Timeline

The timeline I have set, hopefully in accordance with my project leader is to have information on our topics ready by Friday. That day we will organize the structure of our research assignment and have a finished product by the end of the year.

Work done so far

1. My plans for the blog I am working on have been put on hold for the time being. Instead I am working with the research CWG and have researched some points on happiness, my assignment within the group.
2. If I can complete my happiness assignment and even finish another, that would be great. However this is my second day working on the new assignment so my time estimation may be off.
3. My work will benefit others by providing evidence that will help reshape the education system as we know it.

Project Plan

My goals are to help people pursue wisdom through any and all methods to better themselves and the community at large. The materials I need are massive amounts of data, preferably in a word document format so I have the back up files for this site if and when it gets shut down. I am trying to get my hands of a copy of the NIV Bible, Torah, Qur'an, any and all eastern and western philosophy texts, as well as scientific discoveries in but not exclusively the fields of neurology, psychology, and anthropology. I would like to get the entire Torah and maybe even the beginning of the NIV Bible up on the blog by finals week so people can get a picture of how extensive and deep the library portion of the site will be. During Finals Week, I will give the class a guide and explanation of what my site is about and pretty much what I have done.

Studying So Far

This week I have been focusing on the essay portion of the AP exam by trying different styles to better address the prompt and avoid plot summary. Also, I have been studying the literary terms to some degree for the lit. terms tests we have been having this week.

A Reflection on Unstructured Learning

The theme of this piece is the idea of a universal learning environment where ideas, knowledge and wisdom can come from anywhere at anytime and potentially launch a person into the stars if their inspiration and determination is strong enough. The whole idea that the sarcastic remark "Nite Owl" becoming the name for a potential hero exemplifies this point.

Studying So Far

I looked over some of the multiple-choice questions today and realized that on many questions I saw reasonably correct answers and couldn’t really decipher the correct answer from the bunch.  As long as I was able to slip inside the story I did fine. I was able to identify conflicts and points of view very well. I was able to get into the minds of the characters very well. However my only draw back was when the question mentioned that the story was really some sort of allegory or fable. Then I started to second guess myself and end up with not being able to answer the question because I could argue all of them being right like what I said above.

Macbeth Essay Prompts

1996     Hawthorne’s “Judge Pyncheon” from House of the Seven Gables:  Analyze how the narrator reveals the character of Judge Pyncheon.  Emphasize such devices as tone, selection of detail, syntax, point of view.

1999     Cormac McCarthy’s The Crossing:  Show how the author’s techniques convey the impact of the experience on the main character.

2005    Katharine Brush’s “Birthday Party” (1946): Write an essay in which you show how the author uses literary devices to achieve her purpose.

My Ap plan

My plan is to know the literary terms and familiarize myself with the AP test-makers' writing style so I will be able to percieve the answers they deem as correct. I am a horrid test taker and what I think is right or important often is not seen as such for the people who write these exams. I will be mainly focusing on the multiple choice styled questions this week and then focus almost soley on the essay responses next week. Oh, and during the course of both weeks I will be using the AP literary terms so I am not stuck with a clutch of words/terms I can only use or recognize. That way I will get a better understanding of the test-makers' language in the multiple choice and use it in the essay response.

Macbeth Soliloquy

Macbeth Lecture Notes

Pre-murder

Macbeth simple play, rise and fall of a great man

            Act 3 he is already king

            Act4-5 is fall of Macbeth

Macbeth doesn’t let us get in his mind

            Porter is only comedy in play

Interested in the character Macbeth

            Tragic hero- flaw is ambition

            Has a ton of potential

            At end of the play, wife is dead, friends have left him, hopes dashed and he is

completely alone

Macbeth is never deceived or used

            More he tries to make situation better the worse it gets

Nature of the challenge creates a sort of prolonged suicide

            Kills King and is still not happy with position

Wants to become king- obvious

            Part of a plan he isn’t aware of

Both Banquo and Macbeth skeptical of witches, but Macbeth already had ideas about

killing the king

Desire for kingship conflicts with morals

Macbeth tackles issues head on and has mental strength to continue goals

Lady Macbeth keeps dream of kingship alive-she is pure evil, desire

            Cognitive dissonance with loving mother

Animos- masc.

