Ride or Die

Earlier this week Mrs. Fraser was observed by one of her teachers from the College of Saint Elizabeth. When she first told us she was coming to observe we all immediatley whether it was silently or verbally said " Don't worry, we got you." We all had this ride or die mentality. What this means is that no matter how we were feeling that day, we would come through for Mrs. Fraser. It shows how much we've come to respect her, in only 3 weeks of teaching us. We all have become attached to her like a big sister but, respect her as an authority figure. Than it made me think just how attached we are to one another. If one of us needed something or felt in danger we  would be there for her with no question because it's ride or die.  Ride or die isn't always literally, most of the time it is emotionally. It is being there at all cost, even when you don't feel like it. This is what inspired me this week. 

Power Struggle 101

As I sit on my bed and ponder on what I can possibly blog about that would make sense....the thought of this epic power struggle between God and Man came upon me in a revolutionary way. I searched through my notes and fell upon a circled "Power Struggle 101" next to my notes.  Next to that in my notes I wrote,
"The Creation and the Fall was beginning of the epic God vs. Man, where humans try to be God."

Mr. Hogan in our sophomore Scriptures class gave us this idea of Adam and Eve  wanted to be gods and that is why they allowed the serpent to deceive them, they could have called God and told on the serpent. I only say "they" because there could have been multiple ways both Adam and Eve handled the situation. At the time we were reading it from a more religious view so it made a little  hard for me to really comprehend that people wanted to be God.

When Mrs. Whitley told us that we will be reading the bible from a literary perspective I was a little hesitant about the idea of because I read this story so many times. I just couldn't figure out what I could possibly learn that was new. As I read I stumbled on these lines, it made me change my opinion.
And the Serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

⁵ For God doeth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened: and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.

 

This is the exact proof that shed some light on the idea of  Man wanting to be Gods. If we look back at The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh's whole goal was to become immortal which would ultimately make him a god. Now this may not be a great example but it begins further thinking and questioning. Another example is the divine right of kings, and how it became a long standing symbol of this ultimately heavenly pedestal kings people put these kings on. Think about some more examples and comment down below! Where else do you see this "power struggle 101" happening?
 

 

 

Women these days.

While listening and observing our class's summer reading presentations, I have noticed that most of them revolve around women before they were given rights. They were known as nothing more than sex objects, baby making machines, and a house wife. In class we made a connection about "The Scarlet Letter" with the color red. Ms. Whitley explained to us how the color "red" was (or still is) represented as passion, lust, ect. So for all the women in the book "Handsmaid Tale" you're able to do a lot of comparing with the main character from "The Scarlet Letter" and start to actually understand "WHAT" the women's purpose really is for wearing the color red. Also, in "Memoirs of a Geisha" men were VERY Superstitious about females  being in their boats because they thought it would be bad luck. One of the fishermen went as far as beating his daughter for playing in his boat and took it to some priest to get it cleansed. We have come along way... Well that's what most say. If you actually look outside of the lies and look beyond the truth you will be able to see that "WE" as women are STILL fighting for our rights. The sad thing is... It's in our face everyday and all the time we just don't notice it anymore.

 Women these days...

Leave Your Biased Opinion at the Door

I don't know about most of you, but I feel that the hardest thing about correlating a story to the bible is the fact that I'm openly biased about what I believe to be the "truth". Mrs. Whitley is trying to get us to separate the misconceptions from the fact in the Creation story. So one day, I'm in class taking notes and we're talking about how the apple isn't really an apple and that it's probably a pomergranete and I'm like cool cool interesting. And then she goes on to say how Eve is often wrongly portrayed as a seductress and I'm like yeah yeahh that's true. BUT THENNNNNN she says no where in the bible does it say that the serpant is the devil and Lorena and I are like whattttttttt????????? Surely it says the serpant is the devil. I mean all my life I've been taught serpent+deception=devil. That's simple to understand right? It makes perfectly good sense right and NOBODY likes snakes so it makes even more perfectly good sense ;).But then I realized that in the western world snakes are usually seen as a negative thing but what about in other cultures?? Then she pointed out how the serpant or a dragon is a good sign in some Asian cultures. Which brings me back to my title "Leave Your Biased

Opinion at the Door". When we read literature we often bring to it our ideals, beliefs, and the social norms of the time. But contrary to what we believe not all works of literature were written for us to teach only our time period and era. Maybe the writer or reader at the time shared beliefs that we now can't relate to. So that's why it's so important to understand the history surrounding a piece of writing because in doing so we can better understand the writing itself. Use history to escape the societal beliefs of this day and age and explore new ones openly but more importantly leave your biased opinion at the door.

