The first two scenes of Hamlet weren't very informative to me as the reader. However, in class Mr. Fiorini explained how every bit of text in this play has a purpose behind it. The way Shakespeare sets the play up is somewhat confusing to me, because it doesn't give much for the reader to analyze. Besides reading the page where it explains in detail who all the characters are, I got a better description of some of them as I read the first two scenes. Hamlet, a teenage boy, and the Prince, has lost his father who is known as "Old Hamlet". He is trying to cope with the fact that his mother, Queen Gertrude has moved on so quickly, not to mention the man she is now married to is his father's brother. King Claudius took the throne when his brother died, and is now both Hamlet's father and uncle. It is obvious from the text that Hamlet isn't very fond of his uncle. Also, he nearly despises his mother for her actions, considering he is in mourning due to his fathers death. How she could move on so fast and to his own brother is something Hamlet cannot understand. The fact that Hamlet is determined to seek revenge on his uncle for taking his fathers life, pushes him away from both his mother and uncle. The two scenes that I read so far weren't extremely detailed, but gave me enouugh information to understand what was going on and to lead up to what will happen next. They mainly focused on how Hamlet was feeling about the situation with his mother and uncle, and how he was coping with his fathers death. Shakespeare has set up the play so that we are now aware of the conflict, and are prepared for what will happen next.
I would like other viewers to focus on how I stay on topic. Sometimes when I write I get nervous that I'm going off into other topics and it starts not making sense. Focusing on that and leaving any questions or comments to help me fix any problems that you can pin point is what I'd ask of my classmates and/or Mr. Fiorini.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Kubla Khan
1] The poem "Kubla Khan" is definately celebrating imagination. The way Coleridge describes the images in the poem helped me as the reader to envision this place he was talking about. He describes the river, gardens and all of the naturistic things he mentions in full detail which enables the reader to really imagine it. I feel as though Coleridge is trying to reach out to the reader's imagination in general due to all of the description and imagery he is using.
2] After reading Shelley's poem, Ozymandias, I was able to depict three voices. All three are describing the scene of the poem in different ways, but all relating to one another. They describe the statue of Ozymandias after it has been destroyed, and the depressing sense that people are being filled with. I was left with a sense that Ozymandias was some sort of leader, considering the statue was made of him. However, the destruction of the statue lead me to believe that he did not have victory of whatever he had been leading. The tone of all three voices expresses who Ozymandias was and what he was looked upon as.
2] After reading Shelley's poem, Ozymandias, I was able to depict three voices. All three are describing the scene of the poem in different ways, but all relating to one another. They describe the statue of Ozymandias after it has been destroyed, and the depressing sense that people are being filled with. I was left with a sense that Ozymandias was some sort of leader, considering the statue was made of him. However, the destruction of the statue lead me to believe that he did not have victory of whatever he had been leading. The tone of all three voices expresses who Ozymandias was and what he was looked upon as.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
The Chimney Sweeper
1] After reading both poems from The Chimney Sweeper from the Songs of Innocence and The Chimney Sweeper from the Songs of Experience, I agree that Blake's poems appealed to the imagination of the reader. Since the poems were from two completely opposite points of view, I had different perspectives about them. At the very start of the Songs of Innocence, I developed an emotional sense for the little boys at work. The poem seems to have the effect on people have sympathy for the two boys. However, when the boy dreams about Heaven, as the reader I gained an uplifting emotion that the boys would live a better life one day. The other poem, Songs of Experience, doesn't have the same effect on me, but relates to the Songs of Innocence. Unlike Songs of Innocence, this poem doesn't get uplifting at any point. It describes the horrible life this boy has to live in which he is forced to live there and do things he doesn't want to. Both poems are about young boys who are deprived of important needs, however the Songs of Innocence leaves the reader with a sense of hope for the boys, when the Songs of Innocence leaves you feeling bad for the young boy.
