All Things To Their End!!

English 102 was a class that focused on introducing students to a wide variety of stories in three different genres short stories, poems and plays. English was never one of my strong subjects because I was never really good at reading a piece of literature and understanding all the allusions or symbolism that was presented in the play. What I realized in this class that is important to read some ones work and ask yourself what can I learn from this, what is this story trying to tell me and why did they author write this. I feel that the point of English is to learn how to communicate with people, to not take things as they are but dig for the hidden information because that is where the really meaning lies.   

All the pieces of literature that we went through in the semester changed my perspective on moral issues, decision making, and the consequences that come from the choices we make. The play Everyman really demonstrated that it doesn’t matter how many people are in your life or how much money you have but the only thing that really counts in life are the good deeds that you do. Of course, this something that all people are aware of but it really impacted me when I read it in the play. My thoughts changed about men dominating over women in the 1800s because reading the stories “The Yellow Wallpaper”, “A Doll’s House” and “A Rose For Emily” the men never expressed dominance it to hurt the women that was all they knew and that to them was a way of showing their love.

The poem that I felt the most disconnected was “The Flea” I just don’t understand why John Donne picked a flea to represent his love for his lover. Even reading the poem three or four times didn’t help me to understand it any better. The poem that I liked the most was “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath it really moved me to the point where I almost felt her angry and frustration. The power the poem had because it was so sad and Plath doesn’t hold back or try to make her feelings less than what they were it really made me feel for her because the way she wrote it, the words really grab the reader’s attention. All the other poems and stories were nice and I enjoyed them but they didn’t really influence me or make an impact like “The Flea” did where I just couldn’t get it or like “Daddy” where the intensity made me really want to understand what was going on.

The story that I felt was important in the message that it conveyed was The Tempest; I don’t really like to read Shakespeare’s play because it is very hard for me to understand Old English. But, I really did like the one of the themes that expressed the differences between nature and civilization and how complicated things can be because people like to lead their own lives no matter what the cost. The message was important because it really made me realize that it isn’t just a modern idea that people don’t connect themselves with nature but it was also a fact in the beginning of conquering new worlds. This idea makes me question if people could ever live with nature and respect it or are we just made as a species to feel like we rule the lands.    

A World of Wonder or Not!

Serious Drama                     

Lighthearted Escapist

      The play "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare has all the elements to make the play a serious drama but it also has a lot of different elements like spirits and magic. The story is very interesting to read but at times it can be difficult to understand some elements in the play because of the deeper meaning behind certain instances that the reader doesn't catch when you first read the play. I do feel that the play "The Tempest" is more like a lighthearted escapist work because the story seems to have a fun feel to it with the main character Prospero having the ability of magic and controlling spirits to do his will. As I said before the play did have the elements of being a drama with Prospero being a Duke who was betrayed by his brother cause he wanted to be Duke as a consequence Prospero and his daughter Miranda were exiled and condemned to death but by luck they didn't die and landed on a remote island.

       Only taking his library of books and his daughter Miranda, Prospero learns how to do magic which seemed to me more like Sorcery or the type of magic that Merlin had. With all the magic that Prospero learned he was able to control the spirits and cause the huge storm that caused the shipwreck with his brother on board and all his other targets. What really made it funny was that when the Butler(Stephano) and the Jester(Trinculo) came into the play, Trinculo took cover next to Caliban while Stephano approached them being drunk. Then they get the idea, with Caliban a character that was described to be half fish, half man, to go kill Prospero and become rulers of the island, it made the play a little comedic because as a reader you know that it would never happen. Also with the power that Prospero had being able to control everyone by manipulating everything around them or even the people themselves, it seems to be more of a fantasy like Shakespeare really got into the topic and just went where his imagination took him. Especially with the idea that Prospero was controlling the spirits because spirits were really powerful being able to change and bend reality it begs the question as to why the the spirits would follow his commands and not just killed him when he first tried to control them or Ariel to be specific. But, I do feel that a lot of what went on in the play with Caliban being some kind of creature, all the magic, and spirits made this play more of an escapist rather than a serious drama because of the extensiveness of the imagination.

