Othello's Music Video

"Love sees sharply, hatred sees even more sharply, but jealousy sees the sharpest for it is love and hate all at the same time." This quote describes Othello great. The whole play is about people being manipulated, and a whole bunch of jealousy. Throughout the play, Othello is lied to by one of his good friends, Iago. Iago told Othello that his best friend Cassio is having an affair with Desdemona.
The music video and the song "Mr. Brightside" shows perfectly what goes on in the play and the lyrics are perfect as well. At one point in the song he sings "Now they're going to bed, and my stomach is sick. And it's all in my head..." This is referring to Cassio hooking up with Desdemona, but in reality it is all in his head because it is not true. Also, throughout the song it says "It was only a kiss, why did it end up like this?" This is saying that even though Othello thinks they hooked up, he knows it was not anything serious, and everyone exaggerated the truth, and now everyone is dead.

Trifles Video

Sometimes it is easier to understand literature not just by reading it, but by actually watching and observing it. The play "Trifles" was not that difficult to understand, but by watching a quick clip on it, you can better understand it. It is easier to pick up on the mood and the tone, which both have a creepy feeling to it. From the video you get the full effect of what the characters are actually doing, what they are feeling, and there expressions.

For the actors and actresses to act out the video, they have to be able to understand the play fully, otherwise it would make for a bad video and sometimes it almost is like you are watching and reading two different pieces of literature. From the short clip, you can tell that the actors had a good understanding of what was going on in the play, and how it was supposed to be portrayed.

"Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa

The Vietnam War was the longest war in American history. It ranged from 1968 to 1975, and there were over 60,000 American deaths. People today still ask if the Vietnam War was actually necessary or just a good gesture.
"Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa describes a Vietnam soldier that returns to a memorial several years after the war. He had prepared himself to see the memorial, “I said I wouldn’t, dammit: No tears. I’m stone. I’m flesh,” and yet he was not as prepared as he thought he would be. As he is standing there he describes a flash back of a friend who passed during the war. He describes a struggle he faces not only now but during the war; race. He leaves us with an open question of if he was white, would he have been treated differently during war, or took a different look upon it. Maybe his name would have been on the memorial.

Revision

Unfortunately there are certain things that happen in life that we can not do anything about. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, either way people have to learn to deal with the realities of life. In the poem "Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath she uses a riddle to describe an event that is occurring in her life that she can not do anything about, "Boarded the train there's no getting off." The tone of this poem is a little silly. She uses very figurative language, and metaphors. What ever she is describing is either big, or is growing because of the words she is using (elephant, melon, etc.). She also makes statements like, "This loaf's big with its yeasty rising." Maybe she is having a baby, or taking care of a pet?

Sometimes, people do things, and others take it the wrong way. In Stevie Smith's poem "Not Waving but Drowning," an old man had been at sea for a while. Every time he called for help everyone had mistaken his helpful wave for a friendly wave. This poem has a more serious, and sad tone. Everyone in the town thought they knew about the man, but they really had no idea. The people in the town said "Poor chap, he always loved larking." but the old man replies "Oh, no no no, it was too cold always." proving that they were wrong. The tone is sad because his whole life the man was lost looking for direction but no one ever stopped to help.

"Metaphors" & "Not Waving But Drowning"

There are certain things in life that happen, and you can not do anything about it. Unfortunately that is just the way life goes, sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose; either way, people have to learn to deal with the realities of life. In the poem "Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath she write a riddle to something that is occurring in her life that she can not do anything about, "Boarded the train there's no getting off." The tone of this poem is a little silly. She uses very figurative language, and metaphors. What ever she is describing is either big, or is growing because of the metaphors she is using, for example she uses words such as elephant, melon, and makes statements like, "This loaf's big with its yeasty rising." Maybe she is having a baby, or taking care of a pet?

Sometimes, people do things, and others take it the wrong way. In Stevie Smith's poem "Not Waving but Drowning," an old man had been at sea for a while, and every time he called for help everyone had mistaken his helpful wave, for a friendly wave. This poem has a more serious, and sad tone. Everyone in the town thought they knew about the man, but they really had no idea. The people in the town said "Poor chap, he always loved larking." but the old man replies "Oh, no no no, it was too cold always." proving that they were wrong. The tone is sad because his whole life the man was lost looking for direction but no one ever stopped to help.  

