Selfless, or Selfish?

During the course of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs and those around her are found to say things, and share opinions and desires that appear to be questionable in judgement. Jacobs sees her child crying herself to sleep on the plantation, trying to survive with out the loving care that a mother gives a child. She sees the heart-wrenching sight and gazes down on her child thinking, "how well it would be for her to never wake up," and never have to endure the trials of slavery as a young woman(89). To someone ignorant to the hardships presented to slaves both on a plantation or in the household, wishing a child to be dead sounds like the most cruel and self-centered thing a mother could say. However, when the reader places themselves in Jacobs' shoes, it is easy to sympathize with Jacobs in her wishes for her children. One would rather see there child dead than suffering the same perils as themselves. This is even reflected in modern society. A parent that regrets something in their own life, will do anything to have their children avoid making the same choice as themselves, and thus avoiding the consequences. When Jacobs first starts to plot on how to escape from slavery without her children, a person ignorant to her circumstances would find her being incredibly selfish, trying to escape to freedom while leaving, " her little, helpless children," in the chains of slavery(93). However when one examines her unique situation, it is easy to side with Jacobs on that as soon as her children are not seen as bargaining chips for Linda Brent herself, they will more likely be released legally, since Jacobs is the one that the Dr. Flint so desperately desires.  As a reader examines the text at a closer look, it's easier to see a little accepted and surprising truth ; in a time of such atrocities, a selfish thought can actually be the selfless path of action

incidents 1:

Linda Brent. Harriet Jacobs.  Go by either name and a reader can find an inside look at the truth and hardships of slavery, especially for women during this time period. But more particularly than just hardships, Jacobs' style of writing conveys a closer look about the actuality of the power between whites and blacks, without claiming that her people were stepped on to the point of abandoning their dreams of freedom. It is striking to read a work written by a slave that places blame not on inability to fight back due to harsh laws and codes from slave holders, but also to the sheer ignorance that many blacks were living in. Because of the stories of poverty and toil that slave owners create for their slaves, many thought it would not be worth while, "to exchange slavery for such a hard  kind of freedom"(43). Jacobs goes on to tell stories of how a woman thought that, "America was governed by a queen to which the president was a subordinate"(45). The ignorance of the people as a whole is shocking, due to no fault of their own, but rather due to the painstaking efforts made by the slave holders to place false views of freedom in their slaves' minds. Jacobs' style of cutting straight to the truth, without emotions to distract from the information she conveys about slaver also sheds new light on the harsh punishments distributed on the slaves. They were jailed, they were hung so scalding fat would drip on to their bare skin. Slaves were murdered blatantly, whipped without clothes, and bloodhounds would literally rip the flesh from their bodies. Most surprising is that of the punishments that women slave holders inflicted on their slaves. Some of the women masters whipped more cruelly than the the men, and would sell slaves across the coast to split apart families. Jacobs' emotionless style of writing reveals a surprising, and harsh reality to slavery that was otherwise unknown.

from beyond the sprinkles

hey world! so you know how every thing has sugar coating on it? And i don't mean actually sugar (although that would be nice)... I'm talking about reality. like everyone thinks one thing but are completely oblivious to the truth? like how rumors get started about one kid and then the whole school turns on them, but the kid had nothing to do with it, and the rumors are entirely untrue? well life really needs to be looked at a little closer by a whole lot of people... its like sprinkles (if you have the same weird obsession with them as i do... if not is more like frosting...) you can have a cardboard box and if u put enough sprinkles on it ( or frosting) it some how becomes edible. for example, take immigration through Ellis Island... yea literature describes America as being able to give everyone an amazing opportunity in life. but very few few people really know what happened there. millions of people's family's were split or turned away because  they couldn't read, or draw a triangle, or they were sick, or even had a limp. the officials there would give the literacy test in Chinese so people couldn't pass, and if someone came through sick they were "taken care of" in the hospital there, but many died in "treatment". the stairs are long gone but when Ellis Island was first operational, the immigrants would have to stand up straight and walk up and down the stairs at the back of the main hallway with out any baggage(so they couldn't disguise a limp). those who didn't pass inspection of  who was going to help sustain American society were turned back and many did not have enough money for the passage back to their homes.

Does This NOT Bother Anyone else??

okay, amazing revelation here!
elementary school: We used GIANT paper with a middle dashed line to help trace letters. We wrote about little Sue sharing with little Johnny. Blah blah blah.
middle school: WE used wide lined paper, and all tried to have giant, preppy, bubbly handwriting. (don't deny it) We thought our sentences were awesome, but they really weren't.
high school: Small lines. (finally) We start to conserve paper and our writing no longer sucks. Our handwriting is just whatever, it's no longer that competition it used to be, and the teachers either can read it or not. 
College: ( I'm seriously starting to suspect a lack of lines on paper... What, do they actually expect our work to be straight on paper like that?)
Life: Hence begins the elimination of all paper....
Parenthood(later life): Here dawns the era of obnoxious sticky-noting things. Like, "Honey please remember to take this with you" or, "oh you left this here at home" and best of all," ______ please remember to flush the toilet!" Best of all, they are all singed, Mom.


America: I charge you. DONT BE STICKY- NOTERS!!!!!!