Community

In "Roman Fever" Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley's relationship is based on hidden jealousy.  Even though both appear to be friendly towards one another, they are both suppressing angry feelings towards the other: "Yes. You think I'm bluffing, don't you?  Well, you went to meet the man I was engaged to- and I can repeat every word of the letter that you took there." With that statement, I believe their so-called friendship came to an end, and will probably not ever be rekindled.  I think that jealousy, built up over time, turns into hate. 

In the beginning of "One Art," Bishop discusses losing small objects, such as keys, but as the poem progresses the larger and more important the lost items become.  Also, Bishop tries to convince herself that the items she lose don't really matter: "The art of losing isn't hard to master" (line 6).  Her repetitive use of this line shows the readers that she is actually quite bothered by the objects she has lost, especially the person she has lost, but does not want to admit it.  The fact that the entire poem led up to Bishop losing "you" shows how significant of a loss losing this person was. 

Nature, in Robert Frost's poem, does not like walls.  Since the wall is man-made, nature erodes it overtime: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall,/ That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it..." (lines 1-2).  Upon the wall's erosion, one of the neighbors is always  determined to rebuild it: "' Good fences make good neighbours'" (last line).  The only reason I can think of that would make the neighbors get along better with the wall is privacy.  Having a boundary between the two men's yards would give each man his own space and property, without fighting over whose property is whose. 

question: I honestly can't tell if the wall serves as a good boundary or not between the two neighbors.  One man is set on rebuilding the wall, and the other just goes along with the idea.
connection: Whenever I think of a wall, especially a stone wall, I think of the movie The Secret Garden.  Who knows what mysteries this wall between the men's properties holds.  

Winthrop and Thoreau both have a strong respect for community and strong Christian beliefs.  Winthrop wrote his thesis in order to guide the people to live in a peaceful community under the hand of God: "... true Christians are of one body in Christ (1Cor. 12) .  Ye are the body of Christ and members of their part" (paragraph 26).  The Puritan community resembles the body of Christ, in which all parts of it must work together in order for it to function in harmony.  Thoreau also believes that a community should function under the hand of God: " 'so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that it, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency , it is the will of God... that the established government be obeyed-- and no longer' " (9).  Thoreau states that God is way more powerful than the established government, and decisions should be made under God, not the government. 

The main difference I can see between Winthrop and Thoreau's writings is that Winthrop uses the Bible to back up his statements, whereas Thoreau focuses more on the individual improving his or her own society under God, rather than the government: "But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government" (3.)  He believes that the practice of majority- rule should be overruled and abolished, along with slavery. 

Question: I wonder how people who didn't abide by Winthrop's thesis were punished.
Connection: I remember there was a question about Winthrop on the AP US History test my junior year of high school.