I think I can connect with a few aspects of many characters, but on the other hand I have a hard time connecting with the way the characters deal with their lives. In particular I would focus on the emotions felt by the characters. Even more specifically, Romeo. Romeo is completely infautuated with Rosaline, a girl he barely knows. I think almost everyone can connect with a feeling of desire for one person, especially as one grows through the teenage years. Indeed, often a simple desire can turn your life to paste as you dwell on it, and if you are convinced that said person will never "love" you back, its easy to feel like its the end of the world. How could I ever "love" again if this truly beautiful person doesn't care for me? Now that I have seen them, no substitute will ever be acceptable. Naturally I can also connect with the part afterwards where Romeo completely forgets about his old love and moves on. In one sense, it the end of a world, a world you created in your mind where everythings is great, then it dissolves in one fluid motion (no pun intended) just as fast as it arrived.
I believe that reading at home is a good way to see what you're going to talk about in class, but honestly I don't really find the need to work really hard to understand difficult concepts because I know we'll talk about them in class. I do the reading, get the general plot, and try to understand what's being said, but if I can't figure it out I usually just wait to see what the teacher has to say about it. As such, the reading in class is extremely useful for getting a clear picture of whats going on. I would also say as I read more Shakespeare it is indeed becoming easier to understand the next part.
-Aaron
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Message of Great Expectations
My feelings on the message of the book are pretty simple. They relate to the key word of the title. Expectations.
Throughout your life, you always have desires. You want this, or you want that. Often, its really superficial what you want. As children, you also often have great senses of self-entitlement. You think you deserve this, or you deserve that. Maybe you think your parents ought to buy you this, or you deserve to go hang out with your friends. No matter how big or small, you expect things to turn your way. However, often what you want isn't whats really best for you. You can spend a long time pursuing something only to discover its not what you wanted, or that you've actually destroyed your life in the process. The book is about the comparison between what you expect, and what you actually recieve. What the book is saying about that idea is that you need to watch out, because many times what you want is not the best thing for you. You need to ponder and consider what you're life choices will do to you.
Anyways, that's it fairly simple.
-Aaron
Throughout your life, you always have desires. You want this, or you want that. Often, its really superficial what you want. As children, you also often have great senses of self-entitlement. You think you deserve this, or you deserve that. Maybe you think your parents ought to buy you this, or you deserve to go hang out with your friends. No matter how big or small, you expect things to turn your way. However, often what you want isn't whats really best for you. You can spend a long time pursuing something only to discover its not what you wanted, or that you've actually destroyed your life in the process. The book is about the comparison between what you expect, and what you actually recieve. What the book is saying about that idea is that you need to watch out, because many times what you want is not the best thing for you. You need to ponder and consider what you're life choices will do to you.
Anyways, that's it fairly simple.
-Aaron
Friday, April 1, 2011
My thoughts on reading
Charles Dicken's Great Expectations. Another classic under my belt. I guess there's something to be said about that. However, this post is about my reactions, so I guess I'll start.
This book treated me fairly well. It wasn't really long, and it kept me mostly interested enough of the time to keep it from becoming overly tedious. Dicken's writing was certainly not hurtful to the eyes, and I enjoyed more than one part. However, I must be honest that I really didn't sympathize with any of the characters. I may have mentioned in many of my blogs and in class explanations that Pip acted like an ignorant child for the first third of the novel, which could have been endearing at first, but as he grew it up he did not gain any more intelligence, and he really just struck me as being stupid at quite a few parts. For example, he could have, you know, noticed that Estella was out to get him. Love is illogical apparently. My predicitions, outside of the alien ones, were actually fairly accurate. At least I can respect that the plot didn't stretch my suspension of disbelief like so many current novels do. (I'm looking at you Harry.)
Indeed, I did read the whole novel. I was pretty good about following the schedule at first, then I usually read in chunks, reading a couple days ahead. Before the last week, I basically said "forget that" and finished the novel. Sometimes I read in the morning, but I actually finished the novel between bands during a festival. I think it was more satisfying for me to get that instant gratification of solving mysterys and getting squicked out by odd marriages.
Still, such a disappointment that my rather outlandish predictions were false. I'm sure that can be corrected in a alternate version. It would have made things much more interesting.
-Aaron
This book treated me fairly well. It wasn't really long, and it kept me mostly interested enough of the time to keep it from becoming overly tedious. Dicken's writing was certainly not hurtful to the eyes, and I enjoyed more than one part. However, I must be honest that I really didn't sympathize with any of the characters. I may have mentioned in many of my blogs and in class explanations that Pip acted like an ignorant child for the first third of the novel, which could have been endearing at first, but as he grew it up he did not gain any more intelligence, and he really just struck me as being stupid at quite a few parts. For example, he could have, you know, noticed that Estella was out to get him. Love is illogical apparently. My predicitions, outside of the alien ones, were actually fairly accurate. At least I can respect that the plot didn't stretch my suspension of disbelief like so many current novels do. (I'm looking at you Harry.)
Indeed, I did read the whole novel. I was pretty good about following the schedule at first, then I usually read in chunks, reading a couple days ahead. Before the last week, I basically said "forget that" and finished the novel. Sometimes I read in the morning, but I actually finished the novel between bands during a festival. I think it was more satisfying for me to get that instant gratification of solving mysterys and getting squicked out by odd marriages.
Still, such a disappointment that my rather outlandish predictions were false. I'm sure that can be corrected in a alternate version. It would have made things much more interesting.
-Aaron
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