Week 8: Gilded Age and "The Great Gatsby"

Date of week: Dec. 1-7 ,2014
This week my American Studies class had begun to discuss the Gilded Age and Roaring 20's. A time when there was a ton of technological progress in the United States which caused changes in the social classes of the country. There began to be a more significant division between the rich and the poor. As the Great Depression had come to an end before this time. Innovation drives the nation in new paths. The United States turns its interest in international business with the idea of Empire. This ties into the the great American novel, The Great Gatsby, as the characters experience life in their respective classes. In the novel the rich live luxuriously while the poor work day in and out to acquire the necessities for themselves and nothing more. The rich people are involved in business. The idea of rag-to-riches also comes into play, where someone from nothing makes it big. The morals and values of the different classes are different. The concept of morality in life effects the characters' decisions. How far someone is wiling to go to get to where they want? Would they throw away their morality to achieve their goal?  Do the rich really have more than the poor? How is being rich defined differently now in comparison to then? Why and how do Empires form?

Week 7: NDH

Week of  Nov. 10th
As the class is beginning to get more into the process of completing the National History Day projects the difficulty is increasing. Personally I am finding the research part of it all super overwhelming because it is just so much to think about and very stressful because I know it is the base of the entirety of my paper for the NDH. The hardest part is locating the primary sources. You really have to search around and dig for information. For a majority of the time of my research I was following link after link after link; meaning I had to uncover the sources that I found cited on other places. Over all the research phase just was time consuming and to be honest a lot of work with a ton of dead ends where I found nothing. I feel like once I get all the information and outlining down solidly that the whole writing process will go smoothly By that given point I hope it to just be a plug and chug sort of thing. Obviously with fixing the rough spots and basically polishing the paper up along with adding the final details. This project is honestly quite interesting in the fact that it revolves around the affect of what each person did rather than just a biography of the given person's life. The legacy and changes that the people did are what truly matter in the future which I feel like some people forget to looks at. They focus on what the person did and neglect to ask, "how does that effect my life, today?" I look back I can honestly say that I did not even think about that question. How is the NDH going for everyone else? What do you find to be hardest? What is the easiest? What do you look forward to doing?

Week 6: Reconstruction and Romanticism

Weeks of Oct. 20th - 29th

The efforts of Reconstruction were attempts to re-build the United States Union and find places for the black slaves along with the expansion of the nation. As a result there were many ideas set on the table and a ton of disagreements with the circumstances. With the Civil War over there are also many new feelings arising from the citizens and as a result the arts get change and new arts come to creation. During this period in American history the overall mood of the nation is negative as they have just finished the bloodiest war that split the nation apart. With all this negativity and uncertainty Romanticism came to be and was embraced by authors, poets, artists, and the critics of the United States. Romanticism focuses on the darker, mysterious side of things as it revolves around the supernatural, imagination, the Gothic, death, and respect for nature. I think that such a theme was taken in because of all the death that occurred during the Civil War along with the search for individuality. People become attracted to rebellion, revolution with the trends of melancholy and sadness. The expression of a person's feeling and their darker side was appealing to people as the Enlightenment Period concluded and opinions clashed. A famous example is the poet Edgar Allan Poe who had many tragedies in his life and those losses and feelings for revenge and the familiarity with death were transferred into his poems and short stories. Personally I really like the Romantic literary works as they bring about a sense of mystery and get the reader on the edge of their seat. Why is it that people like to feel scared and have the adrenalin of fear with anxiety?

Week 5: Unit 1 test reflection and Literature Romanticism

Date of week: Oct. 16th-19th
Wednesday, October 16th my class took the Unit 1 test for American Studies. I found that the test was mostly based on my ability to analyze sources being brief. I also was pleasantly surprised to find out that my notes were not needed as much as I anticipated. I feel like I did well with this assessment and ways of improvement being time management. By working toward this I can make my test taking skills sharper and not have stress out so much. For the next assessment I will do better than this time and keep improving as I move forward.

In American Literature we have moved into the Romantics Age and have read "Legend of Sleepy Hallow" by Washington Irving as well as "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe. The writing in this age has changed drastically from the Enlightenment Period into literature based on imagination. Which incorporates the supernatural, evil, mystical, rebellion, Gothic, and individualism. I have so far really enjoyed the readings that we have done in Romanticism because they get me very engrossed in the pieces of literature. Even though these stories scare me half to death I thrive off them as they give me anxiety, excitement, and fear. This gives me a huge question: Why do people enjoy something that they fear in life?

Week 4: Unit 1 test

Date of Week: September 29th - October 3rd

Unit 1 Test

The first test of the year is coming up and I am quite busy preparing for said test. To be honest I am a bit more worried for this test because it is an open notes test. I am concerned about finishing the test in time, which is only going to be one class period. The material that will be covered includes everything spanning from the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 to right before the beginning of the Civil War. There will be 5 sources that the students will have to analyze, show comprehension on trends (liberties and freedoms), and do OPVL. I tend to overwrite on my short answers and essays so during the test I will have to really be conscious of keeping my thoughts compact and concise while at the same time covering all the useful points in order to analyze the evidence. Another factor that plays into my uncertainty is that this is going to be the first time I will be taking a test in Mr. Hoffman's class and I do not quite know what exactly to expect. However I have been in his class for about 2 months now and can get a pretty good idea about how the questions will look and be graded at the end. I will just have to depend on my focus in class and reliant on my study habits that I have acquired over the years to carry me through this test. I am planning on looking over all my notes that I have already previously organized for the majority of my studying as well as holding a study group with some of my friends. I understand that I will only get out of this test what I put in. The grade will reflect my understanding and knowledge.     

