A look through the novel, The Handmaids Tale.

Hello! Welcome back! I hope everyone is doing well these days of quarantine! Did you pick up a new book or a new stay at a home hobby? I’ve just been working on finals recently as I’m already graduating! 😦 I wonder where the time went, I am going to miss everyone. Unfortunately, this is my last assigned reading that I’m going to blog about for a while so let’s make the most of it!! This time I was assigned to read The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. If I’m honest I was too angry to enjoy it, but it was an interesting read! I like this world setting and how it was set up, I find the way the author wrote and created this universe and scenarios to be detailed and creative. If you did not know this novel has a show on Hulu, I have yet to check it out but it seems quite pleasing to look at. This universe gets me quite worked up for women, and I get frustrated but I do not regret it because it drew me in more. If you’re interested in this what-if world, keep reading!

Okay! If you’re interested in this Novel here is a summary of it! One day the laws were changed and all women were to leave their jobs very suddenly and quickly. The women were stripped of an identity, which means their names, opinions, and clothes. As they are now forced to dress corresponding to their job color, and now a tool for men. This is the basis of where the novel starts, if you’re interested I recommend reading more into it! because I don’t want to ruin the surprise for how surreal this whole universe is. Let’s move on, to the concept and feel of this novel because I have not spoken about this in my recent blogs. This novel has a feel of being eerie, its devastating, a mind boggler, and scary to think about really. I wouldn’t say this is the horror genre, but its scary to consider it coming true because even Atwood based this off events happening in her time but in a what-if type of way where they fail. If you watch videos of Atwood discussing this work, it makes the whole experience so much more vivid. In all honesty, you most likely have some extra time due to quarantine, I recommend reading it now if you want some more fright because some of the events are pretty similar to what is happening now or what could of. If this has not interested you enough to keep reading to see my two favorite quotes so you can get a better idea of how this novel carries itself.

Okay so it seems you’re interested in the novel, well here are two of my favorite quotes that I liked while reading. The first one is “I don’t know if the words are right. I can’t remember. Such songs are not sung any more in public, especially the ones that use words like free. They are considered too dangerous. They belong to outlawed sects.” (Atwood 47). This quote to me was really powerful, it just shows how long they have been stuck, and brainwashed while stripped of their identity. She was singing a song about freedom and wasn’t even sure if she remembered the words correctly, but understood they aren’t allowed to be singing that theme of songs. Singing has been taken away because they deem the words as powerful, but I understand, words give people ideas, opinions, and even strength to stand up for themselves so imagine what a catchy honorable song about freedom can give them. Hope. The next quote is, “We hold our breath as Aunt Elizabeth inspects it: a girl, poor thing, but so far so good, at least there’s nothing wrong with it, that can be seen, hands, feet, eyes, we silently count, everything is in place.” (Atwood 21). I liked this quote since they feel bad that its a girl because it is born into their world, and they know better than anyone what that is like. I also really liked the fact that they were so happy that everything about it was alright, as they count everything to make sure its “normal”. I think these two quotes show what is happening behind the scene for them, and how powerful their control over them is. It is quite sad but these quotes stood out to me because of that. Well, I hope everyone had another great semester, I am going to miss all of my classmates and my assigned readings. Have a great day! Please leave a comment if you read this novel, watched, or even are not interested in it. Thank you! (795)

A look through The Importance of Being Ernest!

Hello! Welcome back to my blog! I hope everything is going well for you all during the quarantine. I’ve been keeping myself busy with online schoolwork and hanging out with my siblings. During this quarantine, I was assigned to read, “The Importance of Being Ernest” by Oscar Wilde. This play was really fun to read, I enjoyed all of the self-aware uses of humor and the twist ending. Which I will not be spoiling! You will have to read it and be surprised by yourself. This play was made for an audience during the Victorian era, and honestly, I have always been interested in the rules and social etiquette that they had to follow. So I was very surprised by how this play makes use of those rules to make people laugh. I recommend reading it, watching the stage play or the movie!

