Blog #21: Hamlet Act 2

"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." This quote is so soooo relatable to the situation that Hamlet finds himself in, although revenge will probably come easier to him as he doesn't have to search for his father's murderer for twenty-five years of his life like Inigo. In this classic story Westley and Buttercup reunite after years of lost love and fight the mythical kingdom of Florin.

Oh how I am in awe of this story, such romance, adventure, and fantasy. I find myself in such a similar situation as to Princess Buttercup. Although the surface story may seem like a prince saving a princess I feel that is not all there is. Princess Buttercup is also saving him. When Westley returns as the man in black I believe that Buttercup probably feels the way I am at this very moment. I feel as if Hamlet is not being himself, he has been overtaken, consumed in something else and it leaves me "so affrightened!" (2.1.74). Westley does this to find information and I really hope that in time, Hamlet will reveal his thoughts to me Further, the king and prince are trying to tear Buttercup from Westley. Although I believe my father has my best wishes at heart, at times it does feel like he is ripping love away from me. "My lord" (2.1.83) does admit that his judgment is not always correct. He admits that with "better heed and judgement" (2.1.108) we could have just avoided this whole relationship drama fiasco. This plot of Inigo's revenge is quite concerning to me. I know that Hamlet is concerned with his fathers death and has come to really dislike his uncle. I fear he may seek revenge and this revenge will bring on paranoia that I may have already seen him "as if he had been loosed out of hell" (2.1.81).  There is so much happening with the death, the funeral, the marriage, the potentiality of war with Norway, my brother now gone, and Hamlets strange behavior that "I do not know;/ But truly, I do fear it" (2.1.82-83).

Tweets:

1) AGHGhghsghdfjhdsgflakuwe #sofrustrated #scaredformylife #soaffrightened

2) My dad is pretty much a god, always right #daddysgirl #luvu

3) Not all advice is good advice #lessonlearned "illdobetternexttime

4) My boyfriend is going crazy, and not a the good way #badboy? #relationship probs

5) The future is fast approaching, and it is scary #featoftheunknown #college apps

Blog #20: Hamlet Act 1

Oh, woe is me! My father does not wish that I see Hamlet, and my brother agrees. My family is more important to me, however, so I agreed, and "I did repel his letters and denied/ His access to me" (1.2.106-107). Though I do want to see Hamlet, alas, it cannot be so. I am still under the instruction and mentor-ship of m father, "my good lord" (1.2.105). I do not know where Hamlet would lead me but I do know that my own father would not lead me astray. He is, after all, the adviser to the King! Someone held in high regard and trusted beyond all others.
Although I will obey my father and brother, I cannot help but feel bad for Hamlet. A few days past he came to my chamber "with a look so piteous in purport/ As if he had been loosed out of hell" (1.2.80-81). My father prompted me if he were mad for my love, but I am unsure! Nevertheless, "I fear it"(1.2.83). What shall I do if Hamlet does not release me? With the recent loss of his father and the marrying of his horrible uncle to his just recently widowed mother, Hamlet must feel so sad, grieving on his own. If only I could be with him, to aid him. No, my kinship is more important to me than romance, I will obey. I must.
This knowledge, as my father says, "might move/ More grief to hide than hate to utter love" (1.2.116-117). I must be ignorant of Hamlet's love, there are for worse possibilities should I choose to accept it  instead.

Tweets:
1) I sent back his love letters, message received? #gatesclosed #rejected #stayaway

2) My lord, my savior, my father #daddysgirl

3) Poor Hamlet looks like he just walked out of hell #badhairday #sorryaboutyourfather

4) Scared that my ex will try to win me back #ughhhh #tooprettyformyowngood #stalker

5) Have to think of my father's reputation before galavanting off with random boys #richgirlprobs #richfatherprobs

Blog #17

Day 1:

In our memoirs, many of us decided to write about our heritage and foods that our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents made but I really like how you wrote about your friends because we act most like our friends and we grow up with them creating a greater sense of understanding about each other. I'm sure much of the high school, myself included, can relate to the fact that we have almost no idea to do when we finally "reach adulthood". During the fishbowl I liked how you and your group related sacrifices to something more like a trade-off. A point I especially liked was how even though with all her husbands she had to work, whether in the garden, the store, or in the muck, yet her willingness to work was greatly different with each person, and that she was not necessarily making sacrifices for Tea Cake as much as just wanting to be with him. I think this points shows great development in Janie's quest for self-actualization. Amazing job!

