a crucial event in the movie because while he was trying to convince his mom he wants to join the war effort we see that he didn't join for the war but for his own fantasy.

Journal 35: Government

*DISCLAIMER: I DIDNT DO THIS JOURNAL ON DECEMBER 13, 2011 I CHANGED THE DATE SO IT CAN BE IN ORDER.
I don't think it's true that government is the best where it doesn't govern anything. There is a reason why there are governments in the world and it is not because greedy politics with overpowering military force wants to have control over people. There is a reason people conform to government; it is because government works. Government works whatever the purpose it was served to do and that is why all countries have a government. We see a nation as corrupted when the government of the country is corrupted because a corrupted country can never prosper. Take Somalia for example, even North Korea has a more stable economy and better welfare than Somalia because although the North Korean government is not serving the purpose of taking care of the people but it is still doing a better job than the anarchy system in Somalia. We urge for a better government in which the government helps more people. One way the government can reach out to more people and help the general welfare of people is that the government needs to listen to people and that the government needs to be for the people rather than for the little group of elite in control of the government.

Entry 34: Theme of Self-Reliance

The theme of Emerson's essay is first related to nature but the grand message and teaching of the writing is not focus on nature. Self-reliance is the theme of the literary work. Nature is a complimentary element that's create a background and also a symbol for the writing. The theme is developed through figure of speech. Basically self-reliance is the essence of independence. When a person is self-sufficient, able to live on its own, is a rugged individual, can support all the living essentials of oneself, and is independent, then one is considered an adult and out of adolescence. Adolescence begins with puberty, however, everyone has a different time they end adolescence. Different individual ends adolescence at different time and different generations of people end their adolescence at different time too. At rural areas or a few centuries ago people are forced to leave adolescence early and some even had to send money back home to support their family. For people like them they almost don't have adolescence because by the time they hit puberty and enters adolescence they probably had to begin working to support themselves because if they are not independent and be able to support themselves they would probably starve to death along with their families.

Journal 33: Imagery in Nature

Nature can be a very helpful too in describing and portraying emotions because in nature there are different atmosphere and different mood. Nature is a type of imagery and figurative element on its own and this unique category can express and touch on many different human emotions and many aspects of life. It is also very sensitive because nature is all around us and when we think of a particular phenomena of nature or one particular side of nature we link to one of our emotions or we link it to one of our memories. We are so close to nature and so connected to nature that it takes no education to feel the atmosphere nature is trying to create and with no education necessary we can understand what the writer is trying to imply through the imagery of nature. Emerson uses nature as a mean to translate emotion to imagery and metaphor for people to further understand the meaning of it. Emerson was exhilarated by nature's beauty and grandeur. In the presence of nature, Emerson felt he was in tune with his better self and in harmony with eternal things. Emerson shows the reader scenes of nature that have moved him; he doesn't tell how he feels about the emotions but shows through imagery in nature and leaves it for the reader's interpretation.

Journal 32: The Saddest of All Prisons

The heart can be a very cruel prison because you can be bail out of jail through money and you can live on probational grounds. However, you are your heart and you can't fool your heart with faked good behaviors and you can't pay your heart lots of money to let you off the hook. Once your heart imprison you with guilt, hatred, love, or any kind of binding emotion you are imprisoned by your heart and unless you really feel that way you will never come out of your sentence. You can't fool yourself like you fool the jury with a very articulate lawyer because your heart knows what you're thinking. Keep telling yourself how you did not kill the person because you only pull the trigger; the bullet is the thing that killed it. However, you might fool your blind and maybe fooling a lie detector. If you have shame or guilt in you you can never fool your heart and you will forever live with that shame, sleep with that shame, wake up with that shame, enjoy life with that shame and it will be a tumor in your heart that you can't hide. Your guilt might change your behavior and the behavior might change your personality. All in all you are your heart's slave because you cannot fool your heart and your heart binds you with emotion that makes you act in certain ways. You can fool your mind, or other people but not your heart.

Journal 31: Comparing Poems

Death in The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls and in The Cross of Snow the two death is directly opposing the main idea of each other in conceptual understanding and theme because in The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls the traveler's death was so insignificant that the ocean waves washes away his footprints, representing his contribution and changes to the world, nonchalantly, and nothing was altered or affected by his death; the tide still rises all the same and the tide still falls all the same. However, in The Cross of Snow, the cross representing the wife of the Longfellow is not gone and unaffected by weather or any other natural changes in any way and the Longfellow is experiencing tremendous grief. Contrary to the stranger's death, the death of the wife was not comparable with the stranger's death because the stranger's death was insignificant and when Longfellow refer to her wife using the word 'martyrdom' we know that she is very significant and her death was more than just any death. It is very sad when a love one dies and strangers die in hospital all the time but it's just like the travelor, it doesn't matter to the people who have no crossing of path with the person who died. "The death of one person is a tragedy, but the death of a million is just a statistic." - Joseph Stalin.

