As I Lay Dying

1. The novel begins with Addie Bundren ill and expecting to die soon.  Her son Cash, who is a carpenter, prepares a coffin for her, which is ready the morning she dies.  Addie's last wish was the she be buried in the town of Jefferson.  To fulfill this wish, Anse Bundren and his five children set off with the corpse to make the journey.  The family faces many obstacles along the way.  Recent floods have washed away bridges, causing the family to river-cross over their own hand-made bridge.  While crossing the bridge, the coffin falls on Cash's leg, breaking it.  Darl attempts to make a cast for Cash's leg, but that only makes  matters worse.  Not wanting to continue on with the mission, Darl attempts to destroy his mother's coffin, but Jewel turns up to rescue the coffin from the burning barn, much to Darl's dismay.  Believing that Darl has gone crazy, they commit him to a Jackson mental institution.  While Anse goes off to buy shovels to bury his deceased wife, he meets a women whom he suddenly marries, and returns to his family to introduce them to their new mother.

2. A major theme of this novel is the uncertainties of life.  The loss of their mother causes Addie's children to question the meaning of life and their role here on earth.  Darl is especially troubled by this loss.  Believing that because his mother no longer "is," she never existed and therefore he doesn't exist.  He is later declared insane.  Anse's new marriage so swiftly after his wife's death causes the children to question family morals and their existence even further.

3. The novel is told through the views of fifteen different people.  The major tone felt throughout is very emotional, understandably so considering the story is about a family transporting their deceased mother to her burial place.

-"Jewel's hat droops limp about his neck, channelling water onto the soaked towsack tied about his shoulders as, ankle-deep in the running ditch, he pries with a slipping two-by-four, with a piece of rotting log for fulcrum, at the axle. Jewel, I say, she is dead, Jewel. Addie Bundred is dead."

-"I strike, the stick hitting into the ground, bouncing, striking into the dust and then into the air again and the dust sucking on down the road faster than if a car was in it. And then I can cry, looking at the stick."

-"In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, you are not.  And when you are filled with sleep, you never were.  I don't know what I am."

4. Foreshadowing:  Kate Tull predicts that Anse will remarry quickly after the death of Addie, which in fact does happen.

Diction:  The author gives the characters southern accents to contribute to the meaning of the setting.

•  "Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It's like it aint so much what a fellow does, but it's the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it."

Irony:  Peabody finds Addie's love for Jewel to be out of stubbornness.  This is ironic because Peabody doesn't know Addie had Jewel out of an affair.

• "That's what they mean by the love that passeth understanding: that pride, that furious desire to hide that abject nakedness which we bring here with us, carry stubbornly and furiously with us into the earth again."

Metaphors:  The children make illogical connections to their mothers, showing how confused about the matters of death they are.

• "Jewel's mother is a horse," Darl said. "Then mine can be a fish, can't it, Darl?" I said. "Then what is your ma, Darl?" I said. "I haven't got ere one," Darl said. "Because if I had one, it is was. And if it was, it can't be is. Can it?"

Tone:  This passage shows the emotional state the children are left in.

• "Words don't ever fit even what they are trying to say at. Motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn't care whether there was a word for it or not."

Tools That Change the Way We Think

I think that the use of the internet/media/technology has gradually decreased my ability to critically think.  Instead of getting an essay topic or a homework assignment that I have to sit down and really work on, I can most likely get the answer within minutes with the use of the internet.  The entire thinking process of researching has declined because of the convenience of technology.  It's extremely rare for people to go to the library to check out books to find information for a project their working on, just because this is so much more time consuming.  With the mind-set that research won't take long, I usually have a difficult time concentrating and end up browsing other websites while I'm trying to complete my school assignments.  What could have been a quick assignment, can take me an hour with the distractions of the internet.  The internet contains a lot of biased information, and like from the filter bubbles reading, the information you find on hear is tailored to what the internet servers believe you want to hear.  With this in mind, I think that those who don't use technology as much are able to think more on their own, as they are more likely to find more of a variety of information by using all of the resources available to them.

