Think Aloud- The Count of Monte Cristo

Imagery/Sensory Details-  When I was reading about the setting of the carnival in Rome, Italy that the Count attended I thought of the huge crowds at the state fair and the smell of all the greasy food and sweat.  Another sensory detail that I thought of was when the Count, disguised as his dead friend, is thrown into the sea.  When I read this I could almost feel the slap as he hit the freezing cold water.

Text Connections-  Text to text: In the book Silas Marner, Marner is wrongly accused of stealing money from the church and banished.  This is like The Count of Monte Cristo because Dantes is wrongly accused of being a Bonapartist and sent to jail.
Text to world:  In The Count of Monte Cristo, Dantes is sent to jail.  Because of his long stay at jail, Dantes is a dynamic character.  When he escapes he doesn't know where all of the people he once knew are or what has happened to them.  This is similar to the lost boys of Sudan.  After the lost boys escaped from the government troops, they didn't know what had happened to their family's.


Points of Confusion-  One thing that I didn't understand was why Morrel felt like he had to kill himself when he couldn't pay his bills.  Morrel feels that killing himself would be more honorable than being in debt.  I don't agree with this.  In my opinion committing suicide is the more frowned upon idea.
I was also confused on the motivation behind Caderousse killing his wife.  I understand that he killed the jeweler so he could have both the diamond and the money from selling the diamond but I thought that killing his wife was for no reason.


Points of Understanding-  One thing that I understood about the first part of The Count of Monte Cristo is why Fernand and Danglars frame Dantes (though I don't respect it).  Fernand is envious of Dantes because Mercedes loves Dantes more than Fernand.  Danglars is envious of Dantes because Dantes was going to be made the captain of the Pharaon.  This envy caused conflict which lead them to get rid of Dantes as a sort of resolution.
A second thing that I understood was why Dantes wants to get revenge on the people that betrayed him. I think that most people in Dantes situation would want to get revenge as symbolism to overcoming and defeating the wrong that was inflicted on them.  It kind of creates a situational irony for the characters in the book because they think that Dantes is dead but now he is returning as the Count to get them.


Predictions-  One theme that I will remember from this book is to be careful who you trust.  Dantes trusts his "friends" and Villefort who end up betraying him.  Another thing that I will take away from The Count of Monte Cristo is that it is important to keep all the evidence in your case.  Villefort burns Dantes' letter that only Villefort and the reader know is addressed to his father, which is an example of dramatic irony.  If he hadn't done this the truth would have been known and he and Dantes may have had different fates.

Think Aloud on the Seven Deadly Sins

     Imagery/Sensory

When I think of envy I think of the metaphor green with envy.  

http://digitalart.org/art/41311/fantasy/seven-deadly-sins-envy/
Wrath is another way of saying anger.  I associate anger with the sounds of people fighting or arguing.
Hearts and Valentines Day have always reminded me of the sin lust.

     Text Connections
Text to Text- In the 10 Commandments there are two commandments that talk about lust and greed.  These commandments can easily relate to the Seven Deadly Sins.

 “You shall not commit adultery. 

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”

Text to World- I think that the sin gluttony might be the most relevant to modern life.  As the diffusion of fast food has increased the number of overweight people has increased.  Because fast food is relatively cheap, many people consume it in excess amounts and throw any left overs away. http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2009/07/08/understanding-obesity-by-studying-culture/

     Points of Understanding
  Sloth was made a deadly sin because the Catholic Church believed that any kind of laziness would prevent a person from doing their church duties.  I agree with the Church that sloth should be on the sins list but for different reasons.  I think that sloth is an important sin to have on the list because if people are lazy they aren't helping their family or community, nor are they helping themselves in the long run.  I think this because if somebody is lazy how can they expect to be hired by an employer and support their family.
  I think wrath, or anger, is a good thing to have on the Seven Deadly Sins list because anger (in some cases) can lead to violence or murder, which are both illegal and very wrong.

     Points of Confusion
I don't understand why pride was made a deadly sin.  I agree that too much pride can come of as cocky and rude, even if one doesn't mean like that.  I think that it is important to have pride in ones own hard work because it helps you appreciate other's hard work.
Another thing that I don't get is why there are only seven deadly sins and why they are the ones that they are.  It seems like there should be more deadly sins than just seven.  I wonder why murder isn't a deadly sin because I consider it to be one of the worst things a person could do.

