Alone and Unhappy :: Creative Writing Essays

Alone and Unhappy She sat on the Q train waiting for her stop. The time was finally here. She was just an hour away from happiness. Beverly Rd, Church St, Atlantic Ave she got up and off the train. She followed the rush of people to catch the 2 train into the city. The 2 or 3 train never came regularly so she waited patiently. In the distance she heard a couple of Mexicans playing the accordion and the guitar. She could not make out the song, but they sounded pretty good. Finally the 2 train pulled in and she boarded. She observed her surroundings to pass the time. It wasn’t a short trip from Brooklyn to the city. There was a Hispanic mother and her little son sitting across from her. The son stared at her the whole ride. She wondered if he could see right through her. His eyes were blank and still. She courteously smiled at the boy and he gave her the finger and laughed to himself. She gave the boy the finger and moved on to the next person that caught her attention. It was an older white man. He gave her a disapproving look and turned his head. She felt embarrassed now for her actions, but the boy started it. The train stopped and she thought it was her stop. She rushed to get up and noticed it was only 14th St. If she was pale, she would be beet red at this point. She gracefully sat back down and tried to fan herself to get rid of the flushed feeling in her cheeks. When she finally gained her composure, she noticed a man was standing in front of her against the doors. He just took her breath away. How gorgeous he was just standing there. She could not keep her eyes off him. He noticed and looked a little uncomfortable.

