Medea (entry #1)

The play begins with a nurse, who we soon find out is Medea’s old nurse, walk outside of the house she is employed at and begins to open up the background of the play to the audience. In this brief background the nurse explains that she wishes that Jason and his ships had never come to them by saying, “How I wish the Argo's sails had never swept through the dark blue Clashing Rocks into the land of the Colchians” (1-2). She says that if Jason had never come to them then her mistress, which is Medea, would have never gone off with Jason and fallen in love with him. It is explained later on that Jason and Medea worked together to accomplish many feats, for example Jason with the help of Medea was able to acquire the Golden Fleece and Medea tricked the daughters of a rival king named Pelias to kill him with poison. Then the nurse says that Medea and Jason started a family together and had two sons. Soon after it is said that Medea and Jason had two sons, the nurse explains, “Jason has cast aside his children and my mistress, and now goes to bed in a royal marriage with the daughter of Creon who governs this land” (16-18). My first question has to be why do you think that Jason was so quick to abandon his family? Especially after Medea had help Jason throughout his adventures and has now given him two sons? The story the nurse is telling quickly becomes a bitter and angry one, in that it started out with Medea falling in love with Jason and having a family with him to now according to the nurse Medea cannot even stand the sight of her own children. “And she hates her children, takes no pleasure in seeing them” (35). Soon after the nurses soliloquy she is met by Pedagogue who enters with the two sons of Jason and Medea. These two characters converse and the nurse tells Pedagogue that she worries about Medea and her mental state. Soon after a cry out from Medea is heard in which she says that she “hates her life” and wonders how she can end it. My next question is why had Medea now so quickly turned on her own children? Taking Jason out of the picture the children have done no wrong to Medea and in my opinion do not deserve any of this, what are your thoughts on that thought? The conversation then evolves into one between the nurse, Medea and the chorus; in which Medea more or less rants about how she hates her family and her life. After hearing the conversation the nurse wonders nervously whether or not Medea will act upon these emotions. I hope that she will leave the children alone, however Jason may deserve whatever Medea’s wrath can conjure up. What do you think? 

Fahrenheit 451 entry #1

The story opens up on a man named Guy Montag. Guy lives in a bleak and grim futuristic United States and works as a fireman. In this future instead of putting out fires, the firemen start fires. They burn any and all printed books that they can find, and then they proceed to burn down the houses that the books were found in. Guy wears a helmet with the number 451 placed on the side. 451 is the temperature in Fahrenheit at which paper will burn. The story begins with Guy Montag burning down a house and finding a “special pleasure” in doing so. What “special pleasure” is there to find in burning down another person’s home?  Why must they burn down these homes that they find the books in? Why does this futuristic America, no less, want all printed books and the houses they are found in burned down and destroyed? Is America now beginning to start to reach this point of censorship, with people being much more easily offended by what other people have to say? How are there still books to burn at this point in the story? On his way home Guy encounters a curious girl, which he later makes the discovery that she is his new neighbor. She introduces herself as Clarisse McClellan, in their first conversation she explains that she is “seventeen and crazy.” Guy fills the initial conversation that he has with Clarisse with nervous laughter, due to how uneasy she makes him. She jumps back and forth between subjects and speaks of things like reading and being a pedestrian and such that are against the law and Guy knows this. Their conversation comes to an end and the reader is then introduced to Guy’s wife, Mildred. Why do you think Guy is so interested in Clarisse and why is she so different from everyone else in the future? 

Creon: “My mind is made ‘twas I imprisoned her, and I will set her free. Now I believe it is by the laws of heaven that man must live.” (156)
Why is Creon able to make this fast of a switch with his own decree. He spent all this time believing that he was in the right and that his will was the will of the gods and that he was chosen by them. And now he finally understands that he was in the wrong and believes that he can fix everything just like that? What does this say about his ability to lead?

Antigone: "Is he not my brother, and yours, whether you like it or not? I shall never desert him, never."
Ismene: "How could you dare, when Creon has expressly forbidden it?" (128)

This quote shows the true colors of both of these characters, Antigone would rather defy Creon and his laws to honor her brother, while Ismene would rather take the more cautious approach of obeying the law that Creon has decreed. My question is why is Antigone so ready to break the law in order to honor their brother while Ismene is hesitant and unwilling to do so? 

I believe that as a class we should discuss this quote from the second chapter of the epilogue, "Why does my action strike them as so horrible?" he said to himself. "Is it because it was a crime? What is meant by crime? My conscience is at rest. Of course, it was a legal crime, of course, the letter of the law was broken and  blood was shed." I feel that we should examine this quote because after all that Raskolnikov has put us through and all that we have seen him go through, I feel like he has betrayed himself and more importantly I believe that he has betrayed ME. I mean honestly, after all that he has been through and after all that he has put himself through, he is still trying to justify his actions. I had hoped that with his confession to the police, he would have finally accepted that he had done the wrong thing or that he had done wrong. Sadly however, he decides to disappoint us one last time by trying to make himself feel a little better about himself and what he did.

Blog 1

ISTJ Introvert(6%) Sensing(3%) Thinking(12%) Judging(41%)
The test also said that I may also be of the INTJ personality type but ISTJ was more prominent. I think that the test was pretty darn accurate and I love that my highest percentage is in the Judging category, only because that fits me so well. Not sure about what else to say other than I do like to put a lot of prior planning and thinking before I make most of my decisions and I rarely am comfortable with improvisation on the fly. However if I have to then I have the ability to improvise with my decision making. I do enjoy being around people that I like for a certain amount of time, but I definitely do require some time apart from people in order to recharge. As far as the whole Justice over mercy thing I do have a profound love of Justice, but I also understand and see that there are many instances in which mercy can and should be used.

My favorite Affirmation came from my mother, this is what she had to say.