The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

Irony

 noun

1. 1.

   the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

   
   

   For those of you who don't know what irony is, I included the definition above. You may be thinking: What does irony have to do with this play? Well, there are many examples of irony told in The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail.

   
   

   One example of irony is when Henry Thoreau takes his crush Ellen, out on a boat ride. He tells her "Thank god humans can't fly. We'd pollute the sky." But now, we have airplanes that do just what he cautioned about. 

   
   

   Another example of irony is when Henry went to jail for not paying taxes and refused to leave when his aunt payed his taxes for him. He didn't want to leave because he fully supported the reason that got him into the jail. 

   
   

   The three most important characters in the story are probably Henry (obviously!), John, and Waldo. Henry was the main character; the whole play was based on him. John was Henry's brother. John was very important to Henry and when he died, Henry was depressed for a while. And Waldo was Henry's friend and Idol. Henry looked up to Waldo and admired his speeches.

   If I were to choose three actors for each of these characters, I would choose Johnny Depp for Henry Johnny Depp is a very influencing actor and is also very passionate. He's witty and smart like Thoreau. 

   For John I would choose Robert Downey Jr. Robert reminds me of John because John is smart, easy to have fun and laugh with, and in many ways like his younger brother. Robert Downey Jr (it doesn't sound right if you don't say his full name) acted in the movie Ironman as Tony Stark. Tony Stark was a very sarcastic, funny and genius person. Except for the sarcastic trait, I think he is just like John. 

   As for Waldo, I think James Franco would fit nicely. James Franco in the movie Oz The Great and Powerful, (I would not recommend this movie it was pretty bad...) started off as a guy who had people look up to him, but he never really did anything when put to the test. Later, when the fate of Oz depended on him, he became a mature leader. 

   
   

   Henry's words and actions did prove successful in the end. By only spending one night in jail, he had enough time to reflect on his old efforts of trying to teach transcendental beliefs. His protest against the Mexican war and refusal to pay his taxes infront of a crowd of people showed how dedicated he was in his beliefs. In the end he did get out of jail, but the people of Concord learned that Henry David Thoreau really believed in what he preached. So even though most didn't agree, they still got his message. Personally I thought the ending was the best part.

The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail

Huckleberries are an important symbol in this two part play. In The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Henry tells Deacon Ball about how students scramble for ideas the way they hunt for huckleberries. In this part of the play, huckleberries symbolize ideas. Good ideas are searched for just like good, ripe huckleberries are sought after in a field. They also symbolize how Henry thinks education should be. Searching for ideas the way you would search for huckleberries, not being afraid to get dirty, and being in the open where it is easiest to learn. Henry doesn't believe that education should be served, he believes it should be discovered. So the act of huckleberry hunting symbolizes education.

The Most Dangerous Game and The Odyssey

The Most Dangerous Game is a very suspenseful short story that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole entire read. It was rich with sensory details and full of good descriptions. I could easily picture the scenery and the faces of the characters. Even though it was haunting and a bit scary, I really loved the story. 

In the Most Dangerous Game (TMDG), there is a desire + danger= drama equation embedded in the plot and I believe the same equation is also in The Odyssey. In TMDG, the main character Rainsford, has the desire to survive and get home where it is safe when he is on the island. But on his boat, he has the desire to hunt jaguars. In the Odyssey, Ulysseys also desires to survive and get home safely. Rainsford experiences many life threatening situations such as being hunted by a madman and a pack of dogs. Ulysses also experiences many life threatening challenges. In the end, there is drama because of the strong will of the characters and the dangerous tasks in their way. Without these factors, the stories wouldn't be as epically dramatic.

In TMDG, there is enough background information about each character to understand who they are now. Even the general who seems like a very mysterious character is explained well enough for the reader to understand what he looks like, what he likes to do, and what nationality he is. And Rainsford is given enough background information for the reader to understand that he is a smart man and a skilled hunter. In the Odyssey, the characters are well explained and it makes the long epic poem easier to comprehend. Although they both include exposition, TMDG has a simpler exposition that follows just Rainsford while The Odyssey has the expositions of Telemachus and Ulysseys. The background information about the characters is needed in each story otherwise, they would be difficult to follow and not as interesting.

