This week we learned read two pieces about tragedy. The first was called "The Burial at Thebes". This piece discussed the difference and blurring of loyalty to the state and loyalty to God. It referenced Antigone and how she was willing to die at the hands of the king in order to follow her religious duties. In my tragedy blog, I discuss how this is still in place today and how this relates to the play Antigone. You can check it out here.
The other piece we read was a short story called "Before the Law" by Kafka. This piece was very confusing. The story was simple, but analyzing it was hard. Eventually I inferred that the story was about trying to change a law. It may seem hard and people may discourage you from your task, but the only thing really stopping you is yourself. The last part of the story was the most meaningful. The guard tells the man that after he dies the gate will be closed. This is a symbol for concerned citizens. When all of the concerned citizens die or give up, the gate closes and the law becomes impossible to amend. You can read my full reaction to this piece here.
The third thing we did this week is work on blogs and essays. We worked on them a lot, like, the majority of the week. I edited at least 8 blog posts and made 5 new ones, including this one. To be honest, I'm not even positive what is supposed to be in our posts. All I've heard is that we're supposed to blog about what we learned about in class, which I've tried to varying degrees of success. I guess the benefit to this is that, because I've written most of my blogs three times, I've learned so much about tragedy. I started with a basic knowledge of what it is, but now when I write my blogs I talk about what they mean and why they affect people so much. I feel like if you looked at my original posts to the current ones you would start by seeing an average highschooler's post, followed by a college thesis paper. OK, maybe it's not that drastic, but I've spent over 30 hours on this stupid blog, so give me a break. (I'm kidding. It's not stupid, please don't grade me down) I guess whatever happens, I've learned a lot, so there's that...
If you want to see how much I've learned, go to the tragedy part of my website in a couple days and I'll link my tragedy reflection there.
The other piece we read was a short story called "Before the Law" by Kafka. This piece was very confusing. The story was simple, but analyzing it was hard. Eventually I inferred that the story was about trying to change a law. It may seem hard and people may discourage you from your task, but the only thing really stopping you is yourself. The last part of the story was the most meaningful. The guard tells the man that after he dies the gate will be closed. This is a symbol for concerned citizens. When all of the concerned citizens die or give up, the gate closes and the law becomes impossible to amend. You can read my full reaction to this piece here.
The third thing we did this week is work on blogs and essays. We worked on them a lot, like, the majority of the week. I edited at least 8 blog posts and made 5 new ones, including this one. To be honest, I'm not even positive what is supposed to be in our posts. All I've heard is that we're supposed to blog about what we learned about in class, which I've tried to varying degrees of success. I guess the benefit to this is that, because I've written most of my blogs three times, I've learned so much about tragedy. I started with a basic knowledge of what it is, but now when I write my blogs I talk about what they mean and why they affect people so much. I feel like if you looked at my original posts to the current ones you would start by seeing an average highschooler's post, followed by a college thesis paper. OK, maybe it's not that drastic, but I've spent over 30 hours on this stupid blog, so give me a break. (I'm kidding. It's not stupid, please don't grade me down) I guess whatever happens, I've learned a lot, so there's that...
If you want to see how much I've learned, go to the tragedy part of my website in a couple days and I'll link my tragedy reflection there.