Anima- fem.

How can Macbeth murder, puts himself in situation and then forced to carry our killing

Macbeth freely embraces evil, crazy imagination drives him

            As King

On a slippery slope, kill one kill them all

Villain plus conscience equals tragic hero

He is an addict to ambition because of loss of self control

Macbeth has outward courage but no inner courage

Lady Macbeth’s inner world folds on her and subconscious kills hers because she can’t

                        Issues of inner world

She feels out of control and then kills herself

Macbeth Notes

The story takes place in Medieval Scotland and Britain. Macbeth kills the traitorous thane of cawdor, and soon the fates come and tell him a prophecy about him becomming the future king and that his friend Banquo will be both greater and lesser than he. Soon Macbeth is told that he is next in line for the kingship. Lady Macbeth then harasses Macbeth into slaying King Duncan and creates a cover story for both of them. Duncan's sons flee the murder thinking they will be next and try to raise an army in England. He then kills Banquo because of what was mentioned in the prophecy. Banquo's son flees to England as well. Macduff becomes suspicious of all the killings and deserts Macbeth as well, who then later kills Macduff's wife and kids. Lady Macbeth realizes the horror that she created in Macbeth and kills herself. Macbeth is grieved but undettered in his quest for kingship. The witches warn that Macbeth will be invincible until the Birmam woods move and that he will be slain by one born not of a woman, who turns out to be Macduff who was born by c-section. Macbeth gets beheaded by Macduff in combat and Duncan's son, Malcolm becomes king.

Macbeth Test Answers

Part I.

1. Macbeth won the respect of King Duncan by

A. Slaying the traitor Macdonwald.

2. King Duncan rewarded Macbeth by dubbing him

B. The Thane of Cawdor him.

3. In addressing Banquo, the witches called him which of these?

"Lesser than Macbeth, and greater." (I)

"Not so happy as Macbeth, yet much happier." (II)

"A future father of kings." (III)

A. I and II only

4. When Macbeth said, "Two truths are told / As happy prologues" he was referring to

A. His titles of Glamis and Cawdor.

5. "Nothing in his life / Became him like the leaving it" is a reference to

A. The traitorous Thane of Cawdor.

6. Duncan's statement, "I have begun to plant thee and will labour / To make thee full of growing" is an example of

B. A metaphor.

7. Lady Macbeth characterizes her husband as being

B. "too full of the milk of human kindness."

8. When Macbeth agonizes over the possible killing of the king, which of these does he say?

"He is my house guest; I should protect him." (I)

"Duncan's virtues will "plead like angels" " (II)

"I am his kinsman and his subject" (III)

B. II and III

9. Macbeth's statement to his wife, "Bring forth men-children only" signifies that he

C. has accepted the challenge to slay the king.

10. As part of the plan to kill the king, Lady Macbeth would

A. get the chamberlains drunk.

11. Trace Macbeth's transformation from a good man to an evil man.

12. What motivates Macbeth to take the evil path he chooses?

13. What influence do the witches have on Macbeth?

14. Contrast Macbeth's response to the witches' predictions with Banquo's.

15. Describe the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Trace how it changes over the course of the play.

Part 2

1. "Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible / To feeling as to sight?" is a reference to the

B. dagger.

2. Lady Macbeth confessed that she would have killed King Duncan herself except for the fact that

B. he looked like her father

3. Shakespeare introduced the Porter in order to

B. remind the audience of the Witches' prophecies.

4. Malcolm and Donalbain flee after the murder

A. because they fear the daggers in men's smiles.

5. Macbeth arranges for Banquo's death by telling the hired killers that

C. he will eradicate all records of their previous crimes.

6. Macbeth startles his dinner guests by

A. conversing with the Ghost of Banquo

7. The Witches threw into the cauldron

"Eye of bat and tongue of frog"(I)

"Wool of bat and tongue of dog" (II)

