Thursday, January 18, 2007
John Smith
John Smith, What a guy! Jk, I found the reading to be a little dry, but as a first assignment i figured it wasn;t going to be mind blowing. I took Colonial North American History last semester and a lot of what was being said about the event where John Smith was gonna be killed by Powhatan, I learned most of that last semester. And of course for those people that have seen the Disney Pocahantas movie usually know how the story goes. The use of different poems and plays throughout John Smith's work was intersesting. I've never read anything from the play of Euripides but now I can proudly say that i read a small excerpt. Overall I found the reading to be dull, but hopefully it will get better. I don't have much interest in the subject of John Smith and Pocahantas and events that they were involved in.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Well, I have to agree with you. The reading was dry and what we read was kind of stuff that we already knew. It is like what we said while discussing John Smith with Prof. Crowthe. It is almost as if what was written about John Smith was written like he wasn't the person writing the history but someone esle talking about him.
HI Sharae, I think it is important to recognize the poems that Smith included in his narrative, as you did. Perhaps we could assume that he felt by including these, his piece would be taken more seriously than the side of the Native Americans. Including the poems makes him seem more learned and educated. Erin
The inclusion of excerpts from other works interested me as well. (I wonder if he cited them when he wrote this piece!) Particularly the segment of Euripides’ play caught my attention too. It suggests that the character Smith is afraid he’ll die and expresses living “in feare and dread,” which puzzled me. If Pocahontas “got his head in her armes,” an action which saved Smith, why is still afraid of dying? Does he not think that Powhatan had an actual change of heart? Do you think Smith thinks that Powhatan, although a powerful leader, cannot be trusted because he is still a “Barbarian”?
I have to agree
I have to agree with you with what you said about the class reading. I did find the reading a bit dry as well. I also took colonial north america history last semester and it really does go into detail much more abouut John Smith's life and how differently it is then most people think. I found the poems interesting though and it made it a little easier to read the material. I also think that the Disney version of Pocahantas doesn't do the story justice.
I think that John Smith's first piece was much more dry than the second. I am not exactly sure if this is because the second was a familiar story, or if it is because I found the language in the first very difficult and confusing. I think it is much harder to really get into a piece of writing when you do not really understand what is going on while you are reading it. I know this was my problem with at least the first Smith story. I am sure that the more we read pieces like this, the easier they will become to understand (and possibly become interested in). However, I agree that hopefully the pieces will get better as the year goes on.
I couldnt agree with you more about the reading being so dry. But what i do like and i think you might agree with me is that, he is not the John Smith that i pictured in Grade school . It thought Pocahantas married John Smith but she didnt. What we see in the movies is not what really happend. So even though the reading is boring it is very imformational.
Post a Comment