Journal 30: Image of Grief

Nature is an excellent medium for expression of emotions. For example, a happy mood can be represented by golden rays of sunlight shinning down on green grassland and flowers. An angry mood can be represented by an exploding volcano, a raging tsunami, or other devastating natural catastrophe. The expression of grief can have a lot of different take though because there are many kinds of grief. There is a a sullen, frustrating kind of grief which can be portrayed by the pouring rain in London in a dark night. The other kind of extreme grief with sadness and depression combined can be portrayed by a dying bird or even a dead bird. It can also be portrayed by the chill of a graveyard. The cross of snow is a symbol when he cross s symbol for grief and even the heat cannot take away the grief that the author, Longfellow, has for his dead wife because his wife is very important to him and her death was very meaningful, significant, and depressing. By the poem we can tell that the author was in agony because of the way he described the death of her wife as a "martyrdom". However, his description is different from grief that other people might think. When we think of grief, the natural phenomena we think of is usually something dark, like nightfall, twilight, rain, cloudy, or shadow, but snow is very bright.

Journal 29: Human Life: A Cycle, OR is it?

It repeat itself, life does, and as many would call it reincarnation. The cycle of life goes round and round. There's no knowing how it all started, when it started, or when it will end. All that is important is that we are in the loop that will not end, and there is a system here. We are all caught in this vortex and the only perceived escape, as many believe, is death, but it's not true. Death, as some might say, is the way out; however, some put it in another way, as the new beginning. The old end is a new beginning in the same vortex. Think of it like a train. We'r all on a train. A train that will take us far away. We know where we hope this train will take us and we see death as the end of the tunnel, but we don't know for sure. But it doesn't matter, because the train is going round and round. We would go everywhere not once, not twice, but infinite times. This is the idea of life. You will experience life not just this time and it will definitely not be your first or your last. We thought the train will eventually, after stops after stops, take us to the last stop, but there are no last stop. The perceived last stop, death, is merely the start of the same route that goes on the same route and stays on the same route. I think our lives is in an endless loop but I don't think we will reincarnate into other animals because the fundamental difference between us and animals are that we have thoughts and therefore no matter how distorted it becomes we will still be incompatible with other creatures.

Journal 28: Thanksgiving

I am thankful for a lot of things in my mind and I have a lot of people to thank for who I am right now because if it weren't for them I would never be who I am right now. Although some of the influences derived from negative experiences while some of the influences derived from positive experiences. An experience doesn't have to be pleasurable or happy moments to be influential, it just has to change you in some ways that when the same decision comes up you would make a different choice than before the influence. One of the people I have to really thank is my parents because if it weren't for them I really would not be like who I am at all. First of all, they put me through education. They provide all the necessities for me to attend a school, accessories for writing, calculating, and other school utilities. They also provide the fund for me to attend a school because when I was a kid until now I don't have enough money to pay for school's tuition and it would really suck not to have education. When I was small, I didn't realize how important school is and now I do realize how important school is but I still can't motivate myself to devout my everything to school. Maybe one day I can realize the importance of school and also be able to work hard at appreciating and not wasting the valuable resources my parents send so much investment for me to go to a top-notched school.

Journal 27: More Thanatopsis

What happened in the last journal entry; In the Thanatopsis poem it is mostly about the concept of death and what happens after death to the physical remain and the spiritual soul. Basically the traditional view of afterlife is that the physical remain is gone and the spirit remains either in the human realm or goes onto the afterworld of heaven or hell depending on the deeds one committed during life. Another view, mostly eastern, is that the soul goes into reincarnation where it gets reborn in a new body and then the soul is then recycled back into the human realm in the form of another life. In the Thanatopsis poem it is talking about how the spirit is gone and what's left to be recycled is the physical remain. In a way it is using the same idea of reincarnation but it is not reincarnation of the spirit but the reuse of the matter of your physical remain. This poem and burning house poem is different because in burning house poem it is about how earthly stuff should not be cherished too much because we eventually go to afterworld where nothing in your lifetime will matter. In this poem it is similar in that it is assuring that death is a start of something new and the earthly belongings will be gone but it's different in that you don't go to a afterworld but you go to a reincarnation of physical form where the soul disappears.

