Thanatopsis Questions

After reading the poem, consider the following questions.

1. What Greek words were combined to make the title?  How do the meanings of these words contribute to the meaning of the poem?

Thanatos (meaning “death”) and opsis (meaning “sight”) combine to make the title Thanatopsis.  The combination of the words contributes to the meaning of the poem because the meaning of the poem is how the speaker views death.

2. Define the following words; consider the context of the poem:  shroud, pall, narrow house, and sepulcher.  How do these words and their meanings impact the meaning of the poem?

Shroud: A cloth which protects or covers an object.

Pall: A cloth covering a coffin or tomb.

Narrow House: The grave

Sepulcher: A small room usually made of stone where the dead is laid.

These words in the poem were used for you to perceive death as most people would; a dark, gloomy thing. However, the poem as a whole is defending the nature of death and how it does have a bright side to it. The author used these words as a basis in the beginning of his poem to which he would counteract its sinister meaning as you continue to read through the poem.

3. Is this a poem about life or is this a poem about death?  Explain your answer.

At first glance, you would assume this poem is just about death; however, death is a part of life. Like an ending to a book, the ending is part of the book as a whole. In a way, the poem is about both life and death. Its main focus is death, but death is an aspect of life so it’s a part of life as well.

4. The tone of this poem shifts.  What is the tone in the first part of the poem?  When does the tone shift?  What is the tone after the shift?

The tone of the first part of the poem is forbidding because it explains the harshness of death.  It uses nature surrounding you in death to show that you will die in the land and it cannot save you. The tone shifts at line 30 where nature is no longer a major part of the poem.  It shifts to comfort because even if you are alone in death, everyone on the earth will soon join you because death is inevitable.  You do not need nature because you will be dead with “kings… the wise, the good.”

5. Thanatopsis is an ELEGY.  What is an elegy?  What are the conventions of an elegy? What elements of Thanatopsis meet those conventions?

An elegy is a mournful or melancholy poem.   It's conventions are that it shifts from grief to comfort.  The beginning full of grievances and describes this feeling by mournful words such as “stern agony, and shroud, and pall.”  It changes to comforting when it the speaker explains that you will not be alone and you should lay down to a nice pleasant eternal dream.  

6. This poem was written early in the nineteenth century.  The type of landscape art during this time period favored sweeping panoramas, wild vistas, untamed landscapes, and views of the sky.  Look at Thanatopsis as a visual description of a painting.  What elements of the poem are like a painting?  What images are created in the poem?  What landscape is created?

The imagery, personification, and metaphors used in this poem collaborates to paint a picture within the reader’s mind. Its collaboration creates a spiritual world of death and nature and its combination is one gateway to God. It paints a landscape of a hilly forest which is dark on one side and bright on the other side of the painting.

7. Thanatopsis is a poem that can be interpreted in several ways.  How is this poem an example of a historical piece?  How is this a Romantic poem?  How is this a Calvinist poem?

This poem is historical because it shows the thinking process of the time period and is a good example of the Romantic style.  The style of writing in this poem is similar to transcendentalism which found its beginning in late 19th century. It exemplifies the thinking of the people during this time period. It’s a Romantic poem by its content which expands on the idea of death being a good thing.  Romantics took the Naturalist works and changed their ideals completely to show emotion and passion.  In Thanatopsis, the writer shows that death is not bad, the complete opposite of the Naturalists.  He also showed emotion and passion throughout the poem by using extreme detail and explanation such as “Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed,  By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave…”  It is Calvinist because it says God has a path for you which will end in death and death is inevitable.  It also says there is a connection with God through nature.  It explains that through God and through nature, death is not a bad thing.  

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

1. The sermon contains historical context relating to the bible as well as the puritan times when the frontier just arrived in America. Edward, being a Puritan minister, hoped to persuade the puritans in Massachusetts on the correct path to becoming a true and devout Christian.

2.  When Edwards refers to “natural men” he is referring to the people who are sinners by nature.  He is saying that without trying to be Godly like people, they are “natural” and those people are wrong.  The “natural men” are his audience in the congregation.

3.  The meaning of “abate” is the same as the meaning of “appease” which is “to pacify.”  We know this because he stated “neither in the least to appease or abate that anger.”   This means that they are in similar meaning.

4. This structure is very effective in speech which is used to magnify the effect of the visual of how the Puritan’s fate will become. He includes imagery of the horrors and depths of hell to amplify his use of fear in his sermon.

5. The clause serves as a further description of the subject in the sentence. In this case, the subject would be “That world of misery” which then after has the following clause of “That lake of burning brimstone” which gives you further imagery on the subject. Another appositive within the text would be “When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts,” because the the phrase “long for ever” is further described as “a boundless duration.”

