Wilson Knight Interpretation

I resonate with scholar George Richard Wilson Knight the most when it comes to his interpretation of Hamlet. Hamlet has obviously transformed into a melancholy person. His intelligence, introspection, and depressive traits are magnified by the death of his Father and he begins to withdraw into himself. This withdrawal takes him into a state of almost constant speculation, mainly on the subjects of morality, morbidity, revenge, death, etcetera. He is unable to take any actions towards the circumstances surrounding him because he is locked within his own mind.

I agree with Wilson Knight that the main theme of Hamlet is death. The play begins with the spotting of Hamlet's father's ghost, his father who has recently died, death in it's most physical form. Hamlet soon sees the ghost himself and must decide if the ghost is his father's spirit or a demon and will decide to take action based on that. At the same time his mother's loyalty and fidelity dies as she marries Hamlet's uncle... These combined events are what cause Hamlet's withdrawal. They change the way he sees the world. His love for Ophelia dies, his views on women in general is damaged. In Hamlet's soliloquies, particularily the first three, he becomes obsessed with self destuction. All his former interests, things that made him happy mean nothing to him anymore, he has become 'soul sick'. This sickness infects everyone in the play. Fellow characters are lost to agonizing emotion ( Ophelia- sadness and madness, Laertes- rage, Gertrude- fear and confusion, Claudius- paranoia, etcetera) before they are brought to their deaths- and the majority of the characters are brought to death.

One thing I do not agree with is Wilson Knight's view of Claudius. I do think he is a villain, unlike Wilson Knight. Claudius must have put some serious scheming into his plot to become King and woo Gertrude in only two months. He continues to use Ophelia, Polonius, Rosencratz, and Guildenstern as pawns in his conspiracies. His kind words to Hamlet in the first part of the play are only an attempt to get Hamlet on his side and to understand how much of a threat Hamlet is to him. Once he understands the threat he sends Hamlet away and plans his death as well. This to me is enough to consider his a villain, even if he feels a bit of guilt for murdering his brother.

What's Hamlet to you, or you to Hamlet,
That you should weep for him?

What is Hamlet to me when he is grieving the death of cherised kin?

Devestated, confused, disconnected from reality. A part of the brain shuts down, as if lost somewhere with that love. No one knows exactly what takes over, but change will occur with every Great Loss. With time perhaps a piece of what is missing can be regained, there are no guarantees. How well one copes is dependant on surrounding circumstances, condition of the mind, and the strength of their soul. Death is a fight for survival, a fight against more than just the demised.
Hamlet is in much more of a hair ripping, ming racing, soul shredding situation than I have ever experienced. If I wept with grief for me before, I should weep for him.

What am I to Hamlet when I have been betrayed?
I am the people he fights for in the army, his fellow countryman. He will defend the honour of me amongst other patriots, and the noble country.
A companion in having a traitorous family, whether the family member intended to betray or not.
Nothing but a foolish green girl, a simpleton who should not disturb his turmoiled mind with her petty problems.
Or perhaps the only ear that will listen, relate, and empathize.

What is Hamlet to me when he is attempting to keep a handle on reality?
He is I, every moment, every day. And neither of us can tell if we are succeeding.