Langston Hughes

The 1920’s were a great time in history. It was a time when people listened to the best music, went to the greatest parties, and wore the best fashions. Unfortunately in the late 20's there was a drastic change in the way things were; there was a depression. I feel like Langston Hughes's poem "The Weary Blues" was written during this time.
When the depression hit, people wrote poetry and sang to blues music to express the way they felt. People are enjoying the music, but they may not be listening to what he is saying. The man in the poem is singing about how he is actually depressed and how he is "Happy no more," and how he "Wishes he was dead." The man singing is probably upset with his life because of his race. He mentions that he is a black man, and blacks during this time had few rights.
This poem is kind of similar to Hughes's "Ballad Of The Landlord." The African American in this poem is clearly treated unfair and when he tries to get his way, he is sentenced to 90 days in jail. Meanwhile, the landlord who is probably white is refusing to fix any of the broken things in his house.

Rebellious Poems

Two poems that are rebellious are "Homage to my hips" by Lucille Clifton, and "Cinderella" by Anne Sexton. In "Homage to my hips," at first you may not think it is very rebellious, but she says some things that make you realize that she is a little rebellious. For example, she says, "these hips don't like to be held back...they go where they want to go, they do what they want to do." People, who do what they want, when they want, are usually considered rebellious. She is saying that she is her own person, and does not let any one hold her back from doing what she wants to do.
When I started to read "Cinderella," I assumed that it was going to be like the original story. Anne Sexton uses the original idea, but puts her own twists in to it. Instead of a fairy god mother, she has a dove, when the prince goes to find whose foot the slipper fits, the sisters cut off a part of their foot; not the typical Cinderella as we know. This story is rebellious because Cinderella went to the ball for three days when she was not even allowed to go for one. The tone of the story is a little sarcastic which makes the story seem a little more rebellious.

Dangerous Minds

I really enjoyed this clip! It reminded me of "The Freedom Writers" and that is one of my favorite books and movie; I actually met the author of the book, with one of my teachers in high school. I really need to see the rest of the movie, because it left me on a complete cliff hanger!
From what I watched, I feel like the teacher is going to use poetry so she can relate to the students. For example, the first poem was about a drug dealer, and when she asked one of the boys in the class to talk about it, he told her it was too personal. I feel like she might be able to have the kids open up through poetry, and reading other poets poems.

"The House on Mango Street"- Video

"The House on Mango Street" video was actaully kind of inspirational. If you did not really understand the short story, then the video will definitely be able to clear it up. The video is very short, simple, and to the point which is why it is easy to comprehend. The first two questions the narrator speaks in the video are such great questions: "What kinds of stories would you tell about your house?" and "Have you ever wanted to grow up somewhere else?" When you think about it, those two lines literally explain the short story exactally. Towards the end of the clip, there is one more quote that also explains the short story very well also: "Do you want to be defined by your surroundings?" That is a perfect example of when the nun looked down on their house, and she got very uncomfortable.
This video is very, very clear and I honestly think that if you are having trouble understanding the main idea of the story, then this video will really help!

Ursula K LeGuin- Reading from her new novel LAVINIA

In all honesty, when I first opened the link for the video and saw that it was 10 minutes long, and that Ursula LeGuin was kind of old, I was literally dreading watching the clip! But, to my surprise I actaully liked it, and was very in to the video. LeGuin had a very warm personality which also made the video easier to watch.
It is kind of interesting, if we were to read this story on our own, we probably would not have read it in the exact same way that it was intended to be read in. So when you hear LeGuin read her own work, it is a much more clear perception, and a lot easier to understand.
Since both "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," and her public reading from her new novel "Lavinia," have similar tones, you can get a slight idea of how "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" is supposed to be read.