2] I think the purpose of this document was to show the reader that even though these characters were fictional, child labor is a real problem that children face in their lives. It gave me a sense of the tragic lives that young children, such as these boys in the poems, have to deal with and face everyday. It helped me to envision it in my mind as a real image of what goes on during child labor. It brought me as the reader, a sense of sadness because it showed how real it is. However, I thought it was a good idea to add the Parliament document because it helped me, and probably the other readers, to imagine what children go through.
2] I think the purpose of this document was to show the reader that even though these characters were fictional, child labor is a real problem that children face in their lives. It gave me a sense of the tragic lives that young children, such as these boys in the poems, have to deal with and face everyday. It helped me to envision it in my mind as a real image of what goes on during child labor. It brought me as the reader, a sense of sadness because it showed how real it is. However, I thought it was a good idea to add the Parliament document because it helped me, and probably the other readers, to imagine what children go through.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Gulliver's Travels
A] 1. Why do the lilliputians capture Gulliver and pin him to the ground?
- I feel as if this would be a general question a class may want to know. They capture him and pin him down because they are confused on who he is. They aren't aware if he will try to hurt them. Also, the fact that he is so big scares them.
2. Despite the size of the lilliputions, why didn't Gulliver react to their attack?
- I think that Gulliver was just as confused as the lilliputions were when they saw eachother. The fact that there were so many of them may have scared him away from reacting. He probably wasn't aware of what they could do to him, even being as small as they were.
3.Why was Gulliver asleep on this ground in the first place?
- This question generates ideas that a class may have. It can be opened up to a broad discussion about why he may be sleeping there in the first place. If this is such an unknown land to him, then why would he be there? It develops ideas to talk about in a class and teaching discussion.
4.Why didn't the lilliputians instantly kill Gulliver when they first saw him?
- I think maybe because they were curious about him. Considering they were all so small, they had never seen someone as big as him. However, how were they sure that he wouldn't hurt them as soon as he awoke? This question also develops a broad classroom discussion.
5. Why do they have the lilliputians speak another language, and why don't they explain the meaning right after?
-I think they have them speak another language to tell the difference between them and Gulliver. They might not translate it right away because they want the reader to continue reading and figure out the meaning from the surrounding words. It keeps the reader interested and involved in the reading.
B] The story didn't make much sense to me when I began to read it, but I wrote down any questions I had as I went on. It started to make more sense as it got to the end, so most of my questions were answered. By working with Christina and making the teaching chart, it helped me to learn how to teach a class. By writing down both of our thoughts, opinions and questions, it made it easier on both of us to understand the story. Obviously, neither of us are teachers, but we taught eachother by using our own thoughts and questions. This prepared us for our lesson to teach the class this week.
C] When we prepared our lesson, we started by writing questions that we think the class will have. When we teach the other group we are assigned to we will use those questions we prepared, but open it up to a broad discussion and allow the students to share their thoughts and ideas. If the disagree with something we have written down, we will allow them to share what they are thinking so that it is easier for them to learn more. Hopefully the presentation leaves the students with a sense of what we learned from the story. We will ask them to give their personal input, whether it be an idea, or even a different way to bring the topic about. We hope to teach these students as much as we learned preparing it.
- I feel as if this would be a general question a class may want to know. They capture him and pin him down because they are confused on who he is. They aren't aware if he will try to hurt them. Also, the fact that he is so big scares them.
2. Despite the size of the lilliputions, why didn't Gulliver react to their attack?
- I think that Gulliver was just as confused as the lilliputions were when they saw eachother. The fact that there were so many of them may have scared him away from reacting. He probably wasn't aware of what they could do to him, even being as small as they were.
3.Why was Gulliver asleep on this ground in the first place?
- This question generates ideas that a class may have. It can be opened up to a broad discussion about why he may be sleeping there in the first place. If this is such an unknown land to him, then why would he be there? It develops ideas to talk about in a class and teaching discussion.
