Blog post 13

For our last week of reading the odyssey, we got to choose what to write about. I chose to write about the importance of epithets inside of the odyssey. Epithets are a type of formulaic language that help describe a character. The typical formation of these epithets are Adjective-Noun then a name, for example clear headed Telemachus. These epithets were a very important part of these greek stories, because the stories were all told orally and they wanted to sound like song. By including epithets, it adds an element of rhythm to the song/story. Another reason is that since the stories are told orally, the epithets give the individual characters titles to help the characters get stuck in the audience's head. In conclusion, the Greek story of Odysseus and other works from that era would not be complete without epithets because of how much they contributed to the story.

blog post 12

Foreshadowing of the suitors fate - The Odyssey

This week for the Odyssey we were supposed to read chapters 17 - 20. The prompt I chose to write about was that In Book 17, there is a lot of foreshadowing of what will happen to the suitors. Find three examples of this (quote them in your post), and explain what you think this means for the fate of the suitors.” It is still up to speculation as to what the fate of the suitors will be, but through reading some important quotes some of the characters strongly express their viewpoint on the suitors. Early on in the book, I read this quote from Telemachus “Peiraeus, we don't know how things will turn out. Should the suitors treacherously kill me at home and among them divide my family's wealth, I would rather you keep these gifts.” Page 258. Here he is speaking with Peiraeus and he shares that he might be a little frightened on the suitors behalf, of them viciously murdering him. After Odysseus travels to the palace disguised as a beggar, things get a little heated with one of the more aggressive suitors Antinous, and soon after Antinous attacks Odysseus, he says this to him, “May death come to Antinous before marriage does.” This quote reveals Odysseus’ anger in the heat of the moment and also suggests plans he may have for the future towards the suitors. Page 271. Towards the end of the book, as Penelope is challenging one of the suitors she yells “Go ahead and call the stranger for me! Didn’t you see my son sneeze at my words? That means death will surely come to the suitors, One and all.” This quote gives a direct accusation from Penelope that the suitors will indeed die, and that the sneeze from telemachus confirms it.     

Blog post 11

For this week I chose to write about the contrasting differences and similarities between the hospitality during Odysseus’ journey and in Telemachus’. During Telemachus’ subplot story he first travels to Pylos, with the assistance of Athena, to ask the king Nester about his missing father. Whilst he is visiting he witnesses a ritual where bulls are sacrificed to the God Poseidon. Later, Nestor unfortunately informs Telemachus that he has no information as to the location of Odysseus, and tells the story of how they split up during the battle for Troy. He talks about how the two brothers leading the expedition Menelaus, and Agamemnon one of them sailed back to Greece and the other stayed to continue fighting, Nester chose to go back, while Odysseus stayed, and that was the last he had heard from him. Nester then tells Telemachus to go to Sparta and sends his own son Pisistratus along with him.
In Sparta the king and queen quickly recognize Telemachus as the son of Odysseus due to similar resemblance, and make a feast for him. They tell stories of Odysseus during the feast but quickly send Telemachus back to Ithaca to defend his mother against the suitors. During Odysseus’ journey he is treated with incredible hospitality by the phaeacian King Alcinous, and his daughter Nausicaa. He is first found by Nausicaa in the forest with no clothes incredibly dirty, she then generously tells him to wash up in the lake and offers him some of her own clothes. Once he reaches the palace, the king Alcinous is so impressed he offers him a ship to sail back as well as his daughter's hand in marriage. After the assembly announcing that he will give the new visitor a ship, he throws a festival with a feast and games all in honor of Odysseus. In conclusion, both of Odysseus and Telemachus had a similar sort of journey, in that they were both treated very well and their arrivals were celebrated which I was personally shocked about. Especially in Odysseus’ case, I was surprised that the Phaeacians were not more suspicious of this strange man visiting them considering he did not even tell them his name. And yes Athena did help out alot with getting him in, but still.

Penelope- the Odyssey

          This week I have decided to write about the role Odysseus’ wife Penelope plays, in the the book the Odyssey. For the first 5 books she isn't introduced a whole lot, but is still extremely significant as she is some of the motivation behind Odysseus’ return. The premise of the first 5 books are about how Odysseus is being held captive by a goddess called Calypso, and Athena and some of the other gods are trying to help him return home, Poseidon, however is still enraged by Odysseus killing his favorite cyclops and thinks he should pay a price. Meanwhile, Penelope, is back home at Odysseus’ estate where the suitors are trying to persuade Penelope that Odysseus is dead and that she should remarry one of them. Penelope doesn't want to believe them and she still has some fate that her beloved husband is alive somewhere (which he is). One of the suitors, is always aggressively encouraging her to select a new husband and she claims that she will do so once she completes her weaving project for her father in law, however every night she is undoing her work she has done during the day, therefore making no progress. So far it has been a struggle for her with Odysseus missing, but that has pretty much been her contribution to the plot for the first 5 books.
Thank you for reading my blog this week, and what do you think the outcome of Penelope's situation will be as we continue reading?

