Week Fifteen

Blog Two: Defining Good

First, in your reading journal/blog write a list of character traits that a good person should have.

What makes a person good? Do people need to follow God's life? Do people need to achieve greatness through careers or hobbies? Do people need to become leaders? There are many question a person could ask to see how one person would become a "good" person.

I believe that writing a list of what makes a person good will only portray to me and others may be able to relate. Everybody must create their own list of how they would be defined as a "good' person.

My list of what makes me a "good" person:

-not judgmental

-devoted to helping others achieve their dreams

-being a friend

-live life to the fullest opportunity that I have been given

-stick to my own beliefs and respect others that believe differently

-relationship with family, friends, and God

-devoted

-strong

-open-minded

Week Fifteen

Reading One: "Antigone"

How far would you go to do what you believe is right and would make you a good person? Antigone goes against Creon's, her uncle, decision of burying Antigone's brother. Antigone sticks to her beliefs of honoring those who have died by a proper burial.Creon goes Antigone the fate of death for going against Creon's wishes. Antigone finishes off her life with honor in her decision to give her brother a proper burial. For example Antigone says, "You see me, you people of my country/as I  set out on my last road of all/looking for the last time on this light of this sun--/never again" (1585).

The chorus describes Antigone's decision by saying, "Love undefeated in the fight/Love that makes havoc of possessions/love who lives at night in a young girl's soft checks/who travels over sea, or in huts in the countryside--/there is no god able to escape you/nor anyone of men, whose life is a day only/and whom you possess is mad" (1584).

Antigone dies with the heart of a good person through her eyes and through the majority of the readers of this story. "O my father's ciy, in Theban land/O gods that sired my race/I am led away, I have no more stay./Look on me, princes of Thebes/the last remnant of the old royal line/see what I suffer and who makes me suffer/because I gave reverence to what claims reverence" (1588).

Week Fourteen

Reading Two: "Good People"

What different definitions of "good people" or of a "good person" are implied here, or how might Lane Dean Jr.'s understanding of what it means to be "good people" change over the course of the story? What part does the idea of hypocrisy play in those definitions?

Good person or Good people are viewed as what you think of yourself and what others think of you. For instance Lane Dean Jr.'s mother said Sheri was down to earth. Lane Dean Jr. thinks being "good people" is how you have a relationship with God. Lane does not know whether he is a good person or not, because when he pray's, he is not connected with God. He struggles during sermons and does not care for praying or being very devoted to God. Lane believes that he lives a life of under Gods rule; however, he does not tell others that he does not have a relationship with God and would rather go to hell. He also felt that the bible was being a little hypocritical.

Week 14

Reading One: "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

From its title right through to the Misfit's comments about the grandmother, the story clearly explores the question of what it means to be a "good" person (man or woman), contrasting different ideas of "good." What are those definitions? Does any one character stand out as more "good" than another?

As the question states above the word "good" has more then just a couple elaborate meanings. The meaning of "good" depends on each individual. For instance I feel that I am a good person when I accept others instead of judging other. Nobody is completely always good; we are humans and make mistakes such as judging, rudeness, revenge, etc. Being "good" depends on each individuals beliefs of being good; however, the Oxford dictionary says: "To be desired or approved of".

In the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find", I do not believe one single character was "good". For instance the children were snotty. Bailey was rude and uncooperative. The Mother was to unrelatable. The grandmother believed she was always right and was entitled to everything. The Misfit and his accomplices were wrong doing in society and unconnected with a good mind or outlook.

Week Thirteen

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Blog Two

Once you've identified the production(s) you watched, write an entry that compares the experience of reading the play with the experience of watching the play. Offer insight into differences. These might be overt differences that a director made or they might be differences in how you perceived something--a character, the setting, the costuming--and how the director perceived something. 

I watched the movie "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that was produced in 1999 and was directed by Michael Hoffman. http://putlocker.bz/watch-a-midsummer-nights-dream-online-free-putlocker.html

Many people ask the question, do you like the book or the movie better? I am one of those people that like which ever one I observe first. For this activity I like the reading of the story better then the movie.The book is more elaborate and to the point of what is happening to the characters. The movie is more concerned with the setting and customs then the actual story line its self. Unlike the movie, the reading does not have the imagery or songs that the audience gets to see; however, the audience instead gets to have an imagination and see what the story would look like. I feel with the story using the readers imagination is better with this piece of writing; where as, during the movie the audience will focus more on the props and images then actually dissecting the dialogue. In the reading, the reader is able to choose how to interrupt the play or who is the real villain and victim. In the movie, I feel that all the characters are the villains and victims.

Week Thirteen

A Midsummer's Night Dream: Blog One

There are four different plot lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream and 20+ characters. Who do you think is the protagonist of the play? Make your choice and then explain, offering support from the text.

Hermia. She is able to stick to what she wants in such an era that is deliberate with woman not having say in any aspect of running life. Hermia is in love with Lysander, who goes under a spell, by Titania who gives Puck a flower embedded with a spelll, to be in love with Helena. In the end Hermia and Lysander solve the spell and remember the love that binds them as two. 

"So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,/Ere I will yield my virgin patent up/Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke/My soul consents not to give sovereignty" (Hermia, p. 1311).

"If then true lovers have been ever cross'd/Then let us each our trial patience/Because it is a customary cross/As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs/Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers" (Hermia, 1313).

"My good Lysander!/I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow/By his best arrow with the golden head/By the simplicity of Venus' doves/By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves/And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen/When the false Troyan uner sail was see/By all the vows that ever men have broke/In number more than ever woman spoke/In that same place hou hast appointed me/Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee" (Hermia, 1313-1314).

"So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere/For ere demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne/He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine/And when this hail some heart from Hermia felt/So he dissolv'd, and show'rs of oaths did melt/I will go tell him of fiar Hermia's flight/Then to the wood will he tomorrow night/Pursue her; and for this intelligence/If I have thans, it is a dear expense/But herein mena I to enrich my pain/To have his sight thither and back again" (Helena, 1315).

"Do not say so, Lysander, say not so/What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?/Yet Hermia still loves you. Then be content" (Helena, 1328).

"I am amazed at your passionate words/I scorn you not. It seems that you scorn me" (Hermia, 1339).

"you, mistress, all this coil is 'long of you/Nay, go not back" (Hermia, 1342).

Week Twelve

Reading Two: "Those Winter Days"

I will be connecting the story "Those Winter Days" and "Death of a Salesman".

Connection to the two stories:
Both stories talk about struggle within the character(s). Such as how to achieve success to internally asking if your life is going the way your life should be.

Connection with other text:
Another great story that was read in ENGL 210 is "I Live at the P.O.". The main character is put in a struggle in life then in the end the character is resolved in the end. Such as Willy dies in the end, the character in "Those Winter Days" is questioning themselves if they have been living in the dark or could shine out in the light, and Sister removes herself from her family to live a life she wants.

Other Text:
In other text, such as the books that Jillian Hart writes about Christianity and love. In every story, Hart makes one or more of the characters to go through a struggle and having to decide if they want to risk their feels to allow themselves to either fall in love or to believe in love again. The characters in the books show how they have followed their dream and yet can have the life of love and a future that is filled with God, love, and children.