MAAN overview

In the play Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare introduces many different classes and is trying to teach us the dangers of stereotypes. One major exaple of this is when Leonato tells Dogberry that he should question the suspects on his own because he is "to busy" for him at the moment. Yes, Leonato was busy, being that his daughter was getting married and such, but i think the only reason that leonato sent him off was because he felt superior and in charge. It is hard for many to understand Dogberry, being that he is lower class and uneducated, but if Leonato had listened, the whole scandal brought upon his daughter could have been prevented.

I also think that woman are treated unequally in this play. Wheather or not Shakespeare believed in this or not I'm not sure, but i think he was trying to portray how woman were treated during his time period. Whenb Hero was wrongly accused at the wedding, her own father chose to believe men over his own daughters innocence. I think that once again, Leonato could have prevented a major scence by treating eveyone as equals.

MAAN

I think that the character that participates in lying the most would be Don John. He lies to make himself look better, and his enemies look awful. Don John is constantly lying to one of his enemies, Cladio, mainly to ruin his upcoming marraige. One example of this would be when Don John decides to tell Claudio that Hero has been unfaithful, just to spite him. He converses how far he would go to ruin the marriage when he says to Borachio, "Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing" (II.2.27). Because Borachio was also in on the plan, he too participates in lying. In my opinion, lying to make yourself look better is wrong and unethical.

On the otherhand, Leonato, the Prince, Claudio, Hero, and others also partake in lying. Unlike Don John and Borachio, these characters are lying to bring happiness to people. When the Prince stages a conversation with Leonato and Cladio(in which they know Benedick is overhearing) and says, "What was it you told me of to-day, that your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick?"(II.3.90-92), this is a lie. Although, when they planned this, they know that in the end, Benedick and Beatrice will be happy, something that doesn't come from Don John's lies.

When someone lies in order to help someone, such as the lies that came from the Prince, it should be morally justified. When lies are created only to hurt or for self-gain, such as Don John's lies, they are morally incorrect and unjustifiable.

Poem Analysis

heyo! my poem is The Tortise in Eternity, written by Elinor Wylie, whom you might remeber from one of the poems we read in class.

The Tortise in Eternity by Elinor Wylie
Within my house of patterned horn
I sleep in such a bed
As men may keep before they're born
And after when they're dead.

Sticks and stones may break their bones,
And words may make them bleed;
There is not one of them who owns
An armour to his need.

Tougher than hide or lozenged bark,
Snow-storm and thunder proof,
And quick with sun, and thick with dark,
Is this my darling roof.

Men's troubled dreams of death and birth
Puls mother-o'-pearl to black;
I bear the rainbow bubble Earth
Square on my scornful back.

Elinor Wylie uses the central metaphor in her poem The Tortise in Eternity to show that tortises are what humans wish to be. Unlike humans, tortises are safe and protected all the time and they have a place where they can escape from the outside world. Humans only feel this "saftey" two times in life. Wylie states this when she says, "As men may keep before they're born/And after when they're dead."(3-4). This means that humans feel comfort when they are in the womb and when they lie, buried in a coffin. Also, Wylie believes that humans are wrong in the sence that words don't hurt, and people can become paralyzed from them. She states this when she says, "Sticks and stones may break their bones,/And words may make them bleed;" (6-7). By using this central message, Wylie shows her audience that it's okay for one to want to escape, but no matter how hard we try, we can't go on living like the tortise.

I think that this poem is interesting because it shows the view of human life from a tortise.I think by narrating this way, we not only get a sense of what living in a shell is like, but we see how that feeling relates to human life. Sometimes people want to hide from the world, but this also show that living that way can be hard. This is shared when Wylie states, "I bear the rainbow bubble Earth/Square on my scornful back." (15-16). I think that this poem is well written and i think that the ABAB rhyme really adds to it.