Blog post and respond to disscusion leader

For my blog this week I chose to write about the period of the book in which Douglass starts learning how to write. This part really fascinated me and really illustrated how tricky Douglass really is. I am referring specifically to the part of the book in which Douglass starts challenging little white boys to writing competitions, and as he is always losing he is being taught every time because the boys are showing him the correct way to write and spell. In the book, he also says that he mainly targets the young boys who have not yet learned that slaves and Negroes are not really considered humans. This part of the book was absolutely remarkable to me, and it had me asking again and again how Douglass developed this cleverness and level of persuasion. I also truly believe that Douglass was indeed a special slave with a gift because I don't really see another slave that would do anything that he has done with the level of determination Frederick has shown throughout the book.

how is education related to human freedom?

Blog Post #8

In the context of Frederick Douglass and slavery, Freedom and education had a lot to do with each other during that time. The way they are related, is that once you start learning things, the more you start to become aware of certain situations, and discovering problems and contradictions in things which could lead to being more free. There are plenty of examples throughout the book, such as halfway when Frederick is learning how to read he starts to realize the bigger picture of slavery and that sort of sparks his energy for rebelling against some of his masters and trying to run away. I would definitely argue that the claim “education relates to freedom” is definitely one of the many themes included in this book. I think that without the education Douglass was granted during his life he would most likely be a slave his whole life and never do any of the amazing things he has done including the completion of his book.   

how did being a slave owner affect a person?

How did being a slaveowner affect a person?

    The topic of slavery may seem controversial to some now, but back during those times this was the norm, and when people talk about how they would never do such a horrible thing to another human, it’s interesting considering how much the context and environment of that time period contrasts with our current time. Obviously now the idea of slavery is completely unacceptable, it says so in the constitution how all men are created equal. Back then however, what they really meant was all white men are created equal, and blacks, were not considered men at all, rather property. Once a human is appointed the role of slave owner I think that they start to get a little hot headed, and may even go mad with power. An example of this in the book would be Douglass’s first mistress when he was moved to baltimore, she had started sweet and kind, but eventually the job corrupted her and she became more cruel and more nasty as it was earlier mentioned in the book how this particular job may corrupt one's heart. It's similar to the idea that once someone becomes popular, they let fame get to their head and they have a new perspective on the people below them. I think the reason for this would be that sometimes it's necessary to try and push others down to feel better about yourself, a way you could think about this would be a teeter totter, when one side goes up another goes down, and I think this is what's happening in this case, the slave owner finds satisfaction by a slaves misfortune.  

What was the reason for the harsh punishment of slaves for minor offenses? Blog post assignment

What was the reason for the harsh punishment of slaves for minor offenses

By Francesco Argentina

In the narrative of Frederick Douglass, it is mostly about life during slavery and what hardships and experiences they went through during this time. In the book, Frederick accurately describes everyday life of the average slave and how they were treated. One important question about slavery is why they were arguably unnecessarily, treated so harshly for minor offences? Given this example from the book, the answer is quite simple.

Mr. Gore once undertook to whip one of the slaves by the name of Dumby, he gave him a few stripes, when, to get rid of the scourging he ran and plunged himself into a lake. Mr. Gore said that he would count to three and once he finished he would have to get out of the lake or he would be shot. Mr. Gore then shouted the number one, with no sign of acknowledgement from Dumby. Two and three were the same, and Gore proceeded to shoot Dumby leaving the bloody mess to be devoured by the lake.  Mr. Gore’s response to the Colonel who had asked about why Dumby was shot, was that Dumby was becoming unmanageable. He was setting a bad example for the other slaves, He argued that if one slave refused to be corrected and got away with his life, the others would soon copy.

So to put it into other terms, the reason slave masters were so harsh was that they were afraid of rebellion, and they believed it was the only way to keep the slaves in line.    

Reflection on the MFA

Recently I visited the Museum of fine arts, The experience was very refreshing. I mainly directed my attention towards the Victorian era artworks, as that is the time period I am studying for ELA class. One of the pieces I saw in this specific exhibit, accurately reflected one of the characteristics of the Victorian era poetry, which was isolation or despair. This piece of art presented a hill with a lonely farmer and a few sheep. I appreciated this painting because the mood of it, corresponds a lot with some of the poems in my reader. The picture to me, represented the characteristic of isolation because of how still the picture was and how sad the figures in the painting seem.

