Oronooko Quote: #1
" These people represented ... The first state of innocence, before man knew how to sin. " -Narrator
This quote is interesting to me because it can be related back to religion. The European culture is most related to christian religion in which it is implicity stated that was what was being valued by them. "Behn describes the native South Americans in the language of the Christian religion. In many mythologies, including the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, humans lived in an early period of happiness before evil entered the world. According to the biblical story, once humans learned to sin and commit evil acts, they left Eden behind at their own peril. Behn uses this myth to contrast the dishonesty of English slave traders with the purity of native populations." It is interesting that the Behn is directly stating this fact that there is no purity with slaveowners. Many novels that we have read such as Equiano do not address this in their story, instead he embraces the opportunity to only focus on hisself.
Poetry Quote #2
The Prologue
"To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings, Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun, For my mean Pen are too superior things; Or how they all, or each their dates have run, Let Poets and Historians set these forth. My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth." -Anne Bradstreet
What better way to end the semester off with an Anne Bradstreet poem. Doing my project on Anne Bradstreet has made me value the work in which she created during her time. Her work plays a major role in what we see today which is in mysticism and spiritualism. This quote emphasizes how different Bradstreet's writing is when compared to those higher in the social ladder than she is. Her poems are more intimate and focused on the innerself in which most people do not pay attention to. It is interesting and exciting to see how aware Bradstret is of her reality and that she embraced who she is.
Gullivers Travel Quote #3
"Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison." -Gulliver part 1, chapter 2
This quote is important to me because it was the moment in which I bursted out laughing. Although this story was not meant to be comedic, it did have a sort of comedic touch to it in my opinion. The fact that Gulliver was this tiny person on an island and others were larger than him is comedic. He gets treated in a way in which doesnt seem real. It is also an important idea that size does not matter unless you make it matter. The proportion of the size in these stories did not define power as those who were smaller were also as powerful as those who were much larger.
Life Writing Quote #4
"Rosalie had been very close to her parents and to her siblings and their absence left her lonely and deppressed; she suffered repeated bouts of depression, which she reffered to as "blue devils" " -First paragraphy, Rosalie Stier Calvert
This first paragraph phrase made me believe that this story was going to entail the hysteria of a woman during the eighteenth century as being something that is invalidated. From this sentence alone, that is what I thought this short story was going to be about. Yet, to see that this story were written letters was interesting.
Interesting Narrative Quote #5
"The genre of the spiritual autobiography assumes that the spiritual life of an individual Christian, no matter how minutely detailed and seemingly singular his or her temporal existence, reflects the paradigm shared by the author and his overwhelmingly Christian audience serves as the most powerful argument in the Narrative for their common humanity." (xxi-xxii)
It is interesting to me how this narrative is putting the religion of christianity as something that is significant to the narrator who uses this religion. It is a powerful theme to use christianity in as a placement in a novel as it connects with a certain audience. The Story of Equiano reminds me of this as it can be seen as a slave narrative and also be seen as a spiritual biography.
Jefferson's Common Place Book Quote #6
"If we suppose ourselves transported back to that time, and inquiring into the truth of this revelation on the very spot where it was made, we shall find that, far from being determined by authority in favor of it, our reason would have had much to do in comparing various and contradictory testimonies, and in balancing the degrees of probality resulted from them" Id. sect 2.
I find this quote interesting in the Jefferson's CommonPlace book because it also something that I would highlight on what I feel about my personal values. I agree with the mindset portraye here which states that we honestly truly do not know the truth and what to believe in because we simply were not there. It also is a prophecy on how we believe our truths, by inquiring people with authority who take favor of it.