Informal Essay

It seems these days we are losing our culture to mass media, conformity, and questionable Western values. Culture in the virtual town of Animal Crossing is preferable to our own town of Western influence. When exploring nature, arts, social ties, and the economy, we see that Animal Crossing comes out on top.
Enviornmental concrens and preserving natures is a hot topic these days. In Animal Crossing creatures do their best to have a prime enviornment. Everyone in the game uses public transportation. Each and every person is encouraged to keep the town looking nice by planting flowers, growing turnips, weeding, and respecting plant life. They preserve their trees, flowers, and fruit. Recycling and not littering is crucial; The town store owner will actually pay for garbage and recycling goes out every day. Citizens reuse items by selling or giving them to each other. Lastly, is their respect for animals. All species are treated equally and citizens are not disruptive to habitats. Everyone collects bugs and fish. All this keeps the town looking fresh.
In the real world, lately the enviornment has become important. Some people use public transportation, but most don't. We are encouraged to keep our town nice, mostly for the tourists. There are some lovely gardens in the core of our town, but we also use pesticides and insectsides, purposely harming living things. Animals are disrupted and mispaced and our river is in disgusting condition. Garbage is taken out weekly and recycing is taken out bi- weekly. If you live in a friendly neighbourhood you may reuse items with friends and neighbours, but often we trash useable items. There are more "Green Awareness" programs, mostly because of the damage we have created in our world. Overall, it seems that Animal Crossing cares more for nature.
Any important part of any culture is historical and art appreciation. Animal Crossing has a museum for bugs, fish, fossils, and art pieces. Overtop of the museum there is a conservatory to gaze at the stars and constellations. Every Saturday night at eight a musician travels to town. There is a theatre in the city that you can visit daily, and even act at. Fashion and interior designs can be created. The ability to express oneself is avaliable.
Our town may not have museums in it, but other towns have a variety of specialized museums (For specific time periods, types of art, science, etcetera). However,
our town has libraries, archives, etcetera. This town has multiple theatres and art exhibits. Many muscians are in town and you can often find a music show or lessons. Dance is avaliable here in many forms. There is interior and fashion design here, and many other kinds of crafts and arts, the real world has education and classes to teach you to expland your creative limits. In the real world there are many more resources and forms of history and art than in Animal Crossing.
Social interaction is a variable on which culture depends. When a person moves in Animal Crossing they are always greeted by their neighbours and an effort to get to know one another is made. Neighbours help one another, share, do favours, write to, and make deliveries for each other regardless of whether they are friends or not, creatures are at least congenial. If someone becomes ill than a neighbour will help out and get medicine, aid them until they are better. A few times a month a special event occurs and everyone who is able participates. This makes for a strong, stable and caring community.
Traditions seem to be fading in the real world. Neighbours might greet you to a new neighbourhood, or not. People seem to only make an effort of friendliness to their own cliques and in-groups, rather than the general population. They seem to have their own personal motives to market or get ahead when interacting with one another. Communication is no longer a personal face- to- face process. It is done through telephones, cell phones, emails, IM's, texting, etcetera. Generally, only your family will help you out when your sick. Community events do not seem to create enthusiastic participants. The real world may be a global village, but how many care for the lady upstairs, their grocer, the mailman... Connecting with real people? Unthinkable.
The economy is an issue that is on everybody's mind as of late. But if you travel to Animal Crossing the finacial network is a lot less complicated than in the real world. While there is credit, you cannot use it for things you do not need. Only using credit for the mortage is allowed, the rest of purchases must be payed for in cash (Or Bells actually). Making money is very easy, and people can make it from nature: selling bugs, fish, fruit, or turnips, or digging for gold. While creatures can't get great lump sums of Bells quickly in this way, the economy is always stable, and creatures can always make enough to get by on, and if people work enough they can live more than comfortably. However, people do without a lot if unneccessary junk and material wealth that the people of the real world seem to dictate their lives around at the expense of their finacial security.
The real world economy is in shambles at this point in time. Even when keeping in mind that there are times when the majority live in comfort and prosper, when the economy is rough thousands can just scrape by, and this is in the richer nations. Credits, stocks, funds, and bonds make for a fluctuating market. The race to get rich has caused instability in the past, and again in current times. People purchase with credit unsure of when they will be able to pay it off. Irresponsibility of major corporations, banks, and the general population is leaving people wondering which industry will collapse next, how they will put food on the table and afford the new Ipod touch. The neccessities of life. This is not a worry in Animal Crossing.
In conclusion, in Animal Crossing has proven superior. Animal Crossing folks care more for their enviornment. They are more social and interactive, though the real world has accomplished a global village. The economy of Animal Crossing creates a less grand lifestyle, but it is stable and everyone has enough. On the other hand the real world's people appreciate art and history more than Animal Crossing, but it is simply not enough to outweigh the surpassing other elements of Animal Crossing culture. Therefore I must conclude my counterpart's life, FancyBubbles, is better than my own.

