THUNDER CAT!!! N!KONESS!!! >=[

I hope Achebe taught you conservatives a thing or two!!! >=( . . . ^_^ jk

thundercat22niko22 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:03:29 +0000

In the bible, the tone is more calamitous. Locusts of course are seen as a plague. In both Exodus and Revelations, the locusts are exacting some sort of punishment on people. Achebe’s tone is more jubilant. The locusts come to the village to feast on all they grow, but the locusts are viewed more as a blessing. They supply delicious Ibo specialties to the whole village.

Since the effect of locusts swarming ultimately trickles down to the addition of a delicacy to the menu that consists of yams, yams, and oh yes, YAMS, naturally the villages respond in joy to the arrival.

The locusts, provided no locust looks like the ones from Revelations, are depicted similarly. They are so numerous that they hide the sun, encase the earth. They are a tremendous sight that rises up out of the shadows.

I think the locusts symbolize drastic change or unpredictable/ large scale adjustments. Achebe uses them to contrast our culture to that of Igboland. We see large scale change as a negative thing. Our culture is inflexible and change-hating. The healthcare issue is a prime example. Conservatives are fighting it tooth and nail. We choose to see it as a bad thing before we look at the good it could do.

Ikemefuna! Ikemefuna!… I just love saying it ^_^. ?#14

thundercat22niko22 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:59:53 +0000

One purpose of the first chapter is to establish Okonkwo as an important character. He is characterized as an aggressive, manly, successful, animal-like man. He is famous in the surrounding nine villages and beyond. His drive to succeed is inspired by his hatred for his father’s idleness and failures.

Unoka, his father is also established in the first chapter. He is deceased and lived a gentle, relaxed life borrowing from everyone around him. He died from “the swelling” and was left dead unburied. Unoka is a foil of Okonkwo. He is passive and has even been given the title of title-less men, “woman.”

The establishment of the setting is another purpose. The nine villages of Igboland, Africa before colonization, an egalitarian society where the community comes before the individual. Umofia is the village of primary focus. It means people of the forest and although this assertion may be biased by the narrator, it is the toughest and most successful village out of the nine.

The first chapter also clues to the direction in which the remainder of the book will steer toward. It foreshadows the story of and even declares the fate of the boy, Ikemefuna.

Ode my gosh!!! ^_^ I didn’t know this much about Greece!!!

thundercat22niko22 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:49:42 +0000

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!!!

thundercat22niko22 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:44:25 +0000

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)

thundercat22niko22 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:08:34 +0000

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!!!

thundercat22niko22 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:07:20 +0000

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!!!

thundercat22niko22 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:50:25 +0000

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…

thundercat22niko22 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:51:11 +0000

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!!!

thundercat22niko22 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:52:40 +0000

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

thundercat22niko22 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:38:03 +0000

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.”