All Buried in Post-It Notes

The Secrecy, the lies, the mystery of it all...what's the reality? What's really going on? Does anyone know the truth? No wonder Hamlet's going insane!! Or is he?


I think it's interesting that Hamlet is aware how his behavior is changing since the death of his father. At first he was just in mourning solely because of the death and marriage of his mother. But now there are so many other vague factors, like the ghost and Ophelia. Personally I think that the ghost is some type of portrayal of his subconscious or his unconscious mind. And it just comes in the form of a ghost in order to inform the audience of what turmoil is going on inside Hamlet's minds. However the evidence that goes against that theory is if the ghost is Hamlet's unconscious then how does Hamlet “know” how his father was killed? If he doesn't actually know perhaps he is just making it up as an excuse to kill Claudius, because the man was a heartless ass who married his mother. In this case Hamlet is really losing his mind. And his insanity can sort of be connected to the fact that “there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.”



In class today someone mentioned that whatever it is that is rotten is the syphilis, that Hamlet supposedly has. Which means that he and Ophelia really did have a genuine relationship. But then is he half going crazy because she cuts him off? This theory makes less sense to me because the way he is shown to treat her in that scene we read today it just seems more like he is trying to find someone who he could vent some of his insanity out onto. Her lack of recent communication doesn't seem to be the cause of anything...just perhaps something that adds to his discomfort. Otherwise I fell he would have yelled or said something to her. It just doesn't seem solid enough.



But that brings me to the fact that Polonius thinks that Ophelia is the heart of Hamlet's problem. It comes back to his stupid image. If Ophelia WAS the problem and he managed to “fix” it by letting Hamlet be with Ophelia again then he would be famous or he would be awarded and would have more acknowledgment. His tone seems to change completely when Ophelia reveals that Hamlet might love her..or that is what Polonius understood from her description. So to him it's all about “seeming” as well.

Back to Blogging!

First things first....that poem... I'm pretty sure is going to be my downfall. It was really hard to think of how everything would fit together to make sense, without just putting down words that rhymed. But somehow I managed to make my poem so long that I had trouble keeping it on one page... also having to analyze your own poem was interesting because then you're not actually guessing what the writer was thinking because you are the writer and you are ALIVE and therefore you know for a fact what you were thinking....hopefully anyways.

As for Hamlet, I did not imagine him to be THAT old (the actor, Kenneth Branagh, was definitely Gilderoy Lockhart in HP) because I also have the comic book version of Hamlet, and he is portrayed as what looks like an 18 year old boy with bright red hair. Not so sure why he has red hair. Also the ghost of King Hamlet is shown to be towering over the entire castle. AS for the actual play, I found it really interesting that one word like “seems” fit the dialogue in context in more than one way. It also kind of plays into the whole ambiguity of the situation, since no one is being forthright about what they really mean. SO far the play has been really interesting, and I think I've used about 20 post it notes for the first 10 pages. But I'm excited to find out what happens next!

Trapped inside...

Has anyone heard of Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry? Or The Little Prince in English? It’s about a Little Prince, whose real name is unknown, who travels from his asteroid home and lands in the middle of a dessert on planet earth. Here he meets an aviator whose plane has crashed there as well. The Little Prince starts talking about how children are much different than adults because adults focus too much on pragmatic topics instead of the important things in life. The Prince then proceeds to tell the aviator about his home sized asteroid planet, which is threatened by Baobab trees (that represent evil). That is why he has set out on a journey to find a sheep which is the only creature that can save his planet. He recalls his visits to other planets and how he has met foolish adults. There is a: King, vain man, drunkard, business man, lamplighter, and the geographer. I won’t bore you with the rest of the details.




Basically, my teacher assigned it to my class last year just so we would get accustomed to reading in French…little did we know that she would make it waaaaaaaaaayyyy more complicated than it seemed. But she explained to us that despite that this was SUPPOSED to be a kids’ book it contained complex philosophies such as existentialism. Of course she explained most of it in French, which means no one understood half of what she was saying. So when the term first came up in our lit class, I immediately thought of that book and referred to existentialism as EVIL! Her explanation went something like this: evil is all around us, and therefore we must do all in our power to prevent the evil from trapping us, and therefore, the children of the future are the key because they are the only ones who can make the choice of preventing the spread of evil…At least I think that was explanation, I might have lost something in that translation…:P…nevertheless, that was the moral of the story.



I know…heavy right? …And this was a KIDS’ book.



But I guess this kind of works with the explanation given in class, that the universe is meaningless, and the meaning is created by individuals, and their choices which die once you die… So it just boils down to the choices that are made in general. And perhaps Le Petit Prince (sorry it’s just embedded into my mind in French) has an existentialist philosophy because of that choice of preventing evil…and NOT letting that meaning die with you by passing it on to the children of the future.