"Fang of snake and eagle's glare" (III)

A. I and II

8. The three apparitions which appeared to Macbeth were

An armed head. (I)

A child with a crown. (II)

A bloody child (III)

C. I, II, and III

9. In Act IV, Malcolm is at first lukewarm toward Macduff because he

B. suspects a trick.

10. Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane when

B. the camouflaged soldiers make their advance.

11. What is the significance of the line "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (I, i, 10)?

12. How does Macbeth function as a morality play?

13. How does Shakespeare use the technique of dramatic irony in Macbeth?

14. How does Lady Macbeth overcome her husband's resistance to the idea of killing King Duncan?

15. Contrast Macduff's response to the news of his wife's and children's deaths with Macbeth's response to being told Lady Macbeth is dead

Lord of the Flies Literature Analysis

Plot Summary:

A plane full of school boys crashes on a desert island killing the adult pilots and any grown up for that matter. They nominate this tall blonde cool looking dude called Ralph for those very reasons and because he blew a conch shell that drew everyone to that spot on the beach. His advisor and brains of the island group is a boy nicknamed Piggy. Things work out well at first. They create shelters and maintain a signal fire on the top of the mountain. People are assigned to hunt under Jack as their leader.

As days turn into weeks however, things begin to degrade and soon Jack revolts and begins his own tribe at the end of the island and raids Ralph’s remaining camp for fire. Soon Ralph and Piggy are the only ones left who want to be rescued and as they attempt to reason with Jack, his tribe shoves a boulder down the path that kills Piggy. A man hunt soon begins to kill Ralph, but just as all seems lost, the British Royal Navy lands and rescues them from the island.

Theme:
            The theme of the book is the inner struggle of our beastly wants and our intellectual pursuits such as morals. This is exemplified by Simon’s talk with the boar’s head on the spear.

Tone:

            The tone can be seen as bitter and solemn as seen in the dialogue between Simon and the boar’s head and how Simon is killed in the frenzy fire and how his body drifts off to sea.

Five Literary Elements:

            Setting: The setting takes place on a desert island free of authority, needed to support/create reason for the theme of the novel.

            Symbol: The degradation and then destruction of Piggy’s glasses and then Piggy himself represents how the culture on the island is becoming more animal than human.

Tragedy: The deaths of the marked boy, Simon and then finally Piggy show how shocking the changes in the boys are over the course of the book.

Imagery: The description of the painted boys, the pig’s head and the dead parachutist all add the feel of how the island paradise is turning into a nightmare.

Macbeth Notes

When we first hear of Macbeth, he has just cut an enemy open ("unseamed") from belly button ("nave") to throat ("chops"). The king shouts "Oh valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!"

Horses go insane and devour each others' meat while they are still alive.

I'm an autopsy pathologist. I am very familiar with how human bodies decompose. To show Macbeth his future, the witches add to the brew "grease that's sweated from the murderer's gibbet." Would you like to know what that means? The bodies of executed murderers were left hanging on the gallows / gibbet, often caged so their friends couldn't take them away, until they were skeletonized, a process that takes weeks. At about ten days in suitable weather, there are enough weak points in the skin that the bodyfat, which has liquefied, can start dripping through. There will be a puddle of oil underneath the body. This is for real.

Macbeth's head ends up on a stick. All teens know that severed heads were probably the first soccer balls. If you are directing the play, this is a nice touch.

In a barbaric era, population pressures made war and even the slaughter of one community by another a fact of life. Survival depended in having a capable warlord to protect life and property, prevent infighting, and protect from distant enemies. Groups of warlords would unite under the nominal leadership of one king to promote their common interests and war on more distant nations. While people pretended to believe in "the divine right of kings" and "lawful succession", continuing effective leadership was assured by warlords killing off the less capable family members.

For some reason, perhaps to give his own Stuart king some more glamorous ancestors, Boece made up Banquo and Fleance. Check out the old Scottish genealogies online. You'll find nobody matching their descriptions.

