Finally!

Okay so I'm finally done. I just have to write my final analysis, but I am finding the instructions kind of confusing.. I'm not exactly sure which categories I'm supposed to write four paragraphs for. I know I have my whole speech outlined and analyzed so I'm not worried about actually analyzing it, I'm just not sure what the four topics are supposed to be. I've written down part of the speech onto index cards, and I'm ready to practice. I just want to finish the analysis paper so I can be done will all the typing parts to it. I can't believe I'm done way before 11. Hopefully I didn't jinx it now. But either way, I have my clip picked out. Contrast is clear, ideas are concrete. I feel confident in what I have to say. I still haven't decided what I should do visually for the stranger's part. I feel like everyone has been doing power point so I don't want to come in and be all repetitive. But we'll see. I'll probably come up with something more creative. I have two ideas and I think I'll use both. Have a plan A and a plan B, so that I have backup in case plan A fails. Better safe then sorry right? Well. Tomorrow's the day. Let's get this done.

Blood Wedding Journal # 2

The reaction of First Girl when she has found out about the Bride running away with Leonardo:
I can't believe it. She ran away with Leonardo? She is newly married and she runs away with another man? How terribly deceitful. How deliciously scandalous. No wonder she was acting so strangly all night. When I asked her about the pins, I could tell she was distracted. But little did I know this was on her mind! Poor Bridegroom. Left on the night of his wedding day. I wonder how long she had been planning this. I saw Leonardo walk around the room several times. He seemed restless. Or maybe he was trying to get her attention. Was it a signal? That he would walk past at a certain time, then she would leave and he would leave, separately and yet- together. Oh, how interesting it all has turned out to be. I, who thought she was so wonderful! I guess she was deceiving us all. I wonder if they catch them. What will happen? I want to see what happens. I want to be there when they're found. I want to see what she has to say. Wonder what Second Girl thinks? Who will get married first now, when the pins we received were given by an unfaithful bride? What an interesting wedding day this turned out to be!

Uh-Oh!

Oooooohhh no. So apparently the Frontline video doesn't want to work with me here, so now I have to make a last minute change of plans. This is no good. I have my stranger argument completely finished. But now I'm not really sure what to compare and contrast it with. Good thing I realize this the day before the last day. That's great. I guess That's what I'll have to figure out tonight and then I can finish the whole thing (typing and all) tomorrow. Hopefully with enough time left over to practice! Oh time just goes by so fast! This is not very helpful for IB students. Time you need to slow down for certain people when they're working on big projects! I have certain ideas to compare. I'm thinking a Hollywood version, instead of the media per say. Maybe go in the angle of: "Hollywood wants to convey more emotion, so they play up the scenes"something along those lines. Maybe just comparing one author to another.Or otherwise I can just compare to the ideas of death we get through the media, but with that I won't be able to get very specfic in the comparison part. Ugh, this is getting too complicated to close to the due date. I do not like this. But I'll get it together. Because my stranger argument feels really good, so I just need to get this second half together and then I got this.

Blood Wedding Journal #1

The thing that really stands out to me right now is the use of colors. I know Mrs. Wecker said to keep an eye on the scenery because the setting is essential to the story, it's almost a character to the story. So while reading the setting descriptions, I immediately noticed the different colors in the different scenes. The first room was yellow and that scene gave a tone of mystery and a little deceit. There is a secret lurking somewhere and we're dying to figure it out. And then another scene was pink, and that scene gave a feeling of coming together, a sunny day, meeting people and talks of marriage. The final plans and stuff. And then as soon as the sun had set the room got dark and secrets were being partly revealed. There is a lot of foreshadowing too. There is something about the bride that isn't right and we need to keep our eyes pealed. The lyrical structure of the sentences are very complimenting. It adds a sort of dreamlike essence to the story. It's interesting to notice the different structures, since compared to the other tragedies were all written in different languages, Spanish and Norwegian. The differences in tone are definitely effected by the original language I believe. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the story as the secrets unravel.

Closer?

It's coming along. I have everything on paper currently. I'll need to start typing it up tomorrow. I'm still working on making my arguments a little more solid. I was really impressed with Rimma's IOP yesterday, so I'm trying to finish a little faster so I can practice some more on the speech part. Tomorrow I'm gonna try and buy some index cards, so I can have my speech written down too. I'm still trying to decide what visual to use for the passages I take from the stranger. I'm leaning towards using an overhead. But either way, I have my passage cropped. I still have a few more minutes to shave off of the movie clip, because I need enough time to explain and compare. It's a sad video and because I've seen the whole clip and all the smaller parts still make sense to me but to someone who hasn't seen the whole thing, will it still makes sense? That's whats making things a little complicated at the moment. I just want to choose the part of the clip the evokes the most emotion. Because I need to make sure I can predict the reaction enough to be able to have the audience involved in my comparison. It's tricky tricky tricky. But luckily I still have some time tomorrow for finishing touches. Fine tuning everything. Or maybe more?

