In the drama King Oedipus some of the key relationships are between sight, truth, ignorance and darkness.Teiresias whom is a blind prophet, presents the truth to King Oedipus and Jocasta.Oedipus was a man that blinded himself from the truth of reality. When Oedipus found out the truth he took his mother/wife broaches and damaged his eyes and then he became blind. So throughout the play Oedipus was blind both mentally and psyically. Jocasta knew about the prochey and she did not take much mind to it. She had thought Oedipus was dead because of when they got rid of him when he was a young child. She did not realize that she had married her own son and had sexual contact with him. A sin in the eyes of god as incest. Even when she found out the truth, she did not want to accept the fact of her being with her son, which led her to dark and tragedic fate by killing herself and leaving her children behind.Oedipus pride was a downfall for him, it lead to all his ignorant actions.
Teiresias' blindness was of the physical problem. He was physically blind, but he had eyesight into the future and to the truth which lead to confusing and suffering.Oedipus made fun of Teiresias by calling him blind. But even though Teiresias is blind he can see the truth; Oedipus has his sight but cannot.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Blog # 9
Well since my blog can be about anything currently in my life I guess I will talk about the ending of my first year in college. To be honest college was not as hard as I made it seem in my head. But if I had put more effort into it I would have gotten better grades. I did quite well for a person who did not put his all into his school work and never really focused when it came to school. I am just surprised that my first year is over it moved very quickly. In this first year I have taken many classes and earned quite amount of credits but now I am moving on to bigger things like my transfer to Queens College. i have to admit I was not social in my course of the year I basically went to my classes and went home and do the usual that was going on with my life at that given time. I guess the more classes you take you will see repeated faces and then you would probably end up more than acquaintances. I think I should have done better this first year but I guess I am still in my high school focus which was not focused at all. With this coming fall it will be a new start in Queens and I am excited about it.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Blog # 8 - Poems
I chose the poem "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden. Even though it is a short poem every line has means and is very detailed just within the few sentences. The theme of this poem by Hadyen is about a young boy that truely did not apppreciate what his father did as the main contributor in the family and the son never ever thanked him for the things the father did. You could tell the son was a little afraid of his father and his figure. His father was not the most compassionate guy in the world. His father was more of a hard and rough guy. You can tell that the boy does not have a strong relationship with his father because his father was always busy due to him doing so much work to keep the family warm, fed, and clothed. Because of the lack of contact with his father it really affected the son in a negative way. The bond between the son and the father was not present. And that lack of communication between the son and father shows that the son did not feel fully grown and understand what his father is going through until he actually has to go through it. It takes the son to experience things for himself and be a father to make things different and have a relationship with his kids. But if he would have had a close relationship he would have been able to express his gratefulness and he can understand that his father tough love is just his love in a manly way.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Blog # 7
Rayne Chetram
English 102
Professor Vasileiou
May 4th, 2010
Connection to Criticism
Psychological criticism is “an approach [that] reflects the effect on modern psychology [which] has [been] based upon both literature and literary criticism.” (Padgett) Psychological criticism “focuses primarily on the characters, and on what psychological forces influence and shape them throughout the work.” (Carroll) In the short story, “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’ Brien relates psychological criticism to all of the men fighting in the war and he even relates the criticism to his personal past experience of war. Tim O’ Brien has a strong psychological factor when he was writing this novel because he based his work on what he saw and truly experienced in Vietnam. As you further read into Tim O’ Brien’s story, you can see how the war takes effect on individual characters and also see how they adapted to the situation put forth onto them. These men are drained both mentally and physical throughout the story and it has led them down some paths which they regret and wish they could undo.
One of the main characters introduced into the story is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. He was a 24 year old sophomore in college and was growing up in New Jersey. Jimmy decided to sign up with the Reserve Officers Training Corps just because he could earn a few credits and also a couple of his friends were doing it. He really did not think much of the war and did not want to have the responsibilities of a leader. But that was the position he was given, Lieutenant. But Jimmy was not mature enough to manage his position and to lead his fellow man into battle. In the story, Jimmy was a young man in love with a girl who does not love him back, Martha. His whole focus while in Vietnam was about Martha. The item that he carries throughout his travels and battles in Vietnam were letters from Martha which he wished were love letters. In addition to the letters, Jimmy held “the responsibility for the lives of his men.” (394) Jimmy’s was physically present in the war but mentally he was in New Jersey with the girl of his dreams, living the life he thought he would have instead of fighting a war. Jimmy was not doing his job as a Lieutenant and was being more of a friend then a leader to his peers. On April 16, it was a day that Jimmy Cross had been damaged psychologically. He was the leader of the group; one of his men Ted Lavender had been shot in the head while peeing and was killed. After this event Cross took it personally by feeling so guilty that he was not doing his job right and his focus was elsewhere and not on his men like he should have had it. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.” (399) With the realization of Lavender’s death, Jimmy decided to stop losing focus and playing games and worked on becoming the Lieutenant that he was positioned for. He would not allow any distraction to come in his way of leading his fellow men. The death of Lavender made Jimmy realize that the war was not a joke and needed to be taking seriously and everything personal had to be left behind.