Analysis of Jon Edwards : Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Anna Potts Steve Stewart ENGL 2130 06 February 2013 Analysis of Jonathan Edwards’ â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God† The Great Awakening was a religious movement that spread throughout New England during the mid-eighteenth century, from about 1730 to 1745. The Great Awakening sought to make Christianity a deeply personal experience and pulled away from traditional ceremony, encouraging personal commitment and emotional involvement in faith. Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan and theologian; one of the most famous preachers of the Great Awakening.Edwards’ most famous sermon was â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God†, despite the fact that he had delivered the sermon to his own congregation, with little effect, he felt led to use it again when invited to preach at the neighboring town of Enfield, Massachusetts on July 8, 1741. During Edwards’ sermon he used vivid imagery of hell, the wrath of God, and the hope of salvation to reveal his pers pective on the reality that awaited those that did not follow Christ. During his sermon Jonathan Edwards used vivid imagery and descriptions to make his congregation see that hell was a real place.To make the congregation see just how close to hell they truly were Edwards stated, â€Å"That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone is extended aboard under you (Cox). † He also wanted them to realize that the longer they went without Christ, the heavier they would become. â€Å"Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downward with great weight and pressure toward hell (Westerfield). † The ground beneath them would give way under the weight of their wickedness and they would plunge into hell where the Devil would be ready for them. The Devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping, for them, the flames gather and flash about them and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up (Smolinski 11). † If the descriptions of hell and the Devi l weren’t enough, Edwards also used the power and wrath of a vengeful God to strike fear into the hearts of the unconverted in the crowd at Enfield. The sheer magnitude of God’s power is shown in the line â€Å"There is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God (Gallagher). Edwards instilled fear into the congregation by threatening the vengeance of God, â€Å"He will crush you under his feet without mercy, he’ll crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments (Trapp). † As more and more people chose not to follow Christ, God becomes angry and his wrath continues to grow. The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course once it is let loose (Baym et al. 99). Edwards sought to show the congregat ion their desperate need for God’s grace, impressing the crowd with what he perceived as the power of truth. Before ending his sermon, Edwards appeals to the unconverted in the congregation with the hope of salvation from a sovereign God. Edwards continues, â€Å"And now you have an extraordinary opportunity (Rogers 11). †Ã¢â‚¬ You are in a day where Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners (Rogers 11). â€Å"Let everyone of you who is still without Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now listen to the loud calls of God’s word and providence (Copeland et al. 228). † Edwards’ final line was a call for the congregation to look back on the depths of damnation through which they had traveled-leaving the valley of hell and returning to the mountain heights of the Devine perspective, the heig hts from which the hope of salvation could be properly understood and embraced (Stuart 58).Stephen Williams, an eyewitness in Enfield, wrote in his diary â€Å"before the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying went through ye whole house, ‘What shall I do to be saved,’ ’Oh, I am going to Hell,’ ’Oh, what shall I do for Christ,’ and so forth. So yet ye minister was obliged to desist, ye shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing (Farley). † Though his sermon caused many to fear him, Jonathan Edwards’ ultimate goal was to convert the sinners and nonbelievers in the congregation and lead them into salvation.Edwards hoped the imagery and message of his sermon would awaken his audience. His underlying point was that God had given humanity a chance to rectify their sins. Edwards ended his sermon with one final appeal, â€Å"Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. † To modern readers â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God† may appear to be the work of a sadistic, wide-eyed radical or a fear-monger, but the sermon is actually a reflection of the cruel and puritanical time in which Edwards lived and preached.Works Cited Baym et at. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1, Beginnings to 1865. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2008. Copeland, Lewis, Lawrence Lamm, and Stephen McKenna. The World’s Greatest Speeches. Fourth Enlarged Edition. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1999. Cox, Brandon. â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. † 2009. Retrieved from www. brandonacox. com, February 01, 2013. Farley, William P. â€Å"Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening. † Enrichment Journal. Springfield: The General Council of the Assemblies of God. 013. Retrieved from http://enrichmentjournal. ag. org, February 10,2013. Gallagher, Edward. â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Some Unfinished Bu siness. † Department of English, Lehigh University. Retrieved from www. lehigh. edu , January 31, 2013. Rogers, Henry. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A. M. : With an Essay on His Genius and Writings, Volume 2. London: Ball, Arnold, and Co. 1840. Print. Smolinski, Reine. â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. A Sermon Preached at Enfield, July 8th, 1741. † (1741).Electronic Texts in American Studies. Paper. Stuart, Robert Lee. â€Å"Jonathan Edwards at Enfield: and Oh the Cheerfulness and Pleasantness†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ American Literature, Vol. 48, No. 1. Durham: Duke University Press. 1976. Print. Trapp, Joonna. â€Å"Hell In a Hand Basket: The absence of Hell in American Literature. † Northwestern College. Philosophy Colloquium. 2005. Westerfield, David. â€Å"A Quote From a Very Famous Edwards Sermon. † Theology. 2006. Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006. Retrieved from www. davidwesterfield. net on January 30,2013.

How The American Revolution Affected Women - 1155 Words

How the American Revolution Affected Women In order to fully understand the changes that women’s lifestyles underwent after the Revolution, one must first understand what the status of women was prior to the Revolution and what roles they played during and after the Revolution. Before the Revolution women were looked down upon as strictly domestic help. They were excluded from politics. They had to perform many dangerous tasks. A woman could not bring suit in court, sign a legally binding contract, or attain property or have income in her own name. Married women were not allowed to be doctors or lawyers and were not accepted into universities (Berkin 455). During the Revolution women whose husbands were fighting for freedom played a significant role in the Emancipation of women. On March 31, 1776 Abigail Adams wife of John Adams, wrote a letter to her husband who was in Philadelphia in the Continental Congress. The letter shows the dire circumstances women were steeped in. She reminded her husband to ‘Remember the Ladies’. â€Å"We will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in imitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness† (Maclean 1). In 1779 Judith Sargent Murray penned a systematic expression of feminist position. Her essay, ON THE EQUALITY OF THE SEXES, challenged the common misconception that males were more intelligent thanShow MoreRelated The Radical Changes Resulting from the American Revolution Essay1156 Words   |  5 Pageslearning about the American Revolution. Although it contains the word â€Å"revolution† in its name, there are many who don’t consider the American Revolution a real revolution. 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