Journal #12- Antigone

The author creates contrast between ugly and beautiful to create tension. Antigone characterizes herself as being ugly but in the end she implies she is beautiful, like a queen. Creon also brings up Oedipus, her father, and talks about how Antigone is just like him. Oedipus is characterized as being ugly too. What him and his daughter have in common is that they take actions in the things they strongly believe in. In Oedipus' case he did all he could to find out the truth about him and his family even though it was not a happy ending for him. Creon would have not done the same thing and would have instead "asked the messenger to leave". Both of these sides have good points. Because on one hand the truth is revealed but on the other you could just go on with your life, like Creon would. I think the difference is that in the end Oedipus turn out "beautiful" through his suffering. In Antigone's case she buries her brother even though she has no doubt she will be put to death. But in her view it would be even worse for her not to burry her own brother. But she did, and not even death can take her actions away. So in the end, just like her father she is beautiful even after she must die.

Journal #11- Antigone

The chorus' voice has changed, it is not longer just stating the events but it seems like they have more feeling. The also reveal what tragedy means to them. "Tragedy is clean, it is restful, it is flawless. It has nothing to do with melodrama-with wicked villains, persecuted maidens, avengers, sudden revelations [...]" This could be why at the beginning of the play the author did not set up Creon as the villain because he does not believe that that is part of a tragedy. He presents him as a man who wants to be a ruler for his kingdom. The chorus also says, "In a tragedy, noting is in doubt and every one's destiny is known. That makes for tranquility" This is why they revealed what happens to every one in the play in the first few pages. They think that melodrama is vulgar and I'm not sure why. And in a tragedy there is no hope to escape which relates to Antigone because she knows and accepts that she is going to die and does not runaway.

Journal #10- Antigone

List of Events

• Antigone is thinking about her family and how she is going to rise up against Creon. She knows she is going to die.
• Antigone's sister Ismene is chatting with a young man, Haemon (the King's son)
• Antigone and Haemon are engaged. There was ball one night he danced with Ismene but decided to go and asked Antigone to marry him. She was not surprised and accepted. No one saw this coming.
• Haemon is expecting to marry Antigone but he won't, he will instead die sooner than he might have otherwise have done.
• Creon is sitting, lost in thought
• Before Oedipus was King and Creon was no more than the King's brother in law.
• Oedipus died and both of his sons did as well. Creon had to take over the kingdom 
• Creon does his job even though there are problems
• Eurydice is Creon's wife. She's knitting and does so for the whole play until she has to go to her room and die
• She is no help for her husband

 Anouilh structures his play so that we know the events ahead of time. One reason he could have done this would be so we already know what will happen and not focus so much on the suspense and focus more on the characters and their interactions with each other. It seems that he doesn't side with Antigone or Creon, he kind of just gives the reader both sides. He is simply stated the facts and I think that will help the reader formulate their own opinion. Also from what we learned what a tradegy is supposed to be we're not actually supposed to side with one side, but instead be able to relate to both sides. So I think this was a good set up for the play.

Topic Sentence

In Federico Garcia Lorca's, Blood Wedding, the Bride's immature dialogue towards Leonardo shows how she only cares for her own desires and how her behavior leads her to make poor decisions.

Blood Wedding #9

        Themes

• One's desires should be tamed because they can lead to the worst situation possible

• The truth will always come out

• It's better to tell the truth in the first place 

• You can't hide what your heart desires

• Money isn't everything

• Violence is not the answer

Blood Wedding #8

Journal #8: How does the set change between acts and what effect does the set have on the atmosphere? 

 

The set changes from this beautiful wedding with a lot of guests and "happiness" to a natural forest, with intensity because the Bridegroom is willing to kill for his Bride. And as readers we obviously know that she is with Leonardo. I think that by doing this dramatic change it kind of illustrates that we're never going to be able to sugar coat everything forever, and life sometimes has harsh inevitable realities. And that's how this play started, with the Bridegroom filled with illusions and the wedding, but ultimately it ended in death. And death is something that no one can escape, it is an inevitable reality and part of life. The fact that the Bride cheats on the Bridegroom is another one of those things that even though it's not good, we have to admit that it does happen and when it's done it's done.    

