Waiting for the Barbarians

The Magistrate learns that the Empire is not only corrupt towards the barbarians but also to anyone who opposes the Empire even if they had friendly relations with each other before. The Magistrate, before the Empire's arrival, lived peacefully in his town unaware of what really went on in the Empire. He had heard rumors of the barbarians but never really experienced any problems with them before until the Empire interfered. The Magistrate believed the Empire was here to help and protect his town when in fact the Empire was the enemy. The Magistrate learned this the hard way when he was subject to torture by the Empire. The Magistrate never really knew anything until he was subjected to torture and mistreatment. When the Magistrate first met Colonel Joll he didn't get a good feeling from him but still in a way trusted him because he was one of their own. The Magistrate was too caught up in his imperial upbringing to understand the conflicts between the Empire and the barbarians. Only when his world was no longer peaceful could he truly see what the world was really like.

Torture

Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These forms of torture were committed by military police personnel of the United States Army.

Man in this photo was believed to have worked under Sadaam Hussein and had taken part in the kidnapping and murder of two Americans. After this man was tortured and abused it was discovered that he was in fact not the man who committed these crimes. He just had similar physical qualities of the man that was guilty of these crimes.

To date no high-level U.S. officials have been brought to justice in a court of law for what went on at Abu Ghraib.

http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction

Pride and Prejudice: Van Ghent

What is the writer’s thesis?

-The whole marriage concept back then was basically a business partnership. Women were seeking financially stable men to marry. Social standings by far outweighed love.

What are one or two key points the writer makes in support of the thesis?

-The Chart: These were words that continuously popped up throughout the book. These words were put into categories, which were: Money, Material Possessions, Social Integration, Trade, and Arithmetic. All of these words either dealt with social class or business.

-Pg. 301: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”… What we read in it is its opposite—a single woman must be in want of a man with a good fortune.

-Both these points as a whole showed that as people developed relationships they were more concerned with financial well being than in love and happiness.

Were you persuaded? Do you agree with the writer’s thesis? Why?

-English’s societies leisure class (don’t work and live off of daddy’s money) primary focus was how to continue their life style. They ignored all aspects of life that did not contribute to their comfort (ignore war, poverty, disease; they could care less about any of societies problems and felt that it was someone else’s job to take care of it.)

-Yes, I would agree with the writer’s thesis because this was simply how life was back then. This was considered normal. However, I would only agree from an early 19^th century viewpoint. If taken from the 21^st century viewpoint I would not agree because you should be marrying someone you love not by how much many the person has. 

In what way does the information give you new or increased understanding of the novel or of Jane Austen as a writer?

-With the scene with Lady Catharine and Elizabeth, I thought Lady Catharine was being outrageous with her reasoning and absurd with how she viewed things. But now realizing that these were societies ideals, Lady Catharine doesn’t seem to be as ridiculous as I first considered her to be.

-Jane Austen as a writer, her reputation of high English society is well deserved. She provided an excellent insight to the English leisure social class and an accurate account to what life was like back then.

Blog #8: Love

I believe that Shakespeare’s message about love is that love is a curse. First, with Orsino and Olivia; Orsino is madly in love with Olivia, but Olivia does not love him back. It must be horrible to want something so badly but you will never be able to have it. Orsino continually sends Olivia love letters only to be rejected every single time and then to hear from Olivia that she is married to his loyal servant, Cesario, whom he had trusted. Second with Cesario (Viola) and Olivia; Olivia falls madly in love with Cesario, But Cesario does not love her back because Cesario is really Viola who loves Orsino. Olivia’s love for Cesario practically makes her go mad. Before Olivia met Cesario, she was a well-respected lady, however, after she practically begs on her hands and knees for Cesario to love her back. She becomes needy and clingy and no man, let alone another person does not like that. Thirdly there is Viola and Orsino. Viola truly loves Orsino, but Orsino does not love her back because he thinks she is a guy. Viola spends numerous amounts of her time trying to convince Orsino that him and Olivia will never be an item. And the fact Viola has to send the love letters of the man she loves to the woman he loves is torturous for Viola. Viola has to sit around all day listening to the man she loves talk about another woman he is madly in love with. If I were her I would be depressed. Then there is Malvolio and Olivia. Malvolio loves Olivia and finally thinks she loves him back after what he thinks is a letter from her. When Olivia does not give any affection back, Malvolio’s love for her torments him and lands him in the nut house.

