Grendel Discssion

Grendel's progression throughout John Gardner's novel Grendel is that of an increasingly evil character. During Grendel's childhood, he was innocent and had not killed anyone. Yet, as soon as he started maturing and venturing out of the cave he was in a fight with humans. Although this is a traumatic incident where Grendel was attacked by humans unprovoked it does not excuse Grendel from purposely continuing to kill humans. Later on Grendel had met the wise old sharper that had told a story about Cain and Abel, through the story Grendel had matured , because he had realized that he descends from Cain and is always on the side of evil. After, Grendel has matured he had met a red dragon and had lost his conscience after the meeting with the dragon. The red dragon told Grendel that there was no reason to stop scaring humans and that it is fine to continue to scare them. Through the dragon's words Grendel matured into an evil monster with no conscience. The dragon out a charm on Grendel that made him impossible to injure from normal humans and this had led Grendel to continue his onslaught on the humans without much worry. Grendel started waging war against Hrothgar and the Danes; what started as an accidental confrontation between the monster and the humans soon turned into a war. Even people that were frightened and helpless were killed for sport and pleasure. Grendel ate many humans, but the humans always gave him an upset stomach, which shows that he does not kill humans for food, but for the pleasure of seeing them frightened. When Beowulf and the Geats had come to help the Danes out, Grendel was overjoyed, because he figured that he had more people to kill. Grendel had progressively become more and more evil as he matured, and even killed people on the day of his death. He had died after he had waged his twelfth and final war on the humans. He was descended from Cain, which is very significant, because it signifies that Grendel's cursed by God and inclined to homicide like his ancestor. As he's naturally at odds with Christian civilization, whoever opposes or destroys him would be sanctified. Although Grendel came from evil origins, he was not evil when he was younger, he had progressively turned evil after battling humans and hearing the words of the wise old sharper and the wise old red dragon.

Perseus and Theseus Discussion

I have noticed that in the ancient Greek tales of Perseus and Theseus both the main protagonists had showed clear signs of arrogance and overconfidence. Dictys's brother Polydectes, the king of the island had fallen in love with Danae, but Perseus did not like him and protected his mother from him. Dictys decided to send Perseus away in disgrace, so he devised a plan. His plan was to invite guests and to make them each bring a horse as a gift under the pretext that he was giving them to Hippodamia, the tamer of the horses. Perseus did not bring a horse, but he told Dictys to name a gift that he could bring instead; this action showed Perseus's arrogance since he was very confident that he could bring any gift that Dictys wants. Dictys told him the head of medusa and Perseus agreed. Instead of showing humility and apologizing Perseuses was very overconfident in his abilities and thought that he could easily slay medusa. Though the journey to confront medusa was long and dangerous Persues was very arrogant and continued forth on his adventure. Finally, he cut off medusa's head, a journey that no mortal dreamed of. Without Perseus's arrogance and overconfidence, he would have never undergone the dangerous journey to obtain medusa's head for somebody that he despises. Later on Perseus discovered a savage giant snake that was attacking Ethiopia. Perseus was very confident of his abilities after he managed to cut off Medusa's head, and he decided to battle the monster snake. Although Perseus had beaten the giant snake, he showed clear signs of overconfidence and arrogance, since he did not make any plans or strategies when he considered fighting the snake, instead he immediately begun fighting the snake with no preparation. Without Perseus's overconfidence and arrogance he may have never attacked the giant snake, just like most other men would not at the time.
                    Furthermore, Thesues also showed visible signs of arrogance and overconfidence on his adventures. The King Minos of Crete had his son killed by assassin in Athens., so he demanded his son's assassins, but the king of Athens did not know who the they were, so he gave up Athens to the king of crete. King Minos ordered that in nine-year intervals Athens would send seven courageous youths and seven beautiful maidens to Crete to be devoured by the minotaur. Eventually Theseus volunteered to take the place of one of the youths and went to Crete with no weapons; this action clearly shows his arrogance and overconfidence, because he had signed up to fight a monster that everybody wants to avoid. Furthermore, Theseus had decided to go to Crete bare-handed, even though many youths have died against the minotaur. Theseus eventually saw the minotaur and then he started to fight it; this action clearly showed Theseus's overconfidence since he had no hesitation when he attacked a monster that has killed many humans. Even though he eventually he stabbed the minotaur in the throat with a sword, Theseus's decision to go enter the maze in the first place shows clear signs of overconfidence.