Blood Wedding #7

When and how does Lorca break the fourth wall (google the term)?  What is the affect of reminding the reader that the events on the stage are not real?

In this scene he starts out with the Maid singing, but what I noticed was more in the end of this scene. This is the part where the people at the wedding discover that the Bride has fled with Leonardo and everyone of course is panicking. The Bridegroom is already asking for a horse so he can search for his wife and the Mother is starting to blame this whole thing on the Bride, and basically calling her indecent. Of course, her Father tries to defend his daughter. This part is really important because now everything is out in the open and we can see the action rising as the Bridegroom burns in rage. Before anything actually happens however, Lorca has a crowd of people start to sing about the situation. Because it is such a dramatic moment I think Lorca wanted his audience to get them to think logically and realize that this is just a play, and having this sort of ending to this scene brings you back to realize it's just a scene. But it also highlights the important aspects of the scene.

Blood Wedding #6

Which characters appear to be miserable int he play and why?  When and how do the characters express their misery? What do the characters desire and what stops them from going after what each desires?

The Bride is the one who appears to be miserable in this scene. Even when she was first introduced I got the feeling that she didn't really care about her wedding, just the way she walked in (previously) seemed like she'd rather be somewhere else. In this scene she acts annoyed. She obviosly does not seem content because she throws her crown of flowers onto the floor. Also she says things "gravely", "severely" and "fiercly", which does not indicate happienss to what is going on around her. We know that she has not stopped having feelings for Leonardo and I think that in this scene it really comes out and she knows she can't hide from her true wants. She can't run off with him because she knows that he has a wife and she is getting married to a man who loves her. Her desire in the end however, ends up winning when she does run off with Leonardo.

Journal #5 Blood Wedding

I feel like in these scenes Lorca really sets up the characters for their gender roles. He kind of establishes what the typical woman should do and not do. I don't think he would embrace this because he was very much against his own society and he did not exactly fit the typical men gender role either. Although he might embrace it, and overlook his situation. Another thing that is on the "embracing side" is that fact that he seems to criticize going the social norm, because since the Bride cheated on her husband, that is what ultimately ends up killing the two men.

#4 Blood Wedding

The very first symbol that introduced  is the knife it appears on the first page and it is the Bridegroom that brings it up when he wants to eat grapes. I think its significant that he is the one who brings it up because he is obviously the one who kills Leonardo and gets killed himself. This relates to his mother because she is so paranoid with knives and things that can kill man. She is against her son being around knives, but in the end if you think about it she was right because her son did die. It brings up that clique idea that "mothers are always right" or that they have some sort of sixth sense.
On the eighth page the mom brings up blood which is another symbol. She says, ""That's good stock, good blood!" To her blood is important because it determines who you are. I also saw this when she is talking to her neighbor and asks about the brides family, specifically her mother. At first she is pleased because she hears that she is a good woman but then when the neighbor says that she didn't love her husband she kind of gets defensive. I think this is because the neighbor could be implying that the Bride will be the same way just because she carries within her, her mother's blood.
The blood symbol comes up again when  the mother learns that the Bride was dating Leonardo. She gets angry even though she knows that he had nothing to do with what happened in the past with their families. He was only an eight year old child. Yet, because of the fact that he comes from that family and has that blood, it makes him just as guilty in the Mother's eyes.

