One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1

It was very difficult trying to find something to write for my first post. Part one of Cuckoo's Nest is mainly about introducing the readers to the main characters. In addition, it is to inform us about the psychiatric ward and the horrendous things that takes place there. While reading, the readers notice that the narrator is one of the patients in the mental institution. The narrator goes by the name of Chief. He is considered the most "sane" of the all the patients in the mental institution. However, is he really the most "sane"? He pretends that he is deaf so he can spy and analyze other people conversations. With that being said, it goes with a question that came across my mind while reading this novel. The question is how the author, Kesey, made me question my accepted definitions of "sane", "insane", "sick", and "healthy"? Up until this point these words had a concrete meaning to me; yet, now I am questioning their meaning. Like are you "insane" or "sick" because you are not following the status quo? Just because you are different from others in certain ways does not mean that your "insane"? For example, many of the the patients in the psych ward were put in their because they were to believe to be a homosexual. Back in the day if you were a homosexual than they believe that you were "insane" because that was not part of the status quo. They believed that if you had a chemical imbalance if you were a homosexual and sent you to psych wards. Homosexuality was not accepted in society as it is now today. Basically if you did not conform to societies norms than you were sent to some mental institution so that they can "repair" and "cure" you. To be release from the institution you must be "cured". That means you must conform to society norms. By doing that you are not using your own brain like before. Kesey writing of Cuckoo's Nest was effective. It really has me thinking about what does those four words really mean.

Hamlet Act 2

In this post I decided to do an analysis on one of the main characters. The main character that I chose to do my analysis on is Claudius. Claudius is Hamlet's uncle/dad. When Big Hamlet died, Gertrud married Claudius and he became king. Claudius is Hamlet's main antagonist. Claudius is also Hamlet's character foil. Claudius is keen and cunning king, which is the opposite of Hamlet.

The reason why I chose to do my character analysis on Claudius is because he really interest me. He interest me because of some of the actions that he did. He married his dead brother's wife within days of his death. It is believed that Claudius killed his brother, Big Hamlet. After reading the play, I realize he married Claudius due to love. He may have love her however that is not why he married her. He married Claudius so he can become king. He manipulated people and turn them against one another. He even turn Gertrud against her son Hamlet. He did all this because of his love for power! He wanted to acquire power so badly he did whatever it took. Even if it meant killing his brother, marrying his sister-in- law and attempting to kill his nephew. As you can see, Claudius was crazy in love, or was he just crazy?

Hamlet Act 1

I feel as though nothing significant happened in the first time two scenes. The first two scenes were to set the ground for the rest of the play. It introduced the background so that the readers were informed about what happened and how it happened. I really enjoyed how Shakespeare presented Old Hamlet's Ghost. It was necessary for Old Hamlet ghost to appear in the first scene of the play because that is what the entirety of the play was based on. If he were introduced any later in the play then the play would be lengthier. I noticed that in many of Shakespeare play's he portrays ghost as characters. These ghost are fundamental to the storyline of the plays. If Shakespeare did not include Old Hamlet's ghost I think the story would have taken a totally different toll. Also, the setting of the play seems very somber and suspenseful. " Thou are a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. Most like. It harrows me with the fear and wonder." Line 42-44 Scene 1. When I first read this excerpt I really wanted to know what was going to happen next. The conversation got extremely interesting and encouraged me to keep reading the first scene. Upon reading scenes 1 and 2, I notice that there were no stage directions. Shakespeare did that because he wanted to give the stage directors some creative input. Not including stage directions was essential because many people have different ways to see things and view things. With that being said, many stage directors still present the play Hamlet in many of the same ways. The only thing they really change is the little thing, but they chose not to change anything major because it would make certain ideas ineffective. For example, they cannot change the way someone dies; however, they can chose a certain way that a character enters the stage or chose a different position in which they may die in. All in all, the first two scenes had nothing significant happen in them. It was just the setting stone for the rest of the play.

Response to Lantern Theatre Performance

I attended the production of Hamlet in Philadelphia with Geoff Sobelle and it was nothing like I expected. To begin with, I have never seen a stage like the one that they performed on. The stage setting was intimate it felt like I was a part of the play. I remembered at the end of the play when they had the sword fight it was fantastic. The choreography of the two was great. It felt so real. They were just swinging the swords back in forth about a foot away from me. Geoff Sobelle did a great job at portraying Hamlet. At the beginning of Act 1 he gave the audience a great idea of what kind of character Hamlet was. Another thing that I enjoyed is how the characters interacted with the audience. During the first half of the play when hamlet was delivering one of his monologue he begin to like poke my teacher. It showed the audience the intensity of the emotion he was trying to portray. Last but not least, I enjoyed how the stage director included Geoff Sobelle prior experience with acrobatics. That really surprised me when they tied that into the play. All in all, I really enjoyed seeing this play. I am really looking forward to seeing another play at the Lantern. Also, I am looking forward to seeing another play with Geoff Sobelle in it.

