Guest Blogger - Heaven L.

Hello to everyone that is currently reading this. I have liked poetry since I was little. I liked the pictures and how the rhyming scheme was simple and easy to understand. Like green eggs and hams I would read that over and over again. Now in AP literature the poems are a bit more complicated and hard to understand. I have realized that there are a lot more things in poetry that I never realized before. For example how there can be allusions in some poems like in Dante when in one canto there was a part that symbolize Daedalus and Icarus. I have also learned that some poems have an allegory (I have also learned what an allegory is). Those are only a couple examples that I have learned and most likely I am going to learn a lot more which is perfectly fine with me. What I really like about poetry is that what ever you write a poem about; it will have a deeper meaning then when you just have the facts. Like the example of the eagle Ms. Arko showed us on day on the overhead. Anyone can get the facts about an eagle and be done with it, but the poem gave the eagle its own personal effect and portrayed facts about the eagle in an interesting and more understandable way. Poems can say anything and the reader can get a deeper understanding of that thing rather then looking it up in a dictionary. Personally I think a poem (no matter what it’s about) has true beauty of its own; a simple short poem can say a lot all the reader has to do is look for it. Like the poem Suicide’s Note, it’s very short but if you look deep enough you can tell that the poem has a lot more meaning then just those words. I have learned that true poets look for the perfect word, and the word uses all the meaning of it in the poem like in the poem Cross. The poem Cross could show a religious side, or a cross between races or anything else that has to do with the meaning of cross. Poetry beauty is shown different to each reader depending on there views and what they know. Well that’s all I have to say about poetry. Thank you for reading my blog.

Guest Blogger - Zack J.

In the unit we are doing now, we have picked our own book, I chose The Death of a Salesman because it sounds interesting. The books we chose were some sort of a play. While I carefully read my very interesting book, I realized that there were a lot of inside meanings. These meanings became more revealed as the story continued. Is it just me or is this kind of stuff happening in all the books? This little details seem to be pointless at first but as I continued reading I realized that these little events had huge meanings in the end. For example, in my book when a character named Willy claims he gets into car accidents while driving for work, these accidents happened kind of frequently and in the end of the book, we find out that this character, Willy, was trying to kill himself during these frequent accidents. All these little details really added up in the end and put the story together after I was very confused. Are these details happening in other books and are they bringing the story together and making it easier to understand, or is this just happening in The Death of a Salesman? I think that these little details really help bring the story to a more interesting level instead of just writing about a boring and big concept. I think that these details made the story more likeable and made it into a better book than I thought it would be. As the Death of a Salesman being the first short-play-book I’ve ever read in my life, it actually seemed kind of interesting to me and all the confusing things going on in the beginning all were fixed in the end.

Guest Blogger - Patty M.

As we all know, we are reading dramas for our final essay and I’ve decided to talk about the one I have chosen since so few decided to read it. I am reading The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill. It starts off in a firemen’s forecastle of an ocean liner with the protagonist, Yank, getting drunk with the other workers. They all shovel coal to power the vessel but at the moment most of them are as drunk as a skunk thus incapacitated. While drunk the men are rowdy and all singing and Yank tells them to quiet down because he’s trying to think. The men stop (momentarily) because they all respect him because they fear him and he doesn’t try to assuage their fears either, he prefers it that way. Yank is very cynical about life in general however he is even more so about family and women. He believes that women are all tarts and will betray a man for nickel. And because of that he treats them extremely poorly. He goes so far as to say “treat ‘em rough, dat’s me” (O’Neill Act I Scene I) But what I really want to talk about is the accents in which they speak. As you can see in the quote Yank has an accent but what you can’t see in that quote is that most of the characters have heavy Bostonian accents as well which in my opinion adds a whole new aspect to the story. I think that accents in books add to the character (not character as in the people in the story) of the book by bringing in different lifestyles and cultures. Which is a more interesting piece of literature (if they are the same type of story with the same writing style)? A story without an obvious accent or one with at least a single character with one?

Guest Blogger - Halle O.

In further discussion about Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, I have noticed one large and ongoing conflict between Okonkwo and his feeling towards his children, Nwoye and Ezinma. Okonkwo is a man who is very prideful and he has a need for greatness. He wants to be different from his father who didn’t have a title, he wasn’t known for anything. Okonkwo is making himself known for his wealth, brave and violent personality and producivness. He wants his children (his son, Nwoye) to have the same qualities and have greatness and a title in his life except that is not what Nwoye wants so that is where the conflict comes in.
Nwoye is the type of boy who struggles with his demanding and powerful father. His interests are more of those of his grandfather, Unoka. He takes many beatings by his father because he is not able to please him. When Ikemefuna arrives (as his older brother in terms), he starts to teach Nwoye about masculinity in a more gentle way. This gets Okonkwo to back away for a little bit and little by little Nwoye gets a little more his father’s approval. When Ikemefuna is killed, Nwoye goes back to being more like his grandfather. When the missionaries come Nwoye finds a little bit of hope and joins the forces with them. That decision only makes Okonkwo so angry and upset that he disownes his son.
Ezinma (Okonkwo’s daughter), on the other hand, has the masculine traits even though she is a female. Okonkwo favors her because she is bold and sometimes contradicting. In fact, may times, Okonkwo wishes that Ezinma would have been a boy. She wins Okonkwo’s full respect and attention. With Okonkwo favoring Ezinma, that only boosts her confidence and makes things worse for Nwoye and Okonkwo.

