Adventures at Post Oak High

The Odyssey is a text that has the capacity to fascinate scholars from both literary and academic fields alike. It is the rare case of a text over 2,500 years old which has the power to illustrate at least a basic view of daily life in the culture where it originates, and yet it combines that with heartbreaking drama, interesting characters, and epic scenery. Today, fantasy works of all genres (from epic to high to low to dark) have seen some influence from epics such as the Odyssey. But it is the Odyssey itself which truly shows the most influence in the Western canon. The Odyssey is certainly not the first work to exhibit the "Hero's Journey" archetype (*cough* the Epic of Gilgamesh *cough*) but, unlike the aforementioned Mesopotamian work, the Odyssey exhibits more of a traditional Western fantasy story where one hero and his allies face extraordinary odds instead of a villain teaming up with a hero to kill a monster, which is shown in Gilgamesh. Today, the Odyssey...

The story so far: great king of Ithaca, Odysseus, 20 years ago left to sack the sacred heights of Troy. After ten years of conflict, he is one of the few to not return home from the city. Instead, he undergoes a series of unfortunate and mythical adventures through the realm of Hades, witnesses much of his crew be turned into pigs by Circe, the goddess of magic, angers the god of the sun Helios, and encounters the fearsome serpentine Scylla and horrifying Charybdis, a whirlpool monster. He eventually settles on the island of Ogygia, where he is held captive by the beautiful nymph Calypso. After escaping Calypso and being assisted with sailing home by the Phaeacian people, Odysseus finally arrives at Ithaca, but disguises himself as a beggar in order to stealthily aid his son in killing the suitors that aggressively fight for Odysseus' wife Penelope's hand in marriage. In Book 17 of the text, there are several moments which hint at the downfall of the suitors. The bigge...

Because the Odyssey  was written circa. 800 B.C.E, it obviously wasn't meant to be read by a bunch of high-schoolers at a Montessori school in 2016 Houston, Texas. It, gathered from research by linguists, archaeologists, and historians, was almost certainly meant to be performed. I don't think anybody has mentioned that only the major or supporting characters in the Odyssey are given epithets (ie. "Owl-eyed Athena, godly Nestor, Red-haired Menelaus "), and there is quite a lot of supporting characters for a relatively short epic compared to the length of fantasy & epic literature today. Because of this, these epithets were not only used for rhythm and splendor when performing. In fact, some were likely put there to remind the audience members of characters that haven't been seen in a while. However, for the characters like Zeus, Poseidon, and Athena who appear often, the performance explanation seems to be the greatest. However, another possible reason is ...

The first and last lines of the poem, "speak memory" and "tell the tale once more in our time" seem to suggest that this story will last for generations, and that it is hidden in the memories of every soul who reads the text (this statement certainly seems true, as it is one of the most acclaimed stories ever, even after two millenia). At the very beginning, Homer (presumably) lets you know that this is a tale of "the cunning hero, the wanderer, blown off course time and again after he plundered Troy's sacred heights" suggesting a very unforgettable, epic feel. However, the text of the poem also seems to suggest a theme of overcoming adversity. From the very beginning, we are introduced to several suitors, men who are vying for Odysseus' wife Penelope's hand in marriage. Throughout the text, these suitors persistently attempt to steer Odysseus away from his goal, including even attempting to ambush and kill his son, Telemachus. But that's...

Before we can begin answering this question, we have to first understand what education actually means and the significance of it. Education, in its barest definition, is the acquisition of knowledge through external means (such as a teacher) or internal means, as through yourself. Because of this, I would argue that everybody possesses the right to education through internal means, but the way to gain ultimate knowledge, many people would say (and I agree) is through someone who has had more experiences than you have as well as the way of gaining experiences through yourself. Needless to say, Douglass was denied of this facet of education. He certainly gained education through anyway he could, including teachers, without the knowledge of his master(s). But I feel like, in a way, Douglass was more free than all of us. His lack of that taught him personal skills that made him strong enough to stand up to many challenges, most that we couldn't even think of enduring.

A human right is any such right that is guaranteed to each and every human regardless of creed, class, color, race, gender, or sexuality upon birth. However, to say that because every human is guaranteed these rights that these rights are untouched is a falsity. Today, human rights are constantly violated every day, and it was no different in Douglass's time. In Chapter 10, on page 35 of the novel, Douglass describes how we was sent by his then-master, Mr. Covey, to gather a load of wood using a wooden cart and two oxen. Covey tells Douglass to hold on tight when the oxen begin running. In no fault of his own, Douglass is dragged at an immense speed by the oxen, who crash the cart into rocks and trees. When Mr. Covey learns of this, Douglass is then brutally whipped, even though he had no prior experience with oxen and this particular exercise. Beyond slavery itself violating an essential human right, Douglass describes the numerous times when he is beaten, occasionally to life-t...

