Thankful

What am I thankful for in English class? Well there's actually a lot. Fist off, I'm thankful that I don't get yelled at for eating in class. Because that class is my designated breakfast time and it's when I'm hungry, so being able to just pull out something and snack a little bit is fabulous. I'm also really thankful that when we're in a lab, we're usually in the downstairs one. That one's the greatest because when I go down the stairs and am like "dang we're in a lab" I don't need to climb more stairs. I'm also thankful for my classmates. I'm thankful for being able to relate what we're talking about back to Disney movies and ten spending the next five minutes talking about Disney with people from across the classroom. I love that there are actually interesting and intelligent conversations between classmates. I love that we're able to sit by our friends. I love noticing little funny things happening across the classroom (and trust me, some crazy weird things happen from where I'm sitting). Im thankful for people who actually do the readings when I haven't ben able to read for whatever reason. I'm thankful for being able to laugh about the amazingly lame movies. Most of all, I'm thankful for being in a class where people are able to joke around and have a lot of fun, while still getting a bit of work done. Because that's fantastic.

Macbeth-ish Acts (Idk what the actual title of this is???)

So, if I were in a position where I was pretty well off but was told I could have even more if I only killed a couple people, including my best friend, and manipulated some people, I would not agree to do it. Like yeah, moving up in the world's awesome and stuff and I am an ambitious person, but I just wouldn't be able to do it. I wouldn't be able to live with myself, knowing what I had done to get to where I was. And what's the point of it all if you only end up despising yourself? I'd pick happy and not being as well off over wealth and self-loathing. Doing what Macbeth did goes against my moral code and I'd probably have a breakdown like he did. In the process of trying to get higher up in life, he lost everything: his best friend, his wife, his position of power, and he even lost himself. Honestly, I think it's sort of stupid that he didn't think he'd be caught. Like come on, if you murder people and do a bunch of really bad things, it's always going to catch up to you and bite you in the butt. So basically the moral of this entry is: don't do Macbeth-ish things, have good karma (what goes around comes around), and don't go around killing people because it's rude.

From The Crown To The Toe, Top Full Of Direst Cruelty

Sooooo let's talk about Lady Macbeth. First of all she says some of my favorite lines from this play (you know, in her whole sleep walking and mental breakdown escapade). But she's also supposed to be a very strong character. She has the guts to do what Macbeth wasn't totally 100% about doing. This makes her 'manly', her taking charge and actively doing something to change her life for the better. This is actually a theme that is still relevant today (ie: the movie Brave, where Merida is like yooooo I don't need no man and then proceeds to make sure something isn't forced onto her). And although I'm all for power to the ladies, I don't quite like this representation. I think it may have been trying to take a stab at gender roles at the time, but it just sort of shows that certain attributes are for men and others are for women. It also shows, with Lady Macbeth making fun of Macbeth for acting 'like a woman', that things typically associated with women are inferior to things associated with men. Which totally isn't true. Which brings me to the topic of GENDER! So, this blog entry is being turned into a feminist thing backed up by the weird puzzle that is Gender. First off, let's go into gender. It's most easily explained as what someone identifies as. It can be male, female, anything in between, and things outside of the binary. Seems simple enough, right? But then you have to factor in things like gender assignment (what you're said to be at birth), gender role (what society says you should be), and gender identity (what you say and know you are). With all that thrown in, gender can get pretty mind boggling, especially if you identify as something other than what's assigned to you. That can create gender dysphoria, which is something to be gotten to and explained another time (if interested, totally ask me about it because I'll talk for says about gender studies). How does any of this relate to Lady Macbeth? Well, she figured out that to move her and her man up in life, she had to get down and dirty. But she's got the mind set of that time, where anything that requires braincells and doing things is what men do; women just sit, and are gentle and kind and happy with what they have. Which is totally not true! Women are people and capable of being their own person. Nowadays, women's gender affiliations need not be questioned based on how they act. As shown with the earlier example I gave of Merida being in a somewhat similar (ish) situation. But she is considered cool and independent and there's no question about 'oh she's doing stuff whaaaaaaat no not okay she's a chick that's men's duty go get married hippy'. Nope she's totally herself (and in the process is RAD AS HECK). So what am I getting at? Good question. Basically people (anyone either in or out of the binary) are all people and should be treated that way. There should be no need to give genders to traits or actions or feelings. And so yeah. *Feminist/ gender studies rant over*

