Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Overall Experience
The overall experience that I have gained throughtout this six week class is more than what I thought it would be when I registered. I thought that it would be just another class where I could get through not really paying attention and not learning any of the material that was talked about in class. This is how I usually act when I have to take anything that is not a science class. I used to think that the only classes that really were worth learning something were science classes, and I guess that is because, like I said before there is a wright and a wrong answer. Literature classes were not something that you learned anything new in, you just read books and discussed them. This semester of English 123 has changed my opinion on that whole way that I thinking. I have learned how to really think about what I am reading and how to try to interpret what the author is trying to get across to me. Before, I would just read the assignment and wouldn't even care what it was saying. To really understand what an author is saying you need to research the author and discover where the author was at in his or hers life. You also need to know stories from the past, and stories from the time that poem or paly was written in, you must be educated. This is a must if you want to get all of the hidden and uncovered punches that are tucked away in the words. The main thing is to know stories so that you GET WHAT IS GOING ON!!!!
Fantasy
Fantasy came up in lecture on Monday and I just wanted to talk a little bit about this. Mr. Sexson talked about the Wizard of Oz and how all of the characters in Oz were actually the people that were the farm hands working on the farm back in Kansas. This made me think of all of the other fantasy stories and movies that I have read or watched. Thinking back on most of them I have realized that they are based on reality. Just like our dreams are usually based loosly on something that is going on in our lives. An example of this other than the Wizard of Oz, is the story of Cinderella. In the story she is living with such a desperate need to fit in and be loved that she has a fairy Godmother and has all of these elaborate things done for her. This fantasy gives all of the people living lives just as Cinderella does in the story a sense of relief that their lives will get better and somthing great will come to them. Really all of real life is one big fantasy, by saying this I mean that everyone really is not happy with where they are in their lives at this very moment. There is 
always something more, or something better that you fantasize about.
always something more, or something better that you fantasize about. Seize the Day
This saying has been a major point during the last couple of weeks in this class. Seize the Day or Carpe Diem, is an example of how you should live your life. In the two plays that we have read, The Tempest, and Hamlet these are large parts of them too. In the Tempest your are suposed to live life to the fullest and get every part of knowledge that you can because you don't have any idea what is next to come. Miranda is living everyday as if she has not ever lived before because everything is new and exciting to her. In the play, Hamlet, seize the day is just displayed in a different way. The main thought in this play is to do something, not to just sit there and let things happen to you. My mother always said that if you want cookies you have to go make them. This saying is not just somethi
ng she would say when I literally wanted cookies, but when I would talk about other things that I wanted. For example when I was little I wanted to be a Doctor, and my mother said to go make cookies, meaninig to take every moment and make it into something that will help the cause. It took me a long time to take her advise, but since I have I am now going to do what I have always wanted, and go to PA School to achieve my dream. 
ng she would say when I literally wanted cookies, but when I would talk about other things that I wanted. For example when I was little I wanted to be a Doctor, and my mother said to go make cookies, meaninig to take every moment and make it into something that will help the cause. It took me a long time to take her advise, but since I have I am now going to do what I have always wanted, and go to PA School to achieve my dream. 
Loss of Innocents
The losss of innocents can be thought of in many different ways. You can think about it as the very first time that you lost your sexual virginity. You can also think of it as the first time that you were able to read a book all by your self, or the first time that you tied your shoes for the first time without any help. This is your education virginity, which is taken away from you every time that you learn something. All of the stories and retellings that we have read over
the course of this class are takeing away out educational virginity, becuase they are teaching us things that we didn't know before, and they are makeing us think about things in different ways that we would have never thought about before. In the Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood stories we talked about how they are talking about sexual virginity, but know that I have learned some ways to think about the different stories I am begining to think that these stories are not just talking about sexual virginity, but educational virinity also. These young girls are starting to become wise to the world, and learn different things about their families, as well as the people and the places around them. In Little Red Riding Hood she learns the ways of the world from the wolf, and looses her educational virginity.
the course of this class are takeing away out educational virginity, becuase they are teaching us things that we didn't know before, and they are makeing us think about things in different ways that we would have never thought about before. In the Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood stories we talked about how they are talking about sexual virginity, but know that I have learned some ways to think about the different stories I am begining to think that these stories are not just talking about sexual virginity, but educational virinity also. These young girls are starting to become wise to the world, and learn different things about their families, as well as the people and the places around them. In Little Red Riding Hood she learns the ways of the world from the wolf, and looses her educational virginity.What I Know Not That I Didn't Know Before
What I Know Now That
I Didn’t Know Before
In this class I have learned many things; I have also had many things that I thought I knew switched around on me. For example I didn’t know that there were different versions of the Disney fairytales, I had no idea of all of the different schemes and sounds that a poem can follow, and I didn’t know that Shakespeare would interest me. One of the major lessons that I have learned is that the only thing that is ever boring is the person saying that something is boring, and this is because they don’t get it.