The three witches remind English teachers of the three Fates of Greek mythology and the three Norns of Norse mythology. "Weird" (as in "weird sisters") used to mean "destiny" or "fate". Perhaps in an older version they were.

Notice that on the morning of the day Banquo gets murdered, Macbeth asks him three times where he is going and whether his son will be with him. Banquo should have been more suspicious. After the banquet, every one of the other warlords in Scotland knows that Macbeth killed Banquo for no good reason, and that he is mentally imbalanced, and that they are themselves in danger. My friend Ian Brown offered an idea that seems ingenious. Much of what goes on in this short play is what is NOT said. In the scene after the banquet, the Macbeths have become distant from one another. They say little of consequence, as in a marriage that both parties know has failed. Brown suggests that Lady Macbeth writes a letter warning her friend, Lady Macduff, about her husband. This explains the appearance of the messenger to warn Lady Macduff just before she is killed -- this episode does not contribute otherwise to the drama -- and afterwards, Lady Macbeth's repetitive writing during her sleepwalking.

Around 1950, scholars noticed and argued the obvious. Macbeth was written specifically to be performed for, and to please, King James I.

Some people will decide that the Macbeths are victims of supernatural forces beyond anybody's control. Other people will decide that the talk about predestination simply reflects the folk-tale, or that the Macbeths' era and/or their outlook on life guarantee that something really bad will happen to them.
Perhaps despite the supernatural trappings of witches and talk about devils, "evil" for Shakespeare is nothing more or less than bad human habits and behaviors.
Lady Macbeth, misogynist, wants to lose her femininity so she can be cold-blooded and commit murder like a man does

Malcolm tells Macduff -- who has just learned about the murder of his family -- to bear his sorrow like a man. Macduff replies he must also feel it as a man does, i.e., he IS a man because he has feelings.
Siward's son becomes a man in his father's eyes the day he falls in battle

People have had lots of fun trying to figure out who the Third Murderer really is. It's evidently somebody who knows Banquo and Fleance. The usual suspects include Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, or a servant or thane. All these people are supposed to show up momentarily at Macbeth's dinner party, without bloodstains.

Shakespeare's insight goes far deeper. So far as I know, this is the first work in English that focuses on the isolation and meaninglessness that result from selfishness and cruelty. By the end, Lady Macbeth dissociates from the horror of what she has become. Shakespeare uses insanity as a metaphor for actually gaining insight in "King Lear" and maybe elsewhere. Lady Macbeth's insanity is really nothing more than her realizing the nature and consequences of the horrible thing she has done. Macbeth verbally abuses and bullies the people who he needs to defend him (and who are abandoning him), while reflecting to himself on the emptiness and futility of it all. Of course, the couple no longer has a relationship, and Macbeth is merely annoyed when she dies.

The key question that Shakespeare seems to ask is this. Is human society fundamentally amoral, dog-eat-dog? If so, then Macbeth is right, and human life itself is meaningless and tiresome.
Or do the hints of a better life such as King Edward's ministry, Malcolm's clean living, the dignified death of the contrite traitor, and the doctor's prescription for pastoral care, display Shakespeare's Christianity and/or humanism?
It's a dark play. The light of goodness seems still fairly dim. But evil always appeals more to the imagination, while in real life, good is much more fun.
Is the message of Macbeth one of despair, or of hope?


The dramatic purposes served by Shakespeare’s unique portrait of a compassionate, tender Macbeth, and his adaptation of Kenneth’s eerie story are obvious – who would care to sit through the play if Macbeth were the static character found in Holinshed? Alien voices make for spine-tingling drama, capturing the attention of even the most apathetic audience. But the changes also enhance the thematic content of the play, blurring the line between the two extremes of good and evil within Macbeth himself. His commiseration in the play, and his intense feelings of guilt before and after the regicide clash with his "passion or infatuation beyond the reach of reason’ that propels him to commit the murder. By representing Macbeth’s nature in this way, Shakespeare "rescues Macbeth from the category of melodramatic villain, the kind of character we can dismiss with a snap moral judgment, and elevates him to that of tragic hero .... toward whom we must exercise a most careful moral and human discrimination if we are to do him even partial justice" (Calderwood, 52).