Doll House Discussion

In Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll House the opening and closing scenes helped drive the focus of the play. The opening scene was a description of Nora and Torvald's lavish home. The opening scene of A Doll's House is preceded by a description of a room in the house in which the two main characters, Nora and Torvald live. "A comfortable room, tastefully but not expensively furnished". This description represents the Helmers' place in society. They are middle class, not extremely wealthy, but with enough money to survive comfortably on. Middle class society in Norway in this time was quite patriarchal. There were strict social edicts about a woman being a good wife and mother. Women who tried to find independence, or were forced to work like Nora's best friend Mrs Linde, were often seen as lesser beings. This first setting description sets the scene for the entire play and supports the controversial main theme of the play, Nora's rebellion against this rigid society in her final decision to leave her husband when she realizes she needs to make something of herself and find independence. The closing scene of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll House ends with Nora leaving Torvald and slamming the door shut when she leaves the doll house. The closing scene of A Doll House is significant, because it ends the false reality that is the doll house. Nora and her husband Torvald's life together was false and was never serious. Torvald only loved the idea of loving Nora and he never treated her seriously. He treated Nora as if she was an child that did not know any better. After Nora finally had a serious talk with her husband of eight years, she realized that she was living in a false reality for all these years. She was living in a doll house that masked reality. After Nora decides that she want to get away from the doll house, she ends her fantasy world with a quick slam of the door, which ended Nora and Torvald's false marriage. The closing scene left the readers uncertain about Nora's fate as she is leaving her husband and children without any money or with any job lined up for her. Furthermore, Nora does not even have a home that she can stay in, which makes the closing scene full of questions about her fate. But, since Nora is trying to escape the doll house and is trying to grow up, she potentially has an optimistic future.

                                                                                                      

A Dolls house discussion

In Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House Nora's actions shows that she is very immature. When Kristine tells Nora about her troubles, Nora immediately brags about Torvald's new promotion, her wonderful kids, and her fantastic life; this shows that Nora is an inconsiderate person. Rather than worry about her long time friend that is going through a rough time, Nora is happy and proud while boasting about how nice her life is. Furthermore, Nora played with Dr.Rank's feelings for a long time. She was frequently alone with him and eventually Dr.Rank confessed his love for Nora, but Nora immediately crushed his feelings. Nora treated Dr.Rank as a toy and was very inconsiderate towards him, which showed that she was very immature and insensitive. Also, Nora treated her children like dolls. She allowed the nanny to take care of them, but liked to play with them and dress them up like dolls. Basically she let the nanny raise the children and only used the children as a source of entertainment; this showed a lack of responsibility on Nora's part and makes her seem very immature. In addition, Nora left her long time husband Torvald after he yelled at her for the first time. Although Nora believes that her marriage was a sham, Torvald was willing to make changes and make compromises with her. Torvald clearly demonstrated his love for Nora by even begging her to stay and act as only a sister to him. Although Torvald tried his best to convince Nora that he will change, Nora left her children and her long time husband in a heartbeat. Nora's selfish actions make her seem very immature, due to the abandonment of her loving husband and her young innocent children.

I think that Henrik Ibsen portrayed Torvald as an innconsiderate person. When Nora spends any money, Torvald acts like she is his pet. Torvald calls her his songbird that likes to spend his money and even parents his wife. Instead of treating her with respect and dignity he continued to treat Nora as a child, which showed that he is very inconsiderate. Furthermore, even though Torvald has known Krogstad for years he wants to fire him, since Krogstad calls him by his fist name in front of everybody. This selfish reason to fire someone is very inconsiderate, considering that someone's life is on the line and that his wife begged him not to fire Krogstad. Although Torfvald has known Krogstad since they were both in the same law school, he easily fired Krogstad over a very petty reason, which shows that his is an inconsiderate person.

Short Story essay Analysis

I did my short story analysis on Margaret Atwood's short story Hairball. When I turned in my essay, the format of the essay was messed up in turnitin.com. As a result, my MLA format was complete destroyed, and it made my essay very hard to follow. That contributed quit a bit for my bad grade in the essay. Also, my transition words were very plain and quite weak. My essay also included some incorrect grammar. I lacked a few colons and commas at the correct place. My periods were not inside the quotations. Occasionally I did not use the present tense when I should have. I was often repetitive in my essay, which reduced the overall point of my essay. I basically said the same thing over and over again, which made me lose the direction of where the essay will head, and I could not think of anything new to add to the essay. I did not support my claims very well, so my essay severely lacked adequate support to make my points stronger. Also, my analysis were very short and were very plain and weak. My quotations were too long and not to the point. I could have included better vocabulary to improve my short story analysis. Also, I could have improved the essay by including better transition words. I could have improved my essay by double checking turnitin.com and making sure they did not ruin my MLA format. My grammar could have been improved for this essay to get a higher grade. More specifically I could have used commas and colons correctly and placed my periods inside the quotation marks. The short story analysis could have been improved by using present tense at the appropriate times instead of past tense. Furthermore, I could have been much less repetitive in my short story analysis to make my points more concise, clearer, and stronger. The essay could have included stronger transition words. My support in the body paragraphs could have been longer and stronger to make help prove my thesis. I could have made stronger connections between my points to not confuse my audience, which may have raised my grade. My essay included too much passive voice at times, and would have benefited greatly through increased use of active voice. I was not clear when portraying my logic, which made my short story analysis hard to read. Overall I think that my analysis of Margaret Atwood's short story Hairball could have been greatly improved through better grammar, analysis, and stronger support for my thesis.