6. Edward wanted to exemplify the helplessness of the puritans power against God’s planned fate for them. Using this polysyndeton aids in his use of Pathos within his speech which has a greater effect of driving fear into his audience.

7.  Edwards uses semicolons in order to connect his sentences as if they are one thought.  He repeats not willingly in order to make the audience feel guilt towards their selfishness.

8. The simile in paragraph 5 is “The wrath of God is like the great waters that are dammed for the present.”  He develops this text by describing to us that as God’s wrath builds up and as more sins take place, the water continues to rise and become stronger and stronger.  When He has had enough, he releases the floodgate and His wrath “would rush forward with inconceivable fury.”  Edwards then continues with saying that even if you were ten thousand times stronger than it, you would not be able to withstand it. Imagery has a high power within this text and most texts everywhere.  This sermon is to persuade the audience and to do that, it is necessary to keep them interested. The imagery provides an easy way to stay interested in what is being said as well as understand exactly what the reader is portraying.  In this case, he is using imagery to paint a picture of God’s wrath in the audience’s head by connecting it to something they are all familiar with.

9. Edward uses personification, similes, and metaphors within his speech as well as imagery to make his point of God’s hold on the puritans fate clear. The figurative language and imagery are very graphical with the intent to inject fear within the Puritans listening to his sermon. He uses the progression of the puritan’s fate, their sins, and their salvation through the paragraphs. He wants to inform his listeners of  the horrors the afterlife can contain, which they will undoubtedly face if they do not change and strictly live their lives repenting their sins.

10.  Edwards employs pathos throughout the whole sermon.  He plays with the audience’s emotions by giving similes and metaphors to terrible things they all know.  He makes the audience feel scared, nervous, terrified, and angry with God.  He also employs ethos by repeatedly reminding his audience of the power of God and how his absolute power reigns all within his grasp. The nature of his method is to use ethics within the bible to induce fear of God’s wrath into his listener so they would change their perspective on life and follow a more pure path in order to have a slight chance against their final judgement.

11. Edwards tone of voice was said to be much different than the tone of the writing.  In reading, it could be conceived that his tone was harsh and cruel because he uses words such as “fury,, “harsh,” and “fiery.”   Despite the harsh tone within the text, in class we learned that his tone of voice was calm and almost emotionless to let the words shine through.  I do not think there is much change throughout the sermon because in almost every paragraph, he refers to the wrath of God.

12. The text is overflowing with excessive uses of semicolons and commas which would be regularly and effectively used within speech. Normal text has more condensed ideas which are clearly separated and stated without continuous ramblings on the subject.

13. The sermon is persuasive because he is persuading the audience to not sin and only do what is right in God’s eyes so they do not go to hell. I do think it is effective because the it was said that the audience stood up and yelled on many occasions and he had to make them be quiet so that he could continue.  I would define a persuasive text to be one that convinces the audience of something or at least attempts to.

14.  There are many aspects of the sermon that evoked a terrified response from the congregation.  On major part of the sermon that would evoke such a response is the paragraph (paragraph 7) that tells the congregation that God is holding them over a pit of fire like we would hold a spider over the fire.  The idea of God holding you over a fire makes the congregation feel uncomfortable that their savior would torment them if they did something wrong. Another part of the sermon that many would be terrifying of is the part that mentions that God will shoot an arrow through their head (paragraph 7).  In general, Edwards evoked the emotions by turning the congregation afraid of the Lord and scare them into becoming pure and not sinners.  

15.

This image is a picture of God’s wrath when it is let out of the floodgate.  The waves are about to crash on the sinner and he does not stand a chance of remaining standing after the waves crash.  I believe it is the most powerful part of the text because it is very clear to the reader exactly what God’s wrath will do if there continues to be sin in a life.  

The Iroquois Constitution

1.) Considering the calm and apparent wisdom this speech exemplifies, it does persuade me to join. The reasoning exhibited in the speech illustrates a perfectly peaceful and prosperous utopia and if I were a chief of a Native American nation, I would highly consider the offer to be very beneficial towards my people.

2.) A.) The lords planted the Tree of Great Peace.

B.) The roots symbolizes the people of the five tribes because the people are the “roots” of the confederacy. They are the reason why the confederacy exist and are protected by the confederacy, just like roots being the foundation of a tree and being protected under its shade.

3.) A.) The confederate lords must greet each other as well as show gratitude towards their fellow comrades, the nature around them, and the physical and spiritual things that are blessed upon them.

B.) The decree suggest the Iroquois to be very friendly, peaceful people who understand and appreciate everything in their possession as well as aspects of life.

4.) A.) Dekanawidah uses the image of the Tree of Great Peace, its roots, and an eagle flying above the tree in the Iroquois Constitution.

B.) These references represent the Iroquois as being people who greatly values nature and view it as being a world that should always be respected.