This play is about a man that is named Jack, as he is going to visit another man by the name of Algernon. In this visit, we learn of how both men have a fake person that they are and refer to. To either get them out of situations or just to play as someone new, For example, Jack uses a name, Ernest. However something happened, when he was going to give up this fake persona he proposes to a woman by the name of Gwendolen. But Gwendolen likes the name Ernest and that is what helped her decide to marry him, as that was the name she always dreamt of marrying. Flash forward, Jack decided to clear up this false name by pretending they had died however Algernon spoils that as he decides to drop by and play as the part of Ernest, where he and Cecily plan to get married. But then the lies are revealed as neither of them are named Ernest, but both women wanted to marry the name, Ernest. What are they going to do? Well, that is for you to find out when you read the play.

My two favorite scenes are the muffin scene and the diary scene with the two beautiful ladies. The first scene which is the muffin scene is when Algernon and Jacks’s lies are revealed and it is very tense but Algernon starts munching down on all the muffins because he is stressed, “At the present moment I am eating muffins because I am unhappy” (Wilde 838). This scene was just so funny to me, especially since it was such a serious moment that it just brought the tension down. When you watch the stage play you can hear them laugh of relief when this happened. Everyone was just so anxious when their lies were revealed which is why this scene was one of my favorites as it had a purpose. The next one was the diary scene with Cecily and Gwendolen, both of these girls carry diaries and its just a sweet innocent moment between two girls in love. They both love and Ernest so there was some tension between them, but they bonded over their diaries and it made me smile, “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.” (Wilde 655). If you have read or watched this play please leave a comment below telling me your favorite scenes. (554)

A look through the novel Frankenstein!

Hello! Welcome back to my blog! I hope everyone is safe out there, spring break has started for me and has yet to end due to all the craziness. But I had the chance before all of this insanity to read Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. I enjoyed this novel with my entire heart. And since it seems with this quarantine we have a lot of free time and I recommend this novel if you have the chance. Unlike all the other British literature I’ve been assigned to read Frankenstein is genuinely the easiest one to read and comprehend fully. Furthermore, I am a huge fan of horror and this one caught my interest and kept it, even though it wasn’t scary to me just highly interesting. One of my favorite things about this novel was how the novel will switch from Frankenstein to the creature. Yes, Frankenstein to THE creature, the scientist who made the creature is named Frankenstein. There is no official title for the creature, except for names such as demon, and monster. If you’re interested in this story and would like a summary of what it is about and more of my opinions about it, then please continue reading.

In the novel, Frankenstein, we start by seeing letters being written about a person out at sea to their sister. In those letters, it explains all about their trip but more importantly a strange man that they had run upon. This man is near death and has a very interesting tale to hear. Many people tend to skip the letters because they think it is just a part of the author’s notes or something like that. However, do not skip those letters because it connects back to it in the end and it also holds some valuable information. Now back to the summary, Victor Frankenstein is the man that is near death and he begins to tell his tale. We first get a summary of his family situation, and then how he discovered his life for learning. This then leads him to attend a school where he meets a professor that helps him learn new things. However, because of all of this Victor gets ill and ends up not paying attention to his family as much, but that ends up leading him to creating the creature. Victor is obsessed over it and is sure that everybody part he stole was going to make this creature the perfect man, smarter, faster and stronger than everyone. And congratulations to victor it ends up working! But, this frightens victor and disgusts him so he abandons the creature leaving it to fend for itself. And that is the end of the summary as I don’t want to spoil too much. Please let me know in the comments if you’re interested in reading this or have already.

My opinions of Frankenstein are very positive. As I enjoyed absolutely every aspect of this novel which is rare. I had no issues comprehending it and it had my attention the whole way through. Because of this amazing book, here are two quotes that are my absolute favorite. “My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language.” this quote shows how the creature was so smart and able to develop for himself (Shelly 92). He taught himself how to understand, read, write, and speak. Victor makes him seem like a horrible monster but the monster gains our sympathy with how smart he is. This smartness of his makes us realize how vulnerable and lonely he is which causes the audience to gain a deeper connection with him. which is why this is one of my favorite quotes. This next quote isn’t a huge connection but I had a certain personal aspect to it that is why it is one of my favorites, “There was a considerable difference between the ages of my parents, but this circumstance seemed to unite them only closer in bonds of devoted affection.” (Shelly 27). This quote reminded me of my parents although their age gap was not as big as Victor’s parents, it felt nice to have some type of personal connection to a novel that I greatly enjoyed. I hope this post in any way interests you enough to read or research a little on Frankenstein. Thank you, please stay safe out there, stay inside, wash your hands, and read Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (740).