Frederick Douglass, as mentioned at the very beginning of Chapter I, was separated from his mother at a very young age. In fact, really the only thing he remembers of her is the fact that she talked to him at nights when he was a very young boy - but when he woke up in the morning, she was gone. Unfortunately, such an event was not uncommon with slaves. Because slaves were treated as property rather than people, slave families were often separated to prevent a human bond between them, which would likely interfere with the ordering of harsh, strenuous work and even harsher punishments. Additionally, Douglass mentions the fact that slaves were to know as little of themselves as possible, in order to preserve them as property, born not to think or feel but to work. In the masters' eyes, this would have likely had slaves see the world as one to work on, and so that is exactly what they would do. Of course, slaves eventually did rebel against their masters and go to every length to de...

  Saint Christopher Carrying the Christ Child Through a Sinful World (c. 1520) One huge component of Renaissance era painting and culture was religion (in most of Europe, Christianity in particular). And while I didn't manage to get any pieces pertaining to the English Renaissance per se , I did manage to find a painting by a follower of celebrated 14th-15th century Dutch painter, Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 - 1516), whose themes exhibited in his and his follower's works transcend many nations of the European Renaissance, including England. The European Renaissance is known for its Christian symbolism, certainly exhibited in many of Bosch and his follower's works, including arguably Bosch's most famous work, The Garden of Earthly Delights . These paintings, however, typically take the form of Christ's crucifixion or Saint Mary with the infant Christ, and are rarely so abstract as that with Bosch and his followers, with this particular painting showing Saint C...

THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon. We Real Cool" is a great piece of literature. It doesn't take more than fifteen seconds to read, and yet I found it to be one of the most interesting poems I have come across, not only for its surprisingly deep meaning, but also for it's enjoyable and catchy use of sound devices. Some uses of sound devices in the poem are obvious. For example, the two sentences in each stanza (not counting the use of enjambment with the word "we", which, by the way, is an interesting visual choice) produce a couplet, as they rhyme. However, looking deeper into the poem, we start to see more hidden devices, such as the consecutive rhyme "we thin gin" and the fact that on the first and second lines of the second and and the first line of the fourth stanza, al...

The poem "Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup" by Amy Gerstler contrasts the sweets of the speaker's youth to the soupy, flavorless aura of fruit cocktail. The interpretation I got from the poem was that the "light syrup" in the title represented the sugary, artificial corn syrup present in so many sweets. A strong supporter of this idea comes from the direct mention of syrup in the poem, in the line "With it's striped triangular 'kernels' made of sugar, wax, and corn syrup..." I do also believe that the title is clever because, to me, it's almost saying that the only way to improve fruit cocktails are to drown them in the sweet corn syrup that the speaker is so nostalgic about. But I still do wonder: why 'light' syrup? Does the speaker believe that this is the acceptable alternative to drowning the fruit cocktail in syrup? I guess that, like most poetry, there are an indefinite amount of answers I can create for myself.

 My personal thought at first when I read the poem was that this "Penny" represented a woman, as Penny is a female name/nickname. But upon further investigation, I suddenly realized that the two lines - "Wherefore I threw a penny To find out if I might love." seemed to be a pretty strong indicator of the penny representing a wish of some sort (which Xander originally suggested), because the language of these lines seemed to be a pretty strong indicator that the penny in question represented a wish, as he discusses throwing the penny (like into a fountain) and hoping for the best. Andrew Gross suggested that the penny might represent an advice-giver, as throughout the poem it sounds as if the speaker is addressing the penny as if it is human. Looking at both his and Xander's views on the poem, I found them to be far more interesting and likely then my original guess. I have combined both of their views to suggest that this penny acts in the poem as some so...

Having not been to the Museum of Natural Science in a long time, I was quite excited for our trip to HMNS for the Out of the Amazon: Life on the River exhibition. And I was pleasantly surprised. To be completely honest, not at first. The exhibit looked quaint, tucked away in the back corner of the  top floor of the museum. But you better think twice if that doesn't look good enough for you. The selection of artifacts available to see on display is, for a lack of a better word, stunning. The museum boasts that they have attained one of the largest collections of Amazonian artifacts in the world, and from seeing the exhibit, I can believe it. Because of the Amazon's sheer size (four times the size of Texas), many of these cultures, being so far away from one another, have developed completely different lifestyles, religions, and taboos. All of their traditions were fascinating to me, from "stinging-ant" ritual ceremonies (more on that later) to their mythologies. I scou...

It feels almost mandatory to insert some sort of greeting or preface on my first blog post, so here it goes. My name is Connor Morley, and I'm a freshman at the Post Oak Montessori High School. My various passions include running, science, and pretty much anything nerdy and/or geeky. This week in ELA (English and Language Arts) we discussed poetry and how it can be variously interpreted. A topic in our key lesson was prose vs. poetry, but more specifically, how prose and poetry can be separated and intertwined.  The basic definition of poetry is language that is generally visual and symbolic, often full of metaphorical and non-literal speech. However, what truly sets poetry apart is its use of rhythm and meter (beat). Prose, on the other hand, is speech that uses traditional English grammatical flow and conventions. Examples of prose include everyday speech, most novels, and informational articles. When prose crosses with poetry, things become a little more muddled. In ...