A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: 2

We have finished the Connecticut Yankee for this entree and I have to admit that I enjoyed the novel. Since my last entry, the Yankee has fortified his position as Boss and is even more powerful than the king. I wad correct in foreseeing the Yankee crafting an arsenal of gun powered weapons. When his adversary, Sagramor, returns from his adventures to take up the challenge, the Yankee uses a revolver and kills him in a single shot. He than challenges the entire royalty and kills off 11 of a massive 500 knight attack with his two revolvers and they retreat. This reestablishes his position of power. He later brings and sets up modern 19th century technologies such as telephones, electricity, and steamships. He introduces new ideas of equality and sets up a west point military academy to train a group of loyal followers. By the end of the Novel he plans to modernize England by overthrowing the church and establishing a republic. He marries sandy and when they have a child he travels to France. After a month, he returns to England to find complete chaos. The kingdom has reverted back to its old ways. He finds that there was a battle between the king and Lancelot and the church had reestablished its influences. All of the people have reverted to their old superstitious ways. He summons a group of loyal followers and sets up a stronghold with Gatling guns, mines and electric fences. When the empire attacks he kills thousands of the assailants. He later goes out to aid the wounded and an ungrateful noble stabs him. As he sleeps that night Merlin sneaks in and cast a spell on him that puts him to sleep until he is back in modern times.

I found this last part of the story to be very interesting. I was surprised how the entire nation would revert back to its old ways after only a month without the Yankee's guidance. The unappreciative nation actually set out to kill him and destroy all that he created. The Yankee of course fends them off but gets stabbed in an attempt to give aid to his wounded assailants. It is also interesting that the not so great Merlin actually used sorcery to put the Yankee to sleep until he is back in modern times. He actually cast a spell that worked. I took the book very literally and did not see any deeper meaning other than the reversion of England back too its previous way might symbolize something deeper.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

This story was written by Mark Twain over a century ago. It is the tale of an American man, Hank Morgan, that finds himself teleported back in time to King Arthur's domain n the sixteenth century. He is captured by an assailant and brought to the castle of king author as a prisoner and to be executed. His exotic clothing causes much attention among people. When he is thrown into prison he pretends he is a wizard and escapes sure death by coincidentally claiming that the solar eclipse is his doing. He strikes fear into the hearts of the entire kingdom and he is given money and power. Dubious people like the wizard Merlin begin to doubt his powers but the Yankee blows up his tower with blasting powder and pretends it was by magical forces. Now there is not a man in the land that could question his power and authority.
The Yankee was a gun factory manager and was use to commanding and demanding workers. I have a feeling that in the future chapters of the book that he will use his superior intelligence and knowledge to make some modernizations. Since he was able to make blasting power i see that he might be able to craft weaponry such as guns and cannons for the king. If he does however, and the book has any realism to it, he will change the future and he might not ever exist. It also said in the prologue that he was knocked out in a brawl before he travels into the past. Before this he is explaining that a bullet hole through a suit of chainmail was his doing. This would definitely reinforce my believe that he will bring the firearm into the past. Overall the story is a very interesting read and I really am interested in what feats Hank can accomplish.

1st blog post

I found the article "Black Metropolis" very interesting in its belief that a fascist leader might emerge out of the slums of Chicago similar to Hitler. It also drew a comparison between the movement of blacks to the north comparing it to the founding of our country by the Puritans that fled Great Britain a few centuries earlier. The article brought up issues on how Hitler and his government recognized the faults of American Society at the time and used them as a means to creating his perfect society. His government and economy was everything we were not and it really made businessmen and politicians angry. IT is interesting to note that since this was written in the late 40's, a time of segregation and a definitive separation of the whites and blacks, the author accurately predicted the civil rights movement a decade later. The topic of the Black Metropolis and Black rights was taboo at the time and no one would talk about it. Similarly in Europe, the German economy and government was crushed by World War One and had to revolutionize there government to survive. Hitler took control and created the fascist system and from the urban lower class of Germany emerged the new political force. This will happen with the Martin Luther King error about to emerge and the future ban of segregation and black Americas integration back into society. It is also interesting that people were questioning the movement of blacks into the northern Chicago and urban super center regions. They were leaving the still very oppressive south to hopefully find acceptance and a promising life in the urban north. They have left the south in search of a better free of oppression and to do as they please in the north like the puritans when they founded our great country. This is an extremely logical assumption however unlike the Puritans they still had to deal with segregation in the north as business would rather higher a more skilled white worker.