A look through the novel, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had an amazing break! Mine was quite busy, but now I’m back in school again and was assigned another work to read. This time it is (drum roll please) Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. This work was quite something else, as it was way more dramatic than I could ever imagine. And the ending wasn’t very fulfilling but Ill get to that later. When I first heard that we were going to read this I was indifferent. I wasn’t intrigued or curious nor did I despise the idea of reading it. But now that I am done with this novel, it is very much like a soap opera. And I kind of liked it, though I did get kind of bored at some parts it was still an experience to read and look at different forms of writing. This work is more of a political one in a sense, as this novel talks about needing marriage to fix and upgrade their social class or even just doing it for money. It does have romance but the romance makes me want to pull my hair out of my head because of how infuriating it is and how long it takes to get to the good parts. Also, the ending wasn’t very satisfying but it did get its main point across so I consider it a win for them. If you’re interested in reading this work and don’t care about some highschooler’s impression of it then please keep reading so you can get a no-spoiler summary.

Hello, so you’re interested in Pride and Prejudice huh? well, look no further because here is an awesome summary that may or may not convince you to take a further look into Jane Austen’s, Pride and Prejudice. It starts with a handsome young rich male moving into town, however, he is a SINGLE young beautiful rich male. Which drives everyone wild, because he’s perfect status wise. You have to remember this was back during a time where etiquette was at an all-time high. And social class and status were really important. Anywho, Mrs. Bennet has A LOT of daughters, and she doesn’t believe that her husband, Mr. Bennet is going to live long and if he dies the family has no more finance because women were not allowed to do anything, like own properties, etc. And theirs an even bigger issue, none of her daughters are married! which means all of the money will be passed down to a distant cousin that they don’t even know that well. So Mrs. Bennet has a plan, marry off her daughters to these handsome rich young men.

My opinion of this work is… it’s okay. I wouldn’t say it’s this amazing work of art, and there were so many conversations and random things that would happen that would just keep going as if there was no end. I will say though, that even though I like works to be a more fast pace, a lot of my classmates loved the novel, so maybe you will too. Also, I love romance, but even that was only a little bit. There was no kiss scene or anything of the sort. I think I’m just upset because I’m a hopeless romantic. However, there was a wholesome romance like this that I really enjoyed, “Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of both were overspread with the deepest blush.” (Austen 43). I think this book is just about getting its real point across rather than fixating on one relationship, we get to see multitudes of relationships that would happen around that period. Some for status, money, family, and rarely for love itself, “Do anything rather than marry without affection.”(Austen 59). As I said, this is just some random highschoolers’ opinion, if you’re interested in the summary above than please take the time to read it. Even though I wasn’t satisfied, doesn’t mean you won’t also.

A look through the play Othello

Hey Guys! Welcome back! This is the last post I will be making until 2020! I hope everyone has had a great year thus far. This time we were assigned the play, Othello by William Shakespeare. This play was such a ride, it made me so frustrated, it was filled to the brim with misunderstandings, jealousy, envy and ugh all the nasty parts that we usually avoid in a relationship, just like the marshmallows in Lucky Charms. Anywho, although I was super frustrated, I will admit this play was one of the most interesting things I got to read thus far. Even though it was in old English, and that made me even more frustrated. This play is filled with romance, envy, secrecy, and a pretty cool villain in my opinion. So basically, the lovely Desdemona, who is a Caucasian female, and Othello, a black male, are in love. This becomes a weakness later on since Iago is upset that he did not get the promotion, but Cassio did. So he sets out a plan to make it look like Desdemona and Cassio are in an affair to get Othello upset. Which it works quite well, however, I won’t spoil the ending, please give it a read if you’re interested. Or if you have read it yourself already did you enjoy it? 