Ugh. Just Organizing and Deliberating

With big projects like these I find it's very hard to concentrate on what to start on. I've been looking over the Frontline video. I've got the video pretty much picked out. So I can now start on the media's perspective piece. I have also been looking through the stranger, and there are some passages I'm looking at for the Stranger part to my IOP. But for now I'm going to stay focused and continue on the Frontline/media track. I have the video so the next step for me will be organizing an outline for that piece. This will only be an outline for me, not anything that will be getting turned in. Because I will make two separate outlines for the two sides, to keep each side organized for me. Then for the final outline I will combine the two to fit the format of my speech. Just thinking in a rough context, I'm still trying to decide what to do for the Stranger part of the speech. I want to have to passages visible to the audience, because I know it'll keep them more engaged. I'm just trying to think which way would be best. If I should write them on the board or use an overhead. I don't think I'll be using power point though. Schedule Schedule schedule is what's on the agenda for now.

Aye-Ohh-Pee!

So, IOP week has officially begun for me. Time to think about death. We've been reading Tuesdays With Morrie for Senior Seminar and so the idea of death, I admit, has been on my mind a bit lately. Morrie suffers from the same disease that the guy from the Frontline special does. It's called ALS; better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. The disease has such a powerful emotional effect. Just imagine, knowing you're going to die, and being reminded by it everyday by the loss of bodily control, is almost hard to even imagine. It's like taking the aging process and speeding it up. Taking how much you'd have aged in 10 years and cramming it into 2. Instead of slowly losing your hand eye coordination, you lose it drastically everyday. It's like being in a train that's speeding towards a wall. Suddenly you realize how close the wall really is, when you notice the speed you're approaching it. I've watched the clip a few times now. It's so emotionally powerful. You can see that he's so scared. And his wife. I just can't imagine what it's like for the wife. She's watching her husband die. But you can see her support, until the very end. She lets him know that she is there for him. It'll be interesting to see how I make this work. I need to find the best parts of the clip first, to make sure I get the right message. Then I'll be able to connect the two.

Wild Duck Journal #1

Outrageous links:

• Blindness motif- partially blind Werle and Hedvig/ Oedipus gouging his eyes out and the blind prophet
  
• Who does Hedvig belong to? Question of biological parents/ Oedipus given away at birth, didn't know his biological parents
• The wild duck, it's a bird that can't fly=irony/ the blind prophet in Oedipus, a prophet that can see the future and sees the whole story who can't physically see= irony
• Gina and Jocasta, both unfaithful? Gina with Werle, and Jocasta with Oedipus. Do the characters play the same role in the play?
• Setting is in first in Gregger's house, than in Hialmar's/Oedipus it's in his lavish castle but talks of where his father was killed and the home Jocasta came from. Setting change= character relation? Is the setting meant to represent the character that is being focused on?
• Hialmar and Gregger's dad, Gregger's dad is of higher social status than Hialmar, yet helps Hialmar in a fatherly way, with his career, finding a wife, and helping with money/ Oedipus' non biological father treats him similarly, it's not his real father but he treats him more as a son than Oedipus' real father does
• Gina had an affair and she has a daughter/ Oedipus has daughters and his wife is also unfaithful. Significance of the daughters?
• Age- Gina is old enough to be Werle's mistress and yet marry Hialmar who is as old as Werle's son/ Oedipus is Jocasta's son, so he is way younger.
  

Greek Tragedy Question #2

Based on their characteristics, is there a connection between Oedipus' character, and Jocasta's? They both tried to change their fate, is that something that was caused by a common characteristic between the two?

Greek Tragedy Question #1

How does the Shepard compare to the Messenger? Is their effect on the audience similar? Why or why not?

Oedipus Journal #2

What I notice, or what I first kinda noticed, are the similarities between Oedipus and Sophocles. Personality wise, they both have lavish surroundings. Sophocles was wealthy and an important figure in society. He was well respected by those around him and he was known by many. These traits are all also present in Oedipus. Oedipus is a king, so he is wealthy and a figure of importance in society. Everyone knows him and respects him. (this is shown by the chorus and how they address him. Seeing as how the chorus is a representation of the citizens of Thebes) the setting of a royal house, is probably something Sophocles himself was familiar with, since he was rich and could afford lavish surroundings. Sophocles most likely identified with the character of Oedipus, not necessarily about the outcome of Oedipus' life but more the type of person he was and what he was used too. Based on most of those background information I understood Sophocles better and much
of what his life was like, which came in handy for the understanding of Oedipus. Because I can see the correlation between the two, I can understand how Sophocles felt about Oedipus as a fictional character. It helps just in the overall understanding, essentially.

Oedipus Journal #1

Settings and character introduction. It's setting is at the royal house of Thebes, when they introduce Oedipus he is described as majestic but with a slight limp. He is coming out of this majestic castle and looks over his people. This gives the notion that he is in charge but you don't get the feeling that he is a dictator. He is then addressed by the priest which was always a respected figure especially in the older days. Even the priest greets Oedipus with a tone of respect, which leads the reader to feel that same respect towards the character.
The introduction of the chorus is also very notable. The chorus was set to represent the citizens of Thebes. They enter and are unaware of some of what has happened, which shows or most likely relates to how the mass of citizens can usually be left out on certain things that happen, probably derived from a true situation. They also chant in unison to show that as a mass they all have the same opinions. Oedipus's conversation with the chorus introduces how the relationship between the two. How Oedipus is of higher standing and yet after what has happened the chorus is a little resistant of trusting his words. As the leader steps out we are again introduced to more detail.
When a new character is introduced they endow the previous character in some way, even if it is not something directly spoken, it is the manner the use to address the other. This is very helpful to focus on in the beginning of a book because it helps give us an early understanding of the character and how that character is received by others.