Poe

Reading  "The Tell Tale Heart" again has deepened my appreciation for Poe. Before, I didn't understand his technique or his mastery of suspense.  I just thought it was a odd story.  Now I see that how he is able to get into the mind of a killer and explain how they think.  He takes a reasonable argument and makes it unreasonable and insane.  For example, in the "Tell Tale Heart" the narrator asks why anyone would call him mad.  He claims he is sane because can wait patiently to kill the old man and also cover the body in a way that nobody else would be able to notice.  Because he is able to think clearly, on the surface, he is sane.  What makes him absolutely insane is his deed and that very same rationing.  He kills the old man yet rationalizes he is still sane. This narrator has this obsession with the old man's eye.  He claims it's evil, so that is why the man must die.  The interesting thing is that the eye does nothing; it's just a bit creepy.  What the man perceives is his reality.  In his mind, the eye is the source evil and not himself.
When reading this story, the man's nervousness is apparent, especially in the first paragraph.  It gives this feeling that his heart is racing and pumping fast.  Poe has a way with using the Gothic style of writing.  As a writer, I admire how he is able to create the dark, morbid atmosphere.  I believe it's the kind of thrill people get when they watch a psychological, suspense thriller today.  It's as though the reader's senses are honed and refined in the darkness.
As for the "The Cask of Amontillado," I found it more sad than disturbing.  I really pitied how Fortunato was betrayed because of Montresor couldn't get past his own inadequacies.  Montresor lead Fortunato, while he was drunk, into a tomb and built a wall to block the entrance.  He felt it was wrong but ignored his feelings.  He makes himself believe that it is nothing.
One of the things I found interesting about this piece was the title.  I searched the definition of cask because I thought it was closely related to 'casket.'  It turns out that a cask is meant for holding alcohol.  Fortunato is a wine expert, who gets drunk at the carnival. Montresor has used this weakness of his to kill him.  I'm not too sure of the connection, but I found the link to the title interesting.  Overall, this story wasn't as suspenseful, but I do think it says something about human nature.  Montresor says his friend insulted him and that is the reason he has to die.  The motives for killing in these two stories don't make sense to us.  In the mind of an insane person, however, they are somehow rationalized.  I think the reader can see how things make sense even if we know they aren't right.  Poe has allowed a unique insight even though these stories are fiction.          

Thoreau

Some quotes and passages in this rhetoric really resonated with me.  I thought I preferred Emerson, but reading the two works again, I see that Thoreau's philosophy is much more agreeable.  Thoreau's minimalistic and simplistic attitude works well with  the nature he lives in.  His mellow views flow smoothly with his surroundings. Thoreau believes that we should improve our surroundings and not ourselves.  I think he values action and progress more than selfish, personal endeavors.  In a way, it's the opposite of Emerson, who promoted the self and the individual.  Thoreau seemed to be more focused on getting everything out of life and learning from nature.

He writes, "it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts" (892). 
 In this quote, he talks about perspective.  He says that we can change how we see the world, and we can make it beautiful according to our own discretion.  Perspective is a powerful thing because it changes meaning and definitions.  It can cause misunderstandings and chaos.  If we could see how beautiful nature is on its own, we probably wouldn't try to change it: "to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue."  We only see how we want to see and not how things are.  That has been the history with mankind.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...and see if I could not learn what it had to teach , and not, when I came to die, discover I had not lived" ( 892).
Nature breathes on its own.  It's biological processes happen without any machines or any pretenses.  Nature is the best teacher, according to Thoreau.  Our world is overrun with stress that we've created for ourselves.  We tend to focus on money and success more than just living.  Our values have changed over time, so we believe we live to work and do other unnecessary things. Thoreau returned to nature so that he could get to know the basics, what truly mattered.  The woods have always been a place for discovery in literature.  It is where people can get lost amongst the trees.  I guess that's where they get the proverb "can't see the forest for the trees."  I don't think people see the forest, the big picture.  They are too focused on the details.

On the same page, Thoreau mentions simplicity.  His abandoning of material things reminds me of Buddha.  Thoreau's concept coincide with many of the ideas in Buddhism.  His meditation of nature and keeping to only essential things makes Thoreau a very enlightened and free person.  I sense that he is not bound to anything.  He wonders around , and he's okay with that.  His mind is truly free to explore.          

Emerson: Self Reliance

Emerson insists upon trusting one's own thoughts and not copying anyone.  He believes that by copying others we are conforming to others and in the process, we lose the courage to have our own thoughts. I have always adhered to this concept of his. "Self Reliance" is one of my favorite essays because it got me into believing in original thought.  The concept of originality is appealing, although, I doubt something can be completely original.  Even the "saints and sages" must have gotten inspiration from somewhere.  It's difficult not to imitate when we consider how people learn. We learn by imitation.  In our early stages, we learn by copying our parents and other people who are around us. This is just a natural tendency that young children have.  This takes Emerson's words literally, which is probably skewed from his original meaning.  However, I believe we learn by imitation and that there isn't any way to to avoid it.  There are ways to teach people to think for themselves, but to be truly self reliant is nearly impossible.  I find it profoundly ironic whenever I think of Emerson's "Self Reliance" to promote originality.  Emerson probably got as many original thinkers as he did conformists to his philosophy.        

Moving on, Emerson says in one part of his essay that God is inside us. The reasoning is that  because imagination is infinite and God is infinite, then the two must be linked or the same things. By using our imagination and originality to generate thought, we are closer to God ( or something to that effect).  This explanation explained Transcendentalism to me.  I didn't understand the connection to the universe or the reach of the movement until I heard this. There are parts in Emerson's essay that he shuns institutions such as churches for their corruption.  He believes in God within oneself and not in any institutionalized, man-made form. 
As for Emerson's view on charity and helping other people, I have to partially agree.  Some people take advantage of charity , and because charity exists, they don't work as hard.  I do a plethora of volunteer work.  In over 200 hours of volunteer work, I have never thought I was being taken advantage of, but even these people I was helping didn't completely rely on volunteers.  They actively sought to better there lives and help themselves.  Concern about others isn't a terrible thing, and I think Emerson is also talking about charity in terms of helping other people think.  Helping others think is the same as thinking for them.