Guest Blogger - Karolyn W.

Hey everyone! In continuation on the class discussion about The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats, I had several ideas about this fascinating poem. William Butler Yeats skillfully wrote this poem with many interesting concepts. The poem additionally has intriguing poetic structure and witty literary techniques such as allusions and imagery. By referencing Bethlehem and The Second Coming of Christ, the poem has a greater meaning.
1919, the year in which William Butler Yeats wrote The Second Coming, was the end of the horrific World War I. The world was looking for hope and a new beginning however, this poem reflects the depressing atmosphere and downright awful outlook on the world’s future after World War I. “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.” Within these lines of Yeats’ dismal painting, are details about how the world was after WWI. These lines reveal the chaos and terror which manifested within Europe. In William Butler Yeats’ poem The Second Coming, the Yeats expressed his thoughts on the gloomy future for the world, and also his fears about the terrible future. “Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand” These lines depict that the Second Coming of the savior is near. “Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert a shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun” Unexpectedly, the Second Coming is far from a savior, in its’ place is a evil and devestating Sphinx.William Yeats reveals that he believes the world is coming to an apocalyptic revelation.
Within William Butler Yeats stunning poem, The Second Coming, Yeats paints a dark, depressing future of the world by using dark imagery, biblical allusions, and powerful words. Could William Butler Yeats have been predicting future wars to come such as WWI, The Cold War or Vietnam?

Guest Blogger - Emilie T.

As part of our tragedy unit, we have been discussing the components that make up a tragedy. These parts include conflict, revenge, supernatural, chance, comic relief, and the tragic hero. Almost every tragic hero has a tragic flaw, which leads to the destruction of the hero. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is his pride. Okonkwo achieves his wealth and status through hard work after his father spent all of the family’s money. This difficult climb to status is a huge source of pride for Okonkwo, and his greatest fear is that he will fall from the pedestal he built for himself. Many times throughout the novel, Okonkwo pushes away his family because he fears that showing his true emotions will make him seem less manly. In Chapter 7, Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, whom Okonkwo had grown to like. Chinua Achebe writes, “Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak” (Achebe 61). Okonkwo’s pride in his strength forced him to kill the only son for whom he ever felt respect and admiration. Later in the novel, Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, joins the Christians. Okonkwo is angry about Nwoye’s decision because Okonkwo feels pride in his adherence to the Ibo culture, but his own son betrayed him. Okonkwo doesn’t want to be associated with Nwoye any longer because Nwoye’s conversion could hurt Okonkwo’s standing in the community. These are just two of the many examples of Okonkwo’s pride, which destroys his relationships. Chinua Achebe further shows that pride is Okonkwo’s tragic flaw, as well as tying the story in with the Ibo culture, by mentioning African myths about animals. One story is about the bird nza, who challenges his chi. After eating a large meal, nza was so arrogant that he thought he could outwit his own chi. In another fable, the bird eneke-nti-oba is so arrogant about his prowess in wrestling that he “challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat” (Achebe 53). Chinua Achebe’s use of Okonkwo’s actions and African fables reveal Okonkwo’s pride to be his tragic flaw.

Guest Blogger - Stephanie O.

So basically my post date has terrible timing because we are currently in between items in class; we just got done reading Oedipus (which is about a guy who has some serious issues) and we have started reading Things Fall Apart (which, from what Ms. Arko has told us so far, is about a guy with major daddy problems) but we haven't read enough to do a post on yet. Also last week we read this poem called A Second Coming. In this poem the author, William Butler Yeats, basically says that everyone thinks that the second coming is the coming of Christ, but he thinks it is more like the end of the earth, because Jesus is really a shpinx like beast. Yeats wrote that because World War one was ending but what I was wondering was why did that lead him to think that the world was soon coming to an end? Maybe it was because it is hard to imagine a world without war once you've been in fighting for so long. Whatever his reason I don't think that world is going to end anytime soon. In the poem Yeats says, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" from this line is where Achebe got the name of his book. In what we have read so far of this book (Things Fall Apart) Unoka, who reminds me a lot of my older brother, is a bum and owes a lot of people a lot of money and when Okoye comes for his money Unoka just laughs at him and pretty much says , "yeah right! Do i look like i have the money to pay you back with!" Unoka died a poor man with a lot of debt and his son Okonkwo is now determined not to end up like his father. So far he has lived a better life in the sense of money and wives and titles but in the sense of family he fails almost as much as his father failed at holding on to money.

