First, family.
This week, I will be writing about expectations. Famed playwright William Shakespeare once said, “Expectation is the root of all heartache.” I wholeheartedly (haha, wholeheartedly) agree. In my opinion, expectations ruin relationships. Just assuming that another person will act a certain way constantly is unreasonable. For example, relying on someone to reply to your text in two minutes every time is not that bad if that is the kind of person they are. But once they just happen to take ten minutes instead, you feel ignored and lonely. Now, that example might sound dumb, but there are countless others. Goals, however, are an entirely different category. Setting goals for yourself and holding others accountable to their personal goals is a great habit. The difference between goals and expectations are that goals are flexible and forgiving, while expectations are set in stone.
One of the best ways to live a happy life is by setting regular goals for yourself. It will keep you on top of things, but not stressed. If someone starts to set unreasonable expectations for you, cut them out. Instead of constantly living under the watchful eye of expectations, relax and do your best without pressure. I am definitely not saying that you should not care at all. Caring about the world around you is vital. If you want to be truly happy, find a healthy balance between pressure and freedom. This way, you will not slack off, but you will not be anxious about what is to come.
This classic Greek myth tells the story of a young man named Jason and his search to restore his kingdom. Jason has the right to the kingdom, but the current king, Pelias, does not want to give up his power. Jason must go get the Golden Fleece in order to be crowned. He goes on an adventure with a group of demigods, encountering many challenges along the way. Once they reach the kingdom that hold the Golden Fleece, the princess falls in love with Jason and aids him along his journey. Princess Madea even kills her own brother and Pelias for Jason. Madea and Jason are madly in love throughout the story and have two sons together. Jason eventually becomes the king of Greece, but then pledges to marry another woman. Madea is outraged and sends her sons to kill Jason’s soon-to-be bride. She dies and Madea kills her sons because she thinks that they will never have a chance since they are murderers, and then she escapes.
Although the finger can be pointed at almost all of the characters in the story, I think that the tragic deaths in the end were Madea’s fault. She is the one who actually executed (no pun intended) them. Some people may say that Jason caused it because he was the one who forsake her, but it was ultimately Madea’s choice to murder. As it says in Mythology by Edith Hamilton, “I who gave them life will give them death.” (Hamilton 174). Madea made the physical decision to kill her sons, not Jason. I think that we all have the choice to make our own decisions. It is very easy to let others influence our choices, like Madea, but in the end, you are the only one that can make your choices.
This week, I will be evaluating the recurring appearance of the quest in literature. My favorite book series, The Selection by Kiera Cass. Although the quest is not as obvious as in other stories, it still is prevalent in these novels. I do not want to spoil the story for anyone, so if you have not read the books and want to, DO NOT READ ON.
The story begin with the main character, America, living with her big family. The social classes in their kingdom go from one (the royals) to eight (homeless people). America and her family are Fives. America is secretly dating her childhood friend, Aspen. He is a Six, so he is poor, but he still demonstrates that he could provide for America. In order to try to win more rations from the government, America’s mom signs her up for the Selection. The Selection is a tradition in which the king-to-be is given the choice of thirty-five girls to be his queen. All girls must be ages 16-20, but otherwise, any girl can apply. The prince can eliminate anyone of them until there is only one remaining. America doesn’t want to be selected because it would mean giving up her romance with Aspen. Out of all the girls, America does end up being one of the selected. She is hesitant, but as soon as she sees Aspen associating with another girl, she accepts. America’s stated quest is to provide for her family with the benefits gifted to her by the royals. Her real quest, though, is to get revenge upon Aspen. America encounters condescending competitors and along the way, starts to fall in love with the prince. Will she ever find love? Read the books to find out.
