Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson was the most important philosopher in the nineteenth century. People said he was the Father of American Transcendentalism or the Father of American Literature.
In the argumentative essay "The American Scholar," he addressed to the scholars of Phi Beta Kapa Society at Cambridge. Emerson talked about that there 's something new happened in this land, and all the scholars, writers had responsibility. He wrote how should a scholar should be educated, and came u three influences: nature, past of mind, and actions.

Nature is everything, like plant is part of nature, including what's in your mind. Nature and soul are related. If you know more about nature, then you get more understanding of yourself too.

Hawthorne's Rappaccini's Daughter

In the 50 minutes American Lit. class, we "listened"the story of Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Beatrice was a lonely and innocent young girl who was isolated from the society by her father's stupid experiment on her. Rappaccini raised a poisonous plant and got into his daughter, Beatrice body. Her little breath can make insects or other livings died. The poison had already been in her body for years, so Beatrice died because she took the powerful antidote. To Rappaccini, the final result of his experiment was his own daughter died. I wondered is that the result that Rappaccini really want?

I was surprised by the plot of the story!Rappaccini didn't do a great job on his role of father. He hurted his own daughter because of his own fervor of his science.

Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Thomas Paine was the key member during the American Revolution. His saying in the book Common Sense awakened the people, and inspired them to go to revolution. In his Common Sense, he said people have the right to get their own freedom, and the book was easy to understand by common people. People wanted to cut off the relationship with Great Britain, so people can successfully sell their goods to the European markets. Thomas Paine made many arguments in Common Sense that we should achieve our independence. Because of his book, Americans defeated British successfully!!!!

Olaudah Equiano

I was really impressed of Olaudah Equiano's writing "From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano." It was the first slave narrative. Equiano's first attempt was trying to tell the federal government to stop the slave trade. His life supposed to be better; when he was a kid, he trained to be a warrior. He was kidnapped with his sister, and enslaved in Africa. Life was not great for him, he got separated with his sister. He tried to escape, and it became impossible to get home. He had been sold many times. Once, he was bought from a woman, and the treatment there made him forget that he was a slave!

The horrible thing was if the slave resist to eat, then whites would tied them at windlass, and hit the slave. Equiano then sent to the New World, the voyage was horrible; people rather died. He even saw the white men hit their own white to die too. Whites were the savages. Equiano saw different things that he couldn't see in his home like flying fish, vessels, and horses.

Equiano found small comforts along his life, but after the comforts were the hard life waiting for him. If I am Equiano, i can't even bear with the arduous life he has. White and black men suppose to be equal, they are all human beings!