Day2:

I have never made a souffle before but yours was great! I really liked your video because it showed the cooking process. Your story of how your family makes this for only special occasions and how its a Easter food but you don't eat it then really stuck with me. I like that how it shows that this food means something more special to you than the general public and how each person has their own reasons and ways for celebrating. I enjoyed during the discussion when you spoke about identity advancing when moving from place to place and people around you changing as well. Great job!

Day 3:

First of all, fried rice is always amazing and I'm glad you brought that in because I was particularly hunger on that day. Your presentation showed a good integration of time as you went from your childhood to you grandparents to your life now, it was very cohesive as as you made sure that all your points connected. During the discussion I liked how you talked about the husband and wife roles, and how though one is considered "dominant" it does not necessarily mean one has more voice overall. Husbands have their own fortes and so do wives and one generally for women is food. Connecting Janie and Jody's relationship back to the fundamental of food and the things that we learned during the writing of our food memoirs shows a great ability to synthesize different information. Great Job!

Day 5:

I really enjoyed your story of how your life is so very different from your sisters' because although my sister and I were both born in the United States I still feel a huge gap by our ten year age difference and how my life has changed in the time before she was born. I also really enjoyed eating your dish, although I will probably never be able to pronounce it correctly! I think one of the best things about reading or hearing all these memoirs is that you can see how each person has been affected by their culture and heritage and I think you did a great job connecting your "old" culture to your "new" culture. During the fishbowl discussion I like what you said about connecting who we are with how others expect us to be and how people change us but that is not necessarily detrimental. In your fishbowl notes I saw how you analyzed Janie's actions with respect to Jody, and how after he died she was set free as she was no longer next to Jody and she didn't have his reputation to worry about anymore so she was then able to advance throughout her life. Great job and great food!

Blog#16

Blog #15: Final Three-Paragraph Reflection

This semester has greatly contributed to my English skills, especially in the analysis of poetry and learning to write based on ideas instead of devices. Before this year, my experience in poetry has been greatly limited as in AP Comp we focused on novel and play excerpts. No matter what experience I was with poetry I always enjoyed it and the presentation projects that we have had this semester has allowed to research and understand how the special formats of poetry contribute to the meaning and complexity. Unfortunately, while I learned a great deal about certain types of poetry such as the ballad and free verse poems, I did not retain very much from some other presentations besides the general formatting. To make sure I am capable of understanding any poem I come across I need to further research myself other types of poems and know how their special nuances contribute to meaning. The presentation projects have also helped me with the way I write essays in general. Previously, when during timed essays and not having enough time to through think through what I need to say, I would automatically slip into the general three body paragraph structure. I now know that this type of writing limits the depth of my analysis as I could not easily relate the devices I spoke about in each paragraph. By organizing my thoughts into idea categories instead, I can now show how all literary devices contribute to the many ideas that an author is trying to convey. Something I still need to work on, however, is the conciseness of my papers. Although I am able to better organize my thoughts and find complexities through connections of ideas I am still finding it hard to put my thoughts into the right words. My group's thesis statements over the semester have been very long, almost paragraph length and although sometimes it is necessary to utilize that many words I should still be able to condense the points I wish to make and then elaborate on them later.

One thing I have enjoyed this semester is the connection between the poems we studied and different fairy tales and myths. When we analyze such poems it is easy to see where the author inspiration has come from and the common themes that run through certain eras. The hero's archetypal journey is another thing I have enjoyed learning about. It seems like a very specific concept with the different steps that all hero's go through but it is extremely applicable to many, many different situations.

Although I have gotten though the surface of many different components of the analysis and understanding of literature I still have a lot to work. I need to work on being more independent with analyzing, coming up with more ideas before consulting my group, I need to work on looking for the details and underlying themes that make up complexity, and especially the fluidity of my writing.

