"To Be or Not To Be: That is the Question"

Many people associate Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy with him holding the skull, but this is not true. The skull scene comes much later in the play. Even though Hamlet does not hold a skull during that soliloquy, it is still a very powerful scene. Before I read the play I had heard of that speech, but never understood what was going on. Hamlet is struggling with thoughts of suicide. "To be or not to be" translates to the question of whether to live or to die. My personal thoughts are that suicide is an easy way out of life. It is much better to face many challenges and failed, than kill yourself and never know what you could have accomplished. I understand why Hamlet feels he should kill himself, but I do not agree with it. His emotions are torn apart with the death of his father. Even though his father's death hurt him, why does he feel that killing himself is the right answer? His death would not solve any problems or bring his father back, so why do it? Granted, I have not lost a parent and do not know how I would react in that situation, but I still would not possibly consider suicide as an option. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

When I first chose this book for my Independent Reading I had no idea what it was about. I decided to go out on a limb and try it out. The first scenes really caught my attention. The story is told from the point of a deaf and dumb Native American patient, Chief Bromden, who is capable of hearing and is very intelligent. He was a very interesting character and by far my favorite. Even though his speech is not very elegant or sophisticated, it is easy to follow and he gets his point across. There are many advantages of the story being told from his perspective. For example he hears all the conversations between the Big Nurse Ratched and the staff on the ward that he wouldn't hear if he wasn't faking his deafness.

This book contained multiple hidden meanings and themes. The best part about the book was that all the themes were presented in a humorous way. Ken Kesey uses the rebellious Randal P. McMurphy to lighten up all the patients and show them that living in fear of the outside world is no way to live. McMurphy gives them the strength to face society again. Kesey's ability to show these messages through humor made me love this book; I can honestly say it is one of my favorite books, and I usually like commercial science fiction books. 

There is also a movie made based on the book, which I plan to watch sometime this weekend and compare the book to the movie!

Google and SparkNotes

SparkNotes and Google are a student's best friend and worst enemy. They can help with checking homework problems or explaining a difficult text. However, they cal also get students into trouble. Students rely on these sites way too much, and it becomes quite obvious on quizzes and tests who knows the material and who does not. I think the line needs to be drawn at when students completely rely on these sources and do not add any of their own ideas into their work. I believe it is fine to complete the work given to you and then use these resources to check your work. But, if you are wrong, then make the changes necessary and do not copy and paste things from these websites.

Students cross this boundary line all the time; why do they do that? It's the easy way out. They don't have to think. They don't have to work. We are the generation of instant gratification. It takes too long to think about the difficult question and it is so tempting to find the answer in .025 seconds from Google. It is sad how easy it is to cheat because of the Internet. On the other hand, it is amazing all the new possibilities available now because of the Internet. Somehow we need to find the balance...

Salem: A Play with Puppets

On Wednesday, our English class went to watch the school play Salem: A Play with Puppets. I thought it would be childish with the puppets, but it was actually quite funny. The play mentioned many social issues, but in a light, humorous way. I learned that the play was specifically written for that group of students. That was really neat because most of the plays the drama class performs do not fit the students they have. I used to be in Drama III/IV and there was always a shortage of boys. It's not just a problem at Dunbar, most boys just are not into that kind of thing. 

Now back to the play! I was thrown off a little bit by the name of the play. The fact that the students were learning about The Crucible was not mentioned very much. The connection was very subtle and almost non-existent. I also thought one of the elements of the play was very cliche. The vortex scene has been used over and over again in plays and movies. After the show, some students asked questions about the play and its production. I thought it was interesting how much effort was put into maneuvering and manipulating the puppets.