Journal 26: Thanatopsis

Nature communicates back in a peaceful tranquil tone. The advice was about death. Nature is trying to comfort the thoughts and musing of the narrator about death and trying to pacify the feeling through an explanation on how the cycle of life works. The advice was painting death in a way that shows that death is no big deal because every living thing goes through the cycle or life and death and then reborn because matters and energy are conserved. If there is life there is death. This is because when you die, you go back to nature's giant pool of matter and then from the pool of matter, atoms are selected to become another life form. This is the whole idea of reincarnation. However, the traditional view was that your body dies and then your spirit has two choices. Either it floats around in the realm of man, selected to go to heaven or hell, or reincarnate to become a new life. In this view, the spirit was not preserved, instead, our body is preserved in the form of matter and then be used for another life form or non-life form. The romantic belief was that the world doesn't operate like a machine instead is like a living thing that we are part of. Romantics look into nature for lessons and in this case Bryant look into nature for comfort and concept of death and after death, the concept. People die sad and stay sad; people die happy and stay happy.

Journal 25: Natural Cycle

Starting from the puritans; they look for faith for redemption and a holy life. The Rationalists look for lessons from reasoning and logic that they derived from themselves. Their argument was that since God created the world, he must have left a set of guidelines that would balance out the world and let the world continue without its help but does not collapse at the same time. It's like the game League of Legends. First, the creators creates a map of League of Legends, Twisted Treeline, Summoner's Rift, and Dominion map, representing the universe God created. Then, the creator of League of Legends, created characters such as Twisted Fate, Shaco, or Jax that serves to be the dominant life form of the world, representing Adam and Eve. Then, the creators creates challenges such as wolves, golems, the Lizard King, the dragon, and Baron Nesher. Characters are rewarded from the overcoming of the challenges, in this instance, the killing of the jungle creeps, representing the challenges human overcome to get reward. Then, the creators lay back, after issuing a set of rules, in this instance, the balancing of champion skills, jungle creeps' statistics, and overall game's physical logic coherence, while representing God after laying a set of logic and reasoning lays back and watches the world unfold. Then, the transcendentalist is different in that they see everything in the world and the nature as a representation of God. This is because God created the world and that nature is the original creation and as civilization and technology advance it is moving away from God. It is like the case of modifying a game. When the race cars provided in the game is limited, you can mod the car so that it becomes a tank or private jet or you can hack to get a lot of money. They believe to understand God, in this instance, the game, you must play the game simply and originally without shortcut and playing to its original settings, or living a life closely related to the origin of world created by God.

Journal 24: Freedom and Equality

Freedom and equality are the two most fundamental idea of the American ideal and the lives of American people and is imprinted in every American's ideologies. In the Constitution, it is mentioned that natural rights are the rights given to the people of the United States to the right of life, right of liberty, and the right to pursuit happiness. The reason why these ideals are so fundamental in the creating of America and the ideology of the American people is because America is founded upon the ending of a tyranny, the English empire, so naturally, these three ideas are the ones that will be highlighted because not only are these three rights important, but also it is being neglected upon. The right to freedom is of the most essence because freedom is what they do not have under the tyrannical control of England because it is a monarchy and the king does whatever it likes and whatever it can within the boundary of the country so freedom is what the people want. In the Constitution it is stated that "all men are created equal" and that equality is a very important idea because the oppression from the English government is very overwhelming and the representation is also of a key issue. I think i live in a free society because although there are laws, we are educated to think that whatever is defined as criminal activity we don't feel comfortable doing.

Journal 23: Tom Walker and John Edwards

Tom Walker and John Edwards are actually quite similar in their work because of the fact that they are both of the Dark Romanticism technique of writing. In the Dark Romanticism they highlight the flaws and vice of the people instead of showing the virtue and superiority of nature or of the hero in the traditional romanticism writing. In the Tom Walker story Tom Walker is portrayed as a person with a very hungry and  greedy heart and wants a lot of money. However, his wife is even more greedy so the story foreshadow the punishment of being greedy by showing that his wife went to the devil and never returned. Tom Walker did not heed the warning and went to the devil. the devil took him away because he is still greedy and the greediness did not go. In the sermon delivered  by John Edward, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, John Edwards is giving warning to the people that if we don't take Jesus in as our savior we will go to hell and the only reason we are not in hell the very second is because we are saved by God's grace, his hands. He can take his hands away from us anytime and we would plunged in the darkness of the inferno and the only way to avoid that is to believe that Jesus is our savior.