Why Gilgamesh Had to Die

Now that I've got your attention with my title ;) ... I want to further elaborate on exactly what I mean. I know we've moved on from The Epic of Gilgamesh, but I thought the events leading up to the death of Gilgamesh were very important in understanding why his death was almost foreshadowed and practically inevitable. An important part in understanding the death of our Epic Hero is understanding the role the gods play. The gods in this story often have a hand in human affairs and use their power so that most future events work in their personal favor, RIGHT ???? In that case, the reader could have predicted Gilgamesh's death even before he EPICALLY failed at achieving immortality. Recall in the beginning of the story when Mrs. Whitley was giving background information she described the relationship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Enkidu was created by the gods to balance Gilgamesh so there futures were interdependent on one another, so by Enkidu dying in the battle of Humbaba, Gilgamesh had to die. How could he live while his "other half" had died? Therefore, Enkidu's death was a foreshadowing of Gilgamesh's epic downfall and demise. (DROPS MIC)

The History Within Literature

   

 I thought back to last year when we read The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible.  We had already learned about the puritan's strict Christian beliefs so we understood the book better and had a deeper analysis on the book. I had never thought about it but without my knowledge from the history I would not have understood the actions of the characters. Knowing the background of a text is essential to having a deeper understanding of the story. 

  I never really realized how important it is to understand the history in Literature.  When we received our first assignment I wondered, "Why are we reading a history lesson instead of reading the story?" I didn't understand and was a bit worried that I would be taking two history classes this year. However,without reading about Mesopotamia I would not be able to fully understand The Epic of Gilgamesh. I realized how important it is to understand the history and the origin of the text before reading it.  Without taking the time to read the history we would not have known of the Mesopotamian's belief of their gods or the importance in their value of perfection and beauty. With this foundation of the history we can have a deeper understanding of the story.  Now knowing how much the history of the Mesopotamians helped me with The Epic of Gilgamesh, it makes me wonder about other novels as well. Thinking about the history of literature has changed the way I analyse and view a story. 

     

     

Assumption Equals Evil

Are you evil?

We discussed in class how the physicality of a person often determines whether or not a character is evil. Many times if the character does not live up to what the culture considers normal, he or she is evil. I believe this happens outside of the stories as well. For example, if we see someone wearing all black, we immediately assume that they are Gothic, dark, evil and worship the devil. Well, did you ever stop and think maybe they just love black for some reason? It does not matter the reason why, but its the assumption.

When I was younger, I remember watching an adventure movie by the name of The Goonies. There was a specific character who was deformed and  in captivity with evil people. However, he was not really evil. And when the kids saw him, they feared him because of his facial features. It was not normal to see someone with deformed features. His deformity determined he was evil. The children eventually made friends with him, and he help them overcome the very people that had him in bondage.

Can you be considered evil from assuming? There is a cliche that states, “Never judge a book by its cover.” And I believe it is a human flaw to judge. We do it sometimes and do not even notice it! Just by the way a person walks through a door, we automatically have a thought of the person having attitude problems. But that is the same thing as looking at someone and assuming they are evil! So lets think of the last time we looked at someone and had a negative thought! Remember we are just as evil if we assume. Test the waters before you miss the best swim of your life!

Judging The Unknown

In this wild and crazy epic of Gilgamesh, we see that Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill Humbaba. They kill the beast just because of how he looked. I compare that to how society is today. Sadly, we still judge a book by its cover. Yes, it is wrong,but people react to the first thing they see. If something is odd or unfamiliar people assume and start to judge. I also made a connection to Boo Radley from, "To Kill A Mockingbird". People in the town were so afraid of him because of how he looked and how people assumed he was. Later in the book we find out that he is not a monster after all. He was just afraid of society who made fun of him. Who woudldn't be?! People just judge without knowing. Scientific research states that juding a person by apperance goes way back. In prehistoric times people did not have time to stop and communicate with one another to see if he or she was threat, so they just judged by looks. That was totally wrong!! We can't change society can we?