I think love can be a curse but also a boon. Love makes you second guess yourself and makes you argue with yourself a lot. For example, you want to say hi to a guy but you don’t know if you should because you think the guy might not say hi back or might just think you are weird for saying hi to him because he doesn’t even know who you are and then when you actually work up the courage to say hello to him and than you get an unexpected response like a confused look; then you spend that whole night while in bed playing back the whole scene in your head of what he might think of you or beating yourself up over that fact that you should never had said hi in the first place; then you end up getting no sleep and are very tired and grumpy the next day. However, once you find love, I think it would be the best thing in the world. Having someone to share everything with and be comfortable with and make you happy. I think finding love is the torturous part, but once you find it, it is totally worth all the torture you had to go through. Like in the play, in the end everything was resolved and the two couples got married, except for Malvolio, but he got what he deserved. (541 words)

Blog #7: CURSE

When thinking of the word “curse” I immediately think of something supernatural. One of my favorite TV shows happens to be Supernatural; and the term “curse” comes up numerous times. I usually think of an item or place being cursed. Curses are sneaky things; they can disguise themselves as good things, like a lucky charm perhaps. For example, say someone finds a cursed object but doesn’t know that it’s cursed. The object, while in the man’s possession, brings him fortune and becomes the luckiest man in the world. He’s receiving new job offerings, getting raises, winning the lottery; but as all of this is happening he somehow misplaces his so-called luck charm. Once he loses his charm everything goes downhill from there and all of the sudden he is the unluckiest man in the world. Say he was in house one day and tripped over the carpet, bumped into the table and a pen fell off in the process. He thinks nothing of it and walks away but fails to see the pen in front of him and slips on it causing him to fall and hit his head on a sharp corner instantly killing him, now that’s what I call unlucky. Curses are a bad thing and should never be tampered with, unless you are the one being cursed, then you can’t do anything about that. Items or places aren’t the only things that can be cursed people can be cursed too, for example, cursing someone to an eternity in Hell.These aren’t the only meanings of “curse.” A curse can also be an utterance of vulgar words towards someone if you dislike them or if they are just being annoying.

            I chose the word “curse” because I find it captivating; mainly for its first meaning of being a supernatural force that brings undesirable effects on certain things. For something to become cursed, it usually has a very interesting history to it. I mean no ordinary object can just become cursed; some sort of horrible event must have to have happened. So learning why something became cursed I find fascinating. (352)

Blog #6: The Pardonner's Tale

	I rede that oure Hoost heere shal bigynne,
	For he is moost envoluped in synne.
	Com forth, sire Hoost, and offre first anon,
	And thou shalt kisse my relikes everychon,
	Ye, for a grote! unbokele anon thy purs.'

Why would the Pardonner ask for contributions if he just told everybody that the relics are fake? Maybe the Pardonner will enjoy a difficult challenge of convincing/tricking the people with his enticing story and give him their money even though he just told him he is a fake/con-man. Or maybe he wasn’t expecting to receive any money from this particular audience and wanted to see just how convincing he can be even if he told the people he was corrupt.

Blog #6: Wife of Bath

The Wife of Bath is a seamstress who has been married five times. She is described as being a very talented seamstress whose clothes weigh pounds. She considered herself an expert on love and marriage. She has traveled to Jerusalem three times and other parts of Europe as well. She is gap-toothed and deaf in one ear. It was believed that being gap-toothed back then was considered very beautiful. The Wife of Bath is one of the more developed characters. This could help give insight of women's roles back then and how marriage was regarded. She is also called by the name Alyson. Bath is not her husband's name but rather the English town Bath of which she comes from.