" Biography of Kate Chopin"

Temmi Adeyeni
AP English 3
M.Brown

Biography vs. Fiction

Often times, authors of literary works reveal their inner thoughts and true feelings through their pieces. These viewpoints can be shown in the events that occur in the text, the characters, the setting, the scenery and the themes in the pieces. Writers that have been known to implement their inner selves in their work include: John Steinbeck and Kate Chopin. Steinbeck, in both The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, includes Salinas Valley. Salinas Valley is a perfect example of this, because it was a place of peace in both novels. The characters were able to go there and feel safe and secure; Salinas Valley was also a place where John Steinbeck, in his childhood, could go to have peace and serenity. In her literary works, on the other hand, Kate Chopin transforms the role of women in her life and communicates it through her writing. In her biography, one can conclude that she felt that women did not get enough credit for what they did in their family life as well as in their society. She does this in such works as Desiree's Baby and The Story of an Hour.


As seen in her biography, Chopin had been around women for most of her life. She saw what they had to go through while being thought of as inferior to men. This makes her more sensitive to this topic and therefore,wants it to be known. She felt that women did not get any credit for what they have accomplished in their society as well as in their family life. In her biography, the women were smarter, independent and stronger than the men. Though there were male influences around the women, the men did not really do much to support the ones "under" them. They were being lazy and just hung around like accesories. Chopin's great-great-grandmother raised five children while divorced. She also had a shipping business that prospered. Chopin's husband was not an able businessman and after he died, she had to take control of his business ventures while also raising five children on her own. There was a role reversal. The women became the ones that acted upon things instead of just talking about them. The women were smart, independent,strong and groundbreaking. Not to mention they were single women; proving that women did not really need any male influences to reach their goals and more. For example: Kate Chopin's writing career. She started her career while she was a widow and she ended up being very succesful. Despite all the hands that tried to pull her off her pedestal, she did not need any man to be there to validate her works. It can also be concluded in Kate Chopin's biography that women and men relied on different things to get what they wanted. Men relied more so on the physical aspects and women relied more on the mental aspects of things. For example: her biography did not really mention anything about men going to college and accomplishing anything academically. The men thought that they could and would bamboosle the women into being submissive by showing their muscles and using their voices to scare them. This did not work, because even if the women surrendered to the men, they were never quite submissive. They still had their strength and knowledge and with knowledge you can go anywhere and suceed.


In conclusion, Kate Chopin is reavealing what everyone else was trying to conceal in that moment in time. She wants these truths to be known, because she thought that women should get what is rightfully theirs, respect. This relates to "the cult of true womanhood",because Chopin is arguing that a woman should not be denied of her womanhood,because of the mistakes she had made in the past. She feels that the overall accomplishments of her should not be looked over, because of one mishap. She believes that everyone female is entitled to their sense of womanhood.

Ain't I a Woman? comparison

In the revised version and original version of Sojourner Truth's speech , Aren't I a woman and Ain't I woman, there are a number of differences. Two significant differences lie in changes of language and lack of imagery. The difference that is more obvious to the reader is the lack of imagery. "Aren't I a Woman" fails to let the reader visualize the speech. It definitely makes it harder for the reader to answer questions such as: "where were they?", "Why did they let her as an African-American woman , speak?", " How did the audience react when she got up to speak?" This version takes away the authenticity of the speech. It fails to letting the readers realize how significant and mind-blowing the speech actually was. While on the other hand, "Ain't I a Woman", helps the readers understands the speech better. The fact that it had so much imagery, allows for the speech to capture the minds of the readers. It is more inspirational, because it described the situation Sojourner was in and makes her more of a brave person.

Aren't I a woman? Response

Sojourner Truth, was just one of a few women that stood up and acted upon what they believed. In 1851, Sojourner Truth gave a speech , at the Women's Rights Convention, This speech was named Aren't I a woman?; It was a counterargument aimed at a minister who claimed that women could not be equal to men, because Christ was not a woman. However, the purpose of this speech was to empower women. It was meant to reassure them that women deserved just as much rights as men.


Sojourner Truth's speech at the Women's Rights Convention was an informal speech; this worked in Truth's favor, because she was able to have a personal conversation with them. She used the call and response technique to make it seem that she is talking with the audience as opposed to talking at them. "what's this they call it? Intellect" That’s it honey" ( Truth pg. 423). When she called out to the audience and the lady responded, she is empowering the woman. The audience member was able to speak her mind without a man telling her to shut her mouth or without anybody telling her that her opinions did not make any sense. Nobody was there to take her confidence away and cause her to remain to herself. She was able to show the whole room that she was smart and was aware about the things around her. She was going against the stereotype of what women were expected to be. The women was not going to be subjected to any consequences that a man would have gave her for exposing her true self. By talking to them on a more personal level, Sojourner was able to give them a higher self-esteem and their shyness and timidness was taken away from them. She was now giving them back what every man that they ever had to endure had stripped them of. All the women felt that Sojourner Truth was a source of comfort and a fountain of trust. Therefore, they are being empowered; they feel that someone is on their side and advocating for them. Now that they have this, they can stand up for what they believe and if it does not work out, they have something to fall back on.


