Beowulf is the story of Beowulf and Grendel the monster. I guess I didn't like it too much because it really didn't impact me that much. I mean, it is a good story, but the only thing I got out of it was a mother's love for her child, even if he was a monster. We had to do web pages that went along with Beowulf and the Old English literature. I recently found these pages online...much to my surprise! Check out Wyrd Weavers and click on the Student Projects under the Beowulf section to view the projects for the entire class. Mine is about the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
King Arthur This was one of my favorite projects of the year. I really liked the part where we got to write our own legend of King Arthur and his knights. While doing research for this project I learned about the legend of King Arthur and how it related to the English society of the day in which it was created. The Arthur legends reflect the importance of heroes in English culture. Arthur fits the classic mold of the hero, hazy background, rize to power, and then a fall. As Arthur was rising, so was Camelot. It was the mythical castle that housed Arthur and his knights. It was said to be splendid in its day, but it fell with Arthur.
Hamlet Hamlet, our Senior Shakespeare tragedy. I found that this was by far the best Shakespearean tragedy that we have had to suffer through during our high school career, at least in my opinion. I liked it, but after four years of Shakespeare he is starting to get old. Hamlet is the story of maturation. The young Hamlet is forced to mature before he is ready because of the death of his father the king and the hasty marriage of his mother to his uncle. This was a semi-incestuous relationship, at least in the mind of Hamlet. This play reflected the views of the British because it dealt with spirits, chaos following the death of the king, and a tragic hero, things that are prevalent in English literature. I found the way that the English ruler could influence the entertainment is far from the freedom that the entertainment field has today, and I realized that some people, including myself once in a while, take this freedom for granted. What would happen if we suddenly had a ruler that could have us executed if one of our movies offended him? Have you ever thought about that? Then we had to watch the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Well, what can I say about this film other than the characters are not to bright. It was kind of a comedy, because they kept coming up with formulas from physics, but they could never quite prove them. Something always went wrong. This was really absurd. Anyway, I found a website with a comparison between Hamlet and The Lion King. It really makes sense if you think about it. Christmas Research Project This is what originally started this page. I enjoyed this project because it allowed me to learn about the customs of my family's original country. I learned a lot and it was fun making my web page. I had heard about the custom of throwing old furniture out the window on New Years, but I didn't know the significance of the act until I did my research. Alice In Wonderland This story of Victorian principles in conflict with the curiosity and innocence of childhood was enjoyable. The novel opened the door to Victorian England and showed how children have some of the values of society that their parents have instilled in them, but they still have a lot to learn. I liked the Disney movie better, but the book is also enjoyable. After we discussed this book in class I realized that this issue( childhood against society) is still a valid issue today. Society has standards, children( and teens especially) rebel against these standards. I don't think it will ever end. A historian said one time that there is a direct line that can be drawn from Billy the Kid on through Elvis and James Dean, the rebel image. Each society has one, and I realized this with Alice. She doesn't seem to be the rebel, but instead symbolizes the rebel in all children. Tale of Two Cities
Okay, so we didn't really read this book in class. After "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times" the class decided we didn't like the book, so we got Heart of Darkness instead. I kept reading after the class stopped, and I was starting to get interested. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the book because of the next one that we had to read, I didn't have time to read them both. Heart of Darkness ARRRGH!!! That is probably the best way to describe my first reaction to this novel. It was really confusing at first. It seemed like there was no point to the whole thing, it was just the tale of a guy going into Africa. After we discussed the imagery and symbolism it started to make sense. The whole self-concious thing and facing your fears makes sense when you know what the things are symbols for. This novel contained a lot of stereotypes. The white man was stereotyped as the dominant factor in the story with the Africans being the subordinates. This was particularly amusing once you realized that the Whites themselves were in fact subordinate to nature. All of the images of nature reclaiming land that the whites had once held, the hippo that the whites never could seem to kill, and the natives that, even though they were enslaved, still managed to dominate the whites in the fact that they worshipped Kurtz but hated the other whites. THe native workers crawling away to die in the shade shows that the whites are not totaly in control, because if they were the natives would die working. I still strongly dislike this book. It was too long and too drawn out for me. The Glass Menagerie This book taught me a lot about believing in yourself and having self confidence. Laura lacked confidence and was self-concious about her disability, so it kept her from doing a lot of things she might have done otherwise. It showed that you can't let a disability keep you from doing what you want to. This applies to all disabilities, not just physical.
