Swallow Barn

Swallow Barn by John Pendleton Kennedy was the classic metaphor of the Old South. I think that the metaphor of Swallow Barn may have been especially true for people who had never been there during the time period in which Swallow Barn was written. The beauty of the property was a powerful idea because even when I think of an old southern plantation the images of a slow creek, hanging trees, and an old barn come to mind. Frank the main character is a classic southern gentlemen with interests in politics and not religion. Kennedy paints a picture of a classic southern life.

I was surprised to find that Kennedy himself was familiar with Southern life. Writing Swallow Barn as a satirical representation of the South brought up a question in my mind : What was Kennedy trying to point out? Kennedy was trying to point out that southern life was very political. By emphasizing how the property of Swallow Barn was transferred and exchanged so many ways was an attempt to show the complexity and the political nature of land in the south. Land was an important feature of the South. Kennedy explains how Frank had been interested in politics and wanted to explore it further so he went to Washington to get a first hand view of what there was. Kennedy here is satirizing the only way that southern gentlemen had to protect their way of life. To protect there their land they had to use the power of government. Southern lifestyle was being assaulted so Frank and others like himself knew in order to protect their agrarian gentry politics had to be used.

The message that I think Kennedy was trying to send may have been that southern gentlemen knew that their way of life was waning. In order to protect this they used government. The question that still remains unanswered in my mind is: Do the southern gentry at this time feel that slavery is wrong or is it just that their way of life is being attacked?

John Smith an Advertisment for Virginia

In " The Generall Historie Of Virginia" John Smith tells the narrative of his capture by local Native Americans. In class we discussed reasons why John Smith may have used the third person to describe the events he was involved in. One of the conclusions that we came up with was that by using the third person John Smith put himself above the actions that occurred. After thinking about it for a bit I think that Smith used the third person to make his narrative stronger. The third person establishes Smith a main character in his own story rather than a participant. By becoming a character in his story he increases the excitement and intensity of what is happening rather than just describing it first hand. John Smith essentially turn an account of life in Virginia from an anecdote into a tall tale.

I also thought to look at this tale from the perspective of a regular person in England during this time period. I thought that the story that John Smith told would be considered a very interesting and thrilling narrative. To someone whose daily existence consisted of a monotonous task the story that Smith told would probably be their ultimate expression of an adrenaline rush. It seems that John Smith might have really been the first man to sell the new World in England. When I thought about it, John smith was the ultimate marketer. Selling the New world as a place of adventure: whose curiosity wouldn't get the best of them.