Throughout Shakespeare’s novel, King Lear, the theme of gender roles regarding women and power is expressed. The novel suggests that women seem to be incapable of achieving power on their own and if they were to receive power it would corrupt their judgement. Which would ultimately lead to chaos and downfall. Shakespeare challenges these traditional gender roles of women in society by giving Regan and Goneril power. The conversation we had in class about nasty women and why men have a problem with it was very interesting to me. It is very obvious that when men feel threatened by a females power they tend to fight back, sometimes even insult. As seen in the play when Lear called his own daughters “hags” and “witches” as a result of them obtaining power. Even though Shakespeare challenged the norm of the time allowing a few women to have power, he still made them out to be crazy for wanting that power. Whereas the male characters who sought out just as much if not more power than them weren’t portrayed as crazy.
Author: Ella S
The Broadway Show that Sold like Hot Cakes
August 16th, 2016 the world was introduced to a Broadway show that would sell out show after show. Hamilton. The brilliant, Lin-Manuel Miranda took about seven years to write a musical about Alexander Hamilton. Miranda wanted the play to be different than any other Broadway show,so he decided to make it into a hip-hop musical. People were very skeptical of this type of musical because it was so different, but low and behold tickets sold out faster then you could say Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“Hurricane” is the 13th song of the second act. Hamilton is opposed by Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. These man are fired up and ready to damage Hamilton’s reputation by exposing his affair, but instead they cover it up by saying he stole government funds. Hamilton is torn between keeping his affair a secret and take the blow of ruining his political reputation, or inform the public of his scandal which would save his reputation but would forever ruin his marriage. He chooses to go public about his scandal because he realizes telling the truth has helped him in the past.
The whole song is Hamilton reflecting on his life, using a metaphor of the calm eye of a hurricane, just like the one that devastated his home as a child.
In the eye of a hurricane
There is quiet
For just a moment
A yellow sky
Hamilton repeats this metaphor a few times throughout the song. He is comparing his like to an eye of a hurricane saying that for just a moment before everything gets destroyed there is a moment of quiet. Right before he decides to make a choice to either ruin his marriage or reputation he has a moment of quiet. He thinks back to his life as a young boy, reliving his experiences. The phrase “A yellow sky” paints a picture in the listeners head of how everything looks in the calm of the storm. Personally I feel like this metaphor is very relatable in the sense that everyone has a calm before their own type of storm.
Later in the song Hamilton repeats the word,
I wrote…
In this stanza “I wrote” is repeated 5 times, resulting in repetition. By repeating those words Hamilton gave examples of how he was able to write his way to a better life and get out of the hurricane. This device allows the listener some insight as to how Hamilton was able to use his writing for good. Writing was his savoir, it gave him a second chance at life. He was able to write himself out of all the bad situations he has been through before so he thinks writing will be able to save him from his affair going public. Personally I think everyone can relate to this part of the song because everyone has their own form of a savoir to help get them out of a bad place.
Hamilton is a rap/hip-hop musical and rap is a form of poetry, so technically speaking Hamilton is one big poem. I feel like everyone always pushes Hamilton away because the thought of listening to Broadway music for fun at home isn’t ideal for most people. But I think every one of you reading this should give one of the 46 songs a chance. All the songs are so though out and have so much meaning behind them. And not only are they very catchy, but they are educational too. A double whammy! I have legit learned history from this musical. Don’t throw away your shot 😉 and give Hamilton a listen.
Doors that End Where?
First off, I am glad I read this book because I wouldn’t have picked it up on my own and I really enjoyed it. I think Hamid did a fantastic job of connecting real like scenarios into the book. I found the concept of the magical doors very interesting. The idea that a new door will lead to a new life somewhere new is something that happens in today’s day and age. Doors can be seen in different forms weather that be a boat, a plane, a car ride, they all tend to promise a new life somewhere new for people.
But do these doors always mean a better life? I would say not necessarily. Yes conditions may be better now for people once they go through their own form of a door, but is it the life they want to live? I do think it was the best choice for Nadia and Saeed to leave their home country due to the war torn city, but once they got to England and they were stuck in the cross fire that isn’t what they wanted. I feel like doors can have a lot to live up to because sometimes it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows behind them. But I do think forms doors are very important to millions of migrants looking for a better life. For a lot of people their form of a door is the last hope they hold. I just wish Hamid’s version of a door could be an actual thing because it would be able to help so many people.
What the Heck is Life?
Wednesday morning I logged into zoom to see Mr. Heidkamp in some goofy hat, class was already off to an interesting start. I tried to push my giggles aside and start listening to what he had to say, and boy he had some things to say. Personally I really enjoyed Wednesday class. Did I leave utterly confused, completely. Regardless, I find hearing people’s interpretation of life very intriguing. I did not really agree with what Camus’/Mr.Heidkamp had to say, but it did really get me thinking. Evil Mr.Heidkamp really had me feeling like a philosopher. I can completely understand the idea that happiness is just a social construct that humans feel like they need to have. We are told in life to do tasks to feel happy and as soon as we achieve those tasks the happiness is only temporary until we are told to do something else to make us happy again. I try not to think about that though because I feel like over analyzing life puts a damper on it and doesn’t allow you to live life to the fullest. My moto in life is YOLO, so I try not to think about the actual meaning of life too hard because it takes away from the YOLO aspect. I find that having in depth conversations about what life is can only take me so far because I can only fathom so much. Nonetheless, I know that I will never understand what life is and what it holds, I will just try to roll with the punches.
When we started reading The Stranger I kind of thought it as one of those useless books we have to read for English class. The book was sort of bland. Not much too it, like Meursault. After Wednesday class I totally have a new view of the book thinking about Camus theory of life. Meursault doesn’t really care about anything and acts as if nothing matters, just like Camus theory stated that nothing really matters. I’m still waiting for a big AH HA moment in the book. I’ll keep you guys updated if I find it.
Journey to gold
This summer for my summer reading book I read Courage to Soar by Simone Biles. The main reason why I picked this book was because I have always loved gymnastics. I was a gymnast myself until I got too tall and coaches told me to put my efforts into a different sport. Anyways, the USA gymnastics team has created quite the name for themselves, so I was very excited to read about it. Personally I know a lot of training goes into being an Olympic athlete, but I didn’t realize the extent of the training. Biles explained how many sacrifices her and her parents had to make in order for her to live her dream. I just found it so fascinating how much blood, sweat and tears it took her and most all Olympic athletes to get where they are today. It was a very informative book on Simone’s whole life journey which I enjoyed reading.
Abnesti fake feelings
While Jeff is trying to process what just happened to Heather from Darkenfloxx, Abnesti attempts to comfort Jeff. Even though Jeff claimed he didn’t love Heather romantically he still cared for her and was very upset with what happened. Abnesti can see that Jeff is clearly saddened but says, “I hated it. I’m a person. I have feelings. Still, personal sadness aside, that was good” (72). Abnesti doesn’t offer a helping hand to Jeff in this hard time, instead Abnesti backs it up by saying he is a person and has feelings too, but yet doesn’t seem to be upset about what just happened. Even though Abnesti claims to ‘have feelings’ they don’t seem legit. The way Abnesti tries to comfort Jeff shows that he doesn’t really care for them the way he should, but still cares in some ways. Creating an environment that makes Jeff think of Abnesti as a good guy and doesn’t see through his fake feelings.
Story Power 