Journal 22: The Devil and Tom Walker

The Devil and Tom Walker by Edgar Allen Poe is a work of the dark romanticism and is by the anti-transcendentalist, or dark romanticist, author. It is considered a work of the dark romanticism because it portrays the vice of the main character, in this case, greediness. In the traditional romanticism work, the hero is portrayed with virtue and will overcome the villain, or antagonist in the story. It also is very close to nature. However, in the story, the nature was a swamp, usually seen as a dark side of the naturalistic world.  Not only does the author portrays such a dark setting for the story, he also expressed the dark side of human. Tom Walker became an usurer, a person who loans with abnormally high interest rate, usually to people that owes a lot of debts and can't get a loan from a normal bank. He took this job because the Devil at first asked him if he wants to use the treasure of the pirate to become a slave trader. He is not a very evil man so he turned down this request resolutely. However, being a usurer is not so bad, or so he thought, because he thinks that people who borrow money from him agreed to pay the hight interest rate so there's no felony or criminal activities involved. However, he wasn't able to redeem himself and he was taken by the devil.

Journal 21: Darkness

The dark romanticism is a bit different from the traditional romanticism. The difference between the two groups grants them the name of anti-transcendentalists or dark romanticists because transcendentalists are people who embodies romanticism ideals and dark romanticists are called anti-transcendentalists. Dark Romanticism is often conflated with Gothicism or called American Romanticism. It is a literary subgenre of the romanticism because it is not a huge difference from the genre of the Romanticism style. It has been suggested that Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. In The Devil and Tom Walker, Tom Walker and his wife is portrayed as having the vice of greediness. Wife is more greedy than Tom Walker so when she first met the Devil, she never returned. Then Tom, after accepting Devil's deal becoming a loaner with huge interest rate that destroys one's financial stability became filthy rich but the money he earned aren't from a good source. He shouldn't do this because this is a dirty way of earning money. However, because of Tom's greediness portrayed by Edgar, the author, he becomes the loaner. Then, we was taken by the devil because of his bad deeds.

Journal 20: Compare ze Heroes

The heroes nowadays in movies are very diverse because our literature work and movies are all either inspired by past literature work or direct remake of previous movies with a new director, a new interpretation, or with new and better technologies. There are less and less original work because we use previous works as foundations of new projects of works or we simply reuse the same plot but with a different point of view. There are two kind of heroes and the villain revolves around these characteristics too. Heroes of the Romanticism Era values feelings, intuition, and hunch and act base on pure intuition and raw force. When the hero possess these characteristics, it is usually that the villain, or the antagonist, of thestory would be a sly, calculative person that has evil plans for his bad deeds. The story is often resolved with the hero defeating the villain through raw power, exterminating all the bad guys. Then the other kind of hero fights and wins using wisdom and intelligent plans for good deeds. Usually the enemy is someone that is more powerful than the hero or is much more ruthless and menacing but the hero outsmarts the villain with his intelligence. These two types of heroes are radically different in that they think and resolve solution withradically different approach and usually with very different settings. I like heroes with knowledge because raw power is risky and stupid and there's nothing we can learn from these heroes because the only reason their approach could work is because of their superhuman physical attribute and bravery. We can learn more from intelligent heroes because we can learn from their calm and critical thinking techniques that suits our society better if we want to be successful in this modern society.

Journal 19: Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths and weaknesses are hard to measure because there are no agreed unit for strengths and weaknesses because we don't know how to measure skills. Although skill is not objective, the best we could do it calculate by efficiency. For example, a person that can perform a task in 5 hours compared to a person that can perform a task in 10 hours is by this scale two times more skilled. However, the tricky part is also quality over quantity. There are qualities in performing a task rather than just the speed of performing a task. One can perform a task five times in a minute with 50% work and another can perform three times with 100% perfection in a minute. This is hard to calculate because we need to consider the impact of quality and the impact of speed and how to weigh each portion in assessing one's skill. For example, wrapping a box can be crappy quality because quantity matters a whole lot more while manufacturing a car requires quality over quantity. One might choose a Lambourghini instead of ten Toyotas. In another scenario, one might choose ten ugly boxes rather than one decorated boxes with a red ribbon over it.