The conflict in TMDG is character versus man. In the story, Rainsford is being hunted by General Zaroff like a wild animal. Also, it could also be considered a conflict between Rainsford versus himself. He constantly has to remind himself not to loose his nerve while on the run. In The Odyssey, it is Ulysseus versus man/god or an external someone. Odysseus is battled by Neptune constantly throughout the story.

The complication in TMDG is General Zaroff. General Zaroff basically keeps Rainsford back from his desire to be safe. He is a fierce hunter/murderer who is hot on Rainsford's trail the entire story. Another complication is him falling off the boat. This ruined his whole jaguar hunting trip with his friend. Many more complications appear in the Odyssey. Ulysseys takes 20 painful years to get home! There were obviously many complications along his journey for it to take that long. For example, the encounter with Polyphemus started all of his problems. The giant ate his men and locked them in his cave for a couple of days. This held Ulysses back from his desire to get home.

In the Odyssey, there are many lengthy flashbacks detailing Ulysseys numerous adventures. While in TMDG, Rainsford has flashbacks of his previous hunting trips and remembers his tactics and tricks that he used. The Odyssey has more flashbacks than TMDG but I think this is because TMDG is a short story. 

In the end of both stories, there is a resolution. In TMDG and The Odyssey, the resolutions of each both include violence. In the end of TMDG, Rainsford escapes from General Zaroff and challenges him to a dual because he still feels uneasy about the guy. Zaroff agrees and is killed by Rainsford. In The Odyssey

Ulysses, Telemachus and a group of his servants kill the suitors who have been trying to woo Ulysseys wife. After Ulysseys and his team kill all the suitors, the suitors fathers come to avenge their sons. There is a short battle until Minerva makes peace between them. Both endings are very abrupt, but I liked TMDG's resolution better. 

The Odyssey's Best Scene

The Odyssey books 18-24

Today, I finally finished The Odyssey. Even though it was boring at some parts, the climax was extremely action packed.

My favorite part of The Odyssey is when Ulysses is on the Island of the Phaecians. I really liked it because it described a really good time for Ulysses to forget most of his troubles and just have fun. On the island Ulysses played sports, feasted, danced and told many stories of his voyage. When he had to leave the island of the Phaecians, they adorned him with numerous quality gifts to take back to his home in Ithaca. 

Something I didn't like about the story is there was hardly any action. The only places I can think of that had some action are when Ulysses shoved a sharp stick into the cyclop Polyphemius' eyeball, and the climax where Ulysses and a team of his friends slayed the suitors in a huge battle. But other than that, there isn't any action in any other books. This made the story drag on until it became long hours of reading. That's why I thought the book was boring in the beginning but as I got closer to the climax, then the story started to get somewhat interesting. 

One thing I found surprising about the book as a whole is how it is classified as a poem. This doesn't make much sense to me. Even though there are repeating lines I still find it hard to categorize The Odyssey as a poem.The Odyssey's format reminds me of The Giving Tree. The Giving Tree is a poem but it is in a story format. It is easier to tell that this book is a poem because there are rhyming words, but just like The Odyssey, The Giving Tree has repeating lines. Another surprising thing I found was that people were either extremely hospitable and nice or rude and violent. There didn't seem to be an inbetween feeling. Also, the people had many violent thoughts. Ulysses had once thought of bashing the suitors brains out and has had many other violent thoughts throughout the story. For example, when some of his maids were being rude to him when he was disguised as a beggar, he killed them after he changed out of his disguise. Personally, I don't think Ulysses understood how much a life is worth. Maybe it is because they get an afterlife in the house of hades but still, why couldn't he just fire them?

Overall, I thought the book was just ok. On a scale from 1 to 10, (10 being the greatest thing I've ever read) I would give it a 6. The repeating lines and how Ulysses told his story to everyone he met made the story pretty boring. Other than that, there were many good similes, epic poems, and descriptive scenes in the 24 books. Also, if you're going to read The Odyssey, make sure you have a good understanding of the Roman gods and the Trojan War.

The Odyssey books 5-12

I now realize why people have said that The Odyssey is boring. Although, I don't find it as boring as they over exaggeratedly explained it to be, it's become preggressively slower and more painful to read.