My two favorite scenes out of this entire play are when Bianca is featured, “And I was going to your lodging, Cassio. What, keep a week away? Seven days and nights? Eight score eight hours? And lovers’ absent hours More tedious than the dial eightscore times! Oh weary reckoning!” (3.4.160-164). In this scene, she is explaining to Cassio how she was going to his house because he has been gone far too long. She is in love with Cassio, and she also gets called a whore a lot. I’m quite sad that Iago uses the idea of Bianca to confuse Othello. As Iago makes Othello hide and uses Cassio to talk about Bianca while Othello is under the idea that they are talking about Desdemona. My second favorite scene is, “By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman” (1.1.35). Which is the beginning with Iago and Roderigo. Where Iago makes him help out with his plan of telling the father about Othello and Desdemona’s marriage, and it works because mister Roderigo over here, is in love with Desdemona so he does what he is told. The interactions between Iago and Roderigo are so funny to me because of how fake Iago is and how much a crybaby Roderigo is. Every time something goes bad Roderigo is all like “I am going to drown myself :(!!” and Iago is like “no no no don’t do that you will sleep with Desdemona soon, just give us money first :)” If you have read this play or even watched a movie, who were your two favorite characters or scenes.

In my opinion, even though this was an extremely interesting play. And I had so much fun reading it in class because everyone had gotten parts so we all had a part to play. I even got Bianca, my lovesick queen, which was fun. I most likely would not read this play again by myself just because of how frustrated I was the whole time. this could have been solved if Othello just took a minute to organize his thoughts and communicated like an adult. Even though Desdemona was his weakness I felt he should have much more control and he is a powerful man. On the other hand for Iago, he needs to chill, just because he didn’t get a promotion does not mean he needs to be so cunning and evil. He should just work harder and make Othello regret it and wish for him back. And for the lovely Desdemona, STAND UP FOR YOURSELF. I was on the edge of my seat when he slapped her. She should have explained to him everything, why Cassio was coming up to her, and how it was his fault she lost the handkerchief. In the movie, this happened in three days since they got married. This could have been solved easily with communication, or maybe some marriage counseling. I wish you all a happy holiday and a happy new year!

A Look through The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Welcome back, everyone! Its almost Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a splendid break! Today I will be talking about one of the tales that Chaucer has written. This tale is honestly a favorite of mine just because of how confident it is when speaking of virginity and unfairness for women. In The Wife of Baths prologue, it is extremely long. Way longer than the character’s tale itself, however right now I’ll only be talking of her prologue. In the prologue Alisoun, aka The Wife Of Bath, is very upset and is speaking about why she is way more knowledge about marriage and why people of the church don’t know as much as she does due to her being married multiple times. Which during this time is not holy, especially for women, however, Alisoun makes it clear how unfair it is because many men have multiple marriages and don’t get frowned upon. Honestly, throughout this whole tale, I was very happy, because Alisoun speaks out about things she dislikes and even mentions more things that she does to her husband to get what she wants. However, I do want to mention that one of the first things Alisoun argues is whether virginity should continue being this holy thing, and how impure women get frowned upon. Because she even mentions how they need impure people to make the virgins, “And certs, if there were no seed y-sow, then whereof should it grow? ” (Chaucer 8). Her whole prologue is the reason why she is now my favorite tale, she’s a very confident woman and its rare to see women such as her self, especially throughout Chaucer’s times.

