As Samantha left work she rushed down 164th St to the first stop of the 64 bus. She pulled out her phone to check what time the bus would arrive and was annoyed to find that there wouldn’t be another one for about 10 minutes. She decided to be productive while she waited and read her books for class. As she looked up to check the bus again, Samantha saw a few young trick-or-treaters out for Halloween with their parents. She had recognized a woman that she had gotten to know through her job. She was with her young daughter Jess who was a very sweet little girl dressed up as a bumble bee. Samantha commented to her mom on how cute Jess’s costume was and they talked for a bit they both waited for the bus. When the bus finally came, Samantha took a seat towards the back as she would take it to the last stop anyway. After getting a little dizzy from reading she decided to take a break. How was it that she only became dizzy reading on a bus yet never on the subway? This was puzzling as it was something she could never do for long. As she looked around the bus it slowly began to fill up with students as it stopped by Queens College. She saw more children dressed up in costumes and Samantha remembered when she was a child and would love going out trick-or-treating. The bus turned onto Queens Boulevard and Samantha said goodbye to Jess and her mother and headed for the train station. Jess’s mother thought to herself that Samantha was a mature for a teenager and that she was always rushing from one place to another. Samantha was glad to find that her train was only a stop away and she walked towards the front of the platform as she knew it would make things quicker in her commute when she would transfer trains. She boarded the E train and was lucky to find a seat right by the door. The train was very cold and she had forgotten to bring a scarf or cardigan. Samantha thought of how her mother always tells her to bring a sweater just in case she gets cold and she thought she should start taking her advice. Samantha looked around the train and noticed a lot of people seemed to pull sweaters out of thin air. How funny that everyone else seemed to be ready for the confusing weather but her. She laughed to herself as she almost heard her mother saying “I told you so”. Samantha looked at the time and saw she was going to be late, she was irritated and made a mental note to tell her boss she wouldn’t be able to work before class anymore. She began to read to take her mind off this crazy morning. As the train got close to her stop she got up and stood by the door ready to jog up the escalator to transfer to her next train. Samantha thought this was a nice little workout as she got off at the Lexington Ave 53rd St station and rounded the corner to the 51st St platform to take the 6 train. Why don’t they just connect the platforms? It would make a lot of sense instead of having her run up the escalator just to walk about a block and go down a flight of stairs then up yet another escalator. As she walked up the last escalator, she looked up to find that she had just missed the 6 train. Samantha walked down the platform annoyed and waited for the next train. As the train came it was very full but Samantha forced her way in for she was already late and she tried to make up some time. She turned around to find a creepy guy breathing down her neck and she squeezed her way to the other side of the car. Looking around she saw a few more people dressed for Halloween. She hoped nothing else creepy would happen as it was Halloween after all and people tend to be a little wild with their masks and scary outfits. Thankfully a large group of people got off the train at 42nd St so she wasn’t squished anymore. The train then got to 23rd St and Samantha shot out the door and up the stairs to the outside world. What a morning she thought as she walked a few blocks and up the stairs into school.

The article about the film ‘Birth of a Nation’ helps me to see the role of women in Douglass’s autobiography by giving another look at how prominent the issue of raping women of color was. In both the movie and the autobiography, the raping of slaves had a significant impact on both male protagonists. Douglass had seen the abuse of women in his life from the very beginning; he was conceived through rape from his master and then he witnessed the women in his life being raped right before his eyes. The rape of women of color is what pushes these characters to want to change their circumstances and ultimately rebel against the institution of slavery. Douglass only begins to understand what slavery is after witnessing the horrors of his aunt being abused, although he was only a child the image of his aunt stuck with him. He wrote “It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass” (Douglass 15). Here he realized what he would have to face because of slavery and how he can do nothing but watch. In both these stories the women were subjected to constant abuse and had no say in what was happening to them, they could only stand by and suffer. Just when Douglass began to have a positive relationship with a white woman, Mrs. Auld, she quickly changed her ways when her husband forbade her to teach Douglass how to read. Again this led him to further understand slavery and just how his master would use anything to get the upper hand. He wrote “I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty— to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man” (Douglass 33). These experiences with women help him realize that he wants freedom and that he needs to put an end to slavery.

As we discussed in class, sublimity is a great feeling that spans the spectrum and is when one feels beauty as well as terror. The picture I chose that represents the sublime in everyday life is this picture I took of the sky on my way home from work. It is very incredible to look at, the slight changes that occur throughout the day and how from one minute it can go from beautiful and bright to dangerously dark and scary. The sky is incredibly grand and can be seen from anywhere and yet it seems to fall into the background of day to day activities as we are all preoccupied and fail to look up and see what lies right above us. I think the sky is very amazing and awe inspiring and it really does evoke the feelings of the sublime whenever I look up at it.

Upon reading Descartes’ Discourse on Method I come to realize how the enlightenment period affected people and their minds. Descartes touched upon the deeper meaning of the saying “Cogito Ergo Sum” also known as “I am thinking, therefore I exist” (Descartes 15). The quote is quite straight forward in which one cannot be without constant thought and that the action of pondering and doubting occurrences in daily life is what gives someone a reason to live. This passage embodies the enlightenment era because it takes a unique approach to the idea of God and begins to doubt and question what others would normally just accept. Descartes ponders on his existence and mainly the qualities he has been given and how they came about. He discusses that a logical reason for him having the qualities he has to think and doubt must come from a higher power as he himself cannot be all-knowing or self-sufficient. He comes to the conclusion that God must exist to have given him all these traits but then he ponders geometry and begins to have doubts about his perception of God due to the lack of sensory proof. This act of rethinking and changing one’s mind only emphasizes the truth behind the famous saying “I think, therefore I am” because people are constantly changing their opinion on matters based off of what they encounter in their daily lives, every detail of life factors into one’s perception and ultimately shapes them into who they are. Enlightenment had a lot to do with self exploration and letting the mind reject the norms and start exploring all the possible reasons behind everything.