The one thing I now find the most confusing is the dialogue. This story is so chock-full of dialogue there are pages of just one person speaking! Sometimes while reading the immense amounts of dialogue I get confused as to who is speaking. Typically, Ulysses is reluctant but wil tell the story of his whole voyage to anyone who asks. Which after a while, becomes a little redundant and makes the story boring. Also, the old English they use is sometimes confusing. If it weren't for the reading strategy my English teacher had taught me, it would be more of a struggle to remember who was talking.

While reading books 6 and 7, I made a connection to Rick Riordan's books The House of Hades and the whole Percy Jackson series in general. In book 6, Minerva made Ulysses look taller, stronger and gave him a new set of thick curly hair. In The House of Hades, the character Frank Zhang is a son of Mars (Ares) who is the god of war. Frank completed a task that proved to his father that he was a strong warrior. So, Mars made his son look taller and stronger just like Ulysses. In book 7, Minerva created a cloud of mist to hide Ulysses from the questioning townsfolk. In the Percy Jackson series, there is this magical substance called the mist. The mist shrouds monsters from the mortals eyes.

A reoccurring theme in this book was this quote: " When the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared...". This qoute appeared in the book estimatedly more than 10 times. And I've only read the first 13 books! This qoute has bothered me enough to research what it means and I got this: 

"Originally, The Odyssey was not written down but remembered-all of it, in Greek. This repeated phrase was an aid to memory for the person reciting the book. It also was a way in the Greek to fill out the line syllabically. The Odyssey was not written in paragraphs; that is a modern invention or concept of the translator. The Odyssey was written in lines of verse. The Greeks saw the world as controlled by forces that were roughly analogous to humans. By making dawn into a person, the persona-as-metaphor-for-larger forces is continued. And of course dawn is the beginning of day and a child suggests the beginning of life or a day, so the metaphor is appropriate that way." I think this answer makes a lot of sense. It would've taken me a while to find the deeper meaning in that one sentence.

The Odyssey books 2-4

Honestly, I think The Odyssey is good so far. There are a lot of odd words that I've never heard of. But overall the story isn't confusing, actually, I think it's very good!  Something that I find annoying is the suitors trying to marry Telemachus' mother Penelope. At the meeting that Telemachus called, some suitors were extremely angry and blunt about how they did not care for Telemachus or his mother. They made it quite clear that they just wanted Ulysses' home and position of power. I was confused about the eagle omen and how the prophet knew what it meant. And once again, the suitors were rude to the prophet who advised they back off and leave Telemachus and his mother alone. I thought Telemachus was brave to gather only 20 men and set off on a journey for his father. Also, I think Telemachus has a lot to live up to by the example set by his father. It appears that Ulysseus is a well known man.

After looking at the art pictures from http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/multimedia/LessonImages/grade-9-12/hero-multimedia-analysis/Heroes%20Depicted%20in%20Art.aspx , I thought that these pictures all had something in common. The people in the pictures are all very heroic looking. Dutiful, strong and serious (especially that Batman pic) looking. Our class came up with our own definition of a hero: A hero is a selfless person who is courageous enough to overcome fear and benefit others despite any obstacles. The fourth picture showed firemen willing to risk their lives to save someone else's. We see them rushing into the fire with a hose trying to put out the blazing car. These people are heroes. They're brave and  aren't afraid to help others. I think these pictures accurately describe what a hero is. Especially, the Batman pic!

The Odyssey Book 1

Recently, I read the first book of The Odyssey for a school homework assignment. The first book was quite short. Also, it wasn’t as boring as people have told me it was going to be. The size of the book and how serious it sounded did intimidate me a little, but actually it wasn’t that bad. Although I had to reread certain paragraphs a couple of times throughout the story, I still enjoyed the book. However, what I didn’t enjoy was all the tricky wording the author used. Words like “cloisters” and “propitiate” had me confused. Something I found surprising was the way Telemachus treated his mother. He wasn’t kind to her when she tried to voice her opinion, Even though the book was difficult to read; I used the strategy of active reading to help me understand The Odyssey more. Taking notes and summarizing things in the margins of the book helped me remember what was happening. Visualizing helped me get a mental picture of the scene and I could comprehend the story much easier. Also, periodically I would ask myself questions about what I just read. That strategy helped my mind focus. The active reading techniques were really helpful to me while I was reading The Odyssey

