extra credit

http://julienneparaiso.blogspot.com/2010/11/othello-part-uno.html#comments
http://vesna2291.blogspot.com/2010/11/othello-part-i.html#comments
http://cutterj.blogspot.com/2010/11/othello-act-i.html#comments

journal 14 final blog

Sadly this is my last journal for this class especially since I didn’t make it to 15, but I believe I will still get an A. First I’d like to say that thanks Mr. B for a great experience in my last English class for my b.s. In this final blog I’m going to discuss all that I liked and disliked about the class content and also about the class in general. First I like that we stuck to the syllabus for the most part. I never really liked reading in school, I was always more of a math person, but after this class I realize that reading isn’t so bad. It all depends on what your reading and how well you can get into the topic. This is where I think Mr. B does his job great; he helped us get into the literature further than the words that we read. I learned to dig deeper into content to base an opinion about a certain topic. In Sakuntala it was all about emotions which isn’t really my preference when it comes to topics, but I got through it pretty well compared to if I read it alone without discussing it in class through the week. The thing that I believe got people going with dissecting these stories was the blogs. Although I know many people did not participate in this part of the class, it’s a very good idea for ways to hear students’ opinions. It really doesn’t seem like a hard assignament to me because every class period we had discussion about what was assigned to read or other content like the movies we watched. If students participate in discussions, or just pay attention at the least they will have more than enough to say in their blogs. I also liked the test in class they were very relevant to the course work and straight forward with most questions, yet there were some times where we had to really use our whole brain. There were some tests I passed just from paying attention in class, because some of the texts that were more difficult to keep my attention, like Gawain, I had to use some sparknotes after reading but class filled in all the question marks I had. We also had 2 essays to write for class as well. Nobody likes to write papers, but it’s not so bad when the topic is something you can easily talk about like the last paper. The first paper required research which is why I personally didn’t like it as much. It was as easy nor as fun as the second which was better because you could write about almost anything as long as you can say why it was pertinent information for compared story. That twist made it fun and challenging. Overall, I liked the class and if I ever take any more English classes I’m going to be looking for Mr. B as a teacher, if not I’ll be fine because I’ve learned enough.

Jounal 13 heroes

Well I named this entire assignment the hero blog, so in this journal I’d like to just talk about the all the goods bads and uglies of the semester’s heroes. I will begin with my personal favorite, if you have kept up with my blogs at all you would know I’m talking about Gilgamesh. He was a pretty decent hero, but who I really like in his epic was Enkidu. He was a beast literally, and when he was tamed he was still a beast but for the other side nature; he’s like when police pay drug dealers to work for the other side of the law. My next favorite came at the end of the semester in Beowulf. Since he was the only outstanding hero in the story I was solely impressed with him. Though Grendel was a bad guy I think he was kind of dominant to cause terror for years without being put to any real challenge. Beowulf had no problem with that villain though; the guy didn’t even wear any armor to beat Grendel. While we are talking about armor I’d like to bring up Gawain who was viewed as a scared knight I guess. No one asked me, but if they did I’d say he was a smart knight. I know it was better to die with honor instead of live with shame in that time but that’s just dumb. I bet some really cool person died over something stupid like that and then afterwards people used that to justify his death and then it became one of those traditions nobody knows where it came from but everyone follows it. Gawain was a hero to me; not only did he get to cut off the head of a big huge green monster, but he got to kiss his lady and got nothing bad in return. Next Othello, I don’t know who or what to say is a hero here. I don’t even think enough people survived to even say anything was heroic. Iago the obvious main character could be viewed as the perfect antagonist role model. To non-heroes he might be a hero that seems kind of ironic but it makes sense to me. In Daoism everyone is a hero and if you think about it nobody is the enemy or villain which makes it kind of hard to be a hero because you have nobody to fight. Doesn’t make sense right? Wrong. It doesn’t make sense because it’s true and I’m a genius for thinking it. I’d say who ever decides not to participate with Daoism is the hero. Oedipus I apologize that I don’t have much to say about because I didn’t read but I plan on doing this after I cover all of the stories in this blog. In the Wife of Bath the fairy was her own hero. She helped the knight out just so she could help herself out with a husband. I’m sure he would have been just as happy dead as we was married to the old hag. Little did he know, she was the woman of his dreams so I guess she was a hero for him too. He really lucked out because he raped a lady which was completely wrong there and got the young beautiful woman that would never cheat on him at the end of the story. And last and possibly least is Sakuntala, the class’s chick flick. I’m going to credit the buffoon with the hero role here. I feel like he knew that one day there would be people reading this saying enough with this emotional crap we need humor; he helped me through that reading. Not all the stories had a hero like I thought would happen at the end of Gilgamesh, but depending on the way you read a story, anything or anybody can be a hero.