All the King's Men Discussion Continued

 

In Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, I noticed that many of the characters transformed from nice honest people into cruel and heartless people as time went on. Jack Burden is one of the people that transformed from a nice and honest man into an inconsiderate cruel guy. He was originally a nice sweet kid that loved his mother, but as time went on he started betraying the people that took care of him. Jack Burden was tasked with the burden of finding useful information that Willie Stark could use to blackmail Judge Irwin. The judge helped take care of Jack Burden and always treated him nicely. Yet instead of lying to Stark and telling him that there was no "dirt" on the judge, Jack Burden tried his hardest to find out anything wrong that the judge did in the past. Jack Burden demonstrated that he has changed into a "backstabber" as time went on. Throughout All the King's Men, Willie Stark's actions demonstrated his transformation from a caring and nice guy into a cruel and corrupt man. Originally Willie Stark was a good person, which was seen when he tried to change which company constructed the school so that the state could save costs. Also, Stark tried to change the construction company to prevent the governor from using nepotism to make his cousin's company be responsible for the construction of the school. Furthermore, Willie Stark truly cared about the common person at the start of his political ambitions, but he was eventually corrupted and lost his kind-hearted intentions. Once Willie Stark had gotten elected as governor, he started trying to "find dirt" on people and had started cheating on his wife without other women. He started blackmailing other politicians to get his way with people and made them conform to his ideas and goals. Willie Stark prevented his own impeachment by insuring that all of his opponents would do as he said through the use of blackmail. Even the people that tried to impeach Willie Stark were truly amazed by his actions. Also, Willie Stark was a unfaithful man and cheated on his wife Lucy with Sadie Burke. All of these corrupt actions turned Willie Stark from an honest kind-hearted man into a corrupt and cruel guy. Furthermore, Cass Mastern also transformed from an innocent an kind man into a "backstabber". Mastern was originally just a youth that was looking for friendship and advice from Duncan Trice. Duncan Trice tried to give good advice to Master and he helped Mastern out frequently. Yet Cass Mastern betrayed his loyal friend Duncan Trice by sleeping with Annabelle Trice.  Mastern's affair with Annabelle Trice had caused Duncan Trice to commit suicide.  Although many of the characters in All the King's Men started off as good people,  they changed into cruel and corrupted people.

All the Kings Men Discussion

In Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, I noticed that as people were trying to become more knowledgeable, they were really portraying their ignorance. Willie Stark studied very hard to become a lawyer and even received the advice of an old lawyer. He spent many hours studying for the bar exam, but when he took the exam he almost started laughing due to the ease of the test. Also, Willie Stark thought that a common negro laborer without much education could pass the exam. Willie Stark's decision to gain enough knowledge to pass the bar exam really demonstrated his ignorance, because he had no idea that the bar exam was so easy that he could have passed it without studying for it. Furthermore, Willie Stark's effort to become a knowledgeable governor really showed his ignorance, because Joe Harrison's men wanted him to run to spilt the votes. By trying to become a governor Willie Stark showed that he was very ignorant in the ways of politics, because he had no idea that Joe Harrison's men were only using Willie Stark for their own purposes and knew that he had no chance at being elected governor of the state.

Throughout Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, Willie Stark's actions often made the reader question whether he is a good person or a corrupt man. I think that Wille Stark was a good person that became a corrupt man. Willie Stark was originally a good person, which was seen when Willie Stark tried to change the construction company for the school's construction to save costs and to prevent nepotism. Furthermore, Willie Stark truly cared about the common person at the start of his politacl amnbitions, but he was eventually corrupted and lost his kind-hearted intentions. Once Willie Stark had gotten elected as governor, he started trying to "find dirt" on people and had started cheating on his wife without other women. He started blackmailing other politicians to get his way with people and made them conform to his ideas and goals. Willie Stark prevented his own impeachment by insuring that all of his opponents would do as he said through the use of blackmail. Even the people that tried to impeach Willie Stark were truly amazed by his actions. Also, Willie Stark was a unfaithful man and cheated on his wife Lucy with Sadie Burke. All of these corrupt actions turned Willie Stark from an honest kind-hearted man into a corrupt and cruel guy.