Wk. 2 Benjamin Franklin & his writing on Native Americans

Benjamin Franklin depicts an interesting concept in his writing of "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America," that from their perspective, maybe the white people are actually the savages, not them. Just because they didn't have guns or as technically advanced of a society we automatically assumed that they were savages. He also talks about the idea of the "noble savage," that what is "civilized is natural." In the beginning of the settling of America the natural world was both beautiful but also threatening. I think it was the simple, easy, naturalness of these Native Americans that made the settlers feel threatened. After reading Franklin's autobiography and some of his works, Franklin seems to me to be the modern day version of Oprah.

Wk. 3 American Romanticism

My Kinsman, Major Molineux and Rip Van Winkle were actually kind of similar in the sense that the main characters were still exploring and attempting to define what it means to be an American. In Major Molineux a young boy tries to find his kinsman that lives in a big town in hopes that Molineux will bring him up into society. Major Molineux and Rip Van Winkle both have strong reservation of the 'brave new world' that is America. These reservations that Hawthorne and Irving write about tie in to the developing Romanticism of the time period. It was a period of transition from Gothic to Transcendentalism. Where the Gothic view is a response to the emphasis on reason and human nature (the thought that all humans are sinners) and Transcendentalism is a sort of idealism. Hawthorne shows very strong writing in the romance tradition in his Young Goodman Brown and The Birthmark. I found The Birthmark very intriguing because of Hawthorne's tie in of the Romance between a man and a woman, but also the man's essential need for his wife to be absolutly perfect that he kills her. It is a good example of a representation of the American Romanticism- that these new Americans see the world in a new way and it must be free and perfect for them because they are Americans.

Avatar- Study of Amer. Society

Avatar is a great representation of a comparision of societies. It takes the "American Dream" to a whole new level and basically turns it on another society. The Americans have started trying to take over a foreign planet, taking Manifest Destiny too far. The "American Dream" part of it is that all of these people want to take part in researching and discovering this new land and people. Everyone can't wait to get their hands on it because of the huge profit they can potentially recieve; they just want to get rich! The film also made light of some different American cultural values. I enjoyed watching Jake Sulley assimilate into the new society. It was a society of peace without guns and huge weaponry of mass destruction. Jake relearns the value of such trivial and easy parts of life that in American society are often forgotten about. American society has based itself of freedom of the people and being a democracy, but in Avatar, America's history with the 'Indians' (Native Americans) repeats itself. Clouded by their own visions, greed, and perception that because they are American they can have whatever they want, the men leading the project catagorize the Avatar society as being savage and primitive when they actually are a very advanced society, they just have no need for guns and computers. The film did a good job of helping the viewer to take a step back to realize that people value different things more or less than ourselves and people need to be considerate of culture differences at all times, no matter what race or society they are from.