Furthermore, her tale, on the other hand, is not my favorite even though it is interesting I’ll admit I’m not happy with the ending. Also trigger warning, because this paragraph mentions rape, please skip this if it makes you uncomfortable. In The Wife of Baths tale, it begins with a soldier raping a young beautiful virgin because he just can not hold himself back. This leads him to go to the palace where the king tells his wife to go ahead and deal with the crime because she is a woman herself and knows what to do. And honestly bravo to the king giving his wife privileges we love a sharing husband. Anywho the queen decides to give this disgraceful man a chance by telling him he has a whole year and a day to figure out what a woman truly desires, if not he gets executed, “Thou standest yet,’ quod she `in such array, That of thy life yet hast thou no surety; I grant thee life, if thou canst tellen me, What thing is it that women most desiren.” (Chaucer 38). However, I believe this was supposed to be impossible because no woman desires the same thing as he soon finds, however, he doesn’t ask women what they desire he asks men. which honestly makes sense for someone with a pea brain such as himself who rapes someone. Anywho this guy is running out of time and just cannot find one answer, however, he runs into this old woman who honestly I dislike a little bit. Who says if I tell you you have to follow everything I as of you. This guy is like I understand please tell me!!! So she tells him that women desire control over their husbands, and when he tells this to the capital they’re all like, yeah that’s right you got it, bro. This means he got away with rape, but now he has to marry this old woman. And honestly, that isn’t the worst part because this old woman is like would you rather have an unfaithful wife who is very beautiful or a wife that is faithful but very ugly. He ends up telling her to decide, which she does and she becomes very beautiful and faithful. So, in the end, this guy got away with rape and gets to live happily with a beautiful wife. And I’m very upset about that, it isn’t fair, I understand what the queen wanted to do however the old lady decided to wreck it. ill express more of my opinions in the next paragraph.

the reason why I am summarizing this tale when I usually don’t do is that this tale is so complicated to read without having to reread it a hundred more times, and even the translations on the side make zero sense. So I decided to be kind and explain it to yall. However, if you want to read it please leave a comment and ill give you the pdf. Now in this taler, as I said it is one of my favorites just because I love how this female character is, which we rarely see especially in Chaucer’s time. She’s very confident as I said, she speaks her mind especially when she has an opinion. To me, that’s a sign of a strong character also, this is kind of funny to me but when her husbands get drunk she would tell them that she knows they are cheating because they told her while they were intoxicated, so she threatens to not please them in bed anymore. She’s very convincing as she is always wearing pretty clothes, but most of all I love her logic about marriage and having intercourse. She believes that it does not matter or even if they are poor or rich, as long as they can please her in bed. Anywho, Alisoun is a unique character and I enjoyed her super long prologue. However, I did not like the ending of her tale. But most of all I absolutely cannot stand the clay stop-motion video we were shown in class of her tale. It gives me the creeps, and her tale looks 100% uglier with the way they had animated it. I will leave a link in the comments but maybe skip that one if things easily make you uncomfy.

A look through the novel Grendel

Hello! Welcome back to my blog! If you enjoyed my last post about the poem Beowulf, well buckle your seatbelts because this one is also going to be a great ride! This time I was given the chance to read, Grendel by John Gardner. The novel is all based on the perspective of Grendel himself, where we can see his thoughts on things and how we got to where he was in the poem, Beowulf. This novel was quite fun to read in all honesty, we get to read from basically some moody teenage point of view. Well, that it was it seemed like our little monster just complained from the very beginning. Anyway, this book speaks and mentions a lot of one’s mortality and feeling and experiences that come from humans, whether it spoke of how greedy we are, or how eager we can be in hopes of becoming powerful to the point where we can sacrifice things, such as peace and love. Grendel speaks of it all as he witnessed it himself from the shadows. It really was an interesting take on this whole thing because at the end it was quite questionable to me, who the real hero was, was it the guy who killed the big monster, or the being that is confused on who he is, and how he justed to talk to people but fate pushed him in that direction. Beowulf would be considered a hero, but It makes you have a lot of sympathy for Grendel as all he wanted was someone to talk to. If you like reading things that have a lot of symbolism please read Grendel by John Gardner, as if you look closely in each chapter is a mention of one of the astrological signs. If you read it or are interested in doing so please leave a comment, and tell me what your astrological sign is, I’m a Scorpio.