Wild Duck #3

Journal #3: Consider which characters are at fault for the events that are unfolding and why? Is there a character without blame?  Why or why not? Is there a character who should carry more of the blame?  Do any of the characters take responsibility?
I think the character who is mostly responsible for everything happening like it did is Gina because she could have avoided all this from the very start by telling Hjalmar the truth. I feel like if she was under bad circumstances with having a child with a married man then she should have gone away but she shouldn't have been accepting money from a man that didn't want anything to do with her or her child. She keeps too close of a relationship with Werle and is open to the fact that he is pretty much providing everything for her family. She does accept responsibility but is only because she was forced to, she didn't have another choice. I think that if it was up to her she would have carried out the lies throughout their whole lives. I also think Greggers is to blame too because he unleashed all this truth when it didn't need to be. He still has the belief that he was doing the right thing so he does not need to take responsibilty for anything because he believes he did not do anything wrong.  Hjalmar and his family were fine and he came in and destroyed their family, and by unleashing the truth he sent Hedvig to her death.I think Hjalmar also has some blame for what happened to Hedvig because it was his reaction that sent Hedvig to kill herself. She only wanted the love of her dad and when he acted as if he didn't want her that changed everything for her. Hedvig is the only character without blame. She was only an innocent child who was unaware of her unfair circumstances.

Wild Duck #2

Journal #2:  How does Ibsen use the motif of decay, disease, illness, etc and to what effect? 
Ibsen uses the motif of illness to show that Greggers himself affects people with the truth and that the truth is sometimes better left unsaid and covered up. Greggers starts out with this "illness" from the very beginning. He gets it from his mother. I say this because in the beginning it is known that his mother did suspect that something was going on with Gina and her husband and she never got over it. I think she let Greggers know it as well because Werle tells him, "Your conscience has been sickly from childhood. It's an inheritance from your mother..." I think she started the disease and as time passes he gets worse and is described as having "a case of moralistic fever". When Greggers tells Hjalmar the truth, he infects him as well. 

Wild Duck #1

Option 2: Examine how characters perceive themselves or others.  Who has false conceptions of him/herself?  Who has misconceptions of others?  Who recognizes the facades created by other characters?  Does the character embrace the facade, ignore it, or confront it?
I feel like the two characters who really have a false sense of themselves are Greggers and Hjalmar. Greggers believes that he is a man who has a mission, I guess you could say, or a destiny as he calls it. But he does not understand that his actions are going to lead to Hedvig killing herself, which I don't believe were his intentions. He has also a misconception of how Hjalmar was going to react upon knowing the truth. He believed that it was going to make him have a "true marriage" with Gina but it ended up destroying their family, and ultimatly destroying Hjalmar. Hjalmar is living a lie. He embraces it without knowing it though. He truly believes he is a hard working man, although Gina and Hedvig are the ones who do his work for him. He also believes that he has a family of his own when in reality his child is biologically another mans. The people who recognize all these lies are the ones who are aware of the truth. Gina tries to enforce all of the facades in regards to Hjalmar.  

We #3

Motifs
D-503 still describes peoples faces, "The triangle of her eyebrows grew sharper, darker." He seems to describe eyebrows in various past entries. I feel like because he describes them as "triangle" because a triangle in math is delta which represents change. And now he and I-330s and his relationship did change in a drastic way. No longer are they close, reason has overpowered him and he prefers to stay loyal to his government. The unknown variable X is again mentioned in the book and the meaning of it still doesn't really change.
Setting
Previously I think I mentioned or at least meant to say something about the weather. The government controls the weather to show that they have ultimate control even over nature. But now a lot of things are happening, one of course being the revolution that I-330 is a part of. D-503 begins his 29th journal with, " Strange: The barometer is falling, but there is still no wind. [...] Clouds are rushing madly. There are still few-separate jagged fragments." The government is losing control which can be shown through the weather. This image also contradicts with D-503 earlier observations of the "immaculate sky" that he describes in the beginning of the book. That is because at the beginning the government did have complete control but now it is being challenged with this revolution. The One State is still not fond of nature so when birds come in D-503 writes, "Their sharp, black, piercing  falling triangles filled the sky.", this is obviously not a good imagine because they do not like nature, which kind of the point of the Green Wall. It is there to keep nature out so when this happens and birds come in it creates chaos.
Language
D-503 is still describing himself as two versions of himself, "You know that it was the other I, the old one, and now..." His language of course is still revealing his internal conflict which is having a soul now, he has decided to end his conflict with an opertation. D-503 is starting to go back to his "old language" meaning not only mathematical but scientific and literal which supports his decision of staying loyal to the One State, "And my heart-an unpleasant, a painful compression, connected with a sense of pity. (But the heart is nothing but an ideal pump; compression, shrinkage, the sucking in of fluid by a pump are technical [...]) " I feel like even though D-503 has chosen a side, I guess you could say, he still knows within him that there are feelings, like he experienced but again, his logic and reasoning ultimatly won, as he goes through with the operation of removing his imagination and his soul.