But I’m still unsure where all this evil comes into play….

I'm not going to lie...i really didn't like that book, just because adding the dark element of existentialism just killed it...

hmmmmmm....could it be?

Previously on AP Lit, the class was watching A Doll's House, repulsed by the old and not at all fitting actress that plays Nora in the film.
"There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt." -Act I

"Because an atmosphere of lies like that infects and poisons the whole life of a home. In a house like that, every breath that the children take is filled with the germs of evil." -Act 1
"Nora, darling, you're dancing as if your life depended on it!" -Act 2


(I'm in a t.v soap opear mood today :P)

As we have been discussing this play I am repeatedly reminded of The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams. It is Nora's character that makes the connection to both Amanda the mother, and Laura the daughter. The costume that Nora wears to the party is not only symbollic because it shows her metamorphasis but also because it symbollically represents her life which as she feels is hanging by the thread that the letter sent by Krogstad is threatening to cut.  In Amanda's case in The Glass Menagerie, that beautiful yellow dress she always talks about just shows how she is so attached to the past and is unwilling to let it go. The play certainly depicts her as a character who completely lives in the past and is unable to take a firm grasp of reality. So the dresses or the costumes in both plays are a symbolic representation of each of the women's lives respectively. Also they both live their lives in some facade.

I feel Nora relates to Laura because they are both described as children in one way or another. Nora is a child in Torvald's eyes, and as for Laura, I can't quiet recall but Amanda always thought of her as a small child who was unable to be independant.

It's interesting the way those two plays relate.

SAVANNAH WAS HERE!!!!

How to paint that blank page....?

Sometimes you just forget, and sometimes you just don't know what to say...


And sometimes you realize much too late that you spelled thinking wrong while naming your blog...!!!

But I suppose I shall just keep it that way.

At least I have something to laugh at...

---

And I have to say, Ms. Clinch, as much as I appreciate that you pushed back the deadline of our paper, I can't wait until Friday comes around...

It's just that it’s been seven weeks...and we're still talking about Jack, Willie, Tess, or Alec....

And I just can’t seem to compare the two books enough, and no matter how much I write…it’s still not long enough.



And here I am once again, completely stuck on what to say. The words just don’t flow out like they should. It’s weird; there are certain things that I could talk about for pages and pages… like movies, and the actors and actresses that performed in those movies. Musicals are a good topic as well, though I am not as well educated in that as I am in movies.



But I am really excited to be reading Pride and Prejudice, and Chaucer, and that play!

I was sitting at home on Saturday absolutely craving to read something!!

I just wanted to go to Barnes and Noble and sit down with some Starbucks and keep reading for hours while it rained...



I sadly wasn't able to do so, but it's the thought that counts right?



Instead I read this book titled The Best Ghost Stories Ever or something like that. It’s actually a collection of short stories that includes, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Monkey’s Paw, and one of my favorites The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman…hmm I’m not sure I spelled that properly…



The first time I read it, or read part of it was in a practice SAT test (I shudder at that though). But we read it again last year in honors lit, and its eerie plot was captivating to say the least. The image of a woman just creeping along the walls taking of bits of wallpaper amused me. But I think the creepiest part was the designs she saw in the wallpaper…she made it all seem so grotesque…



Oooh, connection to Winesburg,Ohio!!



I started reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irwing…that was a bit harder to read…and I honestly didn’t get too far but it’s turning out to be a pretty good read so far…



Wow…I had a lot more to say than I expected…but this does happen to be the end of my thoughts about anything relevant to literature…

So until next time I suppose..

Oh la la?

For starters...that quiz on Winesburg was not easy.
But I really did like the book mostly because it was an easy read, and the short stories were all really captivating.

I'm only typing this just in case i don't get to talk for our fishbowl discussion...

My two favorite stories were "Adventure," and "Tandy."
"Adventure" really had a really good element of surprise and a sort of irony. From the title of the chapter it seems as if the character is going to go somewhere and have a completely fantastical adventure...( i thought of the movie UP as I was typing that). But instead it's more of an emotional adventure, she finally lets out every thing thats been hiding inside her all at once. The first part of this chapter really sets u up for the climax, because I was sitting there expecting to read that at any moment Alice would walk out her front door and just keep walking wherever her feet took her, and that would be her adventure. So I was really surprised at what she did...or didn't do.

I'm not sure if "Tandy," captures my attention because it's short or because it still tells a whole meaningful story in about two pages, or because its so random? Random in the sense its so vague that you have absolutely no idea who this stranger is, yet he actually managed to convince a little girl of what she should grow up to be. It's a little bizarre...but so mysterious that you're still stuck on that idea of WHO?!?!?!? I have my thoughts about that...but I need something to save for the discussion...just incase I DO actually get to speak without having to completely butt in.