Adventures at Post Oak High

Recently in ELA, I had the opportunity to read A Midsummer Night's Dream by none other than William Shakespeare himself. The play is most often seen as a comedy, and I really have no problems with that statement. It's funny, whimsical, and it fits the other requirements that most comedies do. First off, there are two worlds: Athens, or the "normal world", and then the woods, where most of the action takes place (a comedy must have some sort of connection between these two places). A requirement of a comedy is that it has to end in a feast, a birth, a marriage, or some other sort of happy ending. A Midsummer Night's Dream differs from this slightly, where Puck causes a lot of trouble for the play's characters (albeit in a funny way), but promises the audience that he will restore amends, and besides, this was all a dream! I think A Midsummer Night's Dream fits the bill of 'comedy' pretty well. Between this and The Merchant of Venice, it definit...

I am actually very proud of my response project for ELA. My presentation, although completed in a short amount of time, was sufficient in proving its point and I don't think that it needed any more or any less to convey said point. I do think that I should have practiced maybe a little-bit more in order to polish the few run-on sentences and minor slip-ups that occurred, but in terms of the actual content of the presentation, I think I did great. In terms of the essay, I am a little opposite of Nathan Commissariat on this one. I actually think I did better on the presentation than the essay, and if I had to change anything about it, I would definitely make the transitions a little bit better and flesh out some of the awkward structure of it. I thought The Merchant of Venice was a fascinating read, and I can't wait for the Great Gatsby , where I will be doing a creative project.

On the surface,  The Merchant of Venice seems like any old Shakespearean play. The characters are dynamic and have depth put to them, the setting features ordinary people thrust into some unordinary situations, and sarcastic, witty humor abounds. But, upon looking deeper, it must be significant in some way if it has managed to spark debates over its perceived anti-Semitism and homosexual undertones. And it certainly is. I don't think Shakespeare necessarily intended for it to be any more significant than his other works, but I, of course, have no way of saying so for sure. Personally, I find it funny and cute in some instances but it does have a lot of things that bore me. Ultimately it comes down to the nature of Shylock and Antonio themselves that grabs me. However, if you were going to choose a Shakespeare play to read for fun, I would suggest Macbeth.

I have repeatedly discussed the impact that Shylock's character could have on a 21st century, post-Holocaust audience. And while I do think that many of his character traits are or could be seen as anti-Semitic, I really do believe that he deserves what he gets in the context of the play. You see, if we are going by the logic that the characters in the play are subject to the real and historical implications of the time period, then Shylock has been prejudiced outside of his scuffles with Antonio, and I could see where his behavior comes from. However, many Jews could restrain themselves even in the face of undeniable horrific hate. Shylock is not a bad guy because he's a Jew: he's just a bad guy. He even makes a case for himself that Jews inherently are not so different from Christians. So yes, Shylock deserves it for being uncaring about his daughter and threatening to kill a man. I personally believe that Elizabethan audiences would probably have thought it funny tha...

The Merchant of Venice has garnered a lot of criticism over the years for its blatant portrayal of the Jewish characters as antagonistic money-hungry slobs. In fact, it was a staple of Nazi Germany literature. However, is it possible that we have all been internalizing it wrong? In Act 3, Scene 1, Shylock (the Jewish antagonist of the story) delivers quite a heartwarming speech to Salarino: "To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not blee...

Ironically enough, to he character with the most facets in "The Merchant of Venice" seems to be Shylock. Like we discussed in class, he has every right to be distrustful and spiteful toward Antonio. After all, he was kicked, spat at, and called a curn (dog). But because he is Jewish, he is portrayed with the many same stereotypes that that the Anglo-British forced down upon them. However, in spite of all the hate thrown at him, some would say that Shakespeare never intended for Jews to receive husband kind of hate, and that he never was an anti-Semite. In one particular quote, Shylock says: " and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not   a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,  senses, affections, passions? Fed with the  same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to  the same diseases, healed by the same means..." In this way, it seems that the audience is supposed to take pity to Shylock. Because of this piece of dialogue ...

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...