We #2

As for motifs colors don't seem to be as big in the book anymore. D-503 still uses the color pink when describing things but its not as often as in the first third of the book. I feel like this is disappointing and I don't quite understand why the author used the colors so much in the last part of the book. Something that did stay constant but changed a little was D-503 face description. In the first third he talked about lips and eyes being like scissors and at one point he said that a smile looked like a parabola, I believe. In the second third of the book, he still writes about peoples faces or facial expression but now he seems to notice that behind peoples facial expressions there are feelings. This contradicts with the first third because he would just describe faces using mathematical concepts or language. Which is very logical and now its more of an emotional description. As for the rest of the motifs, glass still seems to be the way in which the government keeps everyone in check. "something infinitely huge and at the same time infinitely small,the square root of negative one" .The imaginary number of the square root of negative one shows up again. It seems like this imaginary number has  a direct relationship to the soul and what it is. A big part of it is imagination. This also ties in with D-503 having dreams at night which the One State makes them believe is an illness.
The green wall is part of setting but might be able to be a possible motif as well. It is the line that keeps out nature which most people in this society are not too fond of. They make fun of the ancients for thinking so much of nature while they find it somewhat repulsive. D-503 has not expressed nature in a positive way so far. He almost seems disgusted by it. He thinks that it keeps the "irrational, hideous world of trees, birds, animals" out of their "perfect" society.
Language: I think that in this part of the book we can see D-503 and his internal conflict even more. He still has what at this time he considers to be a "disease" of the soul and an imagination. He keeps having dreams and keeps describing himself as "the real me" and the "new me". He is aware that he has two sides to him, the new one being the one with an imagination and the old one which is the one that is a loyal citizen to his government. He often uses metaphors and similes to get his points across and tries to connect it back to the reader. Something that our group noticed during our discussion was the fact that D-503 seems to lose his thoughts more often in this part of the book, so it is a little more confusing trying to follow with whatever his intentions were. Before it seemed like he was aware of what he was going to write but its more like, "And then..." Then he'll start a new entry or keep going but won't explain his previous journal.