Geeks Bearing Gifts

     Ron Koertge, the author of the short story Geeks bearing gifts, used strategies that made his writing very likeable. One of the techniques he used was making his writing releatable. The short story is about a "popular" teenage girl named Renee. She tries to interview the " unpopular" highschool peers for the school newspaper. The "unpopular" kids are looked down upon, called names, aren't respected and gossiped about regularly.  Kids who have a rough time in school can easily relate to this story because they have experienced what some of the "unpopular" kids have gone through. I can use this technique in my writing to make it more likable. When a story is more relatable, the reader will develop feelings and an attachment for the characters and story line.
       Another writing technique that the author used is humour. Humor made the story better because it makes readers laugh. A funny story is a good story, people generally like funny stories. The characters used sarcastic, funny dialogue which made me laugh. I could use humor in my stories to make it better. humor would make the story more appealing and make readers more happy to read it. Relateability and humor are two strategies that made the story Geeks Bearing Gifts, a good read for me.

A Worn Path Discussion Questions

1. The title of the short story A Worn Path, is significant to the whole story. The title signifies love and determination that Phoenix Jackson feels for her grandson. She travels, by foot long and far for her beloved grandsons medication. She has walked the path many times before, and knows them so well she closes her eyes sometimes and her feet just know where to take her. Each time she travels the worn path, she won't let anything turn her back home. She is determined each and every time to get the medicine that her grandson needs.

2. Phoenix is the name of the protagonist of the story for many reasons. A Phoenix is brave, promising, fierce and is a fascinating gentle beast. A Phoenix is part lion part eagle. Both of these animals are noble and majestic creatures. These are all characteristics of Phoenix Jackson. Another reason Phoenix is a fitting name for the character of this story is because a Phoenix never dies. Phoenix's regenerate and live on, their heroic spirit never dies. And that's how Phoenix acts throughout her journey along the path.

3. A recurring symbol throughout the story is birds. In the beginning of the story, Phoenix's can tapping on the frozen ground sounds like a little birds persistent chirping. I think the birds represent many things in the story. One of the birds represented God watching over Phoenix as she stole the nickel from the hunter she met in the woods. Then later on, the birds represent Phoenix and her grandson. When she described her grandson as a little bird  peeping out from nude his patch quilt and she was the protective mother bird who loved her baby very much.

4. Another symbol that I saw was the main character, Phoenix herself. In the beginning it said that Phoenix had a  gold color running underneath her skin and her cheeks  were illuminated by a yellow light. Also she had a red rag tied around her head. These are all colors of a Phoenix's plumage. Phoenix's will fly great distances to heal people with their tears; just like Phoenix did for her grandson.

5. Phoenix's journey back home symbolizes the rebirth of a Phoenix. After the Phoenix travels its long journey, it turns into ashes only to be reborn again.  I feel that when Phoenix froze up in the nurses office, that symbolized the death of the Phoenix. Then when she unfroze it was the birth of the Phoenix.

Your Voice

Recently I read two articles about recognizing and how to find your voice. The first was titled On Writing Well and the second article was Finding Your Voice. Even though the articles were about the same topic, they both gave different advice on how to achieve the goal of gaining your own style and voice.

In the article Finding Your Voice, the author explains that imitating other writers styles brings you one step back from finding your own voice. The author says it's very hard to find your voice when you assume somebody elses. But the other article couldn't disagree more. The author of On Writing Well, says that imitating your favorite authors styles will help you shift into one that feels most comfortable until you're ready to develop your own. This author also says you won't lose your own identity by imitating other writers styles.

One thing the two articles agree on is to make your style of writing relaxed and relateable. This will help readers get a good image of  what you're writing about and make you your writing understandable, therefore more likable. On Writing Well states that even though your style should be relaxed, it shouldn't be breezy. Breezy style includes writing with slang and non-formal words. It's like your'e talking down to the reader.

On Writing Well  explains that finding your voice will be easier if you stick to the rules of writing, such as using techniques provided by other authors and not using cliches or slang words. The other article says to dig deep and plunge into new things that will enhance your writing and define your voice. It also says to go with whatever you find inside of you.

Another thing that these authors agree on is keeping your writing fresh, relaxed and simple. This helps your style of writing become more memorable and less complicated which attracts readers. By keeping your word choice fresh and surprising, it will keep the reader interested. And to top it all off keeping your style of writing relaxed will soothe the reader and make your writing seem more realistic.

Finding your voice isn't easy, but as you can see, there are many different strategies to find it. You just have to find one that suits you.