First Blog

My name is Sarah Friedman, and I am an English major with a Philosophy minor. I like the two because they fit together so well. I like English, because it’s the best way to learn about people, history, and other parts of the world; if written correctly, it can sound beautiful.
I’m from Durham North Carolina. It snowed three inches there yesterday, and all of the schools shut down. We play to the stereotypes down there… all of my friends like sweet tea and sitting outside.
I like scuba diving and snowboarding. I also work at the crisis hotline, and I am an EMT. I like to sing and dance even though my attempts at either makes people laugh.
All the English courses I’ve ever taken were great; the English professors here are some of the best teachers I’ve ever had. Because of Margret Kent Bass’s Caribbean Literature course, I decided to go abroad to Trinidad. In Trinidad, I took an African Literature course from a man who used to live in Nigeria. I love the way how English intertwines with history, and how writing can really change the world around you.
My favorite poem that we read thus far is: When-a Mah Blood Runs Chilly an Col. In my FYP, we studied “black churches in a white America”. It was a very interesting course, and one of the ideas that our teacher placed in our heads is the idea that religion helped suppress the African Americans. Not only did forcing them to switch religions take away their history and culture, but they were told that if they were good in this life, then they’d have a good afterlife. Many of them prayed to Jesus to help them serve their masters, because they were told that was how to get into heaven. To some people, revolting was bad behavior, and they did not do it because they wanted to go to heaven. This idea can be seen in the line, “ Ef you cain’t bear no crosses, you cain’t wear no crown” (5).
Another line in the song that struck me as interesting is the line: “Do, Lord, do Lord, do remember me.”(5). This line is heartbreaking, because the people felt as if they had to sing to their lord to have themselves remembered. This line is begging their God not to forget about them. The reader can see how low self-esteem they must have, if they are worried about an all-seeing, all-knowing God remembering them.
In this class, I hope to learn more about the African American movement, and how to read and write poetry. Most poems do not have very many words to convey a complex situation, so I know that each word must be chosen carefully, but I would like to look closely at how the writer chooses to write.