Retellings are everywhere, every story that I have read is a retelling of something else that has already been told in the past. While growing up I only knew the Disney versions of the fairytales. I was what a psychoanalytic study would call sheltered. When I started reading the very first stories of the Cinderella cluster I didn’t really like them, because they were not the Disney version that left me feeling all warm and cuddly inside. These different retellings of Cinderella were violent, and grotesque. When we talked in class our discussion about the different versions I realized that the Disney story was not doing me justice, it was just telling me what I wanted to hear. Bruno Betteleheim talked about how Charles Perrault’s version of Little Red Ridding Hood did not do justice. He said this because at the end of the story there was a moral, and according to Betteleheim there is no moral of a story, because the moral of the story is the story itself. While reading and watching the Disney versions I always put a moral to the story, and know when I read all of the retellings and also reread the Disney versions I know not to put a moral on the end of the story because, the moral of the story is the story.
Fairytales are for young kids; at least that is what I used to think. After taking this class I have learned that fairytales are not just for young kids, but that they are for teenagers and adults too. Most of the stories that we have read were about a teenager going through a life change, which was most often puberty. They all have an initiation, separation, and a transformation in their story line. For example in Beauty and the Beast, Bell meats the beast, then she is held at the castle, and finally she is released but at that point there has been a transformation and she ends up staying at the castle with the beast. This is true in real life too, school is the initiation step, college is the separation step, and the transformation is when you are done with college you get a real job and actually want to grow up. I personally think that people go through three puberties in life and each has an initiation, a separation, and a transformation in them. The three puberties that a person will go through in life are one in the teenage years, two after college, and three growing old. For this reason I think that fairytales are made for everyone, not just kids, but teenagers and adults too.
The poetry section of the class was great for me because I really had no idea of all of the different sounds, and rhythms that a poem could have. I also didn’t know that a poem didn’t have to rhyme. I was very lucky to be assigned the poem called My Last Duchess, because it is a dramatic monologue. I didn’t know what a dramatic monologue was, but I have learned that it is a poem where a narrator is talking to a silent listener. This poem really captured my attention because it was so much like a real story that had happened in real life. The poem along with the real story didn’t actually say that Alfonso killed his passed wife, but there were many hints saying that he did. The poem says words like “sitting there as if she were alive,” and “half-flush that dies along her throat.” This last line almost tells the reader how he killed her. My Last Duchess really related to me because I feel that I am kind of like the narrator in the poem, in the way that I like to control things that are going on around me. This is the exact reason that I picked my major of Neuroscience and Chemistry. In these sciences there are write and wrong answers, and there are exact ways in which experiments are to be done. In poetry each and every poem can be interpreted differently by different people. The only one who knows the exact write answer is the poet themselves. Everyone else that is reading or interpreting the poems can’t loose.
The Shakespeare unit that we have finished up with was the one that I was least excited about. I thought that Shakespeare was dumb and boring. The reason that I had this mind set was not because I didn’t like Shakespeare, but it was because I didn’t’ understand it. In high school I just skimmed the surface of the Shakespeare that was required of me to read, and I never really got involved with it. For example I thought that Shakespeare only wrote romances, because the only play that I really paid any attention to was Romeo and Juliet, and this was because there was a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio in it. Reading the Tempest and Hamlet I realized that most of the plays do have a romance in them, but that is not the major story going on in the play. The Tempest was a comedy, and I was surprised to find out that something that was written 400 years ago was funny today. The reason for this is that many of the things that I found funny are things that still relate to life today. For example Miranda in the Tempest is a very innocent and naive young girl; I related this to my friend Jill who is also naive. For example, before Jill came to college, she had never put gas in her own car before which is like Miranda never having seen a man her own age before. I think that by relating what Shakespeare wrote 400 years ago to modern day events is how Shakespeare intended the plays to be read and remembered. This thinking came from the couplet that he wrote at the very end of the poem Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day and that is “so long as men can breathe and eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” In the poem and in the plays he is talking about different things, but the meaning that I have learned is that if you write it down it will live forever.
The major things that I have learned in this class are to live every day and every moment. You have to do something; don’t just let things happen to you. Every story is a retelling of another story, and life is just another retelling. Everyone is living a story; the only thing that will help is to know many other stories to help guide us through story we are living.
I Didn’t Know Before
In this class I have learned many things; I have also had many things that I thought I knew switched around on me. For example I didn’t know that there were different versions of the Disney fairytales, I had no idea of all of the different schemes and sounds that a poem can follow, and I didn’t know that Shakespeare would interest me. One of the major lessons that I have learned is that the only thing that is ever boring is the person saying that something is boring, and this is because they don’t get it.