Journal 18: Rational or Transcendental

Both rationalists and transcendentalists believe in one almighty God that created the world. However, the two different group have different ways of interpreting the world and the world's event and different ways to view the world. The Transcendentalists believed that all things in life is a mere reflection of an actual higher world in which God has created and resides. This means that they view the nature, the world without human civilization influences as a close representation of where God creates and the more we live our lives in the nature without artificial influence the closer we are to understand and be with God. This is why most transcendentalists resides in the countryside; they give up their properties, and sell their belongings and lives at the countryside to be close to nature. The rationalists on the other hand are people who believes that God created a world and sets a set of rules and then watch as the world unfolds. They believe that we could use reasoning and logics to figure out the rules set by God and by doing that we can be closer to God. They don't go together because transcendentalists believe in instinct and feeling over logic and reasoning.

Journal 17: The American Romantic Hero

Romanticism is an era where literature and art work divert from the ordinary logic and corruption of the industrialized world. During the Romanticism Era, literature focuses on the nature instead of the corrupted society. Heros during the Romanticism Era tend to be innocent with reckless daring impulsive actions that usually result in victory. This is because during the era, the most praised characteristics are not logical reasoning and cunning tactics but boldness, bravery, and intuition. Believes in faith and intuition when searching for solution and is generally values feeling over reasoning. Heros, whether real or fiction today are people has strong reasoning that outsmarts evil or villain and finds a perfect solution that saves the day. We praise logic and reasoning more now because now, education has become more and more important and it is integrated into our lives. Captain America can be considered a hero that suits the criteria of the Romanticism Era because Captain America relies on instincts and bold actions to achieve his tasks. He doesn't do much planning because he can heal from bullet wounds fast and has strength that no other human can compete so his plans are usually just going directly to the enemy base and beat everyone up.

Journal 16: Intro to Romanticism

Romanticism is not challenging but not conforming to the idea of logic. Romanticism incorporates strong emotional appeals into the writing and places large emphasis on emotions because it is very crucial during the Romanticism. Feeling is of a great concept during the romanticism rather than logic and reasoning. Feelings such as terror and the opposite, awe, are greatly used for the emotions and the moods created by the painting and writings. Most of which creates a very strong mood that defines the literary or artistic work. Romanticism focuses on the emotional appeals and on the nature. Nature plays a big role in works during the romanticism. It bases on supernatural occurrence and the psychology of human. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, it focuses primarily on the mind of the characters. The guilt of Dimmesdale, the thought of Hester Prynne, the vengeance of Chillingsworth and the horror Hester feels about Chillingsworth's revenge. It also has an important role in developing the plot because it talks about Hester's moral uprightness that she thinks she should stay for the punishment and not flee from it because she has done something sinful and should live with the punishment. Chillings worth on the other hand died because he had no more meaning in life after Dimmesdale died because he is plagued with the idea of vengeance.

Journal 15: The American Ideal

in Ralph Waldo's quote of walking in our own feet, working with our own hands, and speaking with our own minds can be split and analyzed in three separate parts because each part expresses on American Ideal. Walking in our own feet means we follow our own footsteps, we have self-creation because everyone is original and can create our own path that suits us the best that will take us and lead us to success and wealth in America. Working with our own hands means self-reliance, means that we are independent and we rely on our own achievement. Instead of putting this in a tone that suggests everyman for himself and not helping each other, put this in a way that expresses the idea that we don't require and need help to achieve success in America because we are all capable and independent individual that achieve whatever we want just by ourselves. Speaking with our minds refers to the freedom of press and freedom of speech. This means that whatever we think we have the right and we should to say it out because what the people think matters and what the people think is what the country should think so we must voice out our concerns, comments, questions. This is an important idea because most of the European Monarchy system does not allow trash talk about the king or important figures.

Journal 14: Persuade Moi

What I want for my life is a good job, not boring, high salary, and not too exhausting. The reason for this is because I want to earn a lot of money but I am also lazy so I don't wish to do very exhausting work for the money I make. I would rather use mental labor than physical labor. I value money a lot because with money you can have an easy life and enjoy many things poor people cannot enjoy. I would need to convince a very powerful, successful, boss of the Human Resource Department that I am qualified for the job. That I am the person that can perform better mental task than other people. The thing about mental task is that it is irreplaceable. It is not simply a comparison how to what extent, but it's how and what you can do with your brain. It is intellectual property that other people cannot steal if it's still functioning in your head. I need to convince them of my critical thinking skills, my insight on the particular subject related to the job, and that I am the best choice for the job. For emotional appeal I would say something like, "Think of a kid, think of your son and daughter, that graduated right from college, packed with full curiosity and hope, entering society. The bubble of hope and dream is now in your hand, for you to embrace it. You could make a kid's dream come true." For logical appeal I basically list out all the skills I acquired in all my years of life and I would list out by how much I am better than other choices.