     

Victorian era characteristics

Victorian era poetry is very interesting to me because of the characteristics they introduced into their style of poetry. One big characteristic about Victorian era poetry was the use of religion and the importance of the spiritual world in their writing, some what influenced by the romantic period. Not exactly believing in one almighty being, but religion simulating a personal relationship expressed through poetry. Another characteristic about this period, was that their intention was not so much on imagery, but rather they focused on using rhythm and rhyme as an element inside their work.
The idea of despair was also a common theme in the Victorian writing. Often these poets would use isolation, hopelessness, and depression as points of interest when trying to write, which is quite interesting, and I'm not sure why this was so common.

titles in poetry

I chose to write about the title in poetry and how it relates to the author's work. In the poem “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks the title is very significant in the way it creates emphasis. This poem is very thought provoking in terms of what it could be about as it is very short and nothing is repeated. We real cool is the first line of the poem, but the poem could be about something completely different if the title didn't emphasize the We Real Cool part.  I really enjoyed reading this poem and the title of it helped me absorb the meaning and theme. Over all, poetry is an interesting thing and the title can really help the reader out when he is trying to find the idea of it. In some cases I would say that the title can be just as important as the text itself .

The use of enjambment inside poetry

In the poem "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks, she uses an element called enjambment. This word enjambment represents when a phrase carries over a line-break without a major pause. In this specific poem, the use of enjambment was very appropriate because of how well it matched with the fast paced story line within the poem. I really appreciated reading it because of how well each line transferred to the next so smoothly. The use of enjambment impacted the poem greatly because of how vibrant and energetic it sounded every time I read it. I think the author made an excellent choice with the inclusion of enjambment in her writing. I also am looking forward to experimenting with this feature in some of my future writings as well.   

Poetry vs prose

For my blog I decided to write about the prompt "poetry vs prose". Poetry is one of the most popular methods for writing creatively, and also one of my favorites. Poetry follows its own formation and has its own rhythm. While prose is more of a story, in paragraph form with not much metric structure. 

Poetry also has a lot more symbolism, metaphors, and hyperbole involved within it. This is because poetry is created to make the readers think about it and discuss it, and symbols help with getting the message across. Over all, these two styles are both unique in there own way, and I am exited to explore them both, this year.

Wayan Aparai tribe

Today my IHSS class visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I had never been before and I was extremely excited to learn about some cultural anthropology. Over all, it was an incredible experience, we mostly learned about the Amazon river. I learned that it is over 40,000 miles long and is the biggest river in terms of volume. There are also 700,000 tribes living there currently, such as the Yoakuka, the Kuwama, the Duawear, the Shuar, and the Wayan Aparai. An interesting fact about the Shuar tribe is that they make animal masks used during ritual ceremony. These masks had specific ranks including bears, rodents, spiders, and the highest rank which was the peacock, which is the most sacred creature to them.  Next, we learned a lot about the Yoakuka tribe, in the picture you will see this peculiar type of headdress. In fact this is a ritual item made entirely of multiple birds feathers, though they would not kill the birds, just pluck the feathers. What they believed about this headdress, was that once it was used during ritual, it could never be worn again and was discarded. This is because they believed that once it was used, all of the spiritual powers would vanish, therefore making it no longer significant. This tribe are also very skilled fishers, it was their primary way to get food, and also the only type of meat they would eat. Other than fish they did not kill any animals. The last tribe and my personal favorite is the Wayan Aparai. The most intriguing custom about them, was their ritual when one must enter adulthood. When a teenager becomes the age of when he must become an adult, a very interesting ceremony takes place. The Aparai chief would go collect bullet ants, and wasps, by using a smoke that makes them drowse, next the tribe would weave the sleepy insects into baskets. Finally, once the bugs are awake and mad they would release them upon all of the children stinging them causing intense pain. If a specific child where to flinch or even make a sound, they would not be considered an adult and would have to do the process the next time that ritual happened. If the child does in fact succeed and not move during the ceremony they would then be promoted to the men's hut. This ritual may seem cruel and unjust, but to these tribes, they have been involved with these types of rituals for a very long time. Actually this specific tribe have been training the young children for this very early on. They would do the same thing, but on a much smaller scale. For example, they would perhaps tap the kids with the bullet ants to build up an immune system, rather than releasing the insects upon their entire naked body. In conclusion, I had a fascinating time at the HMNS and seeing all of the cool exhibits, and am very excited to return which I’m confident that I will.