More questions about Oedipus Rex

Oedipus with the Sphinx

These aren't my Discussion Items, but extra questions I had about the book in general and my opinion about fate vs. free will:

Fate vs. free will is a large issue in Oedipus Rex. I think part of it is fate, but another part is the characters reacting to the fate they have been given. If the King and Queen of Thebes had not given Oedipus away to be killed, would the story be different? Would Oedipus still end up killing his father and sleeping with his mother? The overreaction of his parents is at fault here. Though Oedipus is not necessarily free of blame. It was his anger that cause him to murder his father. 

That was one part of the reading I did not understand. Why exactly did Oedipus kill the men in the carriage that he later found out were his father and his entourage? What made him so angry that he felt he had to kill them?

Another question I had about the book was when the mother, Jocasta, figured out that Oedipus was her son very early, but she decided not to tell him. Why was this? What purpose is there to keep Oedipus in the dark about his own story? Did she not think he would figure it out and could keep living the way things were before?

The Big Bad Thesis Statement

Thesis statements have always been a problem for me. The main reason is I learned a specific formula last year in AP English. Mr. Mullins talked about it last class, so I'm not going to go into detail. I am a math and science person, so once I learn a formula it is hard for me to do or think of something another way. I almost always apply that formula to every essay I write, even if it doesn't fully answer the prompt. I think I do this because I never learned any other way to write thesis statements, and I don't trust my own ideas enough to make up new thesis statements. I have always been told that my thesis statements are too broad or too specific. I cannot seem to find the happy medium between the two. 

I am not very confident about creating thesis statements, but I believe that is due to my lack of practice with them. We did an adequate amount of work with thesis statements last year in AP English, but those were a different format than this year. I also felt like I did not get enough feedback to improve my statements. I can already tell that Mr. Mullins grades harder which will (hopefully) improve my thesis statements for the AP test.

I found that there are multiple sites that give examples of good thesis statements; One specific site is The Writing Center. I hope this helps!

Existentialism

In our short story unit we read "The Guest" which incorporated many existentialist ideas. This was very hard for me to comprehend at 9 in the morning. I work best with concrete ideas, and the idea that "to do is to be" went right over my head. After getting the packet about existentialism, I was able to understand the ideas better, but not necessarily comprehend them. I believe that a person's actions do not define them. For example, there are many people that would do anything to defend and protect their family, even if that entails them hurting another person. I do not think this makes someone a bad person just by one action.

My beliefs are more like those found in essentialism, which says that everyone has an unchanging "essence" inside them that affects their actions. When I think of "essence", I think of your soul or spirit or your normal personality  I believe some people are born optimistic while others are born pessimistic. I am an optimistic person, which has its positives and negatives. On the positive side I am almost always happy and see the best in people I come in contact with. Negatively, I put my trust in people that don't deserve it. I believe that everyone is good, until they do something to break my trust. 

The Overused Word: Amazing

On a daily basis I know I use the word "amazing" at least 20 to 30 times for explaining a story to my friends, telling a joke, etc. It has become a habit of this generation and the generation before that to overuse the word "amazing". Before I read this article, I honestly did not know what amazing meant. Well, I thought I knew what it meant, but I was wrong. My definition was the accepted one by today's society, which was that amazing meant "big, good, excellent, kind, numerous, beautiful, etc."

While I was reading the article, I came across the part that mentions how "if everyone who works in television is amazing, then amazing isn't very amazing and no one can truly be called amazing". This statement made me realize what how I sound when I overuse the word amazing. It made everything I say seem the exact opposite of how I wanted it to sound. Instead of using the word "amazing", I should be using a more correct word that fits into my stories not be grammatically correct, but to help my friends better understand what I am saying. Now that I understand how overused amazing is, I need to broaden my vocabulary and find some synonyms for "amazing" I found a website that has synonyms just for amazing called "Synonyms for Amazing". I hope looking at this site and others will help expand my vocabulary and prepare me for the AP test.