Retellings are everywhere, every story that I have read is a retelling of something else that has already been told in the past. While growing up I only knew the Disney versions of the fairytales. I was what a psychoanalytic study would call sheltered. When I started reading the very first stories of the Cinderella cluster I didn’t really like them, because they were not the Disney version that left me feeling all warm and cuddly inside. These different retellings of Cinderella were violent, and grotesque. When we talked in class our discussion about the different versions I realized that the Disney story was not doing me justice, it was just telling me what I wanted to hear. Bruno Betteleheim talked about how Charles Perrault’s version of Little Red Ridding Hood did not do justice. He said this because at the end of the story there was a moral, and according to Betteleheim there is no moral of a story, because the moral of the story is the story itself. While reading and watching the Disney versions I always put a moral to the story, and know when I read all of the retellings and also reread the Disney versions I know not to put a moral on the end of the story because, the moral of the story is the story.
Fairytales are for young kids; at least that is what I used to think. After taking this class I have learned that fairytales are not just for young kids, but that they are for teenagers and adults too. Most of the stories that we have read were about a teenager going through a life change, which was most often puberty. They all have an initiation, separation, and a transformation in their story line. For example in Beauty and the Beast, Bell meats the beast, then she is held at the castle, and finally she is released but at that point there has been a transformation and she ends up staying at the castle with the beast. This is true in real life too, school is the initiation step, college is the separation step, and the transformation is when you are done with college you get a real job and actually want to grow up. I personally think that people go through three puberties in life and each has an initiation, a separation, and a transformation in them. The three puberties that a person will go through in life are one in the teenage years, two after college, and three growing old. For this reason I think that fairytales are made for everyone, not just kids, but teenagers and adults too.
The poetry section of the class was great for me because I really had no idea of all of the different sounds, and rhythms that a poem could have. I also didn’t know that a poem didn’t have to rhyme. I was very lucky to be assigned the poem called My Last Duchess, because it is a dramatic monologue. I didn’t know what a dramatic monologue was, but I have learned that it is a poem where a narrator is talking to a silent listener. This poem really captured my attention because it was so much like a real story that had happened in real life. The poem along with the real story didn’t actually say that Alfonso killed his passed wife, but there were many hints saying that he did. The poem says words like “sitting there as if she were alive,” and “half-flush that dies along her throat.” This last line almost tells the reader how he killed her. My Last Duchess really related to me because I feel that I am kind of like the narrator in the poem, in the way that I like to control things that are going on around me. This is the exact reason that I picked my major of Neuroscience and Chemistry. In these sciences there are write and wrong answers, and there are exact ways in which experiments are to be done. In poetry each and every poem can be interpreted differently by different people. The only one who knows the exact write answer is the poet themselves. Everyone else that is reading or interpreting the poems can’t loose.
The Shakespeare unit that we have finished up with was the one that I was least excited about. I thought that Shakespeare was dumb and boring. The reason that I had this mind set was not because I didn’t like Shakespeare, but it was because I didn’t’ understand it. In high school I just skimmed the surface of the Shakespeare that was required of me to read, and I never really got involved with it. For example I thought that Shakespeare only wrote romances, because the only play that I really paid any attention to was Romeo and Juliet, and this was because there was a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio in it. Reading the Tempest and Hamlet I realized that most of the plays do have a romance in them, but that is not the major story going on in the play. The Tempest was a comedy, and I was surprised to find out that something that was written 400 years ago was funny today. The reason for this is that many of the things that I found funny are things that still relate to life today. For example Miranda in the Tempest is a very innocent and naive young girl; I related this to my friend Jill who is also naive. For example, before Jill came to college, she had never put gas in her own car before which is like Miranda never having seen a man her own age before. I think that by relating what Shakespeare wrote 400 years ago to modern day events is how Shakespeare intended the plays to be read and remembered. This thinking came from the couplet that he wrote at the very end of the poem Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day and that is “so long as men can breathe and eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” In the poem and in the plays he is talking about different things, but the meaning that I have learned is that if you write it down it will live forever.
The major things that I have learned in this class are to live every day and every moment. You have to do something; don’t just let things happen to you. Every story is a retelling of another story, and life is just another retelling. Everyone is living a story; the only thing that will help is to know many other stories to help guide us through story we are living.
Connections
There are many different connections that I have made between some of Shakespear's plays and reference to the Bible. I have noticed that many of the hidden subliminal messages and some of the things that are not the main points that are talked about when discussing the plays are infact almost exact stories out of the Bible. For example in the play The Tempest, when Caliban is telling the other men how to take over Prospero and overthorw him he says that you must first take away his books. He says that Prospero's books are the only thing that gives him his power, because without his books he is just a simple man. This is just like in the Bible where Sampson gets his hair cut off and he looses all of his strength. The books in the Tempest and Sampson's hair are examples of the comparison between Shakespear's plays and the Bible. The next example is that in Hamlet he is made the scapegoat and is expelled from the kingdom and sent to England to be killed. In the Bible Jesus is made the scapegoat by accounting for all of the sins of mankind and he is 
hung on the corss. I am not sure if these simularties are just by coincedience or because they were ment to make people think about how life is just another retelling of the story of the Bible but just in a less intense way.
hung on the corss. I am not sure if these simularties are just by coincedience or because they were ment to make people think about how life is just another retelling of the story of the Bible but just in a less intense way.
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