     Predictions
  I think that I will use this text to help me understand The Count of Monte Cristo.
  I don't think that I will come back to this text after The Count of Monte Cristo unless assigned to because I don't really identify with that type of thing in my life.  I feel that the sins are bad to commit, but I don't need them to tell me what is right and wrong, I can figure that out myself.

Reign of 100 Words

     If you have been wronged it is up to you to punish those responsible.  This statement relates to the actions of Odysseus and Telemachos against the suitors in The Odyssey.  Odysseus and Telemachos brutally murder the suitors of Penelope when Odysseus finally returns from Troy.  Odysseus is angry because the suitors have taken over his house and courted his wife.  Both he and his son Telemachos feel it is their job to rid the world of these particular men to set an example for others.
    I don't agree with the statement if you have been wronged it is up to you to punish those responsible.  I feel that if everybody abided by this rule then there would be a lot more violence.  It would be near to anarchy, people doing things to other people because they believe they have some sort of claim to do so.  Many people would abuse a rule like this, going as far as murder, like in The Odyssey.  You need only to look at crime shows where victims of a crime (or family members) take matters into their own hands by attacking or killing the suspect.  In turn they not only ruin their own life, but also their families lives.  I'm not saying the suspect/bully shouldn't be punished, they should, but fighting fire with fire isn't a good idea.

Comparing and Contrasting The Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou?

     The movie O Brother Where Art Thou? is an adaptation of The Odyssey by Homer.  O Brother Where Art Thou? was made in 2000 but takes place in the 1930s.  The Odyssey was first an oral story, passed down by word of mouth, until it was written down by Homer during the Greek rule.  Telemachos, in The Odyssey, and Everet's daughters, in O Brother have several similarities and differences.  These similarities and differences between the children of Odysseus and Everet in The Odyssey and O Brother are their encounters with their fathers, thinking their father is dead and their opinion of the suitor(s).
     In The Odyssey, Odysseus' son Telamachos has several instances that convey his character.  Telemachos  meets his father before his mother, Penelope, does.  The father and son reunion takes place in the home of the swine herder, Eumaos.  In The Odyssey, Telemachos believes that his father is dead because Odysseus hasn't returned from the Trojan war.  Telemachos tells Mentes, who is really Athena in disguise that his father is "...lost; he came to grief and perished,".  Telemachos also has a strong hatred for his mothers suitors.  He feels they are taking advantage of both his mother and himself.  He says that "they have an easy life, scot free, eating the livestock of another-".  These things show the feelings and experiences of Telemachos.
     The seven daughters of Everet in O Brother are similar and different to Telemachos in several ways.  Like Telemachos, Everet's daughters meet their father before their mother does.  But unlike the happy loving reunion of Odysseus and Telemachos, Everet's daughters aren't as loving to their father.  Also similarly to The Odyssey is Everet's daughters belief that their father has passed away.  After hugging their father they pull back saying that he can't be their daddy, their daddy "was ran over by a train."  Unlike Telemachos' opinion of his mother's suitors, Everet's daughters like their mother's suitor.  they share their mother's view that the suitor is "bonafide".
     The encounters with their fathers, thinking their father is dead and their opinions of the suitor(s) are the similarities and differences between the children of Odysseus and Everet in The Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou?  These similarities and differences, among others, lead the reader and viewer to whether or not O Brother is a faithful adaptation of The Odyssey.  O Brother Where Art Thou? is a faithful adaptation of The Odyssey because even though it changes some characters and the time and place of which the story happens, the main events are still present.

55 Fiction Revision

     My foot slammed into smooth ground, racing towards the crowded hall's end.  A line of turtle-like seniors blocked my path.  Ducking between two I continued.
     My brother blocked the way.
     "Don't!"
     Smack! he fell, I ran.  Wrong, but I had to know.  Rounding a corner, smell hitting my nose, I saw:  pizza for lunch!

