Ode my gosh!!! ^_^ I didn’t know this much about Greece!!!
Much like a grecian urn, the diction used in this poem is archaic. Part of my research time was devoted to defining some of this archaic language. Who would’ve thought a timbrel was a tambourine, a ditty a song, or a brede a braid? It seems like this poem has been around forever.
It was sad discovering how John Keats suffered from TB for most of his life. I found it almost ironic that this poem is about immortality and forever. I think he would’ve been glad to see that even though his life was short, his poem is still around today.
I found an ode to be a form of a lyric poem with three separate parts: strophe, antistrophe, and epiode, but I don’t see/know/understand how these three parts function or which pieces of the poem fall under the separate categories.
Translations of the poem state that Keats is trying to say through this poem that the present is where true beauty is, but I don’t exactly agree with their assertions or with the idea that all beauty is in the present. I think looking beyond the present actually can bring us personal gains. It’s called planning. Ha ha ha. ^_^
The prompt that will be the basis to a Masterpiece ^_^ … hopefully haha!!!
This is straight off of the Common App which I have to fill out for Stanford.
“Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.”
I shall speak of my brother! …
Blog Post #10 March On the Insects (Response to War Dances)
The motif of bugs is very prominent. Constantly the speaker uses either references to bugs, talks about bugs, or uses verbs that are bug-like. It is mainly cockroaches that are used. “How many cockroaches were in my head” & “How do you like them cockroaches?” (pg6) are both referenced after the initial mentioning of cockroaches on the first page. Also, the speaker feels “the first sting of grief” after comparing the surgical hall to “a beehive with colony collapse disorder.” These bugs are symbolic of problems we face in life. Some can be minor and annoying like a bee that won’t go away, or you can have big problems like a cockroach in your ear. The author is trying to say we all face hardships that can be as tough to dodge as a “swarm of locusts”, and we can take the generic, unhelpful, provided fix like the hospital blanket or seek out a true solution like the Pendleton Star blanket.
I may be seeing patterns that aren’t there or intended to relate to one another, but I see “War Dances” as a piece of literary fiction. It has motifs and symbols as evidently pointed out above. These details have a unity of purpose like most literary fiction which is to convey the differences in the options we face with the result we get.
Once upon a late Sunday night, Niko wrote what he thought was a theme statement!!!
This is my ROUGH draft of my theme statement for “Once Upon a Time”
Fervently protecting the ones you love from the fears you have, which others around you tend to exacerbate, can reach a point where the measures intended to gaurd become limitations on life or even dangers.
Blog Post # 9 Ride that horse to hell!!!
There are many symbols in this short story. One of them is Paul’s name. It is symbolic of the life of Paul (the one from the bible. His life is terrible and the house is full of hatred, but after a truth is revealed to him (in the story, luck; in the bible, the truth), he does everything he can to save people (in the story, his mom; in the bible, the non believers). Both in the end die for fighting so feverantly to save. Blue fire is another undeniable symbol. The weakest part of a flame is the bottom, the blue core, the base. Repeatedly noting the blue fiery eyes of Paul is symbolically illustrating his instablitiy. Clearly, the boy has problems. What kind of mentally stable person gets his bets for horse races my riding a rocking horse? The horse is a symbol as well; one of luck. Just as one rocks back and forth on a rocking horse so too does one’s luck fluctuate. The rocking horse was a sort of allegory as well. The concept of the fluctuation of luck can be applied to life outside of the story too and Paul’s life (metaphorically human life), when centered around luck and its inconsistency, leads him to a quick, targic, deprived end.
Blog Post # 8 The Lottery!? oh I hope I win!…oh, nevermind…
The most prominent archetype in the lottery is that of a task. It is common to find that in many pieces of fiction the plot revolves around a task which must be completed. Much like The Lord of The Rings series only extremely condensed, “The Lottery” is about conducting,to conclusion, a task, the lottery itself.
The only character archetype that is consistent throughout the entire piece is that of an old, wise, sage type character. In ”The Lottery” this archetype is fulfilled through Old Man Warner. He is consistently referred to in the text as the person who knows the most about the lottery and the way it should be conducted.