Touching Bottom- Feminist Literary Theory

In the short story, Touching Bottom, the traditional roles of the male and female characters have been reveresed. Typically, the male protaganist is the hero of the story, but in Touching Bottom the narrator, a women named Kari Strutt, is the one who saves the day when she decides to swim parallel to the shore to call for help. In doing so she frees her step son and self from a potentially deadly current. Whilst women usually are the rescued, she becomes the rescuer of a male in the text. The other main male character of the story is the narrator's husband who also does not play the usual heroic male role. He plays quite the opposite in fact; he is the lowly scum flirting with other women, not giving a damned about spending time with his family, and ultimately the safety of them, a man so ignoble he destroys his second marriage in the course of the book. Without the physical strength and the will to endure of the protaganist, the husband would have lost his son, because of his preoccupation and infidelity.

The time period of which Touching Bottom was written allows Strutt to do something which women of the past could not. She is able to liberate herself from her unfaithful husband by divorcing him after the incident at the beach. In doing so she severs the ties between her and Ian, her step- son, which is most likely the hardest part of the divorce, considering her relationship with Ian is a closer more bonding one than the one she had with her former husband. Later in life she is able to meet up with Ian as an adult and discuss memories with him. Strutt says that "Ian is a man now... He is tall, and handsome, and very smart." In their entire visit they do not mention his Father once. Perhaps this is because her former husband continued his life in the same way he was with her, and therefore he is an undesireable person to speak of. The narrator never gives any indication of regreting her decision to divorce Ian's father, except that she would not be able to see Ian. She says " I came home", so being married and living with Ian's father never was a home to her. She makes no reference to a new family, but being alone seems much better for her than being with her former husband.

Ode to a Nightingale

Why does Keats seek out the company of a common bird and record the experience in the form of an ode? Why bother?

Keats seeks out the company of a common bird and records it because he is in a rather melacholy, reflective sort of mood. He is upset with his world, and begins to think of the world through the perspective of another creature, the nightingale. The nightingale is fortunate; its' species has not created such a complex and sorrowfilled world like humans have; it belongs in nature, among trees, plants, wildlife. It can "Singest of summer in full-throated ease" for there is joy in the simplicity of the nightingal's life. Keats writes because he feels envious that the nightingale lives so freely and he admires the beauty of the bird and an ode is melodious, flowing- a perfect way to express beauty, sorrow, and passion.

How is Ode to a Nightingale reflective of the Romantic Spirit?

Ode to a Nightingale reflects the romantic spirit in that its main theme is the beauty of nature. The romantic period was more concerned with beauty, magnifecence, and colour as opposed to an accurate depiction of the subject. This is reflected by Keats. He does not describe the physical attributes of the bird, he uses rhetorical and poetic devices to convey his image of the nightingale.

How does the content of two stanzas support your claims in the first two questions? Quote evidece and name devices.

The mood of Keats is demonstrated by his many references to death in various stanzas ie. "Thou wast not born for death" and by his choice of diction, words like " perilous", "forlorn", and "decieving". His envy of the bird is shown by the lines " No hungry generations tread thee down" and "Forlorn... To toll me back from thee to my sole self". Imagery is created when "thy plaintive anthem fades/ Past the near meadows, over the still stream/Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep/ In the next valley glades" as the reader can almost see the writer losing his connection with the nightingale, almost hear its chirping fade into backround noise. There is also alliteration "still streams" and an obvious statement of several nature settings. The rhetorical question that ends the ode "Was it a vision or a waking dream? Fled is that music- Do I wake or sleep?" is a wonderful way to allow the reader not only to reflect on how the poem effected them but also on how their time with nature effects them. To think of how the days blend together when camping, or how time flows when watching a body of water, or the curiosity of watching a bug can last longer than a watching a favourite sitcom.