In conclusion, Sojourner Truth's purpose was thoroughly met. With the help of the call and response technique, she was able to empower the women in the room. One can clearly tell that she wanted to inspire the women and push them to be better than what men expect them to be. Reader's can tell that she is a strong, independent and devoted woman. She cared about other people and made sure she fulfilled something while she was alive.

Aren't I a Woman Questions 1,2,4

1. Sojourner Truth was responding to the minister, who had made the statement that women can not have the same rights as men, because Jesus was not a man.

2. Sojourner's arguments were examples of .( Ms.Brown, I don't understand this question)


4. The perceptions that I might have had if I was in the audience are that: she was a strong, independent and intelligient woman. She was definitely adamant about what she was saying and she wanted the audience members to act upon it and show their strength.

Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass

When life experiences are recorded, they can sometimes be brought back alive in later times to change the lives of others. Experiences can be very good devices for revealing the truth and persuading people to live a certain way. Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass accomplished this through their novels Incidents of a slave girl and Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Though they have differing struggles, these two authors come together in the sense that they are writing to argue the fact that white Americans are blinded to what really goes on within a plantation. They both establish ethos through the validation of their stories by white authors.
“Again we have known you long, and can put the most entire confidence in your truth” (Wendell Phillips). The readers, who were predominantly white, were reassured that the text that they were going to read was real and had truths within it. It would have been very hard for them to accept these novels if they did not have a stamp of approval on it by a white reader. They would have felt that it was not anything of value and would have completely disregarded it. In the 1800s, there was a constant debate on whether slavery was justifiable or not. Most white civilians were constantly being bombarded with the idea that slaves lived a happy life. These authors attempted to overturn these ideas by telling their life stories. Because it definitely would have been easy to lie and twist events, they had to have people on their side that knew their situations to get their book published so that the truth could be known. This person had to have dwelled in the intellectual society and have a good reputation. This individual had to have known how sensible and brilliant the author was, because if they were smart themselves, they would not just let any piece of writing be published. They had to have evaluated it and did their research to make sure everything was right. They are establishing ethos, because they are very responsible and they know that if they are going to be represented, it will have to be on something of value and not just some piece of garbage. Pushing the idea of ethos even farther, these authors did not have to let their personal lives out like they did, they could have just sat back and not speak up for what they believed. This would have made them bad civilians with no backbone; instead, they decided to speak up, which makes them more respectable.

To conclude, your life experience can only be used as a learning tool for others if you let it be known. If you sit back and endure every piece of injustice that is thrown at you, you will never survive in this world. You will deteriorate both physically and mentally and die in vain, because you have not made a difference in anybody’s life. You will have nothing to be proud of yourself about.

Negro spiritual: Hush somebody's calling my name including my new stanza

Hush, hush
Somebody's calling my name
Hush, hush
Somebody's calling my name.

I hear a voice so sweet an’ clear
Calling me angel an’ a honey dear
Well, whoa-ho, hush, hush
Whoa-ho, hush, hush
Whoa-ho, hush, hush
Somebody's calling my name.

Hush, I say hush
Somebody's calling my name
Whoa-o-o, won't you hush
Somebody's calling my name.

If it's the girl I've been searching for
I'll tell the world I won’t-a search no more
Now, whoa-ho hush, hush
Whoa-ho hush, hush
Whoa-ho hush, hush
Somebody's calling my name.

Well, talk to my mother wouldn't do me no good
Talk to my brother wouldn't do me no good
I talked to the gypsy and she said, Rejoice
You’ll know your lover by the sound of his voice.

So hush, I say hush
Somebody's calling my name
Whoa now listen, won't you hush
Somebody's calling my name.

I see my baby up on a hill
I love her now and I always will
So whoa-ho hush, hush
Whoa-ho hush, hush
Whoa-ho hush, hush
Somebody's calling my name, yeah …

Somebody’s calling my name, yeah …
Somebody’s calling my name, yeah …
Somebody’s calling my name.

She's here for me, I'm here for her
Like a child and his mother
I'll comfort her always and forever
Yea whoa-ho hush, hush
Whoa-ho hush, hush
Whoa-ho hush, hush
Somebody's calling my name, yeah … (This is my verse)