5.) A.) The council lords are required to be calm, patient, firm, and also fair. They should not be selfish in anyway and their actions should only be executed after deliberation on its outcome.

B.) These qualities are still valued in a leader in the modern world. A leader who is calm, patient, firm, fair, selfless, and logical is a leader who has the ability to lead his followers into greatness.

6.) A.) I support the ideas presented in The Iroquois Confederacy for it demonstrates brilliantly simple ideas which supports the ideal of a peaceful society.

The Navajo Origin Legend

1. I would use the words spiritual and divine to describe these images in this tale for they produce a portrayal of godly and ethereal figures within the story.

4. A.) First is the absolution, the cleansing of the body as a part of a religious rite. The call of the Gods in the duration of their arrival and the appearance of the four Gods, Blue Body, Black Body, Yellow Body, and White Body, is next. Then the ceremony itself initiates, beginning with the placement of the first buckskin down facing the west, the two ears of corn with their tips facing the east, a feather from a white and a feather from yellow eagle underneath each ear of corn that corresponded to its color, and lastly the placement of the second buckskin over the objects with the head facing the east. The wind blows in, creating a mirage of people which in turn took four revolutions around the objects placed on the ground. Lastly, the creation of man and woman is revealed.
B.) Considering the complexity and specifics involved with the ceremony, it gives the Navajo people the characteristics of being very meticulous and genuinely serious people, especially when important events and ceremonies occur.

5. A.) The wind represented the force which institutes life into the living. Its role was to bring the man and woman to life from the ears of corn.
B.) The order and ritual of the ceremony is very structured and in a specific sequence which presents itself to be very orderly; however, the wind has a very arbitrary characteristic where it is personified to being able to come and go whenever it pleases with no pattern or warning as to when it will occur.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Symbolism Uses and its Meaning

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story published in 1892 and written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story depicts a woman in marriage from this time period and showcases how domestic women are stripped of their freedom to express free thought and speech in the late 19th century. Mrs.Gilman heavily uses symbolism in her story with the yellow wallpaper in the narrator’s room being the most obvious one. The wallpaper has parts to it which symbolizes different concepts. These parts include the wallpaper as a whole, the randomly intricate design upon the paper, and the woman inside of the wallpaper, behind the design. 

The main function of the wallpaper is to symbolize traditions of society during this time period. During the time of 1892, women have already began the fight for suffrage and equal rights as men. Mrs.Gilman was a socialist during this time and wrote this short story based on her own life experience. She used the wallpaper to symbolize relations like family authority, social standings, and medical practices. In Mrs.Gilman’s story, she depicts the narrator as a woman who is slowly and gradually driven insane by the wallpaper in her room.

The design in the wallpaper was seen as prison bars of a cell. It symbolizes the restrictions of society that are implemented during this time period. The narrator in the story observed how the women in the wallpaper desperately searched the pattern for a means of escape. When some of the women were successful in squeezing through the small spaces in the pattern, they were strangled by the pattern to death. This event symbolizes how when a woman would try to speak out and convey to the world her thoughts, society would silence and strangle her, sometimes even leading her towards death.  

As the story progresses, the narrator becomes more aware of the woman behind the design in the wallpaper. This shadow woman symbolizes the reality the narrator is in. The shadow woman is constantly “creeping” and crawling about within the wallpaper in search of escape. The longer the woman in the wallpaper stays there, the more bizarre she becomes; furthermore, it is as if the shadow woman is gradually becoming more insane within her confinement. This symbolized how restriction of free expression can in turn harm you mentally, driving you insane.

In the ending, the narrator comes to the conclusion that the woman she constantly sees in the wallpaper was actually herself and she needed to break herself free from the prison. To do this, she tears and rips the wallpaper from the walls as to symbolize she is tearing apart societies expectations of her and setting her mind free. However, the cost of her mind being free is losing her sense of reason and becoming completely insane. Mrs.Gilman wished to portray this finale as society's view of which if women were to be allowed to reach complete freedom, then they would in turn be seen as insane. However, the readers of the story know the narrator was turned insane because of the restrictions placed upon her by society, not the freedom itself.

Introduction to Me

My name is Truc Thanh Pham and I am 16 years old. Everyone refers to me as Jenny. I'm Vietnamese and French and I was born and raised in Vietnam till I was 2. I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico for 9 years before I moved to Newton, North Carolina at age 11 and have stayed here since then. I'm fluent in English and Vietnamese and am currently learning Japanese. My hobbies are making origami, reading, listening to music, and playing badminton. I like to travel and go on adventures in new places. I have dreams of becoming a physician and to continue to tour the world for the rest of my life. I hope to learn many more things this semester and encounter many more opportunities.

どうぞよろしくおねんがいします。