the metamorphosis reflective essay

              Gregor is a lonely isolated guy who works a crappy job with no friends and complains about his life 24/7. In fact, he is so lonely and friendless that he framed a picture of a female model in his room to make him feel better. "It was a picture of a women with a fur hat and a fur boa. She sat erect there, lifting p in the direction of the viewer a solid fur muff into which her entire forearm had disappeared." (Kafka 1). Normally people frame pictures of friends and family and put around the house,  Gregor frames the model because he doesn't have friends or family that gives him comfort and joy to frame. The model gives him false hope and is always there for him in his room for him to complain to at the end of the day. After Gregor becomes a bug, his sister and mother tries to clean out his room so he has more room to crawl around. Gregor wants his room and his stuff to remain exactly where they are but he is unable to express and communicate. "He quickly scurried up over it and pressed himself against the glass which held it in place and which made his abdomen feel good. At least this picture, which Gregor at the moment completely concealed, surely no one would now take away." (Kafka 16). He desperately tries to save the framed photo of the women wearing nothing but fur, hiding it behind his giant bug body. He feels even more alone and isolated now that he is a large, human-size insect; although his mom and sister still tries to care for him,  he knows they're terrified and disgusted with Gregor. In his loneliness and isolation , the photo of the women is the only thing that Gregor has left and he refuses to let the only source of the slightest joy to be taken away.

              Although Gregor still lives with his family, and his mother and sister tries to help him in irrelevant ways; his father is angry and physically harms Gregor. From the beginning, Gregor's father has been a terrible  fatherly figure. Gregor works a job he hates just to pay off his fathers debt as he sit at home living the life.  "Then his father gave him a really strong liberating push from behind, and he scurried, bleeding severely, far into the interior of his room." (Kafka 9).When Gregor's father first sees him as a giant bug, his reaction was not to help him, but to shove and shoo him back in to his room, severely injuring Gregor in the process. Rather than trying to help his son, he sees him more as a freak show embarrassment. Later on in the story, he even tries to kill Gregor. "as her hands reached around his father's neck, and she begged him to spare Gregor's life." (Kafka 18). Gregor's father comes in to his room and starts to chase and pelt him with apples,  nearly killing Gregor. Gregor lays half-consciously on the ground as he watches his mother beg his father to let him live. His father is cold, cruel, and brutal. He refuses to have a freak son that does not work and make money, he does not love Gregor at all. All he cares for is money and his hour long breakfasts. 

canto 25

Canto 25 in Dante's Inferno is referring to the Eigth Circle of hell in the 7th pocket. In this pocket is where the thieves spend the rest of eternity. the punishment for the thieves is to have snakes which steal the bodies of the thieves.many people think of thieves as snakes.   They come and go unnoticed and are able to take what they please. The thieves in turn must play a game of who can keep their body the longest.

I thought this punishment was very interesting compared to the rest of the punishments, i think this one is a punishment on a more mental level than physical. during their life the thieves stole from many good people, and these people could do nothing but watch their lives get stolen away right under their noses. Now the thieves must watch as these snakes literally steal lives. Though it is somewhat twisted how the thieves almost enjoy watching others suffer or lose their bodies.

Canto 3

Dante's inferno 

Canto 3

Dante does not officially enter hell till this canto, canto 3. He enters the outer region by passing through a gateway. Above the gate is the famous warning to "abandon all hope". The sinners in this canto are neutrals, people who failed to choose either good or evil in their lifetimes and so are condemned to exist in a place that is neither really Heaven nor Hell. It’s called Limo. Their punishment is various insects stinging their naked bodies, irritating them and making them run around in big circles under a long banner.Dante is blown away by the large number of neutrals being punished.

Personally I think this punishment is to harsh so the sin, actually I dont believe this should even be considered a sin because they did not deny God and they didn't choose evil either, they simply did not choose. I think neutralism should bot be a sin because I think everyone should have the right to freely choose(or not). Being stung by insects eternally is too harsh and does not even fit in with the sin(contrapasso).

 

hell on earth

A historical event that's hell on earth would be the death/concentration camps during the holocaust. The living conditions were more than horrifying and the way the Jewish people were treated is unhumane and terrible, it was really like they were living in hell.   In some ways, the camps were worse than the hell of religious beliefs. hell is ruled by Satan and operated by devils, it is a place for punishing sinful people. Innocent children and adults would not be allowed to enter and suffer. The hell on Earth created an efficient system for collecting, transporting and then murdering millions of innocents. 

tragic hero

Jocasta is describing King Laius to Oedipus without knowing that he is his son. (815). She actually realizes and says they look alike and has a similar build. It's dramatic irony because little does she know they're father&son. Then Oedipus starts to put things together realizing he might be the murderer of King Laius. (820). this is very tragic because he is trying to be a good guy and do the best for his people, and bring Laius's death to justice only to find out he is the killer. It's even more tragic that he is already devastated but he still has no idea about his mother&son relationship with Jocasta. Later he fears the prophecy about killing his father and marrying his mother, he ran away from home in the first place because he was trying to avoid it, bu the messenger tells him he has nothing to worry about.(1110). The messenger doesnt know that he isnt aware of his birth story and explains to him that its fate that he'd kill his father and marry his mother.

what is tragedy?

I think something is tragic when something sad or devastating happens but its differs from just being sad because it's preventable and caused by the flaws of human nature. The recent Sandy Hook Elementary shooting was tragic, so was the Jessica Ridgeway case; both of these happened because the gunman/muderer's dark and flawed side of human nature was brought out. theres a fine line between what is considered sad and what is considered tragic. If someone died of old age, it would just be sad, but if someone died of abuse and murder, it would be tragic.

After reading various entries in my journal from the beginning of August  to the end of December, I noticed some interesting things about my writing. My handwriting changes from day to day, the worst on Fridays free write, probably because I never know what to write and just BS everything. Most of my entries start with "I or my", I talk a lot about my personal life and randomly babbles about how I have writer's block, which seems quite often. To make journals a better and more efficient experience  this semester, I think I just need to put more thought and effort into my writing instead of just babbling about nonsense. I also noticed I over exaggerate a lot in my writing, I'm always overly dramatic writing in my journal.

I read and compared some of the better and worse entries and noticed that when I try and actually put forth effort into my writing it usually turns out pretty well. "I think a satire is only a satire and effective when it's politically incorrect, a satire is always going to offend someone or something, that's how satires work."  In this piece I sated my opinion of the definition of satire, I put thought into and and organized my sentences to make what I want to express clear to the reader. When I don't really think about what I'm writing and just making up random stuff, it ends up sounding something like this, "Last year was fun with miranda and hopefully this year will be too." It sounds unorganized and sloppy, it's clear I didnt try to write a good sentence at all. With all the good and bad, most of them sounded like diary entries instead of journal entries for a sophomore world lit class.  I write about what happens in my life and how things are going and what I like..etc etc. I even wrote about going to California to see my favorite band! I also wrote about Harry Potter, the golden trio, about how I stuck with them through all their adventures and all the life lessons the books has taught me.

I'm going to spend more time and try harder to really push myself to write better entries this semester. I'm going to write more about the things I'm passionate about and my views on different things rather than blandly writing about what happens in my life to improve my writing. I think my writing is significantly better than it was at the beginning of the year, I can write better, more complex yet clearer sentences; I organize my paragraphs much, much better, and my grammar has improved! I think if I can keep this up I'll become a much stronger writer.