Thanksgiving

            I am thankful for Jack Rueve. I have had four classes with Jack since freshman year and even when school gets really stressful, he always has a positive attitude. He always has a joke in him which can often times make the class that much less stressful. There is nothing better than a laugh when you are having a bad day. When a concept can be tricky or hard for me to understand he never has any trouble explaining it to me or taking the time to try to figure it out together. I am really thankful that Jack is one of my friends and that I have gotten to know him over these years. 

            I am also thankful for myself. High school is not easy and sometimes you have to be able to give yourself a break! I am thankful that I can be able to take a step back and just relax when I need to. Happy Thanksgiving!

Then He Is Dead?

The question is, is what Macbeth does for the price of power worth it? If I were put in Macbeth’s place, would I make the same decisions and/or choices? The answer is no. If I have to sacrifice my relationships, my sense of self, and my morality what would be the point? If I can’t even look myself in the face at the end of the day, there is no power big enough for me to justify doing ‘Macbethish’ acts. Living with the guilt of deceiving others or committing any other crime would be far too painful to enjoy any of the benefits that committing them may give me. While it is understandable why some people make the decisions that they do, I could never live with myself if I committed any act that Macbeth did. Macbeth never even got to take away the benefits from his acts and crimes because they caught up to him so quickly and he ended up dead. He lost his friends, his family, and his sanity. I do not believe that the ends justify the means what so ever. If you gain power but lose everything else that you care about, it can never truly be worth it. 

"And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty"

In the quote “And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty”, Lady Macbeth is saying that she wants to be filled with evil. In the context surrounding this quote, she relays the idea that she wants to be as evil as man and to feel no remorse. She is ready to take on all of the evils in the world in order for her husband to achieve success and become King.  She has not a doubt in her mind that she is willing to trade all of her womanly attributes to the evil ones of a man. I find this extremely interesting because during this time period, women were portrayed as delicate, kind, and weak. These adjectives in no way embody the characteristics of Lady Macbeth. Her character does not follow the average portrayal of women during this time period. In her mind, there are not visions of flowers and puppies but rather visions of murderous acts and cruelty. She desires to be a figure of evil, which is quite unusual for this time period. Lady Macbeth is a character that I find very intriguing and I am looking forward to seeing how she develops as the plot continues.

No New Tale To Tell

So far I am really enjoying The Canterbury Tales. I like how the reader receives background information on each character before they all come together. It is always really interesting to read about how people of all different backgrounds come together, both in stories and in real life. Each character is so unique and unlike that rest that it makes me eager to find out and see how they will all interact with each other. I believe that this is a theme that has been reiterated through the years- that you should be accepting of all people even if they are different. It is a theme that should never be forgotten. Even in today’s era not everybody realizes how important that is- but they should. The Wife of Bath was also very interesting to me and I enjoyed reading it. Not only was it easy to interpret, but also as I was reading it, I did not get bored. (This quality is extremely important to have in a story.) And although the writing itself is great, I do have to say that I truly appreciate the pictures. I believe that illustrations and portrayals of these characters really help me visualize that story as I read it. For me, being able to visualize a story makes it all the more enjoyable to read. In this story a man is forced to marry a woman who he finds hideous but turns out to be a beautiful woman on the inside. I think that this represents the age-old tale of not judging a book by its cover. You see it in Beauty and the Beast and even today on a singing show called The Voice where the judges do not see the singers while they are performing as to not judge them by their appearance. I believe that this is an extremely important message that will in fact always be pertinent. The mythical aspect of The Canterbury Tales also intrigues me because who doesn’t love a good fairy tale? Am I right?

Truth

            I believe that truth plays a large role in the book Grendel. Your perspective of almost everything can be changed when the truth is either revealed or hidden- especially when the information comes from someone who you have a lot of respect for. Hrothgar’s people all trust the Shaper. The Shaper provides these people with information and stories. Before the Shaper they never had a sole source of steady information. The Shaper was both very good and very bad for the kingdom. The Shaper was good because it united people in their thoughts and brought them all together in unity. The Shaper was bad because he was not truthful in all of his tales. In the matter of one song the Shaper could turn everyone against each other and possibly destroy a kingdom. In the case instead of a kingdom- he destroyed Grendel. He sang of a story portraying Grendel as the ultimate evil. It is because of this story that the humans went after Grendel and made Grendel go after the humans. IF it were not for the Shaper, Hrothgar’s people and Grendel could have lived together peacefully without constant war upon Hrothgar’s kingdom. The power of the truth can never be underestimated as it can change someone’s life forever.