Lovelet by William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare has written quite a few Sonnets dealing with the theme of love. This theme is also greatly used by him in the play Hamlet. During the play for instance we see that the love which Hamlet has for his father is only strengthened due to his father’s death. This is similar to Sonnet 73 where love is strengthened by the separation that occurs. It may also be argued that Gertrude’s reasoning for marrying Claudius is connected to Sonnet 29′ s theme that love can change a person’s mood from sad to happy. Contrary to my other post, she may have been completely surprised by her husband’s death and to deal with it she finds a new love to get over the sadness of the last.

What I believe however is that Gertrude’s love was only conditional for King Hamlet. She only cared about his power. This relates to Sonnet 116 which shows that unconditional love cannot be changed. Because Gertrude’s love does change, then she never truly loved him.

Hamlet! U Mad Bro?

Was Hamlet MAD? I am utterly confused as to why there is only a question if Hamlet was  Mad or not. It literally makes no sense to me being that he’s the only character that has the sense to see the corruption that’s going on. Here’s how I see the play, basically everyone (excluding Hamlet) is mentally ill and completely corrupt throughout the entire play. Hamlet changes and delves towards the crazy side later on, but he’s the only one of the kingdom that isn’t crazy at first. This can be seen in the fact that everyone is so easily able to go about their days, and swear that Hamlet’s craziness (he’s pretending) is the only strange thing going on whilst knowing that King Claudius has married someone that was just a widow but a month before. This is completely abnormal behavior on their parts, and the ease to which they have in acting like everything is okay shows that something is wrong with them. I think it’s the power that the Kingdom holds that makes them this way. They are either in fear of it and go mad, or they hunger for more and lust for it.

This hunger for power is why Claudius killed King Hamlet, and also why Gertrude marries  Claudius shortly afterwards. This is also probably why King Hamlet killed Old Fortinbras and stole the throne. The Point I think Shakespeare is trying to make is that, Kingdoms are built on the bases of corruption. That is in order to establish what is yours you have to claim it, and to claim you have to kill. Think of it in more recent terms. The pilgrims traveled to America, established it as theirs, nearly decimated the Native American population, and then truly claimed it as their own. Whether or not Hamlet did what he did, I believe they all would’ve still died in the end. It’s because the play shows this cycle where there is always someone that is attempting to kill the ruler in order to take his place. Maybe someone even worse than the last. In this case Fortinbras. Fortinbras is corrupt in the same way Hamlet is for he too attains a lust for revenge. His army would’ve more than likely still killed them all had things went differently, but Denmark’s inner corruption did the job for him. This places the latter half of what I think Shakespeare’s point is, corruption will always fall and then rise again.

Waiting for popcorn

After actually watching the play I have developed an even better perspective on Waiting for Godot. The play put an even better establishment of the tone because the scenery and long pauses made it seen as though vladimir and estragon were in purgatory.  The characters were also able to bring a greater sense of depth to the play in support of this black humor mood. For instance, the movement Lucky makes when he chooses not to eat the chicken bone makes him seem even more messed up than he does while reading it. I like the fact that the play has little stage directions because it allows for the director to put a good bit of his own take on how the waiting should go.

Prestige Mode

It was sort of hard for me to think of a story that was structured in a way that confused me. However, looking back I think there is one that I can make a good note of. When I was in the fifth grade my brother showed me this movie called The Prestige. It’s a movie about this magician Borden who is pursuing a life as a magician. He competes with a man named Angier as he tries to complete Borden’s trick called “The Transported Man”. My brother told me before I watched the movie that the whole movie was a trick, and as I watched it the first time it the ending made it seem as such. However, It took me about four times of watching it to understand the entire trick and understand all the events that built up to its reveal.

I won’t spoil it for you, but the story basically is structured around the three parts of a magic trick. Step one is the pledge, where the magician shows you something ordinary like a deck of cars or a bird. Step two is the Turn where the magician does something extraordinary with that object like making it disappear. And lastly the third and hardest step is the prestige, which is bringing the object back. In the movie, Angier follows what he believes to be the way that Borden is able to do his transported man trick. He thinks Borden does it through a cloning device. Which is what I though because I wasn’t being open minded enough with the film. However, when I was able to think about it and re-watch I could see a million things that hinted at another explanation. Such as Borden’s wife on different days saying, “You love me today!” Borden said that the greatest trick involved sacrifice. After I was able to be open minded about the movie, I was able to realize just how many sacrifices Borden made.

Drowning in a Mask

Me and my Partner Huy Diep did a comic book on the chapter No face. We chose this route due to the fact this chapter in particular made it seem as though Ysrael was a super hero, as the world around him was full of corruption. It took a while to find all the appropriate pictures for the comic book, but all in all it was very fun to do. I guess my biggest take from this chapter was that  no matter how bad the world treats you, you should always stand tall and never give in. Me and my partner came to the consensus that we deserve a 95 for our work on this project.

No Face

Me and Hubert Diep are doing a comic book on No Face.

A Hero’s Journey

Many stories told seem hold one very similar structure. This structure is known as the hero’s journey. This journey can be seen an movies like Harry Potter and The Matrix. What this structure shows is the type of story that people really like to hear. I mean, honestly, if people were tired of the use of the hero’s journey then it wouldn’t be used as much as it is still to this day.

The story Winters Bone is a fine example of a novel that uses this structure of the hero’s journey with Ree Dolly being the hero. I’ll use the following to explain her entire journey throughout the novel.

1. World of Common Day                                                                                                  – At the beginning of the novel, we are presented with the world that Ree lives in and background about her. She grew up in the Ozarks in a broken family where she had to assert herself as the primary caregiver and provider due to abandonment by her father. Ree’s ordinary world is just day to day care for her family at home.