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin & "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The tone of a story definatley affects how you read it, and how you picture the story in your mind. Both short stories "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin have similar tones.
Ursula K. LeGuin starts off her story with an uplifting kind of "feel good" tone. She makes the town of Omelas sound like a utopia. She gives a very clear description through out the story by using vivid details, and color. As the story come to an end, the tone switches to a more mellow mood as she eases you to a more depressing ending. At the very end of the story, even though the tone is still a bit up setting, she leaves us with what would be "the right thing to do" in Omelas when everyone else feels like they can not do anything for the child.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World", starts off very creepily when they discover kids playing with a dead corpse on the beach. As the story continues, you see a similar tone as LeGuin's story which is a feel good tone as they are decribing the town. You also feel like the people of the village are a bit naive. When they discover the man, just because he is "bigger", he is considered extremley different, pure perfection.
Both stories portray a lot of imagination, and description which makes the stories eaiser to read and more enjoyable.

"A Pair of Tickets" by Amy Tan & "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros

We are all products of our parents, and because of this, we all have different cultures that we cannot get out of.  Both "A Pair of Tickets" by Amy Tan, and "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros show different cultures and different families.  

Amy Tan's, "A Pair of Tickets" is about a girl who is Chinese and grows up in the United States. When her mother dies, she went back to China to live with her dad and her two twin sisters her mother had from her first marriage.  After being in China, and reuniting with her family, she kind of feels like she was "abandoned" for alot of her life because she was never involed with her family, and never that close with her mom for her to tell her stories.  

Sometimes family is really the only thing that actually matters.  "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros is a pretty sad story.  Her family lived in a small house, and when the house started breaking down, her parents promised her they would move into a "good" house that sounded beautiful when imagined, but no so great in real life.  Even though it wasnt what they had pictured, it was still a house to call their own home, and somewhere to sleep.  When someone talks negativly about her house she gets very upset, but when you go back and look it should not be how your living, but who your living with that makes everything matter.  

"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

When I actually sat down and thought about it, Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is kind of a sad short shory. 

The narration style is coming from her "boss"/ the family that she works for (since she is an Au Pair).  You can tell that, that is the narrator because of the way he is talking to her, and what he is saying to her.  You can almost kind of hear the way he is saying it too.  I call the narrator "he" because he describes girls to be very derogative; he uses the word "slut", which today is a very hurtful word to some people.  He does not really seem to care about what she has to say because every time she asks a question, he completely disreguards what she says.

"Girl" presents females as being inferior.  When you see how the boss talks to her, and what he says to her, its almost like she is a slave.  He basically tells her every thing she has to do with out taking a single break, and not answering, or paying attention to any of her questions or concerns.  He portrays girls as "sluts" which is a very dirty word, and offensive to most women.  Through out the story, he tells her how to conduct herself.  By the boss telling her this, he thinks that she does not know how to do it herself. The end of the story suprises me because, through out the story he tells her not to conduct herself in an unpolite manner, and then at the end when she asks a simple question he automatically assumes she is a bad person.

"The Appointment in Samarra" vs. "The Appointment"

The short story "The Appointment in Samarra" by W.Somerset Maugham and the video "The Appointment" actually have alot it common. For one thing, both titles are similar, and the morals are also just as similar.  The moral of "The Appointment in Samarra" was basically that you can not run from death; and the moral of the "The Appointment" was that no one can escape their future. I know that even though the morals sound like they really dont have any thing in common, when you have actually read the story, and watched the clip you realize they do.  

Maugham's short story is about a servant that goes to the market place for his master, and while he is there he bumps in to "Death".  The servant is startled and askes his master if he can take his horse to Samarra to "escape from his death". When the master approaches Death and askes him why he scared his servant, Death replied by saying "It was only a start to a suprise...I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."  Death was basically saying that the servant was going to die today whether or not he stayed in Baghdad.

The video "The Appointment" was about a kid who was turning 21.  As he and a friend were walking they approached a psychic who kept repeating, "You can not escape your future."  Later on in the video, she picks up a card with a knight riding his horse, and on the bottom it says, death.  That symbolizes that the boy is probably going to die, and he might try and run from it.

As you can see, both the short story and the video are both a little eerie, but at the same time both are 100% true!  You can not run from your future, or your death, but in reality you are actually running towards it.  

First Blog Ever!

Hey guys, it is Danielle B from ENG 102.

So this is my first blog that I have ever done in my life; it seems alrite so far.

I think that I am understanding how to use it, well I hope so!  I am sure that I will get used to using it quickly.  I am excited to see how everyone feels about it as well. 

See you monday! 

-Danielle :)