The Dreamer Mentality

Please respond to the following questions-make sure to give a thorough response and respond to at least one other person's comment.
Idealism has always been a way for people to escape reality. If you are a dreamer, do you have to be more careful? Nick says to Gatsby, "You can't repeat the past." What do you think? Are there repercussions?

Money, Money, Money

Please answer the following prompts in a detailed, fluent response. Make sure to comment on other people's views within your own response. Take your level of thinking higher. Make sure you are beingthorough and honest.

What are your perceptions of material wealth/money? What is "wealth"? Do we see too much excess today? If your financial status a reflection of how successful you are? What is success to you? Are we always wanting more? Do we "want" too much? Is being content or fulfilled enough? When is enough, enough?

Happiness

Please respond to the following prompts: I expect you to to ask an open-ended critical level question at the end of your response that may prompt someone else. I also expect you to react to one other's comment within your own reflection. Make sure you are being thoughtful and discerning.

What constitutes happiness in life? What do you need to be happy? What should drive and push us? What might blind us from becoming happy?

Music Makes The People...

l How does music speak to you or through you?

l Does music shape culture? How has music influenced dreams? Eras? Generations? Movements?

l Name a song or group that represents your generation OR how you view the world-explain to what extent the lyrics or artist(s) stands for something that mirror your conceptions of how you see things.

The Racial Mountain

After reading Langston Hughes' manifesto for the Harlem Renaissance, please respond to the following questions with thoughtful analysis and use textual reference to support your assertions.

1. What do you infer was the purpose of the Harlem Renaissance, based on this essay?

2. What is Hughes' main argument about one's culture and heritage, and do you agree?

3. What is the racial mountain he refers to? Comment on Hughes' thesis in this essay?

DO NOT merely repeat what someone else has written. You need to read, analyze and speak for yourself.

Race, Class and Gender Response

First, write your response to the following prompt below-when you are done, ask a strong question that starts a discussion thread. Comment on 2 other people's ideas and questions. I want you to be thought-provoking and challenge one another. There are now Reply links under each person's comment, where you can comment directly to that response or question. Those of you who write first will have to come back and respond to others. Challenge one another! Make sure you write with proper mechanics and fluency.

What was illuminated to you in this reading? Use 2 quotes to support your response;
Did this reading give you any new ideas? If so what were they? How might YOU change your perceptions based on this reading?

Fear and Fervor

After reading excerpts from Jonathan Edwards', Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" there are a few items I would like you to reflect upon.

Make sure you treat this like a discussion, not just an individual response. I want you reacting to other people's ideas as well. Answer the following:

1. What images and figures of speech do you find most powerful and persuasive in Edwards' sermon? Why are they powerful (thus, what do they help to emphasize/what is its purpose?)

2. Why did the Puritans value this sermon?

3. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that, "Fear is an instructor of great sagacity and the herald of all revolutions." Is fear a powerful motivator for human behavior? Please list some examples to back up your opinion. (Think about the things you do out of fear)

4. We have been reviewing aspects of Puritan culture-do we see aspects of this culture today? What aspects have we kept from Puritan culture?