Sunday, March 30, 2008

Jane Eyre: Novel vs. Movie


















The story of Jane Eyre is a unique and different story that was written by Charolette Bronte. In the novel Jane was described as a young orphan who lived with extended family that didn't want her. They would store her away in the "red room," if she didn't do exactly what they said or was being punished for any reason. The family also beat her as well, and they just showed no care or support for her at all. This was shown through the movie as well. Although I would prefer the novel over the movie anyday, because it is easier to understand and not as boring. Overall I thought the movie was fairly boring considering that it was nearly 4 hours long. It showed alot of the charactersitics of Jane from in the book. It was basically an overview of her life, just less descriptive and not as well told. Although the movie did help me to understand the novel just a little bit more, I still felt like it was nowhere near as good. Its kind of just like Othello, because i thought that the novel was much better, but the movie helped to put everything together and to just make it all that much more clear. I liked how Jane was shown as a strong girl who was searching for her independence all throughout her life. She strived to better herself, and didn't want to settle for less. For example, by her not marrying him because of his first marriage with Bertha. Therefore she went out on her way to make something more of herself. Although it made me happy to see that in the end she got what she wanted and her and Rochester finally got together. I feel this way because I could sense that deep down Rochester was good, and that he had all the right intentions, but they just seemed to come out the wrong way. I really did enjoy reading and wathing these two versions of the novel, all in all, I feel that this was an interesting story and it is one of my favorites out of the novels that we have read thus far.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Robinson Crusoe Thesis

Thesis: Robinson Crusoe seems to have not changed throughout the course of the novel for he is still sef-centered, rude and controlling.



"I sent seven women." p. 220
This quote just goes to show that at the end of the novel he still has litte respect for women. In this quote he just speeks of women as a object that is just for the men to use on the island. This is a perfect example of how much Crusoe didn't change throughout the novel.



"When the captain was gone, I sent for the Men up to me to my apartment." p. 199
Basically this shows that he is in charge and that is controlling. This quote is shown at the end so it just goes to prove that he only cares about himself and wants service to himself.



"I order'd Friday, and the Captians Mate, to go over the little Creek Westward." p.190
All that I have to say about this quote is the word "ordered." Who is he to think that he can just boss around everyone and just order them around. He is no higher rank in life than any of these men, therefore I just dont understand where he gets it from.



"O, Master." p. 181
This is Friday calling him his master. Friday is a savage and there is no reason why he should be calling Crusoe his master. It just makes no sense. This just proves that he wants all attention on him, and that he wants everyone to follow only him and to do him service.




"I ask'd him how he throuhgt they would recieve a Proposal from me, which might tend towards an Escape?" p. 176
In this quote he is talking about Friday when he is scared that he is going to run away from him, but he says that he is his slave and that he will not allow him to. This just goes to show how controlling he is over a person. This quote really does make me believe that he really hasn't changed one bit.






"I had secur'd my two weak Prisoners."
Here he is speaking of the other natives in which he is taking in to be his slaves. This just continues to bother me that he simply just doesn't care. I think that my biggest problem with this would be that he treats all of them as his slaves, but he thinks that they are all just best friends only because he provides them shelter.



"The next day I set him to work." p. 154
Crusoe talks about the continuous work load he gives for Friday to complete. Just another example of how much he has not changed.




"I return'd to my Castle." p. 152
Here he is referring to the island as his castle and that he is the king of it, and that Friday is just one of his servants. I guess that maybe 28 years on an island could make one go a little crazy and his was that he thought that he was king.



"first i made him know his name should be Friday." p. 149
Basically Crusoe names him based on the day that he finds him. This sounds more like a pet name and is not a normal human name. It is a good symbol for how he treats him throughout the book, because he basically treats him as his pet.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Shipwrecked


The Queen Anne's Revenege:


This website listed above shows a map of what is remaining of the Queen Anne's Revenge. This map is shown in great detail and gives a great showing of where everything is located on the bottom of the ocean floor. Edward Teach, mostly known as Blackbeard was the pirate in charge of this ship which was sailed during the year of 1718. It was considered to be the largest pirate ship to sail the Spanish Main. It wrecked June of 1718 at Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. Blackbeard used his ship to win over nearly 18 other ships. The Queen Anne's Revenge was considered to be his biggest and most useful weapon. Some say that she was most likely launched in Great Britain in 1710, during the War of the Spanish Succession known as The Queen Revenge's War. Although it is not for sure, it is documented that this ship was once known as the Concord, until it was captured by the French in 1711. The Concord, was one of the ships that Blackbeard had stolen and then renamed it to The Queen's Revenge. He used her in the blockade of Charelston in May of 1718. It is said that this victory was his greatest achievement as a pirate. Not much information is known on the actual wrecking of the ship, but it is said that a couple of days after the victory at Charleston she was taken aground and was to be never seen again.












Columbia River Shipwrecks:















During the 1700's there was several ship wrecks which occured near the Columbia River. More than 200 have been documented shipwrecks which occured in this specific area. This is tremendously large amount considering that it is just a river. During 1776-1777, there were several missions which included the crossing of this river, leading to the large amount of shipwrecks in this area. There was one shipwreck which was known to have survivors which landed is nowaday Oregon and were attacking by Indians. Supposidly they hid their treasure along the shore. This is spectical because none of it has been found, well at least not reported. Basically this is saying that the buried treasure chests could have been found by people who just decided to not report it. Though most dont believe that this could happen, but nowadays you just never know.


Sunday, March 2, 2008

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner


























After reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner I was sort of interested in learning a bit about the life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I wanted to see what led to his writing of this interesting poem, and to learn a little bit about him. I decided to do something a little different this time, and look up one main website. From these websites I will try and find out as much information about him that I possibly can. This will not only help me to understand more about the author and his lifetime, but how to compare good and not so good websites.



Sameul Taylor Coleridge:

Coleridge was born October 21, 1722 in Ottery St Mary, Devonshire. Believe it or not he was the youngest of 10 children. There seems to be not enough information about his childhood years. Information is very scarce and is lacks several key years. From these several websites stated below I found an okay amount of information. There was little to none about his childhood. Basically what was already mentioned is all that was in the text. I could find a goood amount of information about his learning experiences and how he became a literature writer. He went to a Christ's Hospital School located in London and later transferred to Jesus College. After this he got married to Sara Flicker who sadly, he was not in love with. Coleridge's first writings came out in 1776. These were known as the Poems on Various Subjects. His brothers helped out with the money situation and helped him to get on his feet and be able to do his literature. It is known that he had a start of a good relationship with Dorothy and William Wordsworth. Meeting these people helped to lead him to his writing of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. After this he started to secretly fall in love with Sara Hutchinson and ended up writing a couple of literary poems on her. It was later found that he was addicted to opium and was debating to commit suicide. Even though some of his work was left unfinished, it was still later published. He ended up dying for what seems to be an unknown reason, but his death occurred in London on July 25, 1834. This is just a little bit of the information that I was able to gather up about him. It seems he was a pretty interesting fellow. Although websites really seem to lack in information; the first website shown below gives a pretty good analysis of his life through a timeline.


http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/resources/time_line.html
http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/