No New Tale To Tell

            In the Canterbury Tales, specifically the Wife of Bath’s tale, there’s no new tale to tell. In the story, a knight rapes a woman and has to find out what women TRULY want. But this is really not okay. It starts of by describing the setting, a fairyland where it’s commonplace for men to rape women and says that it’s okay because they only dishonor the women. EXCUSE ME I WOULD BEG TO DIFFER! Women who are raped can be impacted in many more ways than just being un-pure. It’s a traumatic experience, even if it’s the norm in their society. So, back to this despicable knight. The woman he raped was along in the corn when he spotted her. So he went and ignored her protests and objections and raped her. So King Arthur understood that this was way wrong and said he should die. And I agree with the King. He was absolutely right. This violation of the woman could have scarred her mentally, and she would have to live with that pain and humiliation that was forced on her for the rest of her life. So then later on, when the old woman tells him he has to marry her, he’s totally shocked and against the idea, but it’s forced on him. Hmmmm sound familiar? So there are a variety of messages in here but the one that I think is incredibly important is that rape is incredibly bad and should not be a thing that women have to deal with, but we do. When women out and about, they have to constantly worry about being raped. If there’s a man walking behind you just too close on the sidewalk, you start to get nervous and walk a little faster, trying to still your heart and hoping that you’re over reacting and that nothing will happen. And women have to deal with this, knowing that if they are raped, the can be blamed based on what they wear (some people will say that they were ‘asking for it’) or it could go so far as the women not being believed when they try to report it. And these are things that happen regularly. They’re not anything that women have not had to deal with before and it’s no new tale to tell.

Truth

What is the truth in Grendel? Is there truth in The Shaper’s stories and poems? Or is truth what The Dragon says? Or maybe, is truth what Grendel sees? The Shaper paints pictures of happiness, with good triumphing over bad and with everything being right and just. He praises his master, Hrothgar and tells of his glory. But if everything he says is true, then is what he says about Grendel true? Maybe he’s a monster and just never knew it. But he acts like humans. But The Dragon also says that Grendel is evil. He says that things are predetermined and that everyone has a role and Grendel’s role is to be an unstoppable monster to the people in Hrothgar’s kingdom. But Grendel is new to the outside world. He is still innocent, still figuring things out. But is he evil? Maybe the two sources of knowledge are disagree with each other in most ways, but they both agree that Grendel is bad and that there’s nothing he can do about it because it is ‘fate’. Grendel is new and has just started interacting with humans. He kills animals, but that’s for food, not for territory or for fun, like he’s seen humans do. And he doesn’t kill his own kind. Meanwhile, he sees the human having wars, slaughtering each other, destroying villages. He is the one that is attacked by the humans gets caught up in a war thrust upon him. Does that make him the bad one? Are The Shaper and The Dragon correct?

Modern Day Grendel

In the Disney movie Snow White, there are some similarities to the epic poem Beowulf. The biggest similarity is between the characters. Snow White is similar to Beowulf. The biggest similarity between the two of them is that they’re both their heroes of the stories and their stories are named after them. But also, Snow White is happy with her life, both before being with the dwarves and after. She’s loved by many and gets to rule over a kingdom with the prince. Similarly, Beowulf is loved, admired and looked up to by many people because of his fame and rules a kingdom as well. The Evil Queen is most similar to Grendel. They’re both villains that want desperately to take down the heroes. Their reasons are very similar. The queen knows that Snow White is more beautiful than her and is envious. She wants people to love her. Grendel is an outcast, living on his own. He wants to be a part of the celebration and happiness that he can hear at night. Although the stories of Snow White and Beowulf are very different, it can be said that when the most basic elements of the two works are compared, they have essentially the same major elements.

Me

So this is my 'About Me' thing. Some basic facts include the following:

• I am a female
• I am a sophomore
• I am 15
• Wow I really don't like writing lists

So anyways (Side note on anyways: my family constantly complains that it "isn't proper English" etc, etc. But my computer recognizes it as a word so I guess I'm right. I'll still keep using it no matter what), stuff about me. Uhh I like singing. I'm in a choir outside of school (Chicago Children's Choir). I also sing in a band and also on my own, as a solo singer. I like to pretend that I'm super fantastic at dancing because I'm in Dance 4, but in reality I'm in like Dance -4. I like reading, especially realistic and science fiction. I'd say my favorite author is John Green. I'm not much of a writer (which is why this is weird and very general). Welp, I'd say I've introduced myself enough. So yeah.