Odyssey--Homer Blog 3

Question--Was Odysseus heroic when dealing with the Cyclops?

I think that Odysseus was both heroic and cowardly in different ways.  It was heroic to have to courage to save the friends he had left with him.  At the same time, he purposefully got the Cyclops drunk and waited until it was asleep to attack him.  That is not a very fair fight but that is also Odysseus just being wily.  Would a hero in other stories face the Cyclops head on? Not hide under the sheep to escape? Maybe.  But Odysseus did show a lot of bravery and courage, as well as giving his crew hope.  His actions could be interpreted either as heroic or cowardly, personally I think it is a mix of both.

Odyssey--Homer Blog 2

The first way that the Odysseus' story links to the stages of a heros journey is through all the tests, trials, allies, and enemies he has met so far in the book.  Even though it is the sixth step of the heros journey, the Iliad takes place before the Odyssey so I am sure that steps 1-5 were in the Iliad.  The main test and trial he has met thus far was when Poseidon creates the storm that almost kills him as he was trying to travel back home from the nymphs island.

Secondly, through this trial he met his one obvious enemy: Poseidon, as well as some allies like the river goddess, Athena, the princess, and the nymph that kept him on the island (she is an ally to some extent).  With out the danger that he was put through, he would never have met these people or created alliances with them.  Step six is basically the only step in the heros journey that we have come across in the Odyssey so far.

Odyssey--Homer Blog 1

Epithets -
Sunlit Sea: Page 160.
Radiant goddess: Page 160.
Wine-dark Sea: Page 159.

Epic Similes -
1. "That wand in his grip, the powerful giant-killer, swooping down from Pieria, down the high clear air, plunged to the sea and skimmed the waves like a tern that down the deadly gulfs of the barren salt swells glides and dives for fish, dipping its beating wings in bursts of spray- so Hermes skimmed the crests on the endless crests." Page 154.
-This works because he is skimming like a tern across the sea to go somewhere else.  Like a bird- a tern - he can fly very fast and get places quickly, even over the water.

2. "She pitied Odysseus, tossed, tormented so- she broke from the waves like a shearwater on the wing, lit on the wreck and asked him kindly, "Ah poor man, why is the god of earthquakes so dead set against you?" Page 162-163.
-This works because Homer is comparing the girl coming out of the water with "a shearwater on the wing".  This is a good simile because it describes how the girl rises out of the water to help Odysseus.

Gryphon-Charles Baxter Blog

The Gryphon was a very interesting story and I thought that it was kind of confusing too.  The plot did not make any sense to me but I did like the story.

One of the things that i thought were very interesting was they way the author would inject information about the setting randomly in dialogue.  For example on page 28 "Five Oaks being a rural community, and in Michigan..." and again on page 32 "Its raw spinach, cleaned this morning before I came out here to the Garfield-Murry school."Also the way that the author did not mention Tommy's name until almost 3/4 of the way through the story. As the reader I had to gradually pick up hints about the main character and the setting.  While reading the first few pages I didn't even know if the main character was a boy or a girl! But over all I did enjoy the story.

The Cast of Amontillado Blog

The setting of The Cast of Amontillado was probably around the 1800's in Italy.  It mentions that both Fortunato and Montresor are collecting Italian wines so they probably lived in Italy or somewhere in Europe.  When they are in the catacombs together, it is described as a very dark, sinister place.  "We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux to glow rather than flame." It just sounds incredibly dark, scary, and creepy.  

Poe's voice in this story describes things in a way that just causes you to think that they are scary and dark. It has a lot to do with the words he uses such as "catacombs" "seizes" "moisture trickle among the bones." When a book is made up of words like that, you know that it won't be a very happy and light story.  Poe would also use a lot of emotion in the dialogue of the speakers.  He wouldn't really describe what the person was feeling but he would let their words do the work.  When he was describing the setting he used a lot of dark, sinister adjectives and would string them together so the reader would understand that it was a very creepy and shady story. 

In the beginning of the story it says that Fortunato insulted Montresor and so he needs to take revenge on Fortunato.  His plan of revenge is to use Fortunato's love for collecting wine to lure him into an old catacomb by saying that he has a very rare type of wine that he wants Fortunato to taste.  After he lures him into the old catacomb he eventually chains Fortunato to a wall and then seals up the room with plaster.  His method of seeking revenge is very gruesome but on the other hand it was also very well planned and thought out.  

Indian Camp-Ernest Hemingway Blog 2nd Edition

The idea that Nick who is such a young child witnesses all the graphic events that he did that morning really stands out to me. The things he saw were unbelievable. First off, seeing a woman in labor is probably not something that a young boy really understands. Also, the bloody surgery and a man after he committed suicide are not things that Nick should be seeing.

The beginning of the story and the fact that Nick, his father and Uncle George are all coming from the outside world to the indian camp is also important. It symbolizes that they are coming into this "other" world and the lake creates a type of boarder.

The Iceberg Theory is also very interesting. Hemingway implies so many things but in a way that you would already natural assume it. For example "They walked up the beach through a meadow that was soaking wet with dew." He never told the reader that it was early in the morning but they would just naturally assume it.

Indian Camp-Ernest Hemingway Blog

In the short story Indian Camp, a young boy named Nick visits an indian camp with his father and uncle. His father is a doctor and is there to help deliver a baby who's mother had been in labor for 2 days. Nick's father ends up having to operate on the indian woman because she needs a C-section. Everyone in the village moved away from her shanty because of the noise she made except her husband. After the baby is born, Nick's father and Uncle George find her husband and he killed himself with a razor. Nick's father tries to explain to Nick why the man killed himself.

My initial reaction to this story was one of confusion. After I read it a few more times I found some details that I had not caught the first time around that helped me understand the story better.  Hemingway has a very subtle way of adding in detail of which character is talking and which character is being described. In order to catch all of those details I needed to read this story three times.

One interesting thing that I noticed in this story was that the character of Nick's father is never given an independent name. He is always only referred to as either "Nick's father", "Father", "Doctor" or "He".  We never find out what his real name is.

Another thing that I noticed while reading this story was that in the beginning Hemingway drops very subtle hints of what time of day it is and what season it is. Throughout the book he adds on to these hints and then eventually says that "It was just beginning to be daylight when they walked along the logging road back to the lake." I figured in the beginning of the story that is was very early in the morning when they first arrived at the camp. I was correct with my assumptions since he finally said what time of day it was at the end of the story.

Lastly, the way that Nick's father took that time to explain exactly what was happening to Nick was very interesting. Nick's father was always extremely calm before, while, and after operating on the lady and finding the dead man.