We #1

Motifs
So far in We there is a motif of colors, mostly pink and blue. The main character D-503 uses the colors when describing O and D. O is a female and they have a close relationship, he uses pink to describe her and I think this is because she is a female. R on the other hand is his poetic male friend and blue is associated with him because it highlights the fact that he is male. D-503 says things like, "Yes marvelous." O-90 smiled rosily at me, and also, "I came out and immediatley saw O on the corner-all pink with pleasure at the meeting." And also "O laughed roundly, rosily." "I tore off the stub-and could not tear myself away from her pink mouth." These quotes are all found within the first third of the book. There also seems to be a  motif of the letter X. The first thing I thought of was that X can be many things, in math of course it's the unknown variable that one must solve for but again it can be anything. D-503 doesn't like the variable X and he expresses this in the following quotations. "But her smile there was that constant, irratating X." "But in the eyes, or in the eyebrows-I could not tell-there was a certain strange, irritating X, which I could not capture, could not define figures." It is clear that D-503 doesn't like when things don't follow logic. The same thing appears when he thinks about the square root of negative 1. This is because it is actually possible to find the square root of negative one but it involves the imagenary number i. He says, "This irrational number had grown into me like something foreign, alien, terrifying. It devoured me-it was impossible to concieve to render harmeless, because it was outside ratio." A couple pages later this quote comes up, "I had to do something to expunge, to drown out that damned square root of negative one." This has to do with the fact that it is an imagenary number. He finds out later that he has an imagination which he considers a disease and thinks he is ill. This leads him to come to the conclusion that he now has a soul which is also a disease.
Setting
So far D-503 makes it clear that everything is made of glass. This includes their apartments and houses so everyone can see everything and it is evident that there is no privacy. The only way one can close their blinds is if they have a "pink slip". This is something you obtain that lets you close your blinds when you are going to have an encounter with the opposite sex. Only then can you shut the blinds. There are also people who are reffered to as Guardians. These people follow everyone and supervise people to assure that everything is in order and no one is out when they are not supposed to be. The book also references the "Two Hundred Years War"  D-503 writes, "I am speaking of the Great Two Hundred Years' War-the war between city and village. The primitive peasants, promted perhaps by religious prejudice, stubbornly clung to their "bread". But in the year 35 before the founding of the One State, our present food, a petroleum product, was developed. True, only 0.2 of the earth's population survived the war." The One state believes that love an hunger rule the world, "Ergo: to conquer the world, man must conquer its rulers." They believe that with the Two Hundred Years' War they were able to conquer hunger but they also admit that they haven't fully conquered love.
Language
The book is writen in first person and has journal entries. Throughout the book the narrator speaks in a mathematical way. He says things like, "This function of man's highest faculty, his reson, consists precisely of the continuous limitation of infinity, the breaking up of infinity into convenient, easily digestible portions-differentials. This is precisely what lends my field, mathematics, its devine beauty. D-503 never forgets about the reader and usually in the beggining he realizes that he might have not explained the entry before in a way that his reader can understand so he clarifies things. He also uses things that would help the reader understand whats going on. Like the concept of a family. He said it was like a triangle and explained it. "And yet, he, I, and O-we are a triangle nonetheless. To put it in the language of our ancestors (perhaps, my planetary readers, this language is more comprehensible to you), we are a family. And it is so good occasionally, if only briefly, to relaz, to rest to enclose yourself in a simple, strong triangle from all that..." Since it is told from D-503 point of view we are able to see the internal conflict that arises when he meets I-330.

#5 Personal Philosophy

Aveces Negra, Aveces Color Rosa

1.  Know that there's a higher power than us. If this means believing in God that's wonderful but I know that's not the case for everyone and that's fine. But there is something greater than us and you have to know that. I believe in God and that he never leaves anyone alone. I think it's important to have a relationship with Him and when I face tough times, I know that he will never give me more than I can handle. This helps me get through things because I feel confident in myself and I know that God will always be with me no matter what. This developed through my culture.

2. Have strong relationships with your family. I believe this is key to being a happy person and being successful in life. This is because at the end of the day that's all you really have is family. I believe we should not take any family member for granted. I know that my family supports me in whatever I decide to do and for that I thank God because I am very blessed. I think that family really gives you that strength that you need in order to face hard times in life and they never let you fall. They're always on your side. Specifically I think we should be thankful for our mothers because they are the ones who gave us life so if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be here. We owe our lives to them and I feel like we forget that from time to time, but we shouldn't. We should tell our mothers that we love them every day. This developed through my personal experiences with my family.

3. Be grateful. Each day we wake up we should be grateful that we are here. This will help us be happier people overall, because if we focus on the positives the negatives just fade away. I really believe that there's a million reasons to be happy and that shouldn't be ruined for one thing that happens. Every morning, which I know that for me is the hardest time of the day, I think of how grateful I am to be healthy, have a bed, have blankets that kept me warm throughout the night etc. Its those little things we need to appreciate and altogether they seem not to be so little anymore. You could also think of being grateful as appreciating everything you have. This again developed through personal experiences.