Journal 13: Give Me Liberty or…

"freedom","self-reliance", and "self-creation" are vague words because just about every democracy capitalist countries share these three ideas. Freedom, meaning having a voice in the government and the government doesn't oppress and control the citizens. Self-reliance is direct synonym of capitalist idea because to be self reliant means no help from the government and from other people, meaning you make your own living out of your own effort and you're own blood earned cash. Self-creation is also capitalistic because it means copyright. We don't share our intellectual properties such as ideas because we make our own living and our ideas provide us with the cash we need to live. I think words that shape our cultures are words that are related to food with eat, stereotypes other people have of our culture, and other things or ideas that is specifically to our culture. For American, a few words would be "multicultural", "obesity", and "burgers". 'Liberty' and 'freedom' are very strong words and instantly I think of independence, fight, and bloodshed for victory. These words not only point out some desperate human need and desire but also has a violent revolutionary aspect in it.

Journal 12: ✞ SIN ✞

Sin is a religious word. It's not just breaking a law or doing criminal activity, nor is it doing something that is not suited for the norm or moral uprightness. To commit a sin, one must break a religious creed, religious custom and conduct and anything not depicted by the bible as a crime cannot be considered a sin. For example, the bible mentioned many sins, betrayal, murder, lie, steal, and many other sins. If one commits a sin, one will go to hell unless he/she redeems him/herself. Some of the laws in the world are not sins but is a crime considered by our custom and our long history of traditions. For example, it is illegal to seduce, flirt with a woman with "temptation, deception, arts, flattery, or a promise of marriage." This is an extreme example of one of the sins of lying because flatter, deception, and a fake promise are considered lies but of a very harmless and trivial importance. However, some American laws are drifting away from when it's during the colonial times when religious customs and traditions are intertwined and most of the times the same as the law that will get you arrested. Meaning that if you committed a sin, you are most likely going to go to jail, pay a fine, or even crucified, and then you are going to suffer even more in the Afterlife in Hell for all of eternity. But now because the United States bases many of its laws on precedent, the long history of Supreme Court Trials generated some absurd laws that under normal circumstances would not happen. For example, in North Dakota, it's illegal to dance with a hat on. In Colorado, it's illegal to throw missiles at cars. In Kansas, it's illegal to hunt bunnies from motorboats. In Montana, it's illegal to have more than 1 alarm clock going off at once. In Florida, it's illegal to keep a hippo on the roof of a building. In Minnesota, it's illegal to cross the border with a chicken on your head.

Journal 11: Fear as a Motivator

Fear is probably one of the greatest motivator of all. We often have a greater motivation and motivated action when it is motivated by fear because this is related to our survival. It is genetically benefiting if we do things because we are afraid because if we are motivated by fear that means whenever something scary happens that frightened us we will do anything possible to avoid and to rid of the fear. In the Sermon, he constantly reassures his audiences that only salvation and faith in Christ could save them from hell. He describes hell and emphasize on how terrible it is to be part of it and induce fear in his audience so that he can motivate them into believing in Christ. The main purpose of the sermon is to scare his audience so they would want to save themselves and he provide a solution to believe in Christ that would solve their fear. When we are motivated by fear we tend to do the things we think will save us, no matter how crazy it would sound when we are not put under the situation. The last time i've been motivated by fear is when the principal says the second consecutive late to school would have to write an essay and read it out loud to the whole student body during cafeteria. It's not a grace consequences or punishment but it is still intended to be fear-inducing to motivate people into doing what he wants us to do. Also deadlines that threatens to give late marks are excellent examples of fear as motivation.

Journal 10: Church, anyone?

I've seen many religious advertisements since I was small. Flyers, brochures, emails, texts, and even huge posters. Mostly the catch phrase of all these advertisements are Jesus Loves You or 神愛世人 which means God <3 the people of the world. Every Sunday I would go to tennis class and when it's over at noon, on my way home I would see groups of Philippines leaving Churches along the way. Usually they would go for KFC or McDonald and going to fast food is probably the worst idea during Sunday lunch because it would always be packed with Philippines and the wait to order would take normally 30 to 60 minutes. I've been to a charity place where we have to play/teach/feed mentally handicapped people. They look like children and kids but actually some are older than us. There's a little boy that we would normally guess he's 8 years old but he is actually 21 years old. It was a good experience except when they spit their food on you or when they drool all over the place. Because it is a Christian established charity organization, we need to pray before we eat and we also listen to religious music sometimes. The volunteer work I did in Thailand was also a Christian organization and before eating we have to pray and sing a song. It's called Operation Dawn, they take in drug addicts and they try to recover them by believing in God. Christian organizations and people are very spiritual and they have real faith in God like we have faith in our closest friends and our most trusted mentor.