      I did like this play a lot more than the others for the same fact that as a reader you get to read something that as a lot of imagination with the magic in it rather than the play just being serious, morbid and stressful like reality. The reader can escape to a place that is different than just the norm. Not that this play was a big joke or anything, it is just that I didn't find this play as a serious drama for example like Oedipus because this play seemed to be a lot more fun with all the magical elements that were included in the play.

Back to the Previous Themes!!!

      A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen was a play with a familiar theme that we have encountered before in previous stories such as "A Rose For Emily", "Chrysanthemums", and "The Yellow Wallpaper", where the men had a very dominating personality and had control over women. "A Doll's House" was refreshing because the wife Nora didn't end up going crazy, or killed her husband she just realized that she couldn't live with her controlling husband anymore and left him to start a new life. I really liked the ending of this story more than the others because Nora didn't allow something like that break her down she simply changed what was making her unhappy or disappointed her(her husband). This story seems to empower women more than the other stories giving women of that time a voice that they don't have to stay in a situation where they feel stuck or unappreciated. Nora's husband never really abused her or was mean to her he just seemed to always worry more about himself even when he claimed that he would do anything for her or put her first above all else. He seemed to be very similar to the husband in the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" where they love their wives but in a way don't really acknowledge them or treat them like their wives more like children. "A Doll's House" put the women in more power than the men even though the man thought he had more power but it is evident that Nora was more in charge throughout the story when she forges her husbands signature to get the loan and tries really hard to keep everything in control. Even the title "A Doll's House" sounds like it is stating that women run the house and it belongs to her with the way that the title is worded because doll was a common term to call women back in the day.
        I feel like this theme works better in longer stories or plays because you see the full development of the wife character and how slowly through many situations she comes to her final conclusion rather than just one main situation all of a sudden driving the women to the edge. It really expresses the strength in the character to be able to try to make the best of things that might bother them until finally they have had enough. In the short stories it was usually only one situation that broke the characters for instance in "Chrysanthemums" when the sneaky tinker finally got business from Elisa she felt dirty and horrible about herself and it was only that scenario that broke her spirit. In "A Rose For Emily" the audience only got to hear that Emily's father never let her have a boyfriend, they story never gives any other examples on how controlling he was. And in "A Doll's House" the audience is able to follow the lives of the characters, see how everything develops, understands the scenarios and goes through them with the characters so when Nora said that she finally had enough the audience understands and agrees with her.

OOH.... What a World!!!

        I support the idea that Oedipus is a tragic figure because he is a fallen hero. Oedipus was a very smart and courageous man that became a king of Thebes, a position that seemed to be well deserved. The worst part of the story is that all his suffering was caused because of the decisions that his parents made and he had no control over it. I believe that is what makes the story very tragic. Oedipus seemed to be a very good man and ruler, it was evident that he cared about the people in his kingdom and tried to do the best he could for them. He even ran away from his home trying to prevent the prophecy(that he would kill his father and marry his mother) from coming true, thinking that it would happen with his adoptive parents whom which he didn't know they were his adoptive parents. Oedipus was a man who made his decisions with the best intentions but sadly they lead him to his doom. One downfall that Oedipus had that would also seem like a good quality would be his stubbornness and his need to know everything. It was because of these to qualities that Oedipus led himself to his very dreadful fate.
             When he had finally solved the mystery of King Laius(Oedipus's biological father) death and that the prophecy had actually come true keeping to his word he had himself exiled from the land just like he had promised to his people. He also felt it necessary to punish himself in the worst manner that he could think of, so he blinded himself by stabbing himself in the eyes because he felt that he could never see the joy in anything anymore. Out of despair or feelings that are unimaginable he stabbed his eyes but even an act like that behind whatever feelings were driving them it took a lot of strength to accomplish such a painful task and not everyone would be able to do it. Oedipus was a victim of a tragic fate but he did have a lot of heroic qualities that would make someone question how could something so horrible happen to him.
        My teacher discussed with us what the definition of a tragedy is and she told us that it was when something very bad happened to someone with position in society for example like a queen or king, even prince or princess because at that time nobody cared what happened to the commoners. Even though Oedipus didn't know he was of royal blood in the beginning until he finds out the truth; I think that it's reasonable to think when someone with such a strong character like Oedipus falls it would be tragic therefore, making him a tragic figure. 

Drama, Drama, Drama... We all Learn Lessons!!