Self-reliance

Temmi Adeyeni
AP English 3
M. Brown
“Self-Reliance”
If I change myself to become you, am I me or am I you ? If I am you, then who I am ? The big question that we have to ask ourselves when we are teenagers. Who do we want to become in life and how do we want people to perceive us? It may seem like something trivial, but this is where a lot of teenagers experience their downfalls. If they do not look into themselves and see what they are really about and nipping this problem at the root, it can possibly affect them in their adult life. This is the problem that Ralph Waldo Emerson addresses in his series of essays titled Self-Reliance. Emerson believes that self trust and self-reliance not only goes for people as individuals, but it affects the government as well. Emerson reveals his perspective through a variety of ways, but mostly through his diction.
“ To-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another”(Self-Reliance). If you lose the sense of who you are, then you do not know what to think and soon you will have to look to others for what to think and how to behave. Therefore you will become those people. If everyone is looking to each other, there is no sense of peculiarity. Nothing would change or evolve whatsoever. Nobody would get along. As the saying goes, opposites attract. Well, if there are no opposites and everybody is exactly alike , there would be a myriad of unresolved conflicts. Everything would be discombobulated and nothing would get done. This leads nowhere. This relates to the government, because you will be easier to brainwash. You would listen to everything you heard on the news and would not do your research to make sure what you just heard made sense. You would not even know what trouble you may have just gotten yourself into by taking action to everything you heard in the media. When Emerson uses the phrase “ masterly good sense” he is referring to the government . It will appear to be smarter and much more wiser, but in reality it really is not. It is just using psychological tricks to make someone less educated buy into whatever they are trying to sell. If the individual is not standing strong and steady, they can fall into the traps set up by the government and eventually lose themselves. “ That imitation is suicide”(Self-Reliance). Emerson is stating that if you continue to try your hardest at being someone else, the person that you were born to be will no longer live. It will perish forever. You will be killing yourself. By the time that you come back and realize the mistake you made, it will be too late. Same applies to the government. If the government and nation as a whole is looking at other nations and is consistently trying to be like them, it will eventually fall into pieces. There will be no sense of control and everyone will go bonkers. No one will have priorities, and as it is known now to be, the nation will fall apart.
In conclusion, Emerson’s message to the readers of this essay is to just live the life you were born with and fulfill the what you were destined to be. Don’t look to others on what you should do in any moment in time, but to trust yourself in whatever decisions you make. If more people were willing to live their lives like this, some of the trouble that exist in this world today would have no place to grow.

"The slave Dream"

Temmi Adeyeni
AP English 3
Ms. Brown
The Slaves Dream by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A sequence of images that appear involuntarily to the mind of somebody who is sleeping, often a mixture of real and imaginary characters, places, and events. Dreams, as defined in the Microsoft word dictionary. Dreams are known to be what human beings see and experience during the unconscious state of sleep. According to Hartmann, dreams may function like psychotherapy, by "making connections in a safe place" and allowing the dreamer to integrate thoughts that may be dissociated during waking life. This fact is connected with the poem The Slaves Dream, because the slave in the poem was using his dream as a safe haven from whatever troubles he was having. Through this, Longfellow reveals his purpose for writing this poem. He is communicating that his opinion about slaves is that they are getting treated very harshly. One way that he makes his purpose known is through his diction.

“Once more a king he strode; He saw once more his dark-eyed queen… a tear burst from the sleeper's lids… He did not feel the driver's whip,Nor the burning heat of day” (Longfellow). Through the dream, the slave was able to forget everything and he became a whole new person. He felt like he was now worth something. He was a king, who had his beautiful queen and children around him. He also felt like a man for the first time since he has been a slave. He was now the dominant one. He felt wanted and had a sense of affection. Someone was now there to support him and all the moves he makes. Longfellow says “ a tear burst from the sleeper's lids” , because the slave was wondering why he could not have this in his reality. It was making him sad that he couldn’t obtain this feeling in his real life. He uses the word “burst” because, he wants the reader to know that the slave has been holding back for so long and now he is at his breaking point. All his pain and painstaking labor had came through in this one burst. One can infer that they were being treated harshly, because the slave himself had to look internally for comfort. He had nothing and no one to hold on to on the outside. “ He did not feel the driver's whip, Nor the burning heat of day;” (Longfellow). This is exactly what he was trying to accomplish by having this dream. He became numb by this dream and all his struggles and painstaking labor seem to now have disappeared.

In conclusion, in writing this poem, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lets the world know how he feels about how slaves were being treated in that era. He demonstrates this through the slave he wrote about in The Slaves Dream.
The slave uses his dreams to escape the harshness of the slave masters. He uses it as an escape route to revisiting his manhood. He used his dreams as a safe haven for his problems.

The Gettysburg Adress

1. Abraham Lincoln doesn't really mention anything about the people who were fighting. He doesn't provide any preference as to who they are and what they look like. He doesn't give any details.

2. The purpose of this last sentence is that Lincoln fears that respect should be given to the men that fought for the "freedom" of their country.  The literary tool that he uses to persuade the people was pathos.  He uses emotion to establish the fact the people the people that died didn't have to give their lives for the sake of others.  Lincoln evokes an emotion of sorrow. He pushes them towards fighting harder and not letting all the hard work of the deaceased go to waste. If I was to add something to the sentence it would be "... But they shall live on forever and forever more.

3. Well, both the documents were written to establish freedom for the Americans. The similarities between abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson is that they both explain and justify how their ideas are the best and why everyone should believe them and not everybody else.  The Declaration of Independence had more of a serious tone and strict tone.  It was basically attacking the king. The Gettysburg Address is more persuasive and way more softer and acceptable of people and their decisions.

4. The speeches that I've heard can compare to the Gettysburg Address in the sense that they use pathos and ethos to prove their point. They also use facts to back up their points ans arguments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_(dramatic_arts)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/195896/history-of-Europe/58412/Romanticism-and-Realism#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=history%20of%20Europe%20%3A%3A%20Romanticism%20and%20Realism%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia