I have read the first three fairytales in the collection of short fairytales by the Grimm’s Brothers. So far I have noticed several common themes, including the stereotyping of gender roles and an obsession with royalty and monetary richness. The first three fairytales, The Frog Prince, A Tale of One Who Traveled to Learn What Shivering Meant, and Faithful John all revolve around royalty and beautiful princesses and keep the male and female characters locked in strict gender specific roles. The Females are omitted from most of the stories action, and stay at home in a state of "happy homemaker" constantly cooking, sewing or cleaning, waiting for somebody to come make them a wife and complete their life. The are portrayed as beautiful, delicate and simple minded. For example in Faithful John, The Prince who has fallen inlove with a princess simply from looking at her portrait, steals the Princess from her home. At first she is alarmed, but upon learning that the boy is a Prince who wants to marry her she falls in love with him. I feel that in these stories the term love is tossed around very loosely and often mistaken with infatuation. The heroic males, in contrast to the females are portrayed as strong, powerful, smart and dominering. They always rescue the day and save the girl all before dinner. Their only fault seems to be falling head over heels for women based solely on appearance as demonstrated in The Frog Prince and Faithful John. They are the providers for thier wives and families and as Kings are in charge of Everyone in thier realm.
Another thing that suprised me about these fairy tales is thier graffic fighting scenes and descriptions which in my opinion seem very inappropriate for young children. For Example in Faithful John, The servant John is turned into stone after saving his master, the king's, life. In order to bring him back to like the king must "cut of the heads of both of his children with his own sword and sprinkle [John] with thier blood" (34). Who does that, honestly thats insane?
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Comparison of Robbie and Malvoilio
In Part I we learn that Robbie played the role of Malvolio in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. This is yet another example of McEwan's use of intertextuality. So, why Malvolio? Is Robbie like Malvolio in some way? If so, how? Focus specifically on the Robbie in Part II.
Malvolio, a character in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, is Countess Olivia's sour steward. He is the sullen, self-obsessed, and melancholic. Malvolio, whose name means "evil-wishing" in Latin, is not just withdrawn from revelry, he is also its enemy. s. Malvolio is abused and ridiculed by the end of the play, but he is also left out of the reconciliations that mark the last scene.
Robbie is similar to Malvolio because he is also the employee of a household and has people he must listen to, and rules he must abide by in order to make his living. In a sense, other people are in charge of and control most aspects of both Malvolio’s and Robbie’s lives. Furthermore, Robbie is seen as a villain because he was accused of rape. Briony’s entire family, and those who think that Robbie raped Lola, see him as the bad guy, or enemy.
By referencing Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and having Robbie play the role of Malvolio, McEwan is not only using intertextuality, but he is also saying that there are similarities between the two characters. Robbie goes so far as to quote Malvolio's lines from Twelfth Nigh, saying "'Nothing that can be can come between me and the full prospect of my hopes'" (123). This foreshadowing quotation warns the reader that Robbie, like Malvolio, will prove to be similarly deluded. Because of Briony’s claims Robbie will never be able to reach his goals, until his name is cleared, which is highly unlikely. Robbie, and Malvolio will never reach their true dreams and hopes, its just not in the cards for them.
Malvolio, a character in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, is Countess Olivia's sour steward. He is the sullen, self-obsessed, and melancholic. Malvolio, whose name means "evil-wishing" in Latin, is not just withdrawn from revelry, he is also its enemy. s. Malvolio is abused and ridiculed by the end of the play, but he is also left out of the reconciliations that mark the last scene.
Robbie is similar to Malvolio because he is also the employee of a household and has people he must listen to, and rules he must abide by in order to make his living. In a sense, other people are in charge of and control most aspects of both Malvolio’s and Robbie’s lives. Furthermore, Robbie is seen as a villain because he was accused of rape. Briony’s entire family, and those who think that Robbie raped Lola, see him as the bad guy, or enemy.
By referencing Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and having Robbie play the role of Malvolio, McEwan is not only using intertextuality, but he is also saying that there are similarities between the two characters. Robbie goes so far as to quote Malvolio's lines from Twelfth Nigh, saying "'Nothing that can be can come between me and the full prospect of my hopes'" (123). This foreshadowing quotation warns the reader that Robbie, like Malvolio, will prove to be similarly deluded. Because of Briony’s claims Robbie will never be able to reach his goals, until his name is cleared, which is highly unlikely. Robbie, and Malvolio will never reach their true dreams and hopes, its just not in the cards for them.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Revision of Exploratory Essay
In the second draft of my exploratory essay I started my revision process by asking a genuine question and attempting to awnser it. I did this to try and focus my paper more, as well as give the paper more of a personal voice. I do not know if I accomplished adding my personal voice into this essay as well as I would have liked. Sometimes I feel that this paper is half academic, half me just talking my ideas out. I am confused if this is supposed to be the way an explorative essay looks, because the point of it seems to be for exploring your ideas or am I just wrong? Further improvment I made in this paper includes developing my thoughts from my previous draft and putting more stucture into the paper. I moved alot of stuff around in my paper to make it flow better. My first draft was literally one long paragraph, this new draft is split into an introduction type paragraph, my question paragraph, my awnser paragraph, and my concluding idea. I feel that this makes the paper less random, and easier for the reader to get through. I also changed alot of my wording in this draft becuase in my previous draft it was often very vauge and ambigous. I tried to give more examples from the text to back up the points I was trying to make. While I feel that this new draft is an improvment, I feel that I would benifit from rewriting this draf again, and connfrencing before I hand it in. One of the problems I expirenced when rewriting this paper is that we read The Sound and the Fury so long ago and talked certain aspects of it to death, I had trouble trying to find qoutes to back up my ideas. Then after talking to a lot of different kids in the class, I figured out that they were not using qoutes so I assumed I did not have to. I an unsure about wether or not qoutes would add to my paper and help make it stronger. I feel that I myself am a better narrative and analitical writer than exploratory writer, partly because I have not had very much expirence with exploratory writing and partly because I have trouble thinking that way. I usually come up with an idea or main point and then elaborate not the otherway around. I would define myself as a very "in the box" thinker. While I enjoy Enligh and Social Studies very much, I always find myself exceling in Math and Science classes where the material is very concrete and definate. I consider quality work to be something I am proud of. While this might be cliche, I know that if I am excited or dont dread handing in a paper, it is good. If I am not feeling so hot about handing in a paper, or wish I had an extra day to work on it, it probably isnt that good. Suprisingly some of the pieces I am proudest of writing took me the least amount of time to complete. At the end of writing this second draft I think I have learned to go with the flow. I decided to just write down everything I was thinking or feeling and then go through and organize it later. I initially wrote this paper with out any paragraphs, just my thought process. Then I went through and reorganized it, making different paragraphs and putting similar ideas together. Honestly, I have no clue if this new draft is what you were looking for, but I did try hard to write it and plan on conferencing with you before my next draft.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Briony's limitations and how she views herslef
What are Briony's limitations?
Briony is limited in the fact that she believes that everyone will interperate her writings the way she wants them to be interpreted. For example she thinks her brother will understand after watching her play the Trials of Arabella that it is time for him to settle down and get married. She also lets herself see what she wants to believe. For example she has this preconceived notion that Robbie is evil and her sister is good. Therefore when she sees them having sex she assumes Robbie is attacking her sister, and later says that Robbie is a rapist. She lets her mind dictate what she sees rather than her eyes. Briony is also a very selfish character who only considers her own needs. While she might seem like a helpful selfless person because of her desire to help, her desire to help is driven by her need to feel wanted and loved, not the pure need of helping others.
-what defines Briony
Writing defines Briony. A majority of this book talks about her love and passion for writing, as well as how she loves the clearness and certainty or her writings. In my opinion what Briony fails to realize is there is not certainty in her writing because it often makes no sense. Examples include the “ambiguous sunlight” How s sunlight ambiguous? Briony’s actions as always trying to be helpful also define her. This is exhibited through her desire to save her sister, to becoming a nurse, to right her wrong of convicted Robbie of rape. However she is also an extremely narrow minded and impulsive character, which she herself fails to acknowledge. She sees things not for what they are or could be, but rather what she wants to see them as.
-how Briony defines and uses her imagination
Briony definantly considers herself to be an imaginative person. She is constantly writing stories and therefore assumes she has this grand imagination. In reality I find Briony’s character to be close minded, since her imagination sees only what she tells it to see. She defines things in her head, such as who is a good person and who is not. Her imagination does not stray from this course, instead it follows it very closely. I would consider somebody and imaginative person if they imagined and then came to a conclusion, not had a conclusion and them imagined.
Briony is limited in the fact that she believes that everyone will interperate her writings the way she wants them to be interpreted. For example she thinks her brother will understand after watching her play the Trials of Arabella that it is time for him to settle down and get married. She also lets herself see what she wants to believe. For example she has this preconceived notion that Robbie is evil and her sister is good. Therefore when she sees them having sex she assumes Robbie is attacking her sister, and later says that Robbie is a rapist. She lets her mind dictate what she sees rather than her eyes. Briony is also a very selfish character who only considers her own needs. While she might seem like a helpful selfless person because of her desire to help, her desire to help is driven by her need to feel wanted and loved, not the pure need of helping others.
-what defines Briony
Writing defines Briony. A majority of this book talks about her love and passion for writing, as well as how she loves the clearness and certainty or her writings. In my opinion what Briony fails to realize is there is not certainty in her writing because it often makes no sense. Examples include the “ambiguous sunlight” How s sunlight ambiguous? Briony’s actions as always trying to be helpful also define her. This is exhibited through her desire to save her sister, to becoming a nurse, to right her wrong of convicted Robbie of rape. However she is also an extremely narrow minded and impulsive character, which she herself fails to acknowledge. She sees things not for what they are or could be, but rather what she wants to see them as.
-how Briony defines and uses her imagination
Briony definantly considers herself to be an imaginative person. She is constantly writing stories and therefore assumes she has this grand imagination. In reality I find Briony’s character to be close minded, since her imagination sees only what she tells it to see. She defines things in her head, such as who is a good person and who is not. Her imagination does not stray from this course, instead it follows it very closely. I would consider somebody and imaginative person if they imagined and then came to a conclusion, not had a conclusion and them imagined.
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