Poe (Blog #6)

Starting from 3rd grade till now, I have just heard about Edgar Allan Poe. A lot of his work were in my class libraries. No one wanted to read it, because they didn't have to, and they thought it was too depressing. If we asked our teachers who he was, all they said was that he was a good writer, and that's all they would say. Now that I have read more of his work, he seems like a man with a sad life, and he poured his heart out in writing. So I did a little research, and now I'll start with a short bio.

Edgar Poe was born on January 19, 1809. By now you might be thinking, "I think she forgot to write Allan", but I didn't. Poe was born just Edgar Poe, but he was adopted (not officially) by John Allan, after his father actor David Poe Jr. abandoned his family, and his actress mother Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe died from tuberculosis. Then, he took the name Allan. After from going from school to school and moving the US to England and back to the US, and getting engaged, and going from job to job, Poe finally wasn't able to support himself and he joined the US Army, changing his name to Edgar A. Perry and lying about his age. At the same time he released his first book called Tamerlane and Other Poems. After a while, his brother died, which made Poe really serious about his writing, and was known as the first American writer to live only off writing, which as you might assume made him poor, which made him resort to begging for money. Eventually, 26 year old Poe secretly married his 13 year old cousin (well okay....) and she ended up dying from tuberculosis. After this, as you already know, Poe has become famous and successful for his poems and stories like The Raven. He later died on October 3, 1849, and until this day, the cause of his mysterious death is still unknown.

We know that Poe has been affected by the deaths of family members when he was writing his stories, and I noticed that the word "tuberculosis" came up a few times. So, I decided to look up "edgar allan poe's stories about tuberculosis" and I stumbled upon a short story called The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. After reading it, I have realized that it could be about the death of his wife Virginia. Compared to all of his stories that we have read, in this story the person who dies is male, and his death was not peaceful, but painful and hectic, which I think could have been about how Poe felt after his wife died. I think the story was really specific about how Valdemar died, that it was like how Virginia died. After researching Virginia's death, it is said that she would hid the pain to make Edgar happy, and in the story, when asked about the pain that Valdemar was feeling he said "No pain ---- I am dying", and the narrator said "M. Valdemar should be suffered to remain undisturbed in his present apparently tranquil condition, until death should supervene". Basically I think that Poe is writing about how Virginia felt through Valdemar's words.

Well, now I dont really know how to end this, so I'll just say
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow—
You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream. (A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe, 1849).

What is an American? (Blog #5)

The summer of 2012, I went to Somalia to visit some of my family. I was at my aunts house, and something came on TV about America, and my aunt and I were arguing about it. Then she said to me "You are not American, Barni. Most people who live there aren't.". Obviously, me being me, i disagreed with that, saying if you were born in America you are American, but in the inside, I was actually starting to think about it, and until this post I'm writing right now, I haven't thought of it ever since. 

What is an American? My answer to this has changed, many times. At first, I said that an American is someone who is born the US. Then I said that it was anyone born in North or South America. Then I said it was anyone who lived in America for a long time and/or is a citizen. Lastly, I thought that in some ways no one is American.

There is a difference between a nationality and an ethnicity. Its easy to tell the difference until you start to think about America. No one's ethnicity is American, except Native Americans. Some people say that they want to be the perfect American, or live the American dream, which is living with American culture. But, what is American culture? USA is a country where immigrated to, bringing their own cultures, so I don't understand American culture? If a certain ethnic group started it, wouldn't it be their culture? I think that people don't call themselves American, because so many different people are American, and it doesn't show your unique qualities in which you got from your ethnic background. Now, I think I'm starting to rant, but I have thought the answer to this complicated question is quite easy.What is an American? Easy, its just someone who was born in America.