Blog #14: Paired Poems Group Presentation

Initial Essay
Helen was supposedly the most beautiful woman in Greece, who's face was said "to launch a thousand ships". This phrase coming from how Prince Paris of Troy saw Helen's beauty and took her for his own starting the ten year long Trojan War. The poems "To Helen" by Edgar Allen Poe and "Helen" by Eliza Doolittle both speak about Helen's beauty but the difference between the usages of diction, rhyme, and syntax create two entirely different attitudes.
The most obvious difference between the two poems is the diction choices. In "To Helen" Poe uses many Grecian references, alliteration, and speech much like that of Shakespearean times. This choice in diction relates "To Helen" to odes and sonnets even though the structure is not necessarily the same. Poe's choice in words also create a longing tone when speaking of Helen, making her beauty an aspiration. In "Helen", however, Helen's beauty is still an aspiration, they still want to keep it in statue form but Doolittle's choice of harsh, blunt words create the negative atmosphere around Helen, giving us reason to dislike Helen.
The rhyme scheme of each poem also conveys the tones and attitudes of each author towards them. Poe's consistent rhyme scheme creates a flowing voice throughout his poem along with the diction and syntax again creating the positive atmosphere around Helen. Doolittle, however, uses a few slant rhymes with very little true rhymes at all which adds to the harshness of her words.
Another component that separates the two poems is the syntactical choices. Poe's poem completes phrases while Doolittle's broken structures make us feel as if she were too angry to speak fluidly, adding emotion into her poem and forming the tone.
The flowing versus blunt diction, consistent in contrast to non consistent rhyme scheme, and fluid versus broken syntax both convey the beauty of Helen wth very different attitudes and tones.
Powerpoint

Tone Shifts

Annotations/ Close Reading/ Notes

Blog #13: Paired Poems Revision (Chimney Sweeper)

The chimney sweepers of the late 18th century held a dangerous job, to be pushed down inside chimneys with brushes and bags so as to clean their interiors. Unfortunately, many of the chimney sweeps were children as they were the only ones who could squeeze into such tight places, and not knowing of the health dangers of continuous exposure to ash and smoke trusted their parents and did as they were told.  Both of William Blake's poems that comment on this job utilize very similar rhyme scheme, diction, and syntax but the subtle differences between the two contribute the two different viewpoints of the poems. The first poem showing innocence and naivety, the second more mature and experienced.
In the first of Blake's poems, an "aabb" rhyme scheme is used in each stanza, while in the second poem "aabb" is used in the first stanza, but the second and third uses an "abab" pattern. The rhyming of the words adds an element of youth, which is what Blake is trying to do as he is speaking through the mouths of children in each poem. In the first poem however, the child is more innocent, doing his duty because they trust the adults and the "Angel" that tell them everything is going to be great and that the child and his comrades will be free and happy. In the second poem the child has seemed to have grown up more, he now knows that being a chimney sweeper is not something to be grateful for, but he assumes his parents do not notice the hardship "[doing him] no injury" (poem 2, line 10). He still trusts his parents but has experience to not be as naive as before. The rhyme scheme matches this difference between the children's perspectives as in the first poem the pattern makes the speech of the child seem shorter with more simple phrases, as if he does not generally compose complex thoughts, and each thought is sectioned into its own rhyming couplet. The rhyme pattern of the second poem, however, makes it seems like each stanza is a complete thought as the beginning lines are connected to the last. This difference in the rhyme patterns of each poem contribute to the image of the speaker in each instance and help convey the different messages of innocence and experience,
The diction and syntax in each poem also separate the messages in each poem. The first poem contains many blunt and direct words, outright telling us what has happened, there are not very many emotional adjectives for tone so the tone can be viewed as more objective or neutral. The second poem, though also containing rather simple words, uses more serious tone words such as "death", "woe", "injury", and "misery". Instead of the indifference of innocence we can see the speaker feels very negatively about the job that he must do. The difference in diction also conveys to us the difference between the naivety of the first child in comparison to the experience of the second.
Blake's usage of rhyme scheme, diction, and syntax help him to convey the naivety in the first poem with the child who is less mature, and the learning and experience of the child in the second poem. This shows the complexity of the time period where the job of chimney sweeps were common.