Journal 9: Motivation

Most of the motivations of the Puritan Era is motivated by church and religious ideas. This is because during the era, there is a very strong sense of pious and devoutness in everyone's mind mainly because the only reason they left England was because of religious reasons so if religious reasons were so strong so as to make them leave their home country, it must be a very important part of their living style. Also, because everyone of the Puritan Era in the America is a puritan, there is a huge puritan influence on the society, making the government and town heavily influenced by Puritan sense. In the Puritan society, the rules are intermingled with Puritan ideas and customs because the legislature believe in the Puritan value and would set rules and laws according to their custom and moral judgement. However, there are non conformists like Hester Prynne in the society that doesn't just want to live in the box and live their life in an extremely conservative fashion. They didn't want to conform to the stringent orthodoxical living style of the Puritan society because they believe in freedom. This is what motivated Hester Prynne. I don't think Hester is very into love and she is desperate so she had to commit adultery. I think she didn't go against his husband but she went against the system, she committed adultery just for the sake of breaking out of leash and felt a thread of freedom.

Journal 8: Compare and Contrast: Bradstreet v Sor Juana

In Anne Bradstreet's poem, her main focus is on physical belongings on Earth and how they are so insignificant and matters so little comparing to a Puritan's final goal, going to heaven. She expresses her sorrow in the beginning of the poem but then quickly shifts his mood into a pious Puritan, praising God and actually thankful because God could have taken her life but instead showed mercy. He understands that everything on Earth is temporary. However, contrast to Sor Juana's poem, she focused more on physical objects and possessions while Sor Juana focuses on the contrast between knowledge and wealth and beauty. Knowledge is forever and can not be robbed of while wealth and beauty are materialistic desires that are temporary and easy to vanish. Sor Juana tries to value vanity as little as possible because to her, she believes that vanity is not worth a dime. Both Anne Bradstreet's poem and Sor Juana's poem make good use of metaphor to make the poem sound powerful. In Anne Bradstreet's poem she compared a house to heaven and in Sor Juana's poem she uses personification in her title that the world is hounding her, basically meaning that the world is against her. They come in different backgrounds but nonetheless there are similarities in their poem and they both used bible as their philosophical bases.

Journal 7: Hounding

To be hounded by the world means that the world is onto you, that the world is going against you, that the world is trying to break you. This title is very powerful because immediately it gets the reader thinking about the world and how every time something bad happens it's not just bad luck, it's because the world is intentionally harassing you and trying to make your life miserable. At first, the first impression of the reader would be that the author must be a very pessimistic person and a paranoid person because a person that believes the world exist just to give one person a hard time is clearly paranoid and thinks that everyone is out there to get him, that bad things happen not because of coincident, but it's a conspiracy to get him. However, further reading the poem and actually understanding what the poem is about shows that the author is actually pretty optimistic. It's a sonnet. Like Anne Bradstreet's poem, she began by talking about the event but then eventually understood and show understanding that she must not dwell on earthly stuff, that she must look for a place in heaven that only a devout Christian can have that God has given out of mercy.

Journal 6: Poem About Loss

I lose stuff, it was rough,
Stuff I lost made me sob.
Why did this happen to me.
Rage is what i feel,
God roll the dic an I lost the game,
Deprive me of fortune and dame.
I hate you God,
You're a fraud.
Give me my stuff back
or my friendship you will forever lack.
Take this whack on my head,
Enormous quantities of tears shed,
Still my stuff are gone forever more,
And I ain't gonna cry no more.

Journal 5: Guilt

Hester is guilty as charged. This is because that adultery is very clearly stated as immoral, bad, and least of all illegal. Hester knows the consequences of committing an adultery but she doesn't care and still committed the crime which is not even a less crime of negligence. She broke the law with full awareness of the law and consequences so she is guilty as charge. Aside from the fact that adultery is not tolerated in the society, it is even worse in a Puritan society. The Puritan society is supposed to be a clean, evil-free place where crimes, temptations, and all the devilish sins are not supposed to be found here but Hester committed adultery in this pure society. However, even though Hester is guilty as charged, she's not the only one worthy of the blame. There must be another person that takes the same responsibility and also be take the punishment because it takes two people to have an adultery and the other person involved in this huge scandal should also be guilty and be brought to trial. Usually after you do something bad, you feel guilty about it. Some people feel guilty because they feel bad about what they've done because it's uncalled for. Some feel guilty because they are afraid of getting caught and they try their best to not get caught. When I feel guilty, i feel both. Sometimes I feel guilty after I scorn a person and he keeps saying sorry. Sometimes I feel guilty when the authority is on the verge of finding out the bad deed I've done.

