Samuel McDuffie
February 24, 2019
ENGL 205
Project Plan
Project Research
Topic: Pick a subject: love, work, freedom, etc. Then choose two selections and discuss how that subject is discussed in those selections. Use literary devices to help frame your discussion.
Readings chosen:
The Luck of Roaring Camp
Whitfield: Self-Reliance
Subject focus: Love
Symbolism: The infant baby symbolizes more than one thing. It may symbolize life, and it may also be a Christian symbol. After being born, the baby revives the spirit of the camp, giving it a new life. The men start to wash themselves and act with decency. The Christian symbol comes into play when they take the baby to church for its christening. The baby is like a recreation of Jesus who gave faith to people and life to the land. It also symbolizes love, purity, calm.
· “It takes a village to raise a child”
· "The Luck of Roaring Camp" depicts the ways in which men must embrace societal norms and act maternally for the sake of an orphaned child.
· Gold Rush settlers show that through their affection, sensitive protection, and even the naming of the child show that these men moved past the social flaws of the time to make a positive life for Tommy Luck.
· Maternal nature
o Mining men had to embrace deviancy and act maternally for the child.
Quote from Reading:
“As Kentuck bent over the candle-box half curiously, the child turned, and, in a spasm of pain, caught at his groping finger, and held it fast for a moment. Kentuck looked foolish and embarrassed.
Something like a blush tried to assert itself in his weather-beaten cheek. "The damned little cuss!" he said, as he extricated his finger, with perhaps more tenderness and care than he might have been deemed capable of showing.
He held that finger a little apart from its fellows as he went out, and examined it curiously. The examination provoked the same original remark in regard to the child. In fact, he seemed to enjoy repeating it. "He rastled with my finger," he remarked to Tipton, holding up the member, "the damned little cuss!" "
Something like a blush tried to assert itself in his weather-beaten cheek. "The damned little cuss!" he said, as he extricated his finger, with perhaps more tenderness and care than he might have been deemed capable of showing.
He held that finger a little apart from its fellows as he went out, and examined it curiously. The examination provoked the same original remark in regard to the child. In fact, he seemed to enjoy repeating it. "He rastled with my finger," he remarked to Tipton, holding up the member, "the damned little cuss!" "
From my personal analysis for “Self-Reliance”
James Whitfield’s poem “Self-Reliance” speaks of the theme of reliance, the need to depend or trust someone, for the sake of ones’ happiness, the ways of life, and the realization that our strength reflects from within us. It also tells the story about a man’s conscience informed by Christianity. Ways of finding happiness is through otherswho surround you during difficult times. Whitfield states: “When numerous friends, whose cheerful tone/In happier hours once cheered him on,/With visions that full brightly shone,”(Whitfield). Whitfield doesn’t signify his target audience, but he defies it openly. One must have people around them to get through the harshest and darkest of times. He uses words like cheerful, happier, brightly to indicate that he knows of love in various forms. Whitfield says “with visions that full brightly shone” expressing that someone or something can see the brighter side of these harsh moments.
Whitfield states how being in love also defines our youth and purity:
When love, which in his bosom burned
With all the fire of ardent youth,
And which he fondly thought returned
With equal purity and truth
The youth through their struggle find comfort in one another. Almost as if to blind themselves from the hardship, they focus on each other. Their purity cannot be destroy because of their love. Whitfield emphasizes the young’s purity, as it may change as the years go by and they experience more harm than good. Their truth is their being.
· Love is a stronger bond
· Whitfield indicates that though all may be struggling, happiness and love does not take away the pain, but it makes it accompanies and eases it out.
· Symbolism of the youth
o Signifying purity
o Happiness
o Truth
Hi Samuel! Thanks for your notes exploring your chosen topic a bit further.
ReplyDeleteIf I understand you, you are analyzing how the topic of love is discussed in two selections. You will use the literary device of "symbolism" to help you lay out your analysis.
One thing I want to caution you about what it means to analyze and interpret an author's intentions. For example, you state:" The infant baby symbolizes more than one thing. It may symbolize life, and it may also be a Christian symbol."
Do you have evidence that the author intended the baby in "The Luck of Roaring Camp" to be a symbol of some form of Christianity? What leads you to that interpretation?
It's clear you apply that meaning to the character, but how do you know that's what the author intended? As writers, we have to be really careful not to place our lens over everything, but to actually do the work of looking at the readings really carefully and seeing what is actually there. What did the authors create? What did the authors want to say about the topic of love? How do you know? What words or events or actions or thoughts lend themselves to your interpretation of what the authors are trying to say about the topic of love? THAT'S what your assignment is: an analysis of what the authors of these selections are trying to say about the topic of love, and how their choices support that interpretation.