One archetype that emerges near the end of the piece is that of an outcast. Mrs. Hutchinson, though she was the only one late, fit in with the rest of the crowd and was accepted until she discovered that someone in her family would ”win” the lottery. Immediately, she stuck out of the crowd with her continual opposition to the lottery. When it was revealed that she had “won,” the division between herself and the crowd was enough to grant her outcast status as they stoned her.
Blog Post # 7 An Intameresting Case!!!
In “Paul’s Case”, it is evident that Paul has a serious case of social inferiority and self deception. All of the normalcy in his life he describes and sees in negative connotations. He dispises and rejects the idea of coming home, seeing his father, looking at the horrid yellow wall paper in his room. When he sees something of the upper-class like a painting or a play or an orchestra, he is lost in it’s beauty. Constantly through the motif of flowers we see the colorful, lush dream he sees the upper-class to be. He wants to be someone else. He wants to be rich and powerful, He wants to live easier and so he lies. Just as he crafts lies to his teachers and father, he begins living the lie that he is better than all of them. The ultimate testament to this is when he realizes that in New York, he doesn’t have to lie. This is because his existence there is a lie like an actor on stage he is merely “dressing the part.” When the truth begins catching up with him, when the beautiful flowers of the upper-class begin to wilt, he can not face his drab reality again and so decides to take his own life while he can still operate under the illusion.
Blog Post # 6 the Lesson… was learned
Sylvia is a dynamic character. In the beginning she depicts herself as an over-confident, egotistical, haughty girl “back in the days.” This indicates that now, in the present, she is no longer this way. She may have believed that “everyone was old and stupid or young and foolish and (her) and Sugar were the only ones just right,” but it is the clause at the beginning that indicates that a change has been made in her character. Her story unfolds with her younger self remaining the arrogant, terrible person she is, but in the end the change begins. Sugar, her friend who she believed to be “just right” starts sprinting off toward a restaurant in which they together had decided to spend the money they pocketed. As her friend gets ahead however, she doesn’t care because she decides to go “over to the drive to think (the) day through.” Perhaps this was the moment she made a step away from her old self and her old thoughts about the world or maybe she thinks that now, she’s the only one who is “just right”for she does conclude by saying “nobody gonna beat me at nuthin.”
Blog Post #5 100% Gooseberry Juice
“Gooseberries” was written to illustrate the passiveness by which the majority of society treats societal problems. The title, which later is revealed to be a passion of a character, has the most juvenille and silly connotations to it. Children can often be heard using the term “silly goose”, and no one ever went to war over a berry, there are so many that they are insignificant. The connotations of the title coupled with the intrest of the character in them (gooseberries) results a message conveyed that most people’s priorities are inappropriately organized with unimportant things like gooseberries at the top and helping the poor at the bottom. Ivan remarks several times upon how these priorities keep people happy and keep them from confronting societal issues, especially poverty.
“We see the people going out to market for provisions, eating by day, sleeping by night, talking their silly nonsense, getting married, growing old, serenely escorting their dead to the cemetary; but we do not see and we do not hear those who suffer, and what is terrible in life goes on somewhere behind the scenes…”
Blog Post #4 Good Country Ppl….. ARE CONS!!! ^_^
“Good Country People”, in terms of illustrating Christian redemption, does not hold enough significance on the topic to be cast in that light. The piece is more about how many claim to be Christians and are not or how those who abuse the title by using it loosely create hypocritical stereotypes in society. This is not a story of “redemption” but of a tale of con. Joy’s atheist beliefs are never redeemed into acceptance of God, but are instead confirmed. This “good country” man who has dazzled her with his innocence had planned from the start to steal her most valuable possession.
If anything, this illustrates that Christians are only Christian to receive the benefits of being Christian, i.e., the additional trust strangers give to people who claim to know/love God. This con also carves out the bible in order to hide his flask. The symbol of Christianity, the word of God, is revealed not as a tool of conversion and truth but rather as a false front and a tool to do an evil deed. Redemption is not the case in this story. “Good Country People” does not illustrate redemption. It more so supports Hulga’s atheist view that “We are all damned…but some of us have taken off our blindfolds and see that there’s nothing to see.” That is her “salvation” and the only redemption found in this story.