Journal 4: Puritan Poetry

The major Puritan belief was that every earthly pleasure was only temporary and that the only meaning of life was to redeem ourselves of the Original Sin so there would be a place high up in heaven after we gloriously leave our place on Earth. The burning house poem expresses Puritan ideology with very typical attitude. It is a very contradicting idea because if they believe that everything that happened is related to God then they should believe that Jesus' death was to relief the Original Sin of all people. However, they still believe that everyone should live the world just to clear their Original Sin as if Jesus have died in vain. They didn't respect what Jesus did for them and went ahead and disregard what he did for them. A normal person's poem after their house has burnt to ashes and lost all their possession would probably not praise or be grateful of God for not taking their lives along with their possession. In my poem I would probably write mostly to condemn God and blame God for all the unfortunate events that happened in addition to the burning of my house. I would release all my anger to God because he is the only one I can blame instead of myself and I would not want to blame myself for anything after I have just lost everything to such traumatic cause.

Journal 3: Possessions

Anne Bradstreet's belief is that everything we own is gift from God and if our lord sees fit to take away our possession then it is by definition justified and for the greater good. Since mortal stuff is temporary, we shouldn't be too attached to stuff we own in the human realm because we will eventually lose them once we step on our journey to the eternal afterlife. That's when things get set. You're either in hell or you're in heaven for good. Some believe that you go through the purgatory to pay off your debt before you go to heaven. But eventually, it's down to eternal suffering or eternal pleasure high up where sun shines bright above you. If we can detach our feelings to mortal possessions then there is a higher possibility that we can ascend to heaven. I don't agree with her point of view, in fact, I disagree it entirely. It is not God's grace that we get our paycheck at the end of every month. It's not God's grace that I can use a Mac. It's not God's grace that there's toilet paper in the bathroom. Every good thing that has happened to us we earned it ourselves. Maybe not entirely, maybe there's a tinge of good fortune but most of the good things are a combination of probability and mostly our hard work. If unfortunate things happen, I know it's not God's wraith but I would still be mad at God because I just needed someone except for myself to take the blame and since God has not yet rain fire on me, he's already messing up my life enough that I am numb to his minor punishments. If my house burnt down along with all my possession I would curse with all my energy about everything until I lose my voice.

Journal 2: Puritanism v Rationalism

Puritans believe that life should be as simple as possible and that people should worship God by themselves without the priest, Church being the media to talk to God. Rationalists share the same belief as the Puritans, that God created the universe. However, Rationalists differ in that they believe that God does not interfere with the balance and order of the world after his creation. That is to say, after God's creation of the universe, the world operates based on a set of rules deployed by God to run the world smoothly. However, The puritans believe that everything that happened has to be related to God, God's decision, God's intention, God's interference of an event, and God is running the world as it progress. I believe that the world is not created by God because I don't believe in religion. However, I do believe there is a God so sometimes I still pray. My belief is that all God does is answer prayers from people. Although most religious people in the world believes in science that the creation of the world was from the Big Bang, and that organisms evolved into humans eventually. However, they also believe, spiritually, that God exist and created the universe. They don't fight science, but in their belief they let them coexist. However, some hardcore religious people believe that eventually science will mature into realizing that God created the world in 7 days, just as the bible says. But this belief is shared by the minority of people.

Journal 1: A New Nation

The puritans are proud people that believes that they can set a good example for everyone. They believed in the Manifest Destiny that they are destined to rule America and to shine over other nations. America is certainly one of the most powerful countries in terms of military, however, there was more of a religious success believed by the Puritans. After the separation of Church and State, America pulled away from religion and grew further away from church. Also, at the beginning of the Puritans colony, the Puritans were living together densely packed to survive. They lived in harmony and to sustain each other by helping out as much as possible. America now is nothing like that, people are so spread out because of the flourish of automobiles. People care about themselves a lot more than helping out neighbors or friends. America didn't turn out the way they pictured but it might also be true that God is still in support of America because it is so powerful in influencing the international community as well as its military. There's no doubt America is an exemplary country of wealth, freedom, and power, but it grew apart from what the Puritans believed in the first place, religion. Even the example has hints of religious ideas but America now has grew away from religion.