Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet

1.  The Differences between the scenes are the scenes are alot different, First in the 1996 version there are more lights and the 1968 version looks more like it would take place in shakespeares time.  The similarities are the words.  They both said the exact same thing.

2.  I feel like the 1996 version is more effective because you can relate more to it because it takes place closer to a time we understand.

Hamlet

"QUEEN GERTRUDE

One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes.

LAERTES

Drown'd! O, where?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

LAERTES

Alas, then, she is drown'd?

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Drown'd, drown'd.

LAERTES

Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord:
I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly douts it.
Exit"

Hamlet Paraphrase

Queen:   I have some bad new, and I know this comes at a bad time so close after Polonius death. Ophelia drowned.

Lartes:  Drowned.  Where?

Queen:  There is a big willow tree that hangs over the stream.  She made some really pretty garlands that she made with lots of pretty flowers.  When she was hanging the garlands she fell into the stream. Her clothes spread out. She tried to struggle, but she couldn't swim and her clothes got soaking wet and heavy and she sunk to her muddy death.

Lartes:  And then she drowned?

Queen:  Drowned. She drowned.

Lartes:  To much water, Oh poor speech in my mind but I won't say it will also die.

Exit


Ophelia's death is the best example of tragedy because she is the only truely innocent one in the whole play.  She doesn't deceit people like Hamlet or poloneius shes just a victim of circumstance.

Blog assignment # 3

Part I
1)      Poetry is an expression, similar to a painting but using words instead of paint.

2)      A poem should have rythme, metaphor and structure.  Something that is not a poem doesn't have any of this.

Part 2

1) The song I believe is a poem is Tupac "Keep ya head up" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfXwmDGJAB8

     The song that is not a poem is Waka Flocka Flame "O let's do it"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVc8y2JCcFk

2) "Keep ya head up" is a poem because he paints a picture with his words. Tupac uses similes with lines like  "Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.  I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots".  He gives you a message that no matter how hard life might get you can make it through it.  While flocka is just very repetitive and doesn't really ahve a lot of content.

3) Review the attachment. Answer these 3 questions:
                      1) I believe some rap/hip hop is poetry, Some of it should barely be considered music.                     
                      2) metaphors, imagery, and rythm
                      3) I'm a context critic.   I believe it should have a meaning and that the words should paint the story for you.

Blog Assignment #2

"A Clean Well-Lighted Place"

1. The setting is a cafe that has an outside sitting area, its around 1 o'clock in the morning.  The cafe faces a dirt road that has trees along the road as well as street lights.  It's really late at night, and the cafe is about ready to close.

2.  The characters are nameless because he's trying to express the characters personalities based completely on their ages.

3. An old man who suffers from insomnia, depression, and being lonely goes to a cafe and orders a drink for company.

PART II
1.It takes place in a train station in Spain in the mid-1920's while the characters discuss abortion.

2. Third Person

3. whose style is characterized by crispness, laconic dialog, and emotional understatement.


PART III


Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Mills, Illinois.  He started his career writing for a newspaper until he quit to become an ambulance driver.  In 1922 he married Hadley Richardson the first of four wives. He joined the military and served in the world war I. Then He also served in World war II.  After his many divorces he went on safari to Africa where he almost died in a plane crash.  But in the end he ended up committing suicide.




Fact.


1.  Ernest Hemingway commited suicide while his character attempted it.  
2.  Ernest Hemingway suffered from insomnia like his character in A clean Well-Lighted place.
3.  Ernest Hemingway also suffered from depression.




Work Cited:


http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/1999-07/hemingway.html
http://www.leninimports.com/ernest_hemingway.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html

Blog Assignment #1

1.  In harlem in the 1950's heroin was on the rise in harlem, and the police force had been thoroughly corrupted by bribes from numbers bosses. These bosses became financial powerhouses, providing money for loans for those who did not qualify for them from banks. Remarkably, one of the powerful early numbers bosses was a woman, Madame Stephanie St. Clair.  The rise of heroin in harlem creates complications in Sonny's life because he gets mixed up in the addiction which in turn. 

http://www.newyorkcity-realestate.com/citytour/NY/Harlem.php

2.  Black men were allowed in the miltary but they were segrated from the white troops. There were many black troops.  They did have their own victories and the north may not have won the civil war without the help of black troops.  Its ironic that sonny wants to join the miltary because their father died in a drunken state durning a war.

 http://www.coloradocollege.edu/dept/hy/hy243ruiz/research/military.html

3.  I feel like Stormy Blues by Billie Holiday best represents Sonny because its about struggling but not letting it get you down.

Billie Holiday I've been down so long That down don't worry me I've been down so long That down don't worry me I just sit and wonder Where can my good man be When it rains in here It's storming on the sea When it rains in here It's storming on the sea Every time I come here Everything happens to me I lose my man I lose my head I lose my money Feel like I'm almost dead I need you honey Need you bad as can be I've been down so long That down don't worry me http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/billie_holiday/stormy_blues-lyrics-100230.html 4. Bebop emerged in the 1940s a as a style of jazz in great contrast to the music of the big bands. It featured a small group of musicians -- four to six players -- rather than the 10 or more associated with the big bands. The smaller size allowed more solo opportunities for the players. The music itself was characterized by more complex melodies and chord progressions, as well as more emphasis on the role the rhythm section. Furthermore, phrases within the music were often irregular in length, making bebop interesting to listen to, but in contrast to music of the big bands, unsuitable for dancing. The development of bebop is attributed in large part to trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. The unique styles of Gillespie and Parker contributed to and typified the bebop sound. They experimented with unconventional chromaticism, discordant sounds, and placement of accents in melodies. In contrast to the regular phrasing of big band music, Gillespie and Parker often created irregular phrases of odd length, and combined swing and straight eighth-note rhythms within the swing style. Other influential bebop musicians included saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Dexter Gordon, trumpeters Red Rodney and Kenny Dorham, trombonists J.J. Johnson and Bennie Green, guitarists Tal Farlow and Kenny Burrell, pianists Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, and Thelonius Monk, drummers Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, and bassists Charles Mingus and Paul Chambers. http://www.hypermusic.ca/jazz/bop.html This form of jazz shows the divide between the black community at that times. This opposition can be seen mainly in several conversations between the brothers.  First, when the younger narrator confronts the teenaged Sonny about his plans for the future, Sonny avers that he would like to become a musician.  Seeing this career goal as an impractical and therefore dangerous choice, the narrator says, "Well, Sonny, you know people can't always do exactly what they want to do--."  This quotation sums up the narrator's personality: he is cautious, responsible, willing to deny himself the things he might want so that he can maintain his foothold as a middle class family man.  He's also afraid for Sonny, afraid that Sonny will fail or, because he doesn't understand them, that Sonny's goals are not lofty enough.  Sonny responds with "No, I don't know that.  I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?," (Norton Introduction to Literature 59) indicating his unwillingness to subordinate his dreams and goals to someone else's standard of success.