I personally think that the quest occurs in so much literature because of the search within it. As it says in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, “The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge” (Foster 3). In my opinion, almost everyone in our real world is on a quest for self-knowledge. That’s why literature involving the quest is so popular. The quest is relatable. Everybody has or will at one point doubt their self-identity, and have to go on a quest to find it. Wether that means traveling the world, or just living out everyday life, a unique person must be found. So when we read fiction, we can somehow use it in the next day, and learn more about ourselves.
The Yoruba tribe is located in what is now Nigeria and the Republic of Benin (Africa). Their creation myth goes as following. In the beginning of the Earth, there was only the ocean and the sky. The god, Olorun, was in charge of the sky, while Olokun the goddess ruled the waters. Obtala, another god, decided that he wanted to create land on the water and went to Olorun and asked permission. After Olorun approved, Obtlala went to Orunmilla, the god of prophecy, for advice. Orunmilla told Obtala that in order to make land, he must gather a gold chain, a snail’s shell full of sand, a white hen, a black cat, and a palm nut. All of the gods contributed what gold they had and Orunmilla provided the rest of the supplies. Obtala packed all of the materials into a sack, except for the gold chain. He hung the gold chain from the corner of the sky and began his climb down. Obtala reached the bottom of the chain and still had some distance to go, so Orunmilla instructed him to dump the sand out of the shell onto the water and place the hen on top of it. Obtala did what he was told, and the chicken began to spread the sand around. Dry land was created and Obtala called it Ife. Once reaching the land, Obtala planted the palm nut, which immediately matured. He sat down with his cat as company, finished with his work. After a couple of months, Obtala became bored and decided to create other life to bring him company. Obtala found clay in the soil to mold creatures like him, but grew tired and decided to take a break. He made himself a bowl of palm nut wine, and drank bowl after bowl without realizing that he was becoming drunk. Obtala went back to his work, creating multiple deformed figures and calling Olorun to breathe life into them. The next morning, Obtala noticed his mistake and swore never to drink again and to protect those who are deformed, becoming the Protector of the Deformed. Obtala sculpted new people, who began to make huts and prosper. Olokun, goddess of the sea, was infuriated because Obtala had not consulted her when making land, and flooded Obtala’s creation. The flood wiped out almost all of the people, and from that day on the tribe always took the sea seriously.
I think that the creation myth that emerged from the Yoruba culture emerged for many reasons. First of all, I think that the people of the tribe were influenced by the ocean, seeing that the tribe resided near the coast. This is one of the reasons that the people felt that the ocean had always been there. I also think that the tribe realized that not everybody was perfect physically and provided an explanation for those natural happenings in their creation myth. The Yoruba tribe also provided explanations for animals, plants, and humans in their myth.
This week, I’ll be writing about my fall break. Although I stayed in Colorado the entire time, it was still a nice break.
Monday: My car had a screw in its tire so my family and I went to Discount Tire to try to get it removed, but the mechanics said they could not squeeze us in, so we made an appointment on Thursday. Afterwards, we went to Parry’s Pizza for lunch and ran by Home Depot to grab paint for my parents’ room.
Tuesday: In the morning, I had volleyball team pictures at eight am and practice until eleven. My mom picked me up and we took my dog to the dog park. We went home and ate leftover pizza and relaxed. That night, my siblings and I went to Noodles and Company with my dad.
Wednesday: On Wednesday, I was unable to attend volleyball practice because one of our cars was in the shop and my dad had taken the other car to work. I slept in! When I woke up, it was super foggy and I love fog, so I took my dog for a walk. The rest of the day, my siblings and I just played together.
Thursday: Volleyball practice was at nine. My mom picked me up at 11 again and we headed to the tire shop for our appointment. Our original plans were to go to the Qdoba near the tire shop for lunch while the car was getting fixed. The worker told us that it would take nearly an hour and a half and my mom had some Target returns to make so we decided to walk to Target. On our way to Target we stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch. The tire shop called us about 30 minutes later and told us that our car was ready. We walked back, drove our car home, and hung out for the rest of the day.