If you are unable to read Grendel or want a basic summary of what is happening before you add another thing to your audible list. The story is quite everywhere as in each chapter its speaks of a different moment in time for Grendel and his perspective. First, it starts with Grendel wishing to seek out someone to communicate with because his mother does not talk at all, as she only grumbles. But then he finds out that he can understand humans, but they can’t understand him. Then it goes on with him seeing the advancement of humans and being disgusted with their actions and reasoning. Like how they depend on the church and lies or are willing to sacrifice things for power. I don’t want to spoil it that much because his intellectual speaking is such a wonderful contrast than the way he spoke in both the movie and Beowulf. My favorite scenes were when he communicating to the dragon, and the dragon tries to give him advice but somehow all his advice leads to him talking about treasure, “My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” (Gardner 74). But most importantly, I love how much the dragon is dedicated to the following fate, as he can tell the future and does not want to ruin it, “even then I do not change the future, I merely do what I saw from the beginning..” (Gardner 63). If Unferth was not my favorite character, the dragon definitely would I’m so grateful for the book Grendel, because it shows us so much more about these wonderful characters.

Now personally, Grendel is much more interesting and easier to read than Beowulf, the story flows more smoothly and there are no random cuts in the paragraph. However, I did get confused with each chapter being a completely different time in his life. But other than that it is a good read and was extremely interesting ESPECIALLY if you read Beowulf. However, Beowulf in itself was confusing as stated in my previous blog, because of its formatting and how I just could not comprehend what was happening and who each character was and when they would speak. But in Grendel, it makes it so much easier to get a full grasp on who each character is and why certain things are happening. Maybe this is because Grendel is based on the perspective of one character so we can see his true thoughts on the person he is viewing, and when he talks about situations. Rather than just a random narrator talking about everything at once with no clear distinction of who is who and why they are talking. In all honesty, the movie did not do Grendel justice at all, in the movie Beowulf, they make Grendel this slimy creature that shrinks and doesn’t talk. Rather than the intellectual character that he is, with all his precise thoughts and opinions, he deserves his movie. I would 10/10 recommend Grendel, especially if you just finished reading Beowulf because Beowulf was confusing as heck and Grendel gave a better outlook on the characters. Also, I appreciate The book Grendel for this, but they gave me such a better view of who my favorite character is, and his personality. I love unferth so much, he was the only thing I’m still crying about in this whole thing I wish he got his book. If you’ve read the book who do you wish they would make another book about?

A look through the poem Beowulf.

Hello guys, welcome back to my blog! I hope you all had a great summer, what did you all do, did you all read anything interesting? Well, the school has started back up for me, and I have been given a chance to read Beowulf. (of course, the translated version by Burton Raffel because I have not achieved the ability to read old English as of currently.) And I must say, Its a pretty exciting read, although the way it is written was kinda confusing I will get into that later! The background on where Beowulf has come from was one of my favorites to learn about, very rarely I am given a chance to read less about a story and more about where it originated from. Beowulf’s originals author is unknown, it is a type of telling that has been retold many times in the past to the point where it is sort of like a game of telephone. Where the more it gets repeated, the more words get to switch around, which means we have no clue if the story we currently know is the original to be told. Which I believe is super exciting about this story, it made me think a lot more about this story. It made me wonder a lot about its origins as this story was developed long ago, and how the times have grown, I wonder if this story changed throughout the years.

Beowulf is this strong, very confident young man at the beginning of the poem and honestly throughout the whole thing (of course no longer young by the end). He goes to Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, who’s Mead hall is currently being attacked by a monster named Grendel and offers his help in defeating him. From the very beginning of the story, we can see Beowulf is the type of hero that loves to brag and overdramatize everything in hopes of being viewed as the most powerful, that is until he gets called out by Unferth (who is my personal favorite). Who basically exposes him out of pure jealousy, because he is the same as Beowulf, where they both have a huge ego. Anywho he quickly puts down Unferth with a witty and intelligent response and tells the king that he wants to fight Grendel without any armor or weapons since Grendel himself is not wearing any. I won’t get into any details about the battles since I hope this blog will inspire you to at least check it out. So basically throughout this whole poem, we see Beowulf with his confidence, Hrothgar throwing Beowulf one too many victory parties, and Beowulf becoming king himself. But honestly one of my favorites things about this poem is we get such a big-time skip that we can see how much he has grown, and although he still is overconfident, he is much more selfless and intelligent than before “He was old with years and wisdom, fifty winters, A king-“ (2208-2210). Also, if one battle is not enough for you to read one of the longest poems, there is a total of three monsters Beowulf battles, Grendel, Grendel’s mother, the dragon. My personal favorite is the dragon if you have read it or at least watched the movie (I recommend the poem though) which was your favorite battle scene?

