puritans

Puritans are very religious. They have one main goal and that is to purify the English church. They wanted to establish a city on a hill. They believed that everyman should read the bible. They believe that people can only change through god and they believe in pre destination. They believe in theocracy, plainness, and simplicity. They dress simply their religion is simple and they life simple lives. Also, their art and culture are very simple. Their literature is also very simple. In Anne Bradstreet’s poem “Upon the Burning of Our House”, her house gets burned down and shes asking god to help her see the good in the situation. She is asking for strength and help. In the poem she is struggling with her puritan beliefs. She is very un-puritan in some parts of the poem. For example, “but yet sufficient for us left. When the ruins oft I pass. My sorrowing eyes aside did cast, and here and there the places spy where oft I sat and long did lie” Here she is struggling and you can see that because she looks away and can not stand to look at her burning house and belongings. Also another way she is un-puritan is that she is upset because all of her stuff is gone. Puritans are not materialistic and here she is. Especially when she says “My pleasant things in ashes lye and them behold no more shall I. Under thy roof no guest shall sit, Nor at thy Table eat a bit. No pleasant tale shall ‘ere be told, Nor things recounted done of old.” She can not stand losing her valuables. Many puritans do not mind losing valuables and she does. This poem is about her confusion towards her religion.

Essay!!!

My essay is about Cannery Row. No, not about the actual plot.... It is about the quest and how the quest is tied to the novel. For my examples, I am using Docs adventure to the boulder –strewn inter tidal zone down near La Jolla to collect small octopi as well as Mack and the boys attempt at adventure. I feel that parts of my essay so far a pretty good. The rest is what I need to improve. My summer reading essay is going okay. I think its going pretty slow. I am having troubles getting it started. I also am not satisfied with my essay right now. In my opinion, my essay is lacking good structure. I just do not think it flows. I think there are minimal stylistic elements included in my cannery row essay. I need to add my own personal voice to my paper because I feel like it reads like a robot wrote it. Not a human being with a mind of their own. Considering I only have to paragraphs that are completed, I would say that I should work a bit on the other paragraphs along with doing my absolute best to write a good essay. I can do this by editing my existing two paragraphs until they can not be fixed anymore. haha. :) I really want to attempt to put quotation into my text more smoothly than I have in the past. I want to make sure that the reader is not confused as to why I put the quote in the text or essay. If I need to change something I want to use brackets or ellipses to indicate a change in the quote. Essentially my goal for this essay is to try and capture the words of Thomas Foster and connect them to Cannery Row.

Cannery Row

In cannery row there is this feeling of brokenness throughout the book. The novel is about the people of Cannery Row and their fear of breaking free from the comfort of their town and find out who they are. How do they do this in the novel? They go on an adventure. A "quest" as foster would say. Foster says that the quest is basically having a place to go and a reason to go there. "The real reason to go on a quest is always self knowledge" (Foster, 3). There are many quests in the book. For example, Doc goes on an adventure to the boulder –strewn inter tidal zone down near La Jolla to collect small octopi. This was a tough, long journey. He had to travel 500 miles each way and he had to arrive at the correct tidal times. He is very brave for taking on this journey. The reason doc goes on this journey is not simply to get small octopi. Steinbeck made him go on this quest for a reason. We as readers were supposed to see that doc is a little bit of everything and this journey symbolizes him finding himself. Another quest is when Mack and the boys decide to go on a journey. They ask lee if they can use his truck. In order to do that, they have to fix it. They do not have enough money for gas or the right tools to fix the car. It could take them forever. They also don’t have the right tools for travel. I think this tells us that maybe its easier for some people to get out of town or discover themselves. I think everyone has a little trouble finding out who they really are the only difference between novels and real life is that most of us don’t literally go on a quest and some people are lucky and know who they are.