2. The Call to Adventure- Her call to adventure occurs when she is told that her father Jessup has placed a bond on her home and is required to make the court date or else her home will be taken. This makes clear of Ree’s goal in finding her father in order to keep her home.

3. Refusal of the Call
– Ree doesn’t really refuse her call in the novel because right after she is told of the situation, she says, “I’ll find him.” However her refusal could possibly be depicted as her want to leave an join the military because she sometimes questions why is she here versus there.

4.Meeting with the Mentor – Ree’s first meets with her mentor begins on chapter five where Ree meets with Uncle Teardrop. By basically telling her to leave the task alone, he is giving her preparation for how the other people she interrogates end up acting.

5.Crossing the First Threshold – Ree crosses this threshold when she first ventures into Hawkfall, visits Little Arthur, and is rejected to be spoken to by Thump Milton in chapter ten and eleven. This is where she first attempts to answer her call.

6. Tests, Allies and Enemies – Ree is tested by Blonde Milton when he takes her to the burnt down crank house and says that it is the last place Jessup was seen. She figures out that Jessup couldn’t have died there because the place was to overgrown. She therefore questions Blonde’s reasoning in bringing her there. “He never blew no lab before.” (pg. 75)
We are also presented with her ally, Gail, who greatly assists Ree on her journey. Ree lastly begins to learn that the people of Hawkfall, though they are blood, are against her and therefore are her enemies.

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave – Ree’s visit to Thump Milton’s house is the Inmost Cave because it is the most dangerous place that she could possibly be, and also is where the information of her fathers whereabouts are held.

8. The Supreme Ordeal – The Supreme ordeal occurs when Ree visits Thump Milton’s house for a second time (ch. 25, pg 130) and is then Beaten to a pulp. She possibly could’ve died had teardrop not stepped in.

9. Reward- Seizing the Prize – She is rewarded when, of all people, the women that beat her up take her to her father’s body and allow her to get proof that her father died.

10. The Road Back – She has to deal with finally coming to true grips that her father is dead. She then give her fathers hands to Baskin as proof. “Dad’s hands brought sorrow and a blessing.” (ch. 35 pg 186)

11. Threshold Crossing – “Resurrection” – Ree is resurrected in that she now knows that the ordeals of the town are so bad that she doesn’t want herself or her family to ever be associated with it again.

12. Return with Elixir – “Freedom to Live” – Ree gains the elixir of money from the bond placed on Jessup. Her knowledge and money gained from the Inmost cave gives her the idea of leaving with her family. This ensures that neither she nor her family will have to go through anything like that ever again. This is why she wants to buy “Wheels” pg. 193.

You down with LPP?

Over the past few weeks our class participated in an interview project where we were told to produce something similar to that of the Laramie Project.  My groups question was: Do you feel that our school places a greater importance on football than other sports and extracurricular activities? Our results were that our school does, but it is however, ok with the emphasis.

 

I liked this project a lot because I’ve never interviewed people before. Getting to try this new experience was very fun for me. It even turned out to be fun interviewing some of the more intimidating people such as Principal Jackson and Coach Lamar. I can’t say it wasn’t challenging though. We had to dog Mr. Jackson for three days just to get a twenty-two second interview.

 

I liked watching the other interviews because they had very controversial topics. More importantly though, they had good direction in the way they focused and sent messages with their presentations.

 

The Laramie Project Book vs. Movie ( Books better)

After reading the Laramie Project and watching the movie I have noticed a few things that have stricken me as peculiar. For one, and this is important, the movie kind of plays a different role than the book even though each tell the same story. Its like the movie is actually attempting to lead its viewers to think certain things or support a certain perspective on everything that occurred in Laramie, while the book does just the opposite as it leaves things up to the interpretation of the reader.

My beat example of this comes from the statement made by the girlfriend of Aaron Mckinney. She says the same thing in both book in Movie, however the way she is acting in the movie makes her out to seem like that of a crazy person. Its just the way she’s swaying and looking around everywhere is extremely strange, and I would’ve never felt that she was that weird after reading the book. There were really a lot of things like this that would’ve swayed what people thought about Laramie afterwards.

Because of these little discrepancies, I guess I have to say that I like the book a lot better because it didn’t funnel my thoughts or lead me to thinking this or that was bad. The book allowed me to choose right from wrong on my own.

Why it happened or What it caused: Which is more Important?

The quote that I believe is the most important in the play is the statement said by Father Roger Schmit. He says, “Matthew Sheppard has served us well. You realize that? He has served us well. And I do not mean to condemn Matthew to perfection, but I cannot mention anyone who has done more for this community than Matthew Sheppard.” I picked this point as the most important because it represents the fact that the death of Matthew Shepard did send a message to people, and was able to unify unify some against crimes of hatred. Its good to note because it represents also that whether he was kill because he was gay, or because he was rich, or simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time doesn’t matter. We can never really know why the two boys killed him. However, what we do know from this is that his death did eventually caused the creation of new laws against hate crime. The result of his death in this case is much more important that why he was killed. If the crime can be proven to not have been done out of hate, then it still would’ve had the same effect in our society, and in my opinion that’s all that really matters. The  effect of this was good wasn’t it? So why does it matter to some so much as to why it all happened, versus what it all caused?

I liked the Socratic seminar, but I kind of have to agree with what you said in your blog post because you kind of did talk too much. I mean some of the things you said would’ve ended up being said by some of us. For example I would’ve made that point about the police recording a lot earlier, but you redirected us too much.