In Search Of

     I didn't realize that the information that I search for online is tailored to match what I usually search; whenever I search for something, I am fed what the internet believes I want to see based on my past internet searches. This makes me want to extend my search in whatever I'm looking into farther, and makes me question if what I have used as research in the past is valid or just based off of biased opinions. To improve the effectiveness of my searches, I can use multiple search engines, try re-wording the information that I'm searching for, and not just pick articles off of the first page of the search engine I'm using.
     When I re-did my Shakespeare research, this time I used different search engines (yahoo, ask, and google instead of just google) and didn't just rely on the first page of results for information.  This is the information that I found:
     Shakespeare's life is a big mystery to many, but it is believed that he was born in Stratford on about April 23, 1564.  He came from a relatively wealthy family, with his father a local businessman and his mother coming from a landowning family.  At 18 he married Anne Hathaway, and they had three children.  However, one later died at the age of 11.  There are many rumors that have declared Shakespeare was not the true author of his works.  Popular beliefs as to who the true author was include Christopher Marlowe, Queen Elizabeth, and Edward de Vere.  Shakespeare eventually emerged as a rising playwright in London, becoming a central figure in the leading company.  He eventually died on April 23, 1616.

Notes on Hamlet

     At the beginning of the play, I got the sense that Hamlet was extremely indecisive and crazy.  Now I'm beginning to think that this is all just a strategy of his.  He seems more now like an extremely analytical person who weighs every option before acting on his decision.  You can't be mad to possess this sort of self-control.  I also have realized that he is a very loyal person.  Upset that everyone seems to have forgotten that his father died not that long ago, he has taken great measures to let everyone see the pain he feels about them moving on as if his father never existed.  From here, I can see Hamlet plotting on the perfect moment to kill Claudius, and of course following through with this plan.

Who Was Shakespeare?

     A lot of Shakespeare's life is unknown.  Almost everything society knows about him is disputed.  The generally accepted facts are as follows: "Shakespeare was born in 1564, the third child and first son of John Shakespeare and his wife Mary Arden, in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.  In 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer from the nearby village of Shottery, and by 1581 they had three children.  Around 1588 Shakespeare and his family moved to London and within a few years he had achieved some success as an actor, a poet and a playwright…..The Sonnets especially established his reputation as a gifted and popular poet, but it is the 38 plays he wrote or collaborated on that have firmly established his reputation as the greatest dramatist who ever lived.  He died in 1616 at the age of 52 and was buried in the chancel of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford."1  His entire identity has often been disputed.  Notable candidates on who Shakespeare really was include Edward de Vere, Francis Bacon, and Christopher Marlowe.
     Whenever students are given a work of Shakespeare for an assignment, they aren't too happy.  His writing is extremely difficult to understand, and time-consuming to read since you have to stop every few lines to try to figure out the message he's trying to get across.  I understand now that there are multiple ways to perceive Shakespeare's writings, which is why his works are greatly disputed over.  I still tend to struggle with the language.






1. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html

To Facebook or Not to Facebook

     I am definitely pro-Facebook.  I use it to communicate with my family in other cities/states who I normally would not get a chance to catch up with, and then of course I also use it to talk to friends.  Being able to view others posts and pictures is what makes Facebook interesting and keeps me up-to-date with those that I am not able to talk to everyday.
     Of course there are risks associated with using Facebook.  There is the risk of cyber-bullying, of online predators, etc.  But these risks are seen everywhere in some way, not just on Facebook.  I think that there should be an age limit to those who are allowed to use Facebook, because youngsters are more prone to falling into these types of risks.
     The discussion we had in class further enhanced my belief that there should be an age limit on who uses Facebook.  Although it can be used as a convenient way of communicating to friends and family who you may not have a chance to see on a regular basis, the majority of young children are up to no good when they are on such websites.

Be Hamlet

     There are no troubles that are worth ending your life over.  Although life might seem tiresome and difficult at times, these trials will eventually end.  Think of all the happiness and joy that life can bring.  These benefits of living a full life by far outweigh the alternative of suicide.
    
     As demonstrated in his "To be, or not to be…." soliloquy, Hamlet is obviously troubled.  The knowledge that it in fact was his uncle who killed his beloved father proved to be overwhelming, so much so that Hamlet is considering taking his own life.  "To die, to sleep -- no more -- and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to -- 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!"  In this quote, Hamlet explains that dying is like a sleep that ends all of the heartaches and shocks that life on earth gives us.  These said shocks include the knowledge of how his father really died.

     Hamlet has mentioned before that it is a sin to commit suicide, which is why he has not attempted to commit the act before.  Therefore, he should hold to these Christian beliefs.  Although he is troubled and lost about whether or not he should seek revenge on his uncle and if so in what form, this trial will eventually pass.  He is looking at the immediate results and the not the long-term result.  "For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin?"  This is where Hamlet begins to doubt his thoughts of committing suicide.  He knows that no one would willingly endure the trials of life, so it must not be as easy as it seems to end his life just like that.

     This soliloquy shows that Hamlet himself is unsure of what to do with his constant switching sides.  Life is not worth ending.  Thinking of the future, Hamlet could accomplish so much for his country if he just endured his present struggles and left his thoughts of suicide behind.