The attention Shakespeare pays to Macbeth’s conscience would have been of particular interest to King James. In his book the Basilicon Doron, written to teach his son, Henry, the ways of morality and kingly duties, James discusses the human conscience at great length, beginning with the statement: "Conscience ... it is nothing els but the light of knowledge that God hath planted in man; which choppeth him with a feeling that hee hath done wrong when ever he committeth any sinne ..." (Basilicon Doron, 17). Certainly Shakespeare was well-acquainted with this short but popular didactic treatise, and, keeping in mind that Macbeth was specifically written as entertainment for the royal court, Shakespeare’s inclusion of Macbeth’s guilty conscience was a way in which he could both intrigue and compliment King James.

Top Three Blog Posts

1st. Mariah Cooks http://mscrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
2nd. Hannah Hosking http://hhrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
3rd. Kayla McCallie http://kmrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/

Heart of Darkness Clip

The Heart of Darkness Mindmap

The Heart of Darkness Reading Notes

Setting: Mid 1800’s. Narrator and companions are on the River Thames and actual narration happens in Middle/Southern Africa

Part I:

The tale begins as a sailor tells of his story as a steamboat captain in his time in Africa while the entire company at hand waits for the waters to shift in the River Thames. The man gets a yearning to explore and through his family is able to secure a position as a steamboat captain for a trading company working in Africa. As he goes down, the French seem to fight some sort of war with the people of Africa as he sees their ships firing into the brush at some unknown enemy. Upon arrival at his trading station, he is told that his boat got sunk not more than a couple days ago and that it has been a year since his predecessor died on the job. He tries to be friendly and get the boat patched up but it seems like everyone else at the station is perfectly happy doing nothing and consume their days by petty one-upmanship. This is also due in part that it takes months to get the simplest useful supplies such as rivets into the station from the coast. Its not that the company doesn’t have any, he saw the rivets down there, but the transportation system from the coast to the station is unreliable at best.

Part II:

            The sailor gets his boat up and running and leads an Eldorado expedition into the jungle for a bunch of pilgrims with the side assignment in finding Mr. Kurtz, the trade manager in the area. The steamboat makes dreadfully slow time up the river. Along the way the expedition encounters many obstacles in the river including an eerie fog that makes them have to drop anchor and wait it out or risk running aground. They encounter some natives who on first encounter are friendly enough but then later run into a bunch that attacks the boat. Oddly enough however they are scared off by the blow of the boat’s whistle. They finally get up to the trading post to retrieve Mr. Kurtz, what remained of him at least.

Part III:

            Mr. Kurtz’s assistant tells the pilgrims what happened to Kurtz after all the ivory is loaded on board. Kurtz fell ill a couple times and he nursed him back to heath. In the process, with all the alone time Kurtz had, he went a little insane, slaughtering whole villages for ivory. He finally succumbs to another illness but not before leaving a lasting impression on the sailor and all those in the company. When the company does go back down river, the sailor gives his account about what happened in Africa but held all of Kurtz’s personal stories that did not involve the collection of ivory out of the report despite many demands. He passes out what few possessions to Kurtz’s cousin and lover. She startles the sailor because although it has been six months since his death, she is and forever will be in mourning for his loss.

Socratic Seminar Notes Summary

Socratic Seminar Notes Summary

            Free play is good because it forces the brain to create the rules for play as well as using detailed language to describe imaginary objects. It is better for kids to play with kids in free play rather than adults because adults can fill in the gaps that children can’t and therefore make the brain work harder when describing something to another child. When rules are set however and the child is unable to question the rule itself they learn less by not creating nor describing the rule itself.

            Guidelines and rules are important to set general boundaries so that a child will not do anything too dangerous but at the same time free enough where the child can experiment on their own within those limitations kind of like raising a colt in a corral instead of a stable.

How do we apply institutional knowledge to real world situations?

            We need to remix/change stuff to fit our lives and actually bridge the gap between school and life ourselves. A class like this creates the environment to experiment with the stuff we have learned and apply it to our lives and see how it works before it truly hits real life outside of school.