First Quarter

I think that i did well this quarter. I think the most useful thing i learned was how to make a "real" thesis statement. Also, my writing skills have improved a lot since last year. I also, thanks to Ms. Froehlich's slide show, have gained better study habits. Those study habits include doing one thing at a time, not listening to music with lyrics when studying(my family showed me how to streamline classical music for this), and many others. I also have gained a lot of knowledge by reading lots of books and learning new words. My analisis of films and novels has also come to a deeper level because of all of the analysis papers we have done. Our classroom environment is good, even though we can get off topic, it is a class that i enjoy coming to. I think that we can further strengthen our classroom learning by participating in discussions and making sure to listen while ms. froehlich is talking. Next quarter, my goal is to do an AWESOME job on my 5-8 page paper and to learn more about how to make my writing better. :)

O.R. Post #5

Suzie still watches as her family reunites. Her mother decides to stay and Buckley learns to accept it. No w that she knows all is well with her family, she starts to watch her friends Ruth and Ray more often, especially since Ray was her first and last kiss. She was watching so intently that she fell, literally, right from Heaven. At first everyone was confused. Suzie sat up and realized that she was inside of Ruth and Ruth was on her way to heaven for a short period of time. This was a gift to Suzie. She saw Ray and fell all over again. She thought he might not believe her but, he too noticed something was different about "Ruth". She finally told Ray once they were at an abandoned bike shop. He wanted to know everything and was so happy that his one love was back for a night...

Suzie left Ruth's body later that night. After going back to heaven for the second time, she realized that she didn't need to watch her family and friends so close, they all knew that she was with them, always. Now she was able to do the things she wanted in heaven and still, because she couldn't help it, watch over her family. They too would think of her, but she now stayed in their memories. Suzie sees that Mr. Harvey, on yet another mission to kill a young teen, gets hit by an icicle, what suzie always thought to be the perfect murder weapon.

I thought this was a really good book. It kept me reading and always kept my minds racing. It was also kind of different because hte perspectives would change from suzie, to her dad, to her friend ruth. It was interesting to see waht was racing through eveyones minds. Sometimes it seemed a little far fetched, like Suzie "falling out of heaven", but metaphorically, but i still injoyed it.

O.R. Post #4

Suzie's family is still depressed and hopeless,even though it has been 8 years since the death. Despite the fact, Len Fenerman, the detiective who worked on Suzie's case, gets a phone call from an out of state police department. They say that they have finally found the remains of a girl they have been looking for for many years. Along with the body they found a charm from suzie's charm bracelet that she was wearing they day of her death. No one except Suzie knew that that Pennsylvania charm was the one thing Mr. Harvey had taken from her dead body on that horrible night. Len was puzzled. How many little girls had Mr. Harvey killed? that thought disturrbed him. Len then put "George Harvey" into the data base to see if he could find out, but nothing came up. The name was non-existant.

Most of Suzie's family had tried to move on, thinking that no body would ever turn up. Everyone that is except Jack, Suzie's father. One day Jack sees now 12 year old Buckley talking a box out to his garden. He doesn't think anything of it until he sees the words on the side of the box. It was the box filled with suzies clothes. Jack asks Buckley what he was doing with those clothes, now thrown down onto the earth, having no meaning whatsoever to Buckley. He tells jack that he was going to use them for his tomatos plant and that it was time his dad moved on. From there, everthing seemed to slow down in Jack's perspective. He was having a heart attack. He fell to the ground and later awoke in a hospital bed

Suzie's mother, Abigail, was now working at a vinyard in California. She received a note on her desk telling her that her husband was in the hospital. She wasn't sure what took over her but she caught the next plane over and was there the next day. She realized that she missed her family, but she didn't know how to re-enter, and she wasn't sure if her family would let her.

O.R. Post #3

More and more time passes on, while Suzie's case still has no leads. At the year anniversary, everyone in the Salman household is tense. Lindsay looks out the window to the cornfield to discover that some of Suzie's close friends and teachers had gathered with candles to say goodbye. Suzie's family soon joined them, everyone that is, except Suzie's mother. She seemed uninterested. Suzie, along with her family on earth, discovers that Abigail, the mother, has been having an affair with the police officer, Len Fenerman. I think that this affair shows that everyone acts to death differently. Some, like Abigail, need to be left alone, otherwise they rebel.
Soon eight years pass and there are still no leads. Suzie watches, feeling hopeless. Mr. Harvey had long moved out of his house, off to the east coast. Abigail had now left the family and went to explore california. Suzie's father was now more alone then ever. Lindsay is now 21 and still with the boyfriend from 8 years ago. They just graduated college and plan to be married. Suzie couldn't feel happier, even though she still feels jealous that she was never able to experience that. I think this shows that life must move on but people need to help eachother through tradjedys, not leave. If people lived like that, no one would ever be happy, as shown through Suzie's father.