4.Why didn't the lilliputians instantly kill Gulliver when they first saw him?
- I think maybe because they were curious about him. Considering they were all so small, they had never seen someone as big as him. However, how were they sure that he wouldn't hurt them as soon as he awoke? This question also develops a broad classroom discussion.
5. Why do they have the lilliputians speak another language, and why don't they explain the meaning right after?
-I think they have them speak another language to tell the difference between them and Gulliver. They might not translate it right away because they want the reader to continue reading and figure out the meaning from the surrounding words. It keeps the reader interested and involved in the reading.
B] The story didn't make much sense to me when I began to read it, but I wrote down any questions I had as I went on. It started to make more sense as it got to the end, so most of my questions were answered. By working with Christina and making the teaching chart, it helped me to learn how to teach a class. By writing down both of our thoughts, opinions and questions, it made it easier on both of us to understand the story. Obviously, neither of us are teachers, but we taught eachother by using our own thoughts and questions. This prepared us for our lesson to teach the class this week.
C] When we prepared our lesson, we started by writing questions that we think the class will have. When we teach the other group we are assigned to we will use those questions we prepared, but open it up to a broad discussion and allow the students to share their thoughts and ideas. If the disagree with something we have written down, we will allow them to share what they are thinking so that it is easier for them to learn more. Hopefully the presentation leaves the students with a sense of what we learned from the story. We will ask them to give their personal input, whether it be an idea, or even a different way to bring the topic about. We hope to teach these students as much as we learned preparing it.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
1984 - final
The passage quoted by O’Brien is significant in many ways to the story. Nineteen eighty-four was set up as a society where everything was perfect and nothing could go wrong. Everyone was controlled by the people of the party and demanded to follow their rooms or else. The most important aspect of this “or else” is that no one quite knew what it was. The whole idea of the society was to maintain an oligarchical collectivism. The reason for this is because of the fact that it allowed them to control those who lived in this society in any which way they wanted. However, the people of the society allowed this oligarchical collectivism go on, which is how and why it continued to exist. They were so unsure of what their fate may be that they did not want to go against the Party. The questioning between if their fate was already planned for them without their knowledge or if they truly have the choice to chose the path they want to follow was always lingering in people’s minds. Winston’s fate was already known from the very beginning of the story.
When O’Brien states “When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same things as you” he is describing how Winston lives in this society and what his life is like. When Winston met O’Brien, he immediately sensed a connection between the two of them. Orwell states “Much more it was because of a secretly held belief - or perhaps not even a belief, merely a hope - that O’Brien’s political orthodoxy was not perfect.” This quote meant that Winston sensed hope in O’Brien about having the same feelings toward the party as he did. Having such a hatred for party, lead him to believe that others felt that same hatred as well. By others he really meant O’Brien. Winston began to trust O’Brien considering they shared the same feelings, however he didn’t realize what was soon to happen to him. He starts to believe that everyone is believing the same things he does and has the same feelings, when in reality he was alone. The trust that he felt in O’Brien was the fall of Winston’s character. Once he began to trust O’Brien, there was nothing that could stop him from seeing Julia. By him seeing Julia, it lead him to make foolish mistakes that lead him to be torn apart. The trust he had in O’Brien was nothing. In fact, O’Brien was the bait that the controlling party used to get to Winston and it all faults in Winston’s foolish actions.
At the end of the book Winston’s fate once again plays a large role. When O’Brien says “You must humble yourself before you can become sane" he is stressing to Winston that in order to live with himself he must learn to live with the society first. He needed to learn to accept the person he had become before he could truthfully become that person. For Winston to live in the society without a constant struggle, he has to understand the societies thoughts and feelings. Rather than fighting against society, he must realize that it is just easier to make peace with the society and the people who control it. He has the choice of just giving in and being like everyone else or to still try and continue to go against them, but at the end of the story he realizes what needs to be done. “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” He finally allowed himself to be a part of the society. For so long he tried to be different from the world around him which only gave him problems in the long run. He finally stopped fighting against them and decided to fight with them.
