Hi Mrs Hoffman! (11-1-13)

I don’t ever remember getting less sleep. My average amount of sleep has gone from 8 hours to less than 6. I also don’t remember ever being as excited to wake up as I am now. Ok, maybe excited isn’t the right word, I look as bad as anyone else does at 6 in the morning. However my days do seem to be fuller than they ever were. I’ve gone under my own kind of personal renaissance this year.

                It all started with the realization that I wanted something more than what I had, then the willingness to try things I never had.

                For the first time in my life I am reading to my own accord and thoroughly enjoying it. I have opened up my eyes to a world of literature and creativity. I feel like I have things I want to say and I am ready to say them.

                For the first time in my life I am excited by the future, not terrified by it. I can now see the future’s uncertainties through a lens of enthrallment as opposed to one of anxiety. I have completely accepted the fact that I don’t know what I want to get my major in, in college. Now that I’ve accepted this I am more excited about college than ever.  I want to do so many things that I’ve never realized. I want to go places, and have experiences, try new things, and meet new people. I want to do things that others see as simply being dangerous but that I can see as purely living. I’ve become interested in creative things and art in all forms. I have a completely different and novel mindset than I ever had before.

                To put it simply; this has been my best year of high school, and I am excited for the rest of it.

It just dawned on me that my teacher will probably be the only person to ever read this....

Orwell’s 1984 takes place in a society that allows no expression, no thought, no belief, no movement, to be out of line in the face of the government. Whatever the government says is fact, it has always been fact, and always will be fact. Winston works in a Department where he is literally rewriting history so that the government is always and always has been right. This gives Winston an insight to the past and how it is being manipulated. Unfortunately for Winston, his memory has not been completely whipped out by the massive social brainwashing conducted by the government. He has confusing and enigmatic flashbacks of times before the Revolution. Although now the government contends that there was nothing before the revolution. Winston gains this burning feeling that the way they are all living is unnatural. He feels some urge to go against the government, even if he knows that it will ultimately lead to his demise. In a society that says the past can be changed but it never has been, in a society where the government can say 2 plus 2 equals five, in a society that can torture you for having a nervous tick; this society pushes Winton’s instincts to their limits. Giving him an intuition that those who define what is “right”, are truly and obscenely wrong.

hhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm....something interesting....hmmm....(thinking noises)

Often in works of Literature objects can take on very complex means of symbolism. They can come to symbolize different things in relationships to different characters and their meaning can change and develop throughout the course of a book. In Shakespeare’s “Othello” the handkerchief takes on a number of symbolic meanings. It originally was meant to symbolize Othello’s love for Desdemona in her hands. Thus when she misplaced it gave a sign that perhaps there love would be lost as well. When Iago obtains the handkerchief it means that Othello’s love for Desdemona is in Iago’s hands, which we can see to be true as Iago manipulates and deceives Othello. After passing through the hands of Iago, the handkerchief becomes a symbol of betrayal or unfaithfulness. Othello begins to see it as proof of Desdemona’s cheating. The handkerchief also becomes a symbol of betrayal in the eyes of Bianca, who believes that it belongs to another mistress of Cassio’s.

                 In Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”, the gun has different symbolism in different situations. Throughout the story the gun symbolizes death. To the man it symbolizes a sense of security; he believes that whoever has the gun is the safest. As a result of this thinking, he always gives the gun to the boy when he leaves him alone. However, when death seems to be in the near future the gun takes on a different meaning of death. In certain situations the gun represents suicide and a taking of one’s own life as a method of escape. It is a way to avoid torture or the torment of wasting away.

I think I'm going to start making my blog titles a little more interesting (9-27-13)

Throughout literature, as in life, humans often have an internal struggle between thinking with their emotions and thinking with a sense of rationale. The works of Shakespeare are constantly delving into this human concept. In Macbeth, Macbeth opens the book in a good position. He is powerful, wealthy, a great warrior, and loved by the King. However, he is distraught by his own ambition (his tragic flaw) and the echoes of the three witches. Macbeth is overwhelmed with his ambitions causing him to kill the king and take power. This decision leads to Macbeth becoming feverishly paranoid and ultimately being killed by his revolting subservient.

                This internal struggle is also displayed in Romeo & Juliet. The star crossed lovers make all their decisions purely based off of their love and impetuousness; never with rationale or considering consequences. Ultimately this line of thought leads to their shared demises; blunt but true.

Second Blog Post!

I do believe that we still live in a racial society. I believe that people are judged everyday based on their skin color and race. I do not believe that it is in anyway similar to our society pre 1960’s, but I also do not believe that racial prejudice no longer exists. Racial prejudice has taken on a more unrecognizable form.  Being a racist bigot is in no way politically correct. Racism is no longer a political issue; it has become a social issue. Social media networks, such as face book and twitter, serve as proof that people are still racists. In recent news a women of Indian descent won the Miss America pageant. Following her victory twitter became abuzz with hundreds of racial slurs aimed at the new Miss America.

                During the civil rights movement of the 1960’s Martin Luther King Jr. was fighting for equality, and fair treatment of African Americans. He did not believe it was fair for people to be treated unjustly because of their race or creed. Martin Luther King did win this argument on a political scale but not a social one. Although the government began to recognize that it was unjust to discriminate against someone for their race, the individual people did not. Racism has taken on more of the form of being an idea or a belief and less of a practice or an action. The evidence of this belief is visible through social media. However they are usually discarded by the average reader because the tweets are not taken seriously as a form of action. They are seen as just being comments by bigoted people who cannot be changed.

                America is a country where people are given the right to say what they want, even if what they’re saying is fatuous and bigoted.  While America no longer permits the legal physical abuse or discrimination of others, it does still permit stupid people to say stupid things.

My First Blog Post!...it's not really that exciting (9-23-13)

Today I began to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. Although I am already only about 15 pages in, I can already tell that I am going to enjoy this book. Marquez’s writing has a beautiful flow to it. He writes with such a style that I can almost feel the warmth of the sun in the small town of Macondo, where the book begins. He has only begun to write about Jose Arcadio Buendia. Jose is shown to be a man who feels that the grass is always greener. He is constantly mystified by the inventions brought to Macondo by a traveling group of Gypsies. Jose trades money, possessions, time, and energy to find novel ways to prosper. I am very excited to continue reading this book and I feel that it will be a difficult one to put down.