Firetruck

The purpose of the poem "A Fire Truck by Richard Wilbur is a descriptive piece of writing. It is illustrating the experience of seeing a fire truck rushing down a street in response to an emergency. A fire truck racing down the street, is a sight that many people see, take notice of, and promptly forget. However, if you think about it, that fire truck is going somewhere to help someone through a traumatic event in their life. While the poem itself does not describe that particular event, it does take more note of the truck itself than people normally do, and give a sense of the hurried, tense, urgent situation that fire trucks represents.
I believe that "A Fire Truck" is a good piece of poetry. The use of descriptive adjectives such as "shocked", "uproarious", "heavy", and "phoenix- red" is something I quite enjoy . There are many intense verbs like "skittering", "purged", and "brooding". Wilbur's use of language in general is quite good, and it caused me to think about a fire truck in a way I don't normally look at it. Usually people associate the fire truck with fire and emergency and don't look beyond that. Wilbur looks at the physical aspects of the fire truck, the way it moves, and his reaction to it and this broad point of view creates a commendable poem.

Megacognition Number One

When I was participating in my socratic circle I found that my group in general was very abrupt about getting their opinions out. They all had a lot to say and wanted to say it quickly. I found it a little bit difficult to express my opinion at first because I didn't want to interrupt others, but was slightly frustrated when I did not get a chance to talk for what felt like half the circle- until others ran out of steam. Then, when I was able to get a chance to talk, some of the subjects that I wanted to discuss had already been acknowledged and passed over. Nontheless at this point I did manage to contribute to the conversation, and I began to enjoy the circle more than I did in the beginning. The discussion began to feel more casual with more even contribution from most members, but it was still focused. I enjoyed listening to other people's take on the paragraph, because at first I thought it was a good piece of writing but with other people's insights I discovered that there were a few more flaws with the paragraph than I had originally picked out. I would not have seen them without the circle. It was my first time doing a socratic circle, and I enjoyed it more than I normally enjoy group work, because of how structured it was.
I believe that my role in the socratic circle was intermediate. I felt that I was not a leader, a follower, an inspiration, or a burden. I felt pretty average. I believe that I contributed a few good points, and according to feedback I talked a fair amount, not as much as some but enough to make me a worthwhile member of the group. One of my weaknesses when I am working in groups, especially in front of extra people, is that I get embarassed and flustered and I am not able to articulate my thoughts in a coherent way. The next time I am in a socratic cirlce I should plan out what I'm going to say before I say it, however this is not always possible when you are on the spot, working off of what others have said before me.

Review: The Spider and the Wasp

The piece "The Spider and the Wasp" is an example of good process writing. The author, Alexander Petrunkevitch, starts off the piece with an engaging introductory paragraph, stating his thesis; an observation of the relationship between the tarantula and the digging wasp and the curious phenomenon that occurs when the wasp slowly murders the tarantula to make home for her offspring. While much of the composition does not seem to be directly related to the thesis, it provides the reader with a scientific backround about the two creatures, which may not at first seem relevant. However, the backround provides understanding of the oddity that the spider, extremely sensitive to touch and such a formidable foe, is defeated so easily. The piece also provides information about the wasp's gestation and birthing process to explain why the wasp is so hostile towards the tarantula. After establishing this foundation of information the paragraphs can be linked directly back to the main thesis as it describes the step- by- step process of the locating and paralysis of the spider and the birth and first few months of the larvae. "The Spider and the Wasp" is a natural process of closely connected steps that is repeated generation after generation, as long as the digger wasps survive. After Petrunkevitch explains the process, his last few paragraphs are an analytical look at the creatures behaviours, paticularily the arachanids. Petrunkevitch examines why the tarantula behaves the way it does instead of attempting to defend itself early on. While he has no conclusive answer to this question, it does create more interest to the writing. With the added detail in the beginning and the examination at the end, the author creates more interest and the reader is more engaged than they would have been had the article merely been a step- by- step piece with no additional information and speculation.