Friday: There was no volleyball practice on Friday, so I slept in once again. My mom had to take my dog to the vet and so I stayed home with my siblings. We jumped on our trampoline for a while before she came home. We ate dinner as a family and then my mom dropped me off at my friend’s house for a sleepover.
Overall, fall break was a great time to recuperate before school started again.
Today, as I sat down with my hands on the keyboard to type, my mind drew a blank. I did not have any clue what to write about. I tried looking up prompts, but that didn’t even help. So I asked my parents. My mom said, “If you were an animal, which one would you be and why?”. Here I am now, writing about if my personality was transferred into an animal, I would be a pine marten.
At first glance, these creatures look like a cuddly pet, but in reality, they are known as “nature’s most adorable assassin.” These ferocious furries chase squirrels, their primary food source, through trees until they catch and kill it. Now you may say, how is the pine marten like you? Well, while I don’t devour squirrels on a daily basis (or at all), I would say that the first impression that most people get of me is not who I really am. Just like the pine marten, I think that I come off as kind of innocent, but as you get to know me, you discover another side of me. In reality, I’m a very sarcastic person. I love to play around, but I can also get very serious. I hope that as the year progresses, I can get to know all of our Western Literature class and the other side to everyone’s personality.
When reading or analyzing and piece of literature, it is vital to recognize patterns. Sometimes these patterns come in small details that only the expert would draw attention to. Others are like a giant flashing lights sign. Paying close attention to recurring patterns helps better our understanding of what exactly we are reading. In difficult works, noticing repeated pieces of information shows us what exactly the author was trying to symbolize. Often times, people who read these tough writings only read them at a surface level, only following the basic storyline. When an individual learns how to analyze symbolism, they can take the lessons learned from the book to a whole new level. Another benefit of hidden patterns is being able to make educated predictions on what will happen next. Without taking these symbols into consideration, most predictions are just random guesses. Overall, patterns help us read literature in a whole new light.
The best and most common example of patterns and symbolism that I have read is in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Orwell uses farm animals to satirize the Russian Revolution. Without blatantly being told which animal symbolizes which person, it is pretty easy to tell. Two pigs symbolize the competing leaders of the day, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin. The way that the author uses the pig, an intelligent yet dirty animal, to symbolize them is genius. One of my other favorite symbolisms is the Bourgeoisie to that of an Arabian horse. The horse is beautiful, and sees nothing wrong with being controlled by the farmers. Once the farmers are overthrown, she runs away to a different farm because she wants to keep the ribbon in her hair. This is a hilarious comparison to the upper class of the Revolution, who did not want socialism and fled to different countries because they wanted to keep their possessions. The book was a wonderful introduction on how to use symbolism well, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun way to learn about patterns and symbolism.
In “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens, the main character is a young boy named Pip. Pip lives with his abusive older sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, and her husband in the marshes of London. Towards the beginning of the book, Pip has no purpose in life. It says on page three, “and that the dark, flat wilderness beyond the churchyard…”. There are not many people around, not much drama either. He kind of lives a ho-hum lifestyle, not having to face any choices. Pip just gets used to not having to make moral decisions. Once he is threatened by the suspicious man in the graveyard, Pip had to choose. Was he going to risk stealing from the people that work hard to feed him and help a starving man? Or was he going to go against his word and not return to the graveyard? He eventually decides to steal food from the house.
As Pip is in the process of doing so, he thinks, “I was clearly on my way there [the Hulks]. I had begun by asking questions, and I was going to rob Mrs. Joe.” This quote shows that Pip actually think about the consequences of his actions. Instead of just doing it, he questions the value of each choice, showing quite a bit of moral growth. The book continues on, and Pip does not change much in his morality. Although he experiences a lot more, none of the events enormously impact his moral development. I predict that Pip will be faced with many more hard decisions in the book, and I look forward to tracking his moral growth and moral decline.
Bring Honor to World Lit 