Week 3: Slavery close to Civil War

Date of week: September 22th - 26th

At this point in history slavery is creating high tension in the Union. The South is even threatening to leave the Union. It was clear that there would be no way to settle slavery without a war. The material that we covered in class has gotten me very interested and excited to get into learn about the Civil War. I have had classes were the Civil War has been briefly covered but mostly skipped over. I have also been to Gettysburg and gone through a guided tour of the battlefields including the museum that had tons of exhibits regarding the Civil War. I am thrilled that the class is going to cover the Civil War and based on what American Studies has been like for far the material of the Civil War will be quite informative and deep in content. I understand that the topic of war will be heavy content and I ready to take the content very seriously. Slavery and war will continue to tear the nation apart. While the class has been learning about slavery I have felt that everyone now days can learn something from how the African Americans were treated and apply it to their own lives. The basic lesson to be learned is to think about how you treat others and if any mistreatment does occur recognize it and change it. By looking to the past events that have had negative effects on today's world, example slavery, we can avoid making them again in the future. So a c all to action to eliminate the mistreatment of others.

American Studies: week 2 Indians

Date: week of September 15, 2014

The thing that was most interesting to me this week in class was the discussion on the Chief Justice John Marshall reading. When I read it for homework the opinions that I saw really stood out and made me ask some questions about why he had these thought and if this was the normal thought on the Indians at the time. While I read I circled the words in the text that stood out the most. I took a quite sarcastic voice as I read it in my head, what he wrote was completely the opposite of what I know actually took place with the Indians. The main point struck me hard at how someone would think the way he wrote. The statement, "discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it" which was a nicer way of saying that the founders had control and power over everything (Marshall). Then, when the class had a group discussion on the reading and on the very reasons the Indians were taken advantage of. There was arguments on the concept on the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The two sides to the disagreement were based on if the Europeans moved the Indians out of compassion or selfishness. My thoughts were that the Europeans only had concerns about obtaining more land to increase the economy and they removed the Indians because they were in the way of what the settlers wanted. The Indians were no more then a seer annoyance and were pushed aside. I really do not believe that the Europeans had anything else in mind other than for their own personal gain and prosperity. The class came to an agreement in the end about how John Marshall's writing was so convenient to acquiring the ultimate goal of more land. Also that there was definitely some Puritan ideals found. The main ideal was the thought that it was impossible to mix races. These very details that came from the reading will help in moving forward to understand why other events regarding the Indians occurred.

Week 1: Early Interactions and beginning of Revolution

Date of Week: September 8 - 12

Power has the ability to do good but also an equivalent ability to do evil. The English Puritans along with the Spanish Conquistadors brought many things with them that were considered extremely new and strange to the inhabitants that lived in the New World. In my opinion the English consciously made the decisions to overtake the Indians. The most recognized things that aided the English and Spanish in their efforts were the illnesses and the weapons. The early interactions between the Puritan settlers and the Native Americans formed the history of North America. The interactions between the Spanish Conquistadors and the Tíanos, Mayans,Aztecs, and other indigenous groups created the history of the South and Central Americas. To my understanding these interactions created cultural clashes. The opposing cultures of the Indians and  the Puritans began blending into one another. The Indians thought this as somewhat fine which is shown in their curiosity of how the white men lived and acted. On the other hand the English saw the Indians as savages and their mere existence was opposing the progress of making the land profitable to the Puritans. This huge difference in motives is what I believe began the conflict between these people. The English settlers came and their motives were build around the Settler Colonial Imperative which seemed to say "you go away" you referring to the Indians. The Puritans wanted the Indians to convert or be eliminated from the picture entirely by either sending them away or killing them off. The Spanish Conquistadors had a more Colonial Imperative approach which demanded "you come and work" trying to get as much out of the land as they possibly could. They worked to drain the resources form the area and take back the spoils so to speak to their homeland. These two motives define what will happen and why it happened.


The American Revolution marked a new stage in American history. Slavery made its way to the Americas and African slaves were being shipped in by the boat load. The slaves from Africa were brought for the purposes of labor. In this time there was a huge demand and need for labor for the farms. At this time 20% of the entire population of the Americas was African slaves. In the reading that the class did about Thomas Jefferson's thoughts on the new country I was surprised to find the appalling statements about the slaves. In the beginning of the Declaration of Independence (also in the reading) it states that "all men are create equal"which contradicts to what it said later in the reading. It is clear that Jefferson thought of the slaves as not equal to the white men who could own property. If the slaves were to be freed they would not really be free because society would not welcome them in. The so called "gentlemen" are not seen as good people in my eyes. They used their wealth and power for only themselves and those who were just like them instead of using what they had to influence society to change their thoughts on the African slaves. No person has a right to be deemed better than another person of a different race, color, or culture. The gross mistreatment of the African people that had black skin was derived from the idea of  Caesura, the idea that people only have the ability to fill in what they don;t know with things that are familiar to them. For some people differences can be scary and hard to deal with.

The biggest thing that I got out of the learning and content of this class so far is the analysis of the events that occurred on a deeper level of looking beyond just the facts but with different view points. The class focuses on why events in history played out the way they did. It is said that we have to look into the past to move forward to the future. This statement rings true as we must look to historic events to avoid making the same devastating mistakes. From the early interactions, the clash of the Old World and New World, along with the American Revolution we learn about the ways to treat other human beings that may not be exactly like us. The future generations will learn to embrace the uniqueness of each culture and understand that they all bring something into the world.