Geography used to be a hindrance to getting resources but is a problem no longer because of the information age we live in.

Paragraph #1: How can these concepts enhance your learning as you arrive at a moment when grades no longer matter?

            The idea of working the mind as a muscle by being creative re-enforces my ideas of mental flexibility. Essentially its spur of the moment do what you can with what your given stuff that will truly help us become as capable as we can. These concepts pretty much tell me there is no wasted information and that if I want to be the best I can then I have to use everything I’ve been giving to get there. I have a world of information at my fingertips and it’s my fault only if I don’t want to learn it to get me to some dream that could be a reality.

Paragraph #2: How can these concepts enhance your ability to master content for the AP exam and other hurdles you have yet to leap?

            Well, I can see the exam just like a hurdle and then try to figure out why it would someone take the time and effort to make that particular test. I could attempt to see the non-cash value in the test like the test maker who wrote it and therefore have some sort of meaning to me that goes beyond the test. Everything in creation held the interest of someone, even if that person was solely interested in making tests or exercises that are just as effective as any sleeping pill.

Remix of the Poem Analyses

Analysis Remixed -

Remix of the Sonnet and Remix Lectures

Remix of the Sonnet and Remix Lectures -

Atonement Literature Analysis

Atonement Literature Analysis -

Interpretation of favorite Poem

The Samurai Song

When I had no roof I made
Audacity my roof. When I had
No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.
When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made
Care my father. When I had
No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made
Quiet my friend. When I had no
Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made
My voice my temple. I have
No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no means fortune
Is my means. When I have
Nothing, death will be my fortune.

Need is my tactic, detachment
Is my strategy. When I had
No lover I courted my sleep.

1. Dramatic Situation: Speaker sounds male, not for sure though. The speaker’s situation is also unidentifiable.

2. Structure: The poem is divided into triplets containing typically two complete thoughts in each triplet.

3. Theme: Self reliance is a major theme in the poem as well as a practice of strict self denial

4. Grammar and Meaning: The grammar used in this poem serves to give finality to each thought completed within each triplet.

5. Literal vs. Figurative Language: The author uses some abstract objects like quiet and audacity and makes them sound like actual objects while in other cases he makes literal substitutions like the temple and voice and choir and tongue substitutions.

6. Diction: The author uses very powerful emotional names to help support the theme.

7. Tone: The tone is very serious and is expressed through the author’s powerful word choice and punctuation. The verbs and adjectives are aligned as to give a feeling of solemnity or finality.

8. Literary techniques: Personification and metaphor are used throughout the poem. Paradox and use of symbols give the text its power, almost making the entire piece like a parable.

9. Prosody: Ok, I honestly am still very unsure about this element. Can anyone comment to help me out on this element?

Essay Feedback

Essay Feedback -

A Tale of Two Cities Lecture Notes

A Tale of Two Cities Lecture Notes -

Great Expectations Active Reading Notes

Great Expectations Active Reading Notes -

Connection to Beginning of Great Expectations to Dickens's life

During the 1850's was the time that Great Expectations was first published. During that time, Dickens lost both his father and a daughter within two weeks of each other. It is no surprise then that the novel should start out in a graveyard with an orphan by the name of Pip sitting on his parents' tombstone. Dickens was known to get deeply involved with his characters to the point where he would get on top of his furniture and shout the lines of a character in the character's voice. What really draws readers however is the fact that all of Dickens's characters talk with the colloquialisms of that social class and era so that anyone could connect to the story. Pip and the convict he encounters don't talk in the high and mighty imitations of a wealthy writer attempting to guess how the lower classes talked, but rather the true vernacular of the time because Dickens himself lead his childhood in extreme poverty.

AP Literary Terms List

AP LITERARY TERMS -

1st Semester Vocabulary Lists

Fall Vocabulary All Lists -

Big Question Introduction

Big Question Intro -

Brave New World Literature Analysis

Brave New World Literature Analysis -

Book Title: Great Expectations

Great Expectations is nothing short of its name. The book is about a poor boy named Pip who being raised by his sister and her husband. He falls in love with a girl of the upper class and hopes to become a gentleman so he can wed her. The only thing the book title does not imply is how these expectations are realized and then tragically lost.