Through these acts, the society was able to form an oligarhical collectivism into allowing the people to only believe what the party believed was the truth. The people of the society put up no argument and were completely fine with this act. “War is peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” the slogans in which the society was built upon. The people are so used to thinking that was is peace, that when there is no war, to them there is no peace. The Party uses that slogan so that they are able to keep the people in the society under very strict control. They are always worrying about what is happening in the war that it doesn’t open them up to details about different things. The question “why?“ does not exist to these people. Even when they have to ration their food, they believe that this is okay because the war is going on. By doing this the society is able to manipulate the minds of the people in to believing whatever they want them to believe. That is such a strong tactic because if they decide to go against this, they aren‘t aware of what will happen to them, just that it will be bad. “You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline”. This is the beginning of the speech that O’Brien says to Winston. They feel as though they must be looked upon as an example of disciplined people and that is what the society decides to make of Winston.
The Party decides the fate of everyone that lives with in their society. There truly is no such thing as “Big Brother“, but he acts as a figment so that the party is able to have more control. Since no one has every actually seen Big Brother, it adds more to the illusion. The party decides the fate of their people because they are able to see everything they do. “But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.” They knew of every move that was made by every person, which also leads to the fate of Winston. Winston’s fate wasn’t just determined due to the few mistakes that he had made through out the book, but they knew from the moment that they had seen a change in Winston that he was going to be torn apart. There are certain people with in this society that will always be around due to the fact that they are either not intelligent enough to think out side of the box, or simply smart enough not to show it. Winston thought that he was able to be smart enough not to show it, but he did realize that the simplest malfunction could lead to the destroying of his fate and that is exactly what happened. The party waited and watched him, and with just the simple mistake that Winston made, his fate was decided.
When O’Brien states “When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same things as you” he is describing how Winston lives in this society and what his life is like. When Winston met O’Brien, he immediately sensed a connection between the two of them. Orwell states “Much more it was because of a secretly held belief - or perhaps not even a belief, merely a hope - that O’Brien’s political orthodoxy was not perfect.” This quote meant that Winston sensed hope in O’Brien about having the same feelings toward the party as he did. Having such a hatred for party, lead him to believe that others felt that same hatred as well. By others he really meant O’Brien. Winston began to trust O’Brien considering they shared the same feelings, however he didn’t realize what was soon to happen to him. He starts to believe that everyone is believing the same things he does and has the same feelings, when in reality he was alone. The trust that he felt in O’Brien was the fall of Winston’s character. Once he began to trust O’Brien, there was nothing that could stop him from seeing Julia. By him seeing Julia, it lead him to make foolish mistakes that lead him to be torn apart. The trust he had in O’Brien was nothing. In fact, O’Brien was the bait that the controlling party used to get to Winston and it all faults in Winston’s foolish actions.
At the end of the book Winston’s fate once again plays a large role. When O’Brien says “You must humble yourself before you can become sane" he is stressing to Winston that in order to live with himself he must learn to live with the society first. He needed to learn to accept the person he had become before he could truthfully become that person. For Winston to live in the society without a constant struggle, he has to understand the societies thoughts and feelings. Rather than fighting against society, he must realize that it is just easier to make peace with the society and the people who control it. He has the choice of just giving in and being like everyone else or to still try and continue to go against them, but at the end of the story he realizes what needs to be done. “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” He finally allowed himself to be a part of the society. For so long he tried to be different from the world around him which only gave him problems in the long run. He finally stopped fighting against them and decided to fight with them.
