Prose Narrative: Moralism

I found Johnson's "The History of Rasselas" rather simple to read which was delightfully surprising. I do enjoy deciphering a poem and analyzing an essay but it was rather pleasant to simply have something sit nicely in front of you, a little dull, but nice in the last few weeks of school. The most interesting part of the narrative for me is the happy valley. It really grabbed me simply because it was the most perfect place. The children could live their lives as they pleased and nothing bad would ever happen. They did not need to work and they could play and learn whatever they wanted. They were given everything and anything that they could possibly want or need. Yet they were still missing something. They were missing happiness and an appreciation of what they had. They had no way to appreciate what they had because they had never had anything else. They never had stress or pain or confusion in their lives only happiness and wealth.
I think that we have all experienced this in our lives. Especially as children we all take advantage of what we have and we do not understand or appreciate how lucky we are. We can all say at the very least that we have been raised in one of the most wealthy countries in the world where we are protected and are able to receive such things as free health care. But when we were young we did not understand how lucky we were or how little other people in the world had. It was only after we grew up and were exposed to the awful things that have, and are happening in our world that we do understand our incredible luck. This is exactly what these children are experiencing in the happy valley. They have no way of appreciating what they have because they have not been exposed to anything else.

Working People's Poetry

Stephen Duck's poem spoke to many people. It is a poem for the working class, for those who put everything they have into their work and into their families. He describes the back-breaking never ending farm work that must be done. It is almost a bleak thought that the person can never stop and that it is an unclimbable hill of work which they will never reach the top of. It would be very difficult to be a farmer, much more difficult than any other profession of that time I believe. At least we all know that we will have the weekends and holidays to rest and spend time with our families. A farmer does not have that, they must work all year round without a day off because their animals and crops need them.
I was honestly fine with this poem until I read Mary Collier's poem "The Woman's Labour". Once I saw this poem the feminist inside of me went "hell ya what is this guys problem?" But now I think that both parties are correct. Yes woman work so incredibly hard and they have no recognition for their work but I think that this is a separate issue from Stephen Duck's poem. I understand Mary Collier's anger at society and the consensual misguided view of 'woman's work' in that time but I do not think that that is what Stephen Duck was talking about. I believe that he was simply writing about the experiences of a farmer and the tiresome way that they must live each day. His poem was not taking away from the work that woman do he simply was writing about what men do. Do not get me wrong though, woman had so much work to do in those times that there work never ended just the same as their husbands.

Final Essay

So I know I am a little late in the game to be writing this but I am a little late in the game with several of my blogs so it is what it is I guess. Well this essay was definitly a challenge filled with more research than actual writing. I choose to write about Manley's use of amatory fiction to disguise her political satire. It is mostly about why she would write using the genre of amatory fiction over another less controversial genre. What I found was that she used amatory fiction because it was controversial, that was in a way her cover. She used a controversial subject to portray her even more controversial ideas and satires. It was most definitly an interesting topic and I am glad that I choose it because while it was a great deal of work there were several really strong sources that I found that were full of information. It was also a topic that held my attention and that I found interesting. I was really glad that I spoke to Dr. Jones (through email) because I was having such a difficult time narrowing my topic because I knew I wanted to write about that particular story and author but it was difficult trying to focus my thoughts. Once she gave me a topic that she felt was appropriate it gave me a clear idea of what to do and that is what really helped me. I found that online books were the best thing and that is what ended up being my main source. I have also decided that google scholar is a god send and I will never write another essay without it. The unb website was somewhat helpful but even with our research presentation I still find it rather confusing and I found it more helpful to use google scholar and simply have the google scholar find articles that were linked to the unb website. But even then the unb website was not a huge help with this essay.
I have to say that more than anything I am glad that this essay is done. It was a difficult essay and it was difficult finding strong sources but once it was all said and done I think I have written a strong essay and it is great to have one class out of the way and done.