I talked a lot about my favorites with this poem but here is a more detailed list of why I am a bit iffy about this read. Although the characters were interesting, I would have to say my favorite is Unferth, just because of how snarky he is before the first battle and how willing he is to accept Beowulf in the second battle. But just because the characters were fun to read doesn’t really change how hard it was for me to sit down and read this, I really disliked the way it was formatted. I like to read out loud in different voices so I can get experience but due to the way it was formatted the sentence would stop with a period and all of a sudden continue tabbed in the next line still advancing. It took me a lot longer to understand who was talking and what was going on due to the many characters with similar spelled names (so many H’s) So if you also have this problem, but you have a lot more patience than me, than definitely check this poem out. Also, as said previously,, my favorite battle was with the dragon, just because of how Beowulf changed and how everything ended up catching up with him I love a good plot twist. Also as you can see I have two gifs here where its the animated movie of Beowulf and may I just add, that If you want to read Beowulf, maybe also read Grendel too BEFORE watching the movie, I had the horrible chance to watch the film before Grendel and now I can no longer take the characters seriously. Also, the film did my favorite character Unferth dirty. Anywho enough about the film, In the poem, I kinda learned a valuable lesson, where just because you may be confident it does not make you weak to ask for help. I recommend this poem no matter how confusing it may be at times, it was so much fun to discuss, and if you’re interested shoot me an email or write in the comments discussing your favorite and least favorite parts. Thank you for reading!

A look through the theme of Love.

He loves me, he loves me not. We have all seen a cliche romance movie once or twice, therefore we basically know everything about love. That was a lie, love is much more complex then what is shown on our screens, books, and even in real life. We grow with the idea that love is a simple pure form of wanting to be with someone else. Many have even gone as far as basing their entire life on getting married or meeting their true love. That is why when entering this theme I came in with only the idea of seeing cute romance stories and poems since that is what the media shows us. Unfortunately, I was able to read many works that put my childhood prince romance dream to death. Therefore, I was able to read different works that showed many different types of love, whether it was good or bad didn’t change the fact that it was still a type of love. Love can come in many shapes and sizes, and it doesn’t always have to mean romantically, because even a platonic relationship can include love. Whereas, so can an abusive or possessive relationship. In this theme, you are able to take a look into many perspectives and get an understanding of why they may consider something love. This theme is personal, and I believe since there are so many varieties of love, even you may be able to relate to someone else’s personal stories, and even if you don’t that’s what makes this theme so grand, no matter what its always going to be what we consider to be love and how we express. When entering this theme please keep an open mind and be sure not to categorize only story tale romance as love, keep an open mind.

As much as I loved the love theme, I am only going to be introducing two works. The first being “Tonight I Can Write” by Pablo Neruda. This is a poem, and its about a breakup, or a relationship that someone is trying to get over. They dedicate their poem, by expressing how they feel by using both metaphor and symbolism. Furthermore, he adds to his poem by inv=cluding memories from their relationship. They end the poem by stating that this is the last that they will write about their loved one so that they move on. I recommend the poem if you want to feel a different form of feeling that comes with love, its quite intriguing as it is also bittersweet. Next is “Love and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape” by Amanda Brown. This is a bit more interesting and different, as it doesn’t really state words, but rather song titles. If you look closer into the titles you realize it has its own storyline, as it begins with someone looking for love, then while finding it and falling in love, someone cheats and it ends with despair as they try to apologize but the other partner won’t forgive. Maybe one day ill make a Spotify playlist of all these songs and leave a link down below, please leave a comment if you’re interested.