4. I believe that to live a life that has meaning you need to have a purpose. If you don't know what that is  that's not bad it just means you need to work on it and find out. There are many ways this can be done. The important thing to keep in mind is that, when you leave this world what will you have contributed? Of course you don't have to limit yourself to one thing. This developed out of my own thinking.

5. Be kind to everyone you meet. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and a simple gesture of kindness doesn't cost anything but can go a long ways for someone else. How we treat people matters because it shows how we really are inside. If we're kind to others chances are that others will return your kindness. We need to learn how to get along in this world and help eachother out whenever possible. 

6. Always have constant long and short term goals. This will help you set challenges for yourself and you'll feel good when you accomplish something that you have set for yourself. Even if you don't accomplish every single goal that's okay. Because its simply a learning experience. Goals also help us refine ourselves everyday and make us better people. It also gives us purpose. Never stop setting goals for yourself. And keep track of your accomplishments. This developed when I realized that goals are an important part of life and are very needed.

7. Laugh. Laughing is something that I think is one of the best things you can do in life. I know there's so much stress especially now and everything seems to be attacking us all at once, but it's important to laugh. We shouldn't forget about the simple things that makes us happy like being a kid all over again. Of course we don't want to become bitter because that's not fun for oneself or others. Laughing doesn't take much but it helps a lot. This developed through personal experiences.

8. Use your experiences to help others. Help other people whenever you can for that matter. Being a helpful person is a reward by itself. I love helping people everyday and it truly makes me happy. The best part is that anyone can do it. You don't have to have some magical skill in order to help others, just the williingness to help is enough. And it's not hard either. So why not? Let's be helpful whenever we can and make someone else's day just like we would like others to do for us. Again, this developed through personal experiences.

9. Stay humble no matter what. Don't ever let things get to your head, no matter who successful you may become or how many valuable things you may own. I will always be humble. I am determined not to forget where I come from, my roots, or ever be ashamed by it. I do want to be successful and happy with my life but never arrogant. I think this is truly important in ones life. This principle developed from personal experiences.

Journal #4

At the end of the novel Meursault comes to the conclusion that there is really no point to life since everyone has the same fate which is death. He thinks that no matter what you do in life, whether it's right or wrong, that doesn't matter because everyone has the same ending anyway. In a way, he has given up on life since there is no meaning behind it. Meursault also comes to a conclusion about the world as well. He believes that the world is indifferent which is very much like himself and that's why he is more connected with nature and his physical surroundings, that with people. The world is the only thing Meursault can really connect to. 
I think Camus might agree with Meursault thinking but I dont believe that he is trying to persuade his readers to think the same way. He is simply informing and giving us an option of what we could think. But then again he might not want us to think like Meursault because he did end up having to go through the death penalty.

Stranger #3

I think Camus divided his book into two parts to highlight Meursault development in the book. Ex: "I worked hard at the office today. The boss was nice" (25). This quote is from the third chapter from part 1. This shows Meursault's thougths and how they are short, quick, and to the point. The following quote is from the first chapter in part two, "Right after my arrest I was questioned several times, but it was just so they could find out who I was, which didn't take long. The first time, at teh police station, nobody seemed very interested in my case" (63). From this we can see Meursault is a little more descriptive in his thinking. Meursault's thought pattern does change but I feel that the way he speaks remains the same. "I didn't say anything, because I didn't have anything to add" (Part 1, 42). "It's just that I don't have anything to say. So I keep quiet" (Part 2, 66). I feel that Camus might be trying to say that change first has to happen within ones self before others are able to see it.

Stranger #2

Option 2

I think Camus uses first point of view because he wants us to really get a sense of Meursaults character and what he thinks. Obviously Meursault is a very different type of character and Camus wants us to feel like what it is being in Meursault's head , and only Meursault is reliable in that sense since no one around him really knows him. Other people's perceptions of Meursault could mess with how we think of him. That could also have a negative affect to what Camus is trying to convey, which is that you don't always have to make sense of the absurdity of the world, because if there was another character they might try to figure out Meursault.