Ground smooth beneath my speeding feet.  The crowded hall stretching infinitely.  A line of turtle-like seniors blocked my path.  Ducking between two I continued on.  My brother blocked the way.
"Don't!"
Smack! he fell, I ran.  Wrong, but I had to know.  Rounding a corner, smell hitting my nose, I saw:
pizza for lunch!

The Hero and the God

1 The basic "rites of passage" are:
      Departure
      Initiation Trials and Victories
      The Return to Society
The diagram for monomyth differs from a typical plot diagram because while the typical diagram is an incline ending in the climax, the monomyth diagram is a circle.
2 Buddha escapes from his fathers palace and travels around meditating.  After receiving a sign, Buddha goes to sit under the Tree of Enlightenment.  Here he must with stand the attack from the army of the god of love and death.  After conquering the army he receives his divine gift and spends many days contemplating his message.  Then the god Brahma tells him to teach his wisdom to gods and men.

3 The 5 subsections of the departure of a hero are:
      1 Request for the hero to go and help
      2 Refusal of the request
      3 The hero gets help from a god/divine power
      4 Hero passes through the first "doorway"
      5 The hero crosses into realm of night
4 The 6 subsections of the trials and victories are:
      1 Road of Trials
      2 Meeting with the Goddess
      3 Temptation from a women
      4 Reconciliation with the father
      5 The elevation of the hero to the rank of a god
      6 Achieving the great gift or goal
5 The return of the hero is important to the hero's community because it is the justification of the long retreat.  If the hero has won enlightenment they may lose interest and hope in worldly problems.  This can relate to soldiers coming back from the war and being distant from family and friends because of seeing friends die on the battle field.  If the hero has unjustly gotten the divine gift like Prometheus, the gods will punish them and possibly their community.
6 Comparing and contrasting how the composite hero of the monomyth can be treated by society: Sometimes the hero is honored by society, but other times the hero is unrecognized, disdained and shunned.

Academic Post #1 To Kill a Mockingbird

     Mr. Dolphus Raymond leads a conflicted existence in the town of Maycomb in the book To Kill a Mockingbird.  He has two different personas.  One that he presents to the public, and another that he presents to the children.  His personas are different in many ways.  Mr. Dolphus Raymond has a persona he uses in public and his real persona which he submits to the children.
     One of the personas of Mr. Raymond, the on that he presents to the public, is a drunk.  This persona of being a drunk is fake.  Mr. Raymond knows that the citizens of Maycomb don't approve of or understand his relationship with the black community so he pretends to be in "the clutches of whiskey" and "weaves a little".  He thinks that people in  Maycomb are racist, so he lets them believe that he can't help the way he lives.  Mr. Raymond believes that giving people a reason for the way he lives will give him his peace.
     The real persona of Mr. Raymond is the one that he presents to the children.  The real persona and reason Mr. Raymond lives with the black people is because he wants to.  He likes the company of black people more than white people because the former don't judge him and are kind to him.  Mr. Raymond disapproves of "the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people, too".   Mr. Raymond hides his real persona and feelings because he wants to give the people of Maycomb what they want.
     Mr. Raymond has two personas, one that he uses in public and another which he shows the children. He is a conflicted character, being a white man and living with black people.  He makes up a drunk character to help the narrow-minded citizens of Maycomb understand why he lives in a black community.  He does this so that he can live his life in peace, without people reprimanding him.  Mr. Raymond really doesn't care what the townspeople think, he just wants to spend time with the people he likes.

The Odyssey Diagram

How to Grow a Blog Questions

What do I want to accomplish?
  I want my opinion to be heard.
What do I want to see in June?
  A large collection of both academic and free-style writing pieces that I am proud of.
What will make my blog flourish?
  Effort and hard work.
How do I sustain my blog?
  By continuing to work hard at blog entries.
What are some ideas or resources that I can tap into to find sustenance as a thinker and writer?
  Other blogs, newspapers, books, etc.
What will make it grow?
  Writing a lot of blog entries.
What kinds of activities will I engage in to ensure that my blog thrives as a place for thinking, writing and interacting?
  I will put time into researching topics that I choose to write about.
What kinds of activities will support my blog and lead towards achieving my goals?
  Thinking of new ideas to write about, reading stories that I can write about and then, of course, writing down my ideas.