The following are two first draft paragraphs for this week's assignment. 

See the second paragraph, Different Views of Freedom

An Ideal Kind of Freedom

     William Stafford’s poem, “Freedom,” contains many differences from our views on freedom. Unlike Stafford, our group did not discuss luck. He says that freedom, “is knowing that luck makes a difference,” but for some reason we failed to note this important truth. Stafford, furthermore, believes that “No leader is free; no follower is free”; however, in our group most of us said that we were free, and only some people, such as children or prisoners were not. According to Stafford, however, almost no one is free. Finally, although Stafford suggests that we “wake up about four in the morning” in order to be free, our thinking is that this does not guarantee freedom to us, but we do like this time of day and the way it feels. Perhaps, he means it as metaphor and to remind us that social pressure does not allow for ideal freedom. In conclusion, our group’s opinions varied quite a bit from William Stafford’s views, though, one thing is for sure, he made us think deeply through his poem.

Different Views of Freedom

     The poem, “Freedom,” by William Stafford contains ideas about freedom in one way similar to, but mostly different from my group’s ideas. For example, our group thought freedom was being able to do what we wanted to do within the law; similarly, Stafford says, “freedom is following a river” or “not following a river,” which seems to mean doing as we wish. However, Stafford and our group disagree about who has freedom. Unlike Stafford, who believes, “No leader is free; no follower is free,” and so almost no one is free, we, in our group, thought that the majority of Canadians had freedom, except for a few people. Furthermore, our group and Stafford do not agree about how to get freedom. Although we felt we could obtain freedom by choosing to live in a free country like Canada, Stafford says, in contrast, that “we need to wake up about four in the morning” in order to be free, since he believes others influence our freedom, so we must avoid them to be free. Finally, it became clear to us that Stafford mainly disagrees with our thinking on freedom in his poem.

 

 

 

 

 

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