Tim O’ Brien is the narrator of the story and also plays a role in the story as the protagonist. O’ Brien uses his personal experiences about being in the Vietnam War to connect to the individuals he wrote about. O’ Brien was drafted into the United States Army, after he graduated college in 1968. He served as an infantryman in Vietnam, and had attained the rank of a sergeant and won a Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel. He original wrote the book “The Things They Carried” in 1986 and then was reissued in 1990 as a group of short stories. When Tim had entered the war he was a shy and scared young man. He was afraid that if he did not join the war he would bring shame to his family and himself. Tim leaves the war as a worn and old man who later tells and writes about some of the stories and experiences of the Vietnam War, because it was helpful for him to collect and order his painful memories. In the story, Tim is our guide through the pains and horror of the war which has affected him both physical and mentally. He shows how being in a war can change any civilized young man into a soldier that only knows how to kill and do unspeakable acts and become an illogical person. Tim as the protagonist of the story is been out of the war for over twenty years and he is still writing about his mistakes, and about the horrible things he witnessed and took part in. He believes that the stories he has been writing well help him understand who he is and what type of person that he has become. It links Tim back to his past. Also, with the writings being about Vietnam and his buddies, Tim can remember the love ones that have pasted on from battle, and in his works it makes him seem like he is bringing them back from the dead. His mind has been affected in many ways from his age to his life experiences of pre and post war. These factors and more all took part on him psychologically.
This short story “is a portrait of the psychological damage that war can bring.” (1399) These men have changed throughout their experiences of war. Mainly not for the good though. The difficulties and hardships that they had to go through; also the sights and sounds which were present took a huge total on the individuals’ mental state of mind.
Work Cited
Carroll, Joseph. Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature. New York: Taylor Francis/ Routledge. 2004. Web
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th Compact ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 392 – 403. Print.
Padgett, John B. “Psychological Criticism.” http://www.olemiss.edu. January 15, 1997. Web.
English 102
Professor Vasileiou
May 4th, 2010
Connection to Criticism
Psychological criticism is “an approach [that] reflects the effect on modern psychology [which] has [been] based upon both literature and literary criticism.” (Padgett) Psychological criticism “focuses primarily on the characters, and on what psychological forces influence and shape them throughout the work.” (Carroll) In the short story, “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’ Brien relates psychological criticism to all of the men fighting in the war and he even relates the criticism to his personal past experience of war. Tim O’ Brien has a strong psychological factor when he was writing this novel because he based his work on what he saw and truly experienced in Vietnam. As you further read into Tim O’ Brien’s story, you can see how the war takes effect on individual characters and also see how they adapted to the situation put forth onto them. These men are drained both mentally and physical throughout the story and it has led them down some paths which they regret and wish they could undo.
One of the main characters introduced into the story is Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. He was a 24 year old sophomore in college and was growing up in New Jersey. Jimmy decided to sign up with the Reserve Officers Training Corps just because he could earn a few credits and also a couple of his friends were doing it. He really did not think much of the war and did not want to have the responsibilities of a leader. But that was the position he was given, Lieutenant. But Jimmy was not mature enough to manage his position and to lead his fellow man into battle. In the story, Jimmy was a young man in love with a girl who does not love him back, Martha. His whole focus while in Vietnam was about Martha. The item that he carries throughout his travels and battles in Vietnam were letters from Martha which he wished were love letters. In addition to the letters, Jimmy held “the responsibility for the lives of his men.” (394) Jimmy’s was physically present in the war but mentally he was in New Jersey with the girl of his dreams, living the life he thought he would have instead of fighting a war. Jimmy was not doing his job as a Lieutenant and was being more of a friend then a leader to his peers. On April 16, it was a day that Jimmy Cross had been damaged psychologically. He was the leader of the group; one of his men Ted Lavender had been shot in the head while peeing and was killed. After this event Cross took it personally by feeling so guilty that he was not doing his job right and his focus was elsewhere and not on his men like he should have had it. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.” (399) With the realization of Lavender’s death, Jimmy decided to stop losing focus and playing games and worked on becoming the Lieutenant that he was positioned for. He would not allow any distraction to come in his way of leading his fellow men. The death of Lavender made Jimmy realize that the war was not a joke and needed to be taking seriously and everything personal had to be left behind.
Tim O’ Brien is the narrator of the story and also plays a role in the story as the protagonist. O’ Brien uses his personal experiences about being in the Vietnam War to connect to the individuals he wrote about. O’ Brien was drafted into the United States Army, after he graduated college in 1968. He served as an infantryman in Vietnam, and had attained the rank of a sergeant and won a Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel. He original wrote the book “The Things They Carried” in 1986 and then was reissued in 1990 as a group of short stories. When Tim had entered the war he was a shy and scared young man. He was afraid that if he did not join the war he would bring shame to his family and himself. Tim leaves the war as a worn and old man who later tells and writes about some of the stories and experiences of the Vietnam War, because it was helpful for him to collect and order his painful memories. In the story, Tim is our guide through the pains and horror of the war which has affected him both physical and mentally. He shows how being in a war can change any civilized young man into a soldier that only knows how to kill and do unspeakable acts and become an illogical person. Tim as the protagonist of the story is been out of the war for over twenty years and he is still writing about his mistakes, and about the horrible things he witnessed and took part in. He believes that the stories he has been writing well help him understand who he is and what type of person that he has become. It links Tim back to his past. Also, with the writings being about Vietnam and his buddies, Tim can remember the love ones that have pasted on from battle, and in his works it makes him seem like he is bringing them back from the dead. His mind has been affected in many ways from his age to his life experiences of pre and post war. These factors and more all took part on him psychologically.
This short story “is a portrait of the psychological damage that war can bring.” (1399) These men have changed throughout their experiences of war. Mainly not for the good though. The difficulties and hardships that they had to go through; also the sights and sounds which were present took a huge total on the individuals’ mental state of mind.
Work Cited
Carroll, Joseph. Literary Darwinism: Evolution, Human Nature, and Literature. New York: Taylor Francis/ Routledge. 2004. Web
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th Compact ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 392 – 403. Print.
Padgett, John B. “Psychological Criticism.” http://www.olemiss.edu. January 15, 1997. Web.
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