Love, in all honesty, isn’t one of my finest subjects. Mainly because I grew up in a strict household, and am not allowed to date. fortunately, that means no heartbreak for me, but that doesn’t change the fact that a platonic relationship is still considered as love. My experience is quite small, but growing up it wasn’t as easy as it is now for me to make friends. Our society is continuing to change, so what was considered weird then may be considered cool now. Anyhow, I once got invested in this platonic love with my friend for 12 years, I’ve known her way longer than I can remember. I invested so much of my life into our friendship, that was until one day that she fell in love with my older cousin. She then invested her life with him, and pushed me aside, I lost a long term platonic relationship with my best friend due to her ideals with love. This is really my only experience, I was able to discover a different type of love, and how fast a relationship can end when real love comes to term. Although I have grown from this experience, and have moved on to many more platonic relationships, I still want to experience many types of love. If you are interested, please leave a comment below of your own experience with love. Thank you for reading! (Word Count: 762)

A look through the theme of death!

In life, death is inevitable, just like how I was assigned this theme. The theme that I was assigned is death while reading many works over the span of a few weeks varying from short stories, poems, and even a play, I was able to see many different qualities in each work. Many held regret, not wanting to let go, and some even touched on suicide. Of course, death in itself is a very dark theme but once you are reading you can tell from their point of view how they feel about that topic personally. Luckily for me, I prefer darker themes just because they’re easier to form an opinion about, whether it is for it or against it, there is always something to say. When entering this theme I was quite excited, not only because our professor gave us a long time to read through them all, but because of how they were all about a serious topic that many avoid. I would warn but also encourage others to read through this theme, just because of how many are very touchy, but overall it’s a great experience whether you want a deeper look through or maybe a sense of comfort. Remember death is not always a bad thing, it varies on each person so that’s definitely a mindset you need to enter with when reading from this theme. Overall this theme was more of a sad vibe, but of course, that depends on the writers feeling, as some of these works were angry, disappointed, scared, regretful, and overall upset. If you are interested in reading from this theme please comment and ill do my best to recommend you a work that fits what you are looking for.

Death is a tough topic to read and I understand that, but maybe to persuade you I can introduce you to two works that I enjoyed. The first is “If I should learn, in some quite casual way.” by, Edna St. Vincent Millay. This poem was quite unsettling in my opinion but also completely understanding. It starts off by expressing that it was a normal day they casually found out someone they had known had died. Instead of having a normal breakdown or freaking out, they decide to continue on as if its a normal day in public. Personally, this is very understanding at the same time as if it is dark. Someone they had known and love had passed and their first instinct is to continue on, this can be that maybe they were keeping up a public eye and waiting till they get home, but we will never know. Lastly, is “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner. This is a story, that is quite eerie, as it starts off with a foreshadowing beginning of what’s to come. This young lady, Emily, has never dated anyone before and unfortunately, it didn’t help when her father had passed, and she meets a playboy whos only after her money. Of course, as a playboy does he tries to leave and fortunately for you, this isn’t end game and I’m not gonna spoil it. However I will tell you that this story will give you the creeps as its very dark, but I will recommend to you the short movie that was based on it. It is under the same name and stars my queen, Angelica Huston, also know as Morticia Addams. Please let me know in the comments below if you checked these out and what you think of them.

When reading into this theme I did my best to form a connection to my personal life, and thus this theme being death it was extremely easy to. Death is something that EVERYONE has to deal with in their life (unless you’re a vampire). Which means lots of personal connections. I recommend forming a connection to every theme just so it makes it fun to read through, of course, if you can’t just try to find similar situations you have been in and compare how you feel vs the writer. Growing up I’ve seen many family members come and go, and each one was a new experience of emotions. While you are young you don’t really notice it as parents tend to not explain it well so that you can continue having an innocent output of life. Well, that’s how it was for me, of course, though I got older and was able to form deeper connections with people before the heartbreak. At the beginning of junior year, I lost three people in my life, although my relationship with all of them was different and how I felt while it was happening was also different it just proves to me that even though death is a touchy topic its never going to be the same whether is yours or someone else’s experience. Every loss in itself will have a different effect, and you will either grow from it or disappear along with it. Live your life how you want because we never know how long it is going to last. 🙂 (word count: 869)