Exploration two- Luke Vest

Hey all,
     This is Luke Vest. I am a freshman at OSU Marion. I graduated from Liberty HS last year. I am going for a mechanical engineering degree. My fun fact was that I have traveled to the United Kingdom. Specifically, I have traveled to England, Scotland, Whales, and Ireland. I have been to Stonehenge, and met the Queen, Elizabeth II.

      I am going to write about Frances W. Harper. She was born on September 24, 1825 in Baltimore, and died on February 22, 1911, in Philadelphia. During her life she held positions in many national progressive organizations. Along for her poetry and and political importance, in 1894 she helped found the National Association of Colored Women and served as its vice president. I believe this is important because it shows that she ws up for the challenge of being hated and disregarded by the white society that was in complete control at the time. Even when she died, the 19th amendment had not yet come through to exist, so women had not recieved voting privileges yet. Although slavery had been abolished, nothing really changed for blacks until way later with LBJ in the 1960's. 

http://www.nacwc.org/ This is a good source to check out if you want to know more about the National Association of Colored Women, or about Frances Harper. 

     I am doing my response to, Bury Me in a Free Land. I liked this piece because it shows how she views the act of slavery for her and her ancestors. She tells her readers how she wants to rest where she is free forever. Near the end of the poem she states, “I would sleep, dear friends, where bloated might- Can rob no man his dearest right.” This speaks volumes of the desire to achieve freedom among blacks in this era and time, where they had little say on anything. She ends with, “All that my yearning spirit craves, Is bury me not in a land of slaves.” I appreciate this end diction because it concludes her feelings of desire to tear apart from the wretched and demented history tied to her people for as long as they know.

    

Recently, I read The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls. Although this was more or less an assigned book to read for me, I enjoyed it a lot. It was full of suspense, as Jeanette recalled her childhood with her three siblings and parents as they shifted around the United States. Her parents, Rex and Mary Rose, act as instigators for most of their infortunes, from acting more as kids than their kids, to being abusive and irresponsible. Rex was a drunk, who only cared about his own ambitions, and Mary neglected to be a mother at every turn. Although this is a stage set for failure, against the odds the kids are determined not to give in and give up. From a religious point of view, one can see the conflicts arise throughout the plot of this drama. Rex was raised Baptist, and now denies the existence of God, and laughs at any of those who believe in such ‘voodoo’. However, Mary was raised and remains Catholic, but she conforms this religion to meet her where she is at. She renames the Ten Commandments, ‘the Ten Suggestions’ and so on. The conflict is every present when Rex is about to die, and rewrites his decision to entertain the idea of it if science can. To me, this lack of an important ethical code and personal convictions is disturbing. However, as adults, the kids did learn to piece things together from hat they could not in their broken childhood.

 

Thanks for reading,

Luke Vest