Samurai Song by Robert Pinsky

When I had no roof I made

Audacity my roof. When I had

No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.

When I had no ears I thought.

When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made

Care my father. When I had

No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made

Quiet my friend. When I had no

Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made

My voice my temple. I have

No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no means fortune

Is my means. When I have

Nothing, death will be my fortune.

Need is my tactic, detachment

Is my strategy. When I had

No lover I courted my sleep.

I like this poem because it truly shows the bare minimum that one truly needs to survive and great control over ones desires and wants. It truly reflects the most powerful and potentially dangerous people in the world which are those people who know their mind and body, know how to use and control it.

Open Question Essay

Frankenstein’s Monster is considered to be one of archetypes for villainy and evil. With his grotesque appearance and his desire to kill off everyone that Dr. Frankenstein holds dear there seems no saving grace to his character. What of the monster itself? Mary Shelley wrote the monster to have feelings, human intellect and a sense of morality. The monster could be a victim of a cruel fate to some even though his hatred runs deep. So how can any reader even begin to like or respect this monster of foul deeds?

            In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster is brought into being by Dr. Victor Frankenstein of which the creature was named after. This creature soon vanished for a couple months soon after Victor fled his lab in horror only to re-appear later demanding that Dr. Frankenstein create a female being for him or else he would kill all he loved. When Dr. Frankenstein refused, the monster started to throttle all his loved ones starting with his newly wed wife. Slowly the monster picked off every conceivable member of his family and all of his friends until Victor Frankenstein was only a bitter and vengeful husk of what he once was. Only when Victor was crushed by his sorrow and hate and thus died did the monster abate his killing spree.

           Despite the monster having to kill everyone, the monster could have lead a very different and less bloody life. While Dr. Frankenstein fled from the lab, the monster was up to his own devices for a couple of months in the book. In that time he learned who and what he was and tried to befriend some local villagers to take him in. Everywhere he went people were terrified and hated him because of his looks. Only a blind old grandfather showed him the slightest form of compassion. The monster is human in all ways but physically and so wants to be accepted and cared for just like other living sentient being. Later he turns to Dr. Frankenstein in hopes that if he cannot be accepted by mankind that he would be accepted by another of his. This is where he makes his earlier demand. He is so desperate for kindness and so jaded by outright rage against him that he hopes that his creator of all people could understand the value of love when ones own love is threatened or non-existent. It does seem a little over the top in how he goes killing everyone though; but in the end of the book, he tells the person at Victor’s deathbed that he is going to the north to destroy the creation that Victor made so that no man will ever be able to perform such an atrocity again and the secret of life would be lost again.

            Yes, the monster is truly a villain to be remembered. If however anyone would have shown him the least bit of kindness, this so called monster’s actions would have been quite human. Who knows? Maybe even a human hated since birth could do the crimes the monster committed and therefore make the monster seem not so monstrous after all.

The Big Question Abstract

Throughout the ages people have always been lost and confused with life and unable to find any sort of lasting internal peace and tranquility. Many people turned to religion and other forms of faith that preached about the unknown to seek solitude and find that peace within themselves while others in more recent times have contented themselves with the fact that life is meaningless and that anything they say and do essentially will not matter. Yet there are scientists in the fields of psychology and neurology that explores the brain and its natural processes in hopes to find the chemical produced that creates this feeling of almost divine peace. My purpose in studying the state of mind called enlightenment is to understand how people can reach the conditions under which they achieve a state of mind that enables them to perform at high levels in circumstances others might consider stressful and what those key conditions are to begin with. I intend to do my research mainly based in the scientific fields of psychology and brain study as well as looking into the religious/faith aspect of it so that I may get the whole picture about this elusive state of mind. In addition to studying in these branches, I will be using some personal experience from myself and some of my peers to give a little bit of personal touch to this assignment.