In week 10, we continued our quest to understand tragedy through viewing a Ted Talk over a philosophy of success, and reading Oedipus Rex. This was the week that tragedy was put in perspective for me, there is so much more to tragedy than meets the eye, as we have learned when talking about elements of literature in the last unit. Oedipus Rex was a story that the reader knew was waiting turn loose after first understanding that Oedipus was Jocasta's son... and husband. The reader was able to predict the tragic moments that were ahead, but not the results. The results were the death of Jocasta, and the eyeballs of Oedipus being ripped out of his head, two dramatic and tragic results. Reflecting on this story, we find insight from the citizens in the story. At the beginning, the townspeople adore Oedipus for solving the Sphinx's riddles, he is their hero. And as you might be able to predict, his glory gradually suffers.
Many people think success means being wealthy and having an above-average rank in society. From the Ted Talk we viewed on Monday, we learned that the term 'success' is unique to each person and is simply the way you perceive it. To give an example of this, Mr. Schoenborn gave an example of a student of his that barely passed his class, yet his mother was in tears that he actually passed. In my family, if I earned anything lower than a B in a class I would be in deep trouble. There are different levels of success and number of ways to view success.
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This week, we began thinking about tragedy, beginning our second unit, What is a Tragedy? To do this, we researched about characteristics of tragedies and different types of tragedies, in literature. I found this very helpful, as this helped me gain an understanding of why tragedy is so unique, and why it's important for us to learn. There is a lot behind tragedies that I did not previously understand, such as the many different forms that influence the outcome of a tragedy.
One big question that we were told to think about throughout the week was, "Can we overcome tragedies?" At first sight, I was stuck on how to answer the question, I struggled relating the question to my own life, thinking about tragedies in literature what effect tragedies have on characters. Well, like in life, we are those characters, and adversity strikes on all of us. Talking about tragedy makes me think about a quote that Rocky Balboa says to his son in one of the later Rocky movies. That is, "But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” Playing football nearly every year in my life, hearing similar lines was common through my many coaches. I interpret this quote as when hard times hit, what is our response to that adversity? The response is what defines us and builds the character inside of us. |
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March 2017
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