Coleridge and Shelley

The purpose of most literature written during the Romantic period is to enact social or political change. Kubla Khan was written to enact social change. Coleridge wrote this poem to caution readers against the indulgence of the imagination. This poem was written after the author's trip on opium. He clearly was not in the right state of mind. There are an array of thoughts in the poem. For example, "with walls and towers were girdled round", " by woman wailing for her demon lover", and " a sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice". These are just a few lines from the poem. As you can see, he goes from one topic to another. In addition, his imagery is extremely vivid which may be a problem. You should not be imaging things like this when you wake up from a nap. The author mind was in total chaos and was not focused on one thing. This is relevant to readers today because it is informing us about the dangers of indulgencing in the imagination. It is great to have imagination but you have to know where to draw the line between imagination and reality. The author overindulged in imagination so much that it took him out of reality.

2. There are three voices being heard. The three voices being heard in the poem are the narrator, the traveler, and the king, Ozymandias. The three voices give the listeners three different perspectives on a situation. The narrator voice is just telling us a story that the traveler told him. He never actually experienced the broken statue in the desert. The traveler voice in is just to pass the story on to the narrator. The king voice informs listeners about his character. For example, Line 10-11 " My name is Ozymandias, king of kings, Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!". This shows listeners how arrogant and obnoxious he was. At the end of the poem it talks about how the statue fell. The statue crumbling is symbolism for the downfall of the empire. The empire downfall was due to the King being hubris. Now he is left with nothing. I learned from this poem that you should not let your pride get the best of you. If you do, in the end that is all you is going to have.

The Chimney Sweeper

I agree with the authors when they said that Blake’s poetry had the power to enact social change through a reader’s imagination. As you can see, Blake was an extremely talented guy. He saw there was a problem in society. He did the best he could by addressing the problem. The problem in during his time in society was that they had little fragile innocent children sweeping chimneys. This job was extremely dangerous for the children because it put their lives in danger. All the smog and fumes were extremely toxic. Every time a child would go do work he would be losing less and less minutes of his life. Not only were the children in danger because he was working in toxic fumes, but also because he was paid little money. In addition, the children were worked to capacity. Blake’s poetry appealed to my imagination because I just imagined myself in that situation. This is a horrendous life experience that I would not wish on anyone let alone a child. After reading this, I begin to feel overly empathetic for the children that had to do this work. In addition, I am using my imagination to think of solutions to fix this problem. Eventually, I want my imagination of solutions to the problems to become reality. All in all, due to Romantic poets such as Blake, the world is now a better place. They bought about social change by appealing to the imagination of the readers. Because of Blake there are now Child Labor Laws enforced.

The reason the editors have included that Parliament transcript as a primary source document to emphasize how significant an issue chimney sweeping was. As a result, the government passed the Factory Act of 1883. This law was essential because it limited working hours for specific age groups. This is the first example of child labor laws. After reading Parliament transcripts, I have a more in depth understanding of what Blake was trying to portray in his writing. These transcripts show the harsh conditions and punishments that children had to undergo.

Jonathon Teacher Prep Work

While reading the excerpt from Swift's Gulliver' Travels, Part 1: A Voyage to Lilliput, I've come up with several questions. The first question that came to mind after reading this is what are some philosophical ideas behind the excerpt from Swift's Gulliver' Travels? The reason why I chose this question is because all stories have significant philosophical ideas behind them. The main philosophical idea behind the expert from Swift's Gulliver' Travels is how people as a whole can conquer something big. The small people in the story represent your everyday people, and the Gulliver is a symbol for the government. This story shows how when people are united anything is possible. The next question that came to mind after reading this story is what does the character Gulliver represent? Gulliver represent something large in society such as the government or even an political issue. I chose this question because while reading the story I was continuously asking myself what does this character symbolize. The reason Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels is to satirize a political issue in society during the time he first wrote the story. The story is one that everyone can relate because their is always something going on in the world. For example, global warming is becoming a major problem for the world. If mankind unite together we can capture this problem and control it just like the little people did to Gulliver.

I really enjoy working in small groups. When I work in small groups, it give me different prospectives on the reading. Many times when I read something I have my blinders on, so working with a group helps me see the whole picture. Also, another thing I enjoyed while working in small groups is that everybody in my group came prepared and ready to work. Something I would change about working in groups would be focusing on my work more often. There were many sidebars within the group. All in all, I really enjoy working in groups and hope we do it more often.