I really enjoyed this class and it has taught me a lot. I loved learning all the different stories and the reasons or feelings behind why they wrote them. Before I read these I was always a little lost one some references books or movies made. Now that O have read them they all make sense, it's really a great feeling to know that you have back ground info on what they are talking about and knowing the emotion they are trying to make you feel. I also now know just how elebrate these stories are and how you really have to read between the lines to understand what the author is trying to tell you.
          I loved the stories with the Greek and Roman Gods . I have always loved the stories of the Gods but it was nice to see them be invovled with the humans of that time. I have also always been a fan of Shakespeare so I loved Hamlet!

Ok back to the Color Purple. There is a man who has come and wants to marry Nettie ( Celie's sister) but their father won't give up Nettie because he wants to do what he did to Celie now. So he gives Celie up to the man saying that she is ruined (because she has had two kids) but she knows how to cook and clean so she will be a good wife. The man unwilling takes up their fathers offer and marries her and takes her home. She really does not want to be with this man and to top it off when she gets to the mans home one of his 5 kids throws a rock and hits her in the head!This book has been changed into a movie and I thought some of you would like to see how and who made it so heres a link!

Women of Ancient Literature

                                 Women of Ancient Literature

Ok so the question I have to answer for you guys is... Do you think women are portrayed in a positive way in these ancient stories? Well I sat and thought about it for an awhile and decided that I can't make a decision based on the little chunks of these great stories that we have read. So I went and did some research. I am going to base my opinion on the roles of the three main women in these three stories. They are Helen of Troy, Elissar (Dido) of Carthage, and Andromache the wife of Hektor.

Helen of Troy

    Ok I am going to start with the story of Helen of Troy. Now in the small story we read which is the story of the Trojan War is Helen is married to King Menelaus and she is deeply in love with him, but is confused by the gods and falls in love with Paris from Troy. The Goddess Aphrodite as a bribe supposedly gives her to Paris. So she runs away with Paris to Troy, which makes Menelaus very mad and thus starts the Trojan War. So from this point of view she seems like a relatively horrible person, I mean she starts a war that’s pretty bad! But actually she is a really strong person. She is the daughter of Zeus, her mother was taken advantage of by Zeus when he was in the form of a swan, her mother also that night slept with her husband (the king). So her sister was born "normally" but Helen was born from an egg. All she was wanted for was her beauty. No one really loved her when she was old enough to marry! I think this shows how strong women can be and how sallow men can often times be.

Andromache the wife of Hektor

    Now Dido of Carthage is a very strong woman. She used to be the ruler of Tyre with her husband after her father had passed away. But her brother killed her husband for the power and lied to Dido saying that his death was an accident. But the ghost of Sychaeus told her what her brother had done and that she needed to leave the country. He also told her where the Tyre treasure was hidden, so she and her men tricked her brother into thinking so was going to talk to other kings about trading and she left with the treasure. She then ran into Carthage and some how gained power.  So this woman is obviously very wise and strong to take on what she had to do in order to survive.

Now I didn't do any research on Andromache because I didn't feel that I needed to she obviously means the world to Hektor by the speech Hektor gives before he goes of into the Trojan War. She isn't a piece of property Hektor owns he is honestly the love of his life and would do anything for her.

Elissar (Dido) of Carthage

    I think all these women play great roles in all these stories. Yes they have their bad stop in plays and show that they can do wrong but so do the men in these stories. These women are one of the key compontets to these amazing pieces of literature! They may not be the lead roles or make the action in the plays but they are the drive behind what men do what they do no matter if it’s good or bad.

I am reading the Color Purple by Alice Walker for this semester. I love the movie! I have always wanted to read the book but haven't gotten around to it tell now. So I am at the very beginning of the story and it is so hard to read but not because it is boring but because of what is happening! There is this young girl name Celie. She is a 14 year old African American girl she is the oldest of her 5 siblings. They are a very poor and uneducated family. Her mother has become ill after giving birth to her last child and no longer wants to sleep with the father. So when the mother is away at family house Celie is rapped by her father non-stop telling her that she is going to do what her mama wouldn't . She is now pregnant with her second child from her father. The first one (a girl) was taken and the father told her that he killed the baby in the woods. I am now reading about her giving birth to her 2nd child ( a girl) and the father taking this baby to. Walker writes this so well you could almost feel everything young Celie is feeling and it is so heart breaking! This has been made into a movie as I have said before and a musical as well.

In class this week we are reading the story of  King Oedipus. Which is a Greek story that they would have performed way back then. This story is so sad but I love it! I love stories and plays they seem to just stick in my head better then poetry and other things like that. They are so much more fun and you get to know the characters. But anyways in this story Oedipus's dad(Laius) was cursed for killing Apollo's ( the sun god) favorite snake. They curse is that Laius son will kill his father (Laius) and marry his mother and have kids with her. As much as I want to tell you what happens I'm not going to because I want you all to read it for yourself. This is one of the best plays I think I ever read and I think everyone should read it. Now the picture that I have chosen for this blog seems creepy ( well the rest of my class thinks it is I think they are really cool) but it is the mask they would wear when they would act out this play. Now I haven't looked this up yet so don't hold this to me, but I wonder if they made them so big so people in the back rows can understand the emotions that the character is going threw. They didnt have the big screens that we have today to see. What do you think? 

The Reed Ghost

Ok I have read way past this point in the book but I wanted to go back to it because it makes me mad. So were I left of in the book is the young boy is bullying Jane. He yells at her saying that she can't read his books because she is from a poor family so she is not good enough. Well that didn't go well with Jane and she mouthed off and as she was walking away the boy threw the book and it hits her in the head. She gets knocked to the floor and picks herself up. The book has cut her head and she is bleeding really bad but she doesn't care she goes after John ( the young boy) thats when Mrs. Reed comes in and John proceeds to say Jane hurt him. So Mrs. Reed has Jane thrown in the Red Room where Mr. Reed died. Jane is in there for awhile and then she thinks that she sees Mr. Reeds ghost so she starts screaming and she tells Mrs.Reed but she dosn't care so she throws Jane back in there and locks the door. Jane then has a mental break down and ends up very very sick. All I can say is this is so messed up and I found myself getting very angry while reading this book! Now the pick that I have chossen is from the play Jane Eyre and it shows the seen where Mr. Reeds ghost tourments Jane. I thought it was realll cool that they made this into a play!

So while reading I guess I skipped a part because the lady who was treating Jane horrible is her aunt. Her mother has died , the brother of the mother had to take her in. He hates having to take in family. He is a very rude and horrible man but she has no where else to go. The three siblings a very mean to Jane and she fears the oldest son John Reed. He is very much a bully and gets away with it. This child could basically get away with murder cause his mother is always protecting him. " John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older then I, for I was ten: large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim bleared eye and flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mama had taken him home for a month or two, " on account of his delicate health". Jane really does fear John she is actually hiding from him in the window sill hoping that he wont see or hear her because she fears that he will beat her up,like he always does.