Gilgamesh's Story: More Than Just Destiny

During our English class, I found that Lorena made a very interesting point about Utnapishtim and Gilgmesh. She said that eternal life was granted to Utnapishtim, and Utnapishtim did not have to seek it, unlike Gilgamesh. I feel as though Lorena was almost implying that Utnapishtim was destined to be immortal, because although Utnapishtim did not seek immortality as hard as Gilgmamesh, Utnapishtim was ultimately granted immortality. Lorena said that Gilgamesh should not have had seek immortality because if it was meant for him to be immortal, like Utnapishtim, he would have been. As I was listening to Lorena speak in class, I did agree with her, however, after thinking long and hard about it I found myself disagreeing with her opinion.

Gilgamesh's idea of having to seek what he wanted in life is what, I think, can connect Gilgmesh to most people, including me. Gilgmesh did not want to wait for "destiny". Gilgamesh knew that in order to be immortal, there were things that had to be done, he did not wait on destiny to tell him his fate. However, I do believe that Utnapishtim also worked hard for immortality, I just do not agree with the idea that Gilgamesh should have waited for immortality to find him instead of going to look for it himself. I find it very often that people say "What is meant to happen will happen", and as I grew up, I could not disagree with that saying more. I realized that nothing just happens without hard work, not even what is destined.

Everything you seek or want in life comes with a price or sacrifice. Gilgamesh sacrificed his best friend, his time, and even almost sacrificed his life and he still was not granted eternal life. It just goes to show that destiny is nothing without effort. Gilgamesh worked really hard and still did not gain immortality. Having said that, if Gilgamesh had not seek or work hard for immortality but still gain it anyway, would you have had felt as though he deserved it? I know I'm not the only one who has ever said or thought to myself, "Wow, he/she did not even deserve that!" when I feel as though someone was rewarded something they were not worthy of or work hard for.

So why wait for destiny? If you want something in life, seek it. Nothing, in life, is guaranteed. You may not have found what you were initially looking for, but you can learn way more valuable lessons along the way. Although Gilgamesh was not granted eternal life, his story serves as an inspiration to others and his name lives on forever which can be equivalent to eternal life. If Gilgamesh had just sat there with the mindset that "If I am meant to be immortal then I will be", what would he have accomplished in life?  

Sample: Class Blog Post

Below is a sample of a blog post I wrote for a graduate class.  It includes the types of details you should aim for: It was related to our class discussion, included Creative Commons licensed images, and hyper-linked to further reading. You don't have to do all of these things in every blog post, but you can if you like :)

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/luisbg/2072134438/lightbox/

Since reading Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller's blog post "Let My People Read," I have not been able to stop thinking about my personal frustrations with the common views of high school reading. As an English teacher, I feel constantly caught in between two opposing forces regarding student reading. On one side are those who believe teaching whole class novels and classics creates a hatred of reading in students.  These folks tend to push for student choice and student choice alone, regarding those who teach the classics as old-fashioned.  The other side is composed of those who see little to no value in the young adult and contemporary books students choose when left to their own devices. For me, balance is key.  I wholeheartedly agree with the importance of student driven book selection. How can anyone develop a love of reading if they are never given encouragement to figure out what type of books make them see all that fiction and non-fiction have to offer?  However, I don't believe we have to throw the classics out altogether.  They offer valuable windows into the pasts of myriad cultures, and we must sometimes look back in order to move forward with purpose.

 As teachers, we need to offer students support as they read the texts we have chosen.   We need to help them with the challenge, but also must prove to them that the books we select have a value rather than expecting that they will endure our choices just because we say they should.  In addition, we have to make the study of every book, poem, or article relevant to the real life experiences of the young people we teach. When we do this successfully and use student chosen independent readings as a bridge to teacher chosen texts, tools like Spark Notes become less appealing because students have been given a reason to become curious about the literature itself.  The hope is that we can help students find books to love that will enlighten and maybe even challenge them, especially when reading ability and interest for adults are steadily declining.  

The bottom line is, worthwhile reading isn't really about how old or new the piece of writing is.  It's about the impact the words have on the reader. The best works, whether they are classic or contemporary, teacher selected or student choice, enliven some kind of emotion within us and challenge us to think about ourselves and our place within the world. If we can share this with students, they will find the joy in reading.