"The Handmaid's Tale" Pgs. 1-100 Response

I do not mind re-reading books. You tend to catch things that you did not in the first read. Hopefully, it is also a book you enjoyed reading the first time as well. It is not that I disliked the book, but rather I found most of the other school instituted books to be more enjoyable. I find this book terribly difficult to read, even though it is not a bad book really. Maybe I just hate the way it goes along and the way it ends.

I am glad that I get to re-read the novel because I forgot certain things like the names of the characters and statuses. I really like all the symbolism that the novel has. I did not see alot of it until the discussions when they were pointed out. There are alot of biblical references in this novel.

Macbeth Acting Response

Acted out Act III Scenes 1 and 3 on Wednesday 3/30/11.

I have always hated acting. I hate public speaking and acting is the worst form of it. I am happy that we were acting out a scene from a play rather than some random insane thing that they make students do in drama and oral communication classes. I am also glad that we were able to read from the book rather than having to memorize all the lines. This would have lead to alot of terrible improvising, which would have probably ended up making everyone laugh anyways. My group mates were very patient too.

The allowences made the experience better, but I plan to avoid acting at all possible in the future. 

"Macbeth" Paper Freewrite

Don't you hate it when people steal your ideas? Lets just hope that everyone is to lazy to read eachother's blogs.

There are several scenes in "Macbeth" that have sounds in them. I would like to write my "Macbeth" Paper on the meanings behind these sounds. They always happen at certain times.
Questions:
1. What sounds?
2. When do they happen?
3. Why are they significant?
4. What could they possibly symbolize?
5. How can you back up the claim of the importance of sounds?

"Macbeth" Acts IV-V Response

Following Acts I-III, the last two acts of "Macbeth" are those that show the gradual downfall of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Driven by his ambitions, Macbeth seeks out the witches once more in order to find out more of his future. Believeing that he will never be killed because of the witches' claims Macbeth begins to feel no fear about the consiquences of his actions.

Macbeth graduately becomes paranoid of everyone and kills innocent people in order to keep his supposed threatened position. As Macbeth becomes increasingly mad, his wife, Lady Macbeth begins to feel her first feelings of guilt for their actions. Starting with the Murder of Macduff's wife and children, Lady Macbeth begins to be plagued with quilt for her assisstance in the murder of King Duncan. In the end, driven by unbearable guilt, Lady Macbeth commits suicide. This action only furthurs Macbeth's madness, as he now has no one whom he feels he can trust.

In the end, the prophecy is proven to be a deceving one, as Banquo had claimed. Macbeth is killed after this realization. 

"Macbeth" Acts I-III Response

"Leda and the Swan" & "Daddy" Response

"Leda and the Swan" (Pg. 781) - William Butler Yeats


I really did not understand what was going on in this poem. To me it sounded like Leda was being killed by a swan, but that really does not make sense. I thought that the overall tone of the poem was very depressing. The poem was definitally not meant to be a happy one. I know who Leda is, but I am unfamiliar with all the stories related to her.


"Daddy" (Pg. 1074) - Sylvia Plath


"Daddy" has to be the strangest poem I have ever read. I found everything about this poem to be confusing, wierd, and rather creepy. I thought it was about a part Jewish girl and her relationship with her Nazi father. But it was actually just a metaphor idea that Plath used to describe her relationship with her father.

William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" and "London" Responses

The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake (665)

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

 

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curl'd llke a lamb's back. was shav'd: so I said
"Hush. Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."

 

And so he was quiet & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned or Jack.
Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black.

 

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he open'd the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river. and shine in the Sun.

 

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark.
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

The poem is about children of poor families who have to work as chimney sweepers. The children live terrible lives at their own expense with all that they earn from their work going to their parents. The children are complete victims, yet are unknowing of this. They have been conditioned to believe that if they do what they are told they will get into heaven. So the children suffer without any rewards all because they cannot comprehend otherwise.

London by William Blake (700)

I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

 
In every cry of every man,
In every infant's cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear.
 
How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace walls.

But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.

This poem appears to make a statement about the overall conditions of society at the time. The people are tired, sick, and sad. The society is lawless and the church and royalty are corrupt. The youth of society are being effected negatively by this corruption and bloodshed.