This week I learned that you get six weeks off when you have a baby. According to Matt, in France you get six months. I shouldn't be complaining, though, because at least Mr. Teacher is still here online. A noiseless, patient teacher. On a more serious note, we've been talking about tragedy this week and honestly, I'm struggling a little. The content is all fine and dandy, and I get it, but having to write about it is really hard. I don't understand what I'm supposed to be getting out of the documents. Like the essay thing we had to read yesterday. Was I supposed to summarize? Take one of his statements and wrote about it? I guess I just don't get what I'm supposed to be getting out of this. It's tragic, because I get the feeling that this shouldn't be as hard as I'm making it out to be. Not that I always compare myself to others, but it definitely seems like everyone gets it but me. I feel like they are just having a way easier time with this than I am. Obviously it's still early days, but it would be nice to know that I'm actually doing this right. Maybe my hamartia will be over-thinking things. I don't know. Probably not, but who really knows? I'm just being dramatic now and I need to stop. Do you pick out your harmartia or is it one of those things that everyone can see except for you? Does it have to be a part of you, like a character trait, or can it be one move made wrong? These are questions that I want the answer to and don't have. To Google I go! -------------------------------------------------------------- Google results said that a harmartia could more broadly be described as a wrong move, so I guess it doesn't have to be completely internal like I thought. It's a weird concept to think about though, isn't it? The fact that ONE move in all the moves a person makes could completely ruin the rest of their lives. ONE move! |
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We began our week talking about tragedy and kind of what it's all about. Someone made the point that tragedy is almost comical. "Ohhhhh Kimmy K got a DUI! Hahahaha! She totally deserved it!" Tragic for her but funny to us (apparently). I think I'll enjoy this project, not only can I do what I want when I want (not that I mind working with others but I'm a little controlling when it comes to school work/projects so I think it's best that I get to do my own thaaang for a while), but tragedy has so much to it that you will literally never run out of material to search through. Also it's a huge part of theater, dating back to ancient times, and I think that's neat. Our poem this week was called "Pathedy of Manners" by Ellen Kay. It's not that I didn't like the poem, I just thought it was really shallow and I personally found it hard to dig into. I get that the deeper meaning was that she could have made something great out of herself but didn't because she fell to the societal norms that surrounded her, but that doesn't seem like much to me. What am I supposed to say about that? I can think of like... One paragraph's worth of stuff to say and that would be it. Social normalities are crazy to me because they hold so much power over people. One wrong move and a person is destroyed. We see this in news tablets and "reports" every day. We are literally surrounded by it. I've admittedly seen Gossip Girl and that's the best example I can come up with about the pressures of society. They live in the upper east side of New York City and oh my gosh. Things get CRAZY in the show. I don't know how to end this post so I'm just gonna end it on the note that Gossip Girl is addicting and don't bother watching it because you'll be glued to the couch for three days. So I started this post with the mindset "How am I supposed to write about anything when it's only Friday?" (It's not Friday, it's Tuesday. You can't tell an entire class that it's Friday when it's not because this is what happens.) Anyways, it's only TUESDAY (this link is totally unrelated but today being Tuesday reminded me of this book and I remember LOVING it [after I stopped crying, of course]). But then it hit me; We did out presentations last week! My group decided to choose Fantasy and Humor for our elements of lit. I think that the project was a lot harder to work on than any of us thought it would be. I was definitely surprised at the work that went into, as well as how much time we spent on it. Even now, I'm not totally happy with the work we put out. I feel like the essays and verbal presentation were decent but the PowerPoint that went along with it was lacking. Above is one of the first slides in our presentation. Obviously it's not terrible, but I feel like I personally could have done better- Whether it be contributing more than I already did (and honestly, I feel like that's pretty near impossible) or some other thing that I can't call to mind. I don't know. The project was a struggle from start to finish. I, for the first time ever, am really glad that we were in groups for this project. I feel like group projects are different in say... A science class or something but in English, usually I like to just do it myself and get it over with. If nothing else, they provided support in getting through the project. I feel like last week was a blur, if I'm being honest. The weeks kind of blend together for me. Not that it's a TERRIBLE thing, but I feel like I should be able to recall what we did in more detail. Maybe I'm just not trying as hard as I could be. This is a really generalized statement, but I feel like a lot of the people in this class could do more but we don't. Yeah... That was definitely a huge conclusion to jump to but whatever. Starting out this week, we spent almost an entire day discussing the poem of the week, which is always fun (I'll talk about that later on). We then turned our attention and focused more on our "What is Literature" projects. My group chose humor and fantasy as our two elements, which turned out to be a lot harder than expected. I was never one to stress out so much that everyone around me stresses, too, but it has happened. More so last week, but it continued into this week a little, too. I was struggling hardcore to think of something to contribute to our essay. I am always put into that "leader" role, whether I want to be there or not so to have that pressure along with having absolutely nothing to write about really got to me. EVERYONE, including Mr. Teacher, was telling me "Relax! I think you're just over thinking this assignment." Excuse me? I'm sorry that I want a good grade. I'm sorry that I actually care about this assignment. Telling me to calm down isn't going to help anything. I do feel bad for my essay group mates, though. They had to sit through my freaking out for DAYS. Eventually I got over whatever it was that I had and we pulled together to make a fairly decent essay. I am actually kind of excited to make the group presentation next week. As promised: The poem discussion (dun dun dunnnn)! We read "Bright Star" by John Keats, and from what I gathered, none of us really knew how to take this poem. What is it about? What does this word mean? Does the star represent a person or is it just a star? Is he in love with the star (because that's... Pretty weird, really)? All these questions and nowhere to turn but to each other. My class tends to break into little sub groups, but at the same time, stay as one giant group to discuss poems. I love that we do that. I think it's cool to be able to bounce ideas, but then see what the class as a whole came up with. I didn't think that I would like this poem as much as I did. In the beginning, I didn't really get it so of course I was a little hesitant to say "oh yeah! This is the greatest thing I've ever read!" After much dissection and discussion, though, this could possibly be my favorite poem thus far (because we've read so many, right?). I was talking with a friend, and he was questioning my sanity when I was talking about how much I liked the poem. He couldn't find ANY deeper meaning. His thoughts were that the speaker wanted to be like a star so he could stalk the girl and I just couldn't handle his opinion. I like the weeks where we focus a lot of our time on the poem. I know that I'm one of few who feel this way but oh well. I am a little scared for the final test because I like to spend a whole day on the poem, and for the test we have like 5 minutes. |
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