Removing the Veil

Please ask 1-3 authentic discussion questions regarding Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil." Get under the veil...question the text's symbols, mood, themes, characters, and secrets. Also, feel free to link the story back to your favorite Puritan play (I'm referring to The Crucible, of course). Be sure to read the other posts before asking your question in order to avoid repeating others' observations. Remember that only half of the class is required to post these questions, but the rest of the class is welcome to do so as well.

Your questions are due by 9 pm on Wednesday night.

A Dark and Creepy Ride into Poe's Mind...

Please ask 1-3 authentic discussion questions regarding Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher." Probe deeply inside Poe's twisted mind...question the text's symbols, mood, themes, characters, and secrets. Be sure to read the other posts before asking your question in order to avoid repeating others' observations. Remember that only half of the class is required to post these questions, but the rest of the class is welcome to do so as well.

Your questions are due by 9 pm tonight (Monday, November 28).

Striving for Moral Perfection

As you chart your virtues this week a la Ben Franklin, write a brief journal entry to the blog addressing which virtue is posing the greatest challenge to you and why you think this is. Remember that chastity, though an honorable virtue, is not appropriate to discuss in this exercise. Please read and comment on each other's entries as well.

Drawing Electricity from the Sky

Examine Benjamin West's painting, Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky (1805). You may access this painting via the following link: http://www.frankelec.com/west_fullsize.htm. You can also find the painting on page 87 of your yellow American Literature book. After spending a few moments with the painting, please respond to one or more of the following questions:
1. What do you think the artist is trying to achieve in this painting? Consider the sometimes clashing roles of science and religion and how they function in this painting.
2. What are your reactions to this painting?
3. What do you think Benjamin Franklin thought of this portrait of himself?

Virtue: Intelligence

In class on Wednesday we addressed whether or not we can improve our intelligence. Consider the following quotations:

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." --Albert Einstein

"We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought." --Bertrand Russell

Please comment on one or both of these quotations. Feel free also to use these quotations to discuss the original question: What is intelligence, and can one work to improve one's intelligence?