Guest Blogger - Taylor K.

So, most people don’t really like poetry, but I do. I can’t really stand the long one; solely because I have no patience to read all of it. I like the ones that rhyme, are short, and (as corny as it sounds) paints a picture for people. Particularly, I like Langston Hughes. His poems have a bit of rough and rawness to them that I really like. The same qualities draw me into Slam Poetry. I’m a total Slam junkie. I like more of the poetry that has loud and prevalent emotions in them, than the soft lovey-dovey stuff. One of my favorites is by Taylor Mali, he’s a teacher whose poem is about the impact that teachers make on students that really go unnoticed. It’s called “What Teacher’s Make,” and one passage I really like from his poem is, “You want to know what I make? / I make kids wonder, / I make them question. / I make them criticize. / I make them apologize and mean it. / I make them write, write, write. / And then I make them read. / I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful / over and over and over again until they will never misspell / either one of those words again.” Another poet I really like is Steve Coleman, who graduated from Macalester College, up in St. Paul, Minnesota. His poem, “I Wanna Hear a Poem,” is more about Slam Poetry and the message you can send with it. But Slam is more than just angry people venting about things that upset them. Slam is beautiful and powerful, and if I do say so myself, earth moving. I owe it all to E-week and Mr. Swegarden for opening me to this wonderful new world of Slam Poetry, which branched into poetry in general.
Taylor Mali
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpog1_NFd2Q
Steve Coleman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-jXDuqHEEk

Guest Blogger - Mitch N.

Since we are in between books in AP English this week, I had to think for awhile about what to write about for my blog entry. I was looking through my English folder and I saw the questions that we answered before reading Oedipus, and I was curious to see what other people thought on the questions and if any of there opinions have changed on them.
Obviously one of the main ideas of the play is fate, and how it does or does not control everything. Fate is the biggest argument brought up in Oedipus, and there are points in the play that can be presented for both sides of the argument. To support that there is a fate one can say that he got his oracle from Apollo and the oracle came true so there must be fate, very straight forward. For arguments against fate people can say that he controlled everything he did, and that he could have chosen to just not marry or kill anyone, problem solved.
I can see it argued both ways, and I know people can present strong arguments for both, but I think that the paper we read in class one day by a professor presented that answer, at least for Oedipus. The professor said that just because there was a fate chosen for him, it did not mean that he was not free to go about accomplishing that fate however he wanted. I think that the professor is absolutely right, and that Apollo merely gave Oedipus an ending point, but Oedipus also had a little bit of free will involved in his life. That argument kind of meshes both sides together to form a big compromise. It leaves parts of both arguments in the final conclusion.
Personally, outside of Oedipus, I do not believe that there is a fate or divine plan for any one of us, and that where we end up in life is a direct result from the choices we make during our life. It is a very interesting topic to argue about, since there is no exact proof, and I would love to hear someone else’s opinion on it, so let me know.

Guest Blogger - Megan S.

I know we have done quite a bit with the fate vs. free will debate on Oedipus the King, but I will continue the debate here in my blog. I’m on the fence with this one. A very good point was brought up in the fishbowl discussions; Sophocles didn’t write Oedipus the King to prove fate or free will. The whole idea of Oedipus trying to run from his prophecy and ending up fulfilling it unknowingly being classified as fate or free will was an afterthought brought up by readers. When the play was written, there wasn’t even a distinction between the two. Oedipus leaving Corinth in order to out run his prophecy of killing his own parents is kind of like the idea of the saying “I’ve got a bullet with my name on it, and I’m just trying to dodge it” that you here from people fighting long term illnesses, etc. He was told it was coming, and tried to outsmart it. It pretty much proves the saying “you can run, but you can’t hide.” Some view that as fate, others see it as total coincidence. He ran from the prophecy, but it out ran him. Fate can’t take all of the blame for Oedipus’ actions though. He killed a man, and that was his choice. Whether he knew it was the King/his father or not isn’t the point, it’s the fact that he killed 5 men, including King Laius. Murder is murder. Fate doesn’t make you a murderer, no one makes you do it. Oedipus killing the men was his own choice, not fate’s choice. He could have just kept going on down the road, but he chose to kill the men. Yes, maybe there was some fate in running across the King on that road, but it also contained some free will. Oedipus was searching for the murderer, when in fact he was searching for himself. Ask yourself this, fate or free will?