        Writing plays has always proved to be a difficult process because you have to make sure that you have a good story that people will get hooked into while watching and stay entertained throughout. In class we were given an assignment to write a short play with a student having to decide to study and do well on a final project or give in to temptation and not do the work. To be honest I wasn't really excited about the small project. When we got together in my group to write our short drama skit,we were having so much fun writing our skit that we got carried away and started to add animals in to the story meanwhile trying to come up with the main problem. The hard part of the skit writing was trying to create a story that would be different from all the others and also coming up with dialog for the characters was also a little bit difficult. What I felt to be the hardest part of the whole process is deciding how to make the moral issue play out and how long the dilemma is going to last and how will it be resolved because there are so many possibilities. We did take to long brainstorming our story that we ran out of time and the last details we put together in a rush. For example, trying to decide who was going to be what and trying to learn some of the lines. This process would be more effective than a lecture because instead of just talking about all the elements that compose a drama, during this exercise you get to experience all the elements. Plus, it is much more fun than sitting in an lecture! It was also a lot fun to watch all the other groups perform their skits and see what they had come up with as their story. Another good thing about this activity is that it was very interactive and that helps people to remember things better than just listening to information. It was very enjoyable and a nice intro into starting our new topic of reading plays or dramas. The theme of having a moral issue in our dramatic skits worked really well because it was neither funny nor a tragedy and that is what drama is.

Daddy can you read me a poem....

I decided to do my second essay on the poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath and when I first read the poem I didn't understand much of it. The main thing that popped out to me when I first read the poem is that it had a an angry tone to it and that the main setting of the poem was World War II, which I found odd. After reading the authors biography it was eerie that the poem was very closely related to events in her life, except the part where her dad was a Nazi. I started to understand some of the imagery and metaphors that the author had in her poem but I hadn't really tried looking into the significance behind it. I have to admit, that was the best part of the whole essay was trying to decipher the meaning behind the words and not having any restrictions as to what I thought it could mean. Discussing the meaning of the poem with my teacher taught me that everyone has their own interpretation of what they think that poems mean and that just made the whole process even more interesting. My view about poems changed a lot, in the beginning I didn't appreciate the figurative language used in poems and I am sure the reason is because the poems were always discussed in class, which is a very good thing, but I really didn't have to put much effort in understanding them on my own. This essay really made me enthusiastic about reading poems and trying to figure out all the little details and hidden meanings behind allusions or specific wording. I even learned that the title of a poem is also very important and has a significant meaning that effects the poem. In general, the most important lesson that I think I learned was not to just read a poem but to really read it and appreciate all the time and effort that must have gone into writing it to make it entertaining for the reader. I have to admit that sometimes it does get frustrating having to read a poem that has a lot of descriptive language or that makes a lot of allusions to things that I would have known unless someone told me but I can say  that I do enjoy reading poems a lot more than I used to.

Flea= love..... Grimm Cinderella... Poems!

      The poem that I found the most difficult was "The Flea", that poem was very confusing for me because I didn't know why he used the flea as a symbol of there love. My major question about the poem is: why did he use a flea to represent his love or their relationship? Because, fleas are very gross and people don't like them, its strange that he would pick a flea to represent something that is suppose to be special. When I first read the poem I thought that someone had died because of the flea almost like the black death but it turns out that the woman in the poem killed the flea. It is kind of funny that I was so off the meaning. After discussing the poem with my class it seemed to make a lot of sense as to why he pick the flea as a symbol because the author John Donne does a really good job with the flea representing their union. Once you understand the basic meaning of the poem it becomes really nice and a bit humorous because the man in the poem is trying so hard to get his lover to sleep with him.  

       The poem that I really liked so far is Cinderella, I thought that it was a really cool version of the story because I never really liked the Disney version which is how all the other versions of Cinderella are based on. It made me want to read the actual story written by the Brother's Grimm, which is where the author got the piece of the story from. Anne Sexton was really trying to make a point in her poem Cinderella that people that go after the things that they want are considered the ugly stepsisters and people that just wait around like Cinderella enjoy all life's rewards. That is what Anne Sexton seemed to be against in her poem because it sounded like she was making fun of the story. I really liked this poem because I really understood the authors point of view and what she was trying to portray with the mini stories in the beginning and the piece of Cinderella from the Brother's Grimm.