Satire

   I've always liked the idea of satire. They involve many great things such as irony, sarcasm, and poking fun at others, which is always fun. Satire, like allusions, is used all the time across the globe. It is a fun and entertaining way to get the point across.

   I've learned that there are three different types of satire;

   Horatian satire- Horatian satire is the most common of the three. It is meant to amusingly poke fun of some aspect of humanity, like greed for example or the search for true love. As the audience laughs at the silliness of others they are also laughing at themselves saying "True. True. That is just like me!" It is a more lighthearted thing meant to make people smile as they think about the subject at hand. An example of this would be Mark Twain's speech "Advice to Youth" which humorously and harmlessly makes fun of societies attempts to educate young people on proper behavior.

   Mennipus satire- This type of satire resembles Horatian satire in that it is harmless and humorous but the only different is that it does not focus on just one subject. The point is not really to get any kind of message across about anything. It is simply meant to be laughed at and enjoyed. An example of this type of satire would be Family Guy. Family Guy is an endless medley of satire upon satire upon satire. There are so many allusions and references in the show that there is not really any sensible story. It's simply something to laugh about.

   And the final form of satire is...

   Juvenal satire- This satire is the most serious of all satire. It sets out to make fun of something in a harsh and unforgiving manner. It is not meant to be funny it is focused on getting a message out and making people face it. This type of satire would be used by someone who really wants to make a point with force. This type of satire might be used during times of election when people are trying to make others look bad and foolish. It might also be used in times of trouble when people need to be pushed into action.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

   I felt pretty good when I went to the library to pick this book up and saw that it wasn't even 200 pgs long. I expected the book to be decently long since it was such a widely acclaimed book, but I guess it's hard to make a book incredibly long when it's entire plot takes place in one day. Besides, I don't think the author was worried about the length of his book. Solzhenitsyn set out to write a book that was real, true, and hit people in thier minds and hearts, and he succeeded.

   This book was really powerful. It spoke truth about humanity and how everyday is a struggle to stay alive in this messed up place we call our home. Whether we're living in a WWII Soviet prison camp, or livng right here in Lexington, everyday we must fight for our right to live, exist, to love, to be loved. If we are to live our lives happy and fulfilled we need to stay true to ourselves, despite society's attempt to crush our inividuality. We need to band and work together, to live in peace and harmony with one another if we want to thrive. We also need to take care of ourselves; to nourish our body, mind and spirit.

   I really like this book. It was inspirational and showed a side of humanity that hinted towards hope.

The Salem Play

   I really enjoyed this play. It was funny and serious at the same time and kept me entertained. It also seemed to be written to appeal to a teenage audience more, which helped to keep it interesting. The use of puppets as adults was a nice detail as it added to the fun factor of the play without making it childish. My favorite character was Mr. Johnson. He was an  awkwardly-funny-kind-old man.

   Going deeper into the play, I feel its message was to take the time to think about everyone's needs and feelings and treat everybody with respect and understanding. It doesn't matter what somebody's race, religion, age, gender, or personality is; Everybody deserves the chance to be understood and accepted. All of the characters in the play had different personalities and backgrounds and they all had almost nothing in common with one another, but they all learned to come to terms with each other and take the time to care for one another. In the end, the kids caring for each other kept their teacher from getting fired, helped Vynique's character earn more respect for the teacher, allowed the kids to perfect and perform their play and saved the janitor from hanging himself out of depression. A little caring and acceptance can go a long way towards making the world a happier place for everyone.

Why do people read Oedipus Rex?

   I really liked this play. It had a good story and even though we already knew what would happen before hand, the use of irony in the story really helped to make it really great. The way the irony enhanced the story was through giving the reader (or viewer) a sort of reward for noticing it. It's kind of how advertisements use allusions to help sell whatever it is their advertising. When a person sees the advertisement and goes 'Ha, I get it. That's clever.' it makes them happy that they understood it so they enjoy the advertisement and it sticks in their mind better.

   Another way in which this technique is employed is through popular sayings. For example, if I said "I feel that the dificulty of the Short Story Unit exam was over 9000" those of you who keep up with memes are probably having that 'Ha' moment, while the rest of you are thinking "Wemna?" So going back to Oedipus Rex, Sophocles does an incredible job of employing this technique, which is why over 2000 years after it was first written and performed, Oedipus Rex continues to entertain people everywhere.

Short Story Results/ Theme for Essay

   I feel that the test was incredibly hard and unfair. I had re-read all the stories the night before and had come up with possible themes, symbolism, etc. but I still ended up doing pretty bad on the test. I think the main reason for everyone doing so poorly was because it seemed that all the multiple choice questions had what seemed to be two or more right answers. The answers were all pretty similar or all seemed like they would be able to answer the question. Especially the questions that said 'choose the best possible answer.' On those I would read through all the answers and be forced to simply pick the one that I felt in my opinion to be the best theme, etc.

   For my essay i've chosen the short story 'The Guest' and the third prompt asking to explain sources of pleasure and disquietude. I feel that the reader experiences disquietude at the thought of what Daru and the prisoners actions will be and of what the consequences will be, but at the same time, the reader feels a kind of elation when they find out what those actions and consequences are. The choices Daru and the prisoner make are not the safest ones nor the easiest ones and leads to suspense and anxiety, but they have both positive and negative outcomes which confuse the reader, but at the same time content them with the reality and morality of it all. These are just my initial, really jumbly thoughts on the book and the essay. I feel I can do a really good job with this and make it to the best of my ability.

   I like the idea of being given more freedom with the structure of the essay, instead of having to strictly follow a given outline. We still have to follow the basic format, but we have a lot more liberty to express our ideas in the way that we want to without having to tweak them in order to suit requirements.

  

Short Story Unit Test

   I feel I probably got a B on this. Maybe an A. Maybe even a C. At this point I really have no idea because the multiple choice had lots of questions that seemed as though they had multiple answers. Lots of the questions had me stuck between two of the answers and so I would be forced to just pick the one that I thought would be the best answer, but I don't know if my idea of the best answer was the correct answer. Hopefully my instincts worked with what i've learned and already knew this year to have helped me make the right choices.

   As for the short answer portion of the test, I also have no idea how I did, but I did my best and hopefully it was good enough. I had pretty good ideas for the themes of all the stories that were in the short answer part, but my trouble was trying to support them with the passages given to us. I think that pretty much for all of them, I had to either re-word my theme so I could support it with the passage, or I had to come up with a completely new theme that was shown inside the passage.

  

Existentialism

   The idea of Existentialism is pretty interesting. What it's saying basically is that the point of life is to survive, that everything someone does is selfish and meant to better ones own life. I feel that this is mostly true, but I deisagree with the other part of Existentialism, that acts of selflessness are a removal of oneself, that if someone does something selfless, they are ceasing to exist.

   That doesn't make sense to me. If I do something selfless, lets say give some money to charity, how is that removing myself and ceasing to exist. By doing something selfless I am revealing and shaping the person that I am. Existentialsm says that you must voice yourself and act as you would in order to impose yourself upon the world and help to form it, but acts of selflessness do show the world who you are and help to shape the world around you. In no other moment are you revealing more of yourself to the world, than when you do something for others, for no reason other than you feel you should do it. So I think Existentialism is wrong to say that acts of selflessness are bad and things should only be done selfishly.