Through these acts, the society was able to form an oligarhical collectivism into allowing the people to only believe what the party believed was the truth. The people of the society put up no argument and were completely fine with this act. “War is peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” the slogans in which the society was built upon. The people are so used to thinking that was is peace, that when there is no war, to them there is no peace. The Party uses that slogan so that they are able to keep the people in the society under very strict control. They are always worrying about what is happening in the war that it doesn’t open them up to details about different things. The question “why?“ does not exist to these people. Even when they have to ration their food, they believe that this is okay because the war is going on. By doing this the society is able to manipulate the minds of the people in to believing whatever they want them to believe. That is such a strong tactic because if they decide to go against this, they aren‘t aware of what will happen to them, just that it will be bad. “You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline”. This is the beginning of the speech that O’Brien says to Winston. They feel as though they must be looked upon as an example of disciplined people and that is what the society decides to make of Winston.
The Party decides the fate of everyone that lives with in their society. There truly is no such thing as “Big Brother“, but he acts as a figment so that the party is able to have more control. Since no one has every actually seen Big Brother, it adds more to the illusion. The party decides the fate of their people because they are able to see everything they do. “But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.” They knew of every move that was made by every person, which also leads to the fate of Winston. Winston’s fate wasn’t just determined due to the few mistakes that he had made through out the book, but they knew from the moment that they had seen a change in Winston that he was going to be torn apart. There are certain people with in this society that will always be around due to the fact that they are either not intelligent enough to think out side of the box, or simply smart enough not to show it. Winston thought that he was able to be smart enough not to show it, but he did realize that the simplest malfunction could lead to the destroying of his fate and that is exactly what happened. The party waited and watched him, and with just the simple mistake that Winston made, his fate was decided.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
What interested me the most about this book was how people lived without freedom. It showed me how different things were compared to now. I can't imagine living such a confined life to where having personal thoughts and opinions was committing a "crime". The people were only allowed to believe what the people of the "party" believed, anything other than that was a crime. I've never even heard of "thoughtcrime" until this book, which is of course because it doesn't exist. However, my thoughts of the word itself would have gotten me locked away in the "Ministry of Love". The factor of control also plays a big role in this book. The party of Oceania had control over every aspect you can think of. As I mentioned before, the people were demanded to live this “confined” life that the party had control over. Anything from a document all the way to an event from past times was not allowed to be carried along throughout their lives. The reasoning behind this was to delete the past and all memories from each person’s past. In was in full affect for all the people of Oceania which left them forgetful and confused about the past they once experienced.
Also, the poem interested me too. The poem written by Orwell speaks of these "dreams" that he doesn't believe in. I always have some belief that dreams do come true, in some cases at least. He thinks all of the good things in life are just dreams that he will never experience. I feel as if both my explanation about freedom and about how you should follow your dreams link together. If you have the freedom you deserve, you are more likely to experience more things then a confined person whom can't express their personal opinions and thoughts. The word freedom is even a dream in some peoples cases. I think freedom drives you to dream, which is why these tie in with each other.
I feel that all three of these factors relate to one another in different ways. They all lead up to one another in someway. By being under complete control which doesn’t allow you to remember your past, will effect the way you portray dreams and experiencing them. Without the freedom that you need, dreams will be portrayed more as fantasies rather than a goal to reach. I believe these are put in the book to appreciate the things we have in life and follow your dreams.
Also, the poem interested me too. The poem written by Orwell speaks of these "dreams" that he doesn't believe in. I always have some belief that dreams do come true, in some cases at least. He thinks all of the good things in life are just dreams that he will never experience. I feel as if both my explanation about freedom and about how you should follow your dreams link together. If you have the freedom you deserve, you are more likely to experience more things then a confined person whom can't express their personal opinions and thoughts. The word freedom is even a dream in some peoples cases. I think freedom drives you to dream, which is why these tie in with each other.
I feel that all three of these factors relate to one another in different ways. They all lead up to one another in someway. By being under complete control which doesn’t allow you to remember your past, will effect the way you portray dreams and experiencing them. Without the freedom that you need, dreams will be portrayed more as fantasies rather than a goal to reach. I believe these are put in the book to appreciate the things we have in life and follow your dreams.
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