Entry 3.2

In this video it is showing the scene where Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking after the murder of the King. She seems awake and functional but in fact she is asleep. She starts speaking about the murder. She symbolizes regret and remorse. She regrets helping and convincing Macbeth to murder the King and Banquo. The archetype is a coward. She made a decision and she was very firm about it, now she is haunted by her shadow. Which is another archetype. The shadow means that's she is sleepwalking due to the fact that her "shadow" is haunting her. Her demons are after he even while she sleeps. During her monologue she is constantly rubbing her hands because she feels that she still has the blood of the king on her hands and it wont come off. This is a form a symbolism because it shows that she had a part in the murder and now she has the "blood stains" on her hands. I find it extremely interesting that at the beginning she was the one that was completely encouraging Macbeth to do the murder. She had it instilled in his brain that he deserved the throne and he had every right to kill for it. She even emasculated him and questioned his devotion to her. So after all the manipulation and brainwashing she ended up becoming tortured by her conscience. This is a lesson to all that "fair is foul and foul is fair"

Blog Post 3.1 Macbeth Image

the link is here

This image is demonstrating a scene from Shakespeare's play named "The Tragedy of Macbeth" This image is showing the scene when Lady Macbeth is pressuring Macbeth to kill the King so he can take over the throne and become King. You can see in the eyes of Macbeth that he is perplexed, bothered, and deeply frightened to do the task. In Lady Macbeth's eyes you see no mercy. You can see determination no matter what the consequences are. She believes that since the witches told him the prophecy that no matter what happens he will be king. She wanted to be Queen so badly that she didn't care of going to the extent of murdering someone. Even the current King. In the image you can see the intimidation that she is causing and you can also see how her body language seems condescending. She is questioning his manhood and the love he has for her. She is manipulating him to kill the King to take over the throne. If you look closely you can see that she is already wearing a crown and she is not even Queen yet. Thats a example of how determined she is. You can tell by the image that he does not want to do the task anymore but she is pressuring him and it even seem threatening. Lady Macbeth falls under the Warrior Archetype. You can see that she is willing to do anything to take what she believes is rightfully hers. She also falls under the archetype of the trickster. It stated here This means that she is willing to change the current world of peace in to havoc unimaginable terror. She did that exact thing when she pressured Macbeth to kill the king. She is a woman who uses her power to make the hero weak. Macbeth unfortunately is the villain due to getting pressured to kill the king. He also killed innocent men due to his own benefit.

Blog Entry 2.2 Altruist

The Altruist

The "Altruist" is a person that is selfless. This type of person will put someone else's needs before their own. According to Carol Pearson's "The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By" I fall into this category. To find out what type of archetype you are you must answer a series of questions. There are two types of "quizzes" you can take to find out your archetype, and I took the 6 question "quiz". Pearson also has another one that consists of twelve questions ( six just seems easier right?) After taking the "quiz" I received the news that I am a Altruist and Innocent. The reason I got two archetypes is because their is a positive and a negative. The Altruist is the positive and the Innocent is the negative. I will be speaking about the Altruist in this blog because why dwell in negativity? For those who don't know or want to know more about what a Altruist is ( don't be embarrassed if you don't know, I had the same problem before looking it up here) in depth, its an unselfish concern for the welfare of others. According to a article that I stumbled upon here states "The Altruist symbolises giving and abundance, but only that type of giving which you are passionate about, not what you think the world expects of you."

"Flower Power" Bernie Boston, Pentagon, Anti-War rally '67
You can get the link here

I chose the photo entitled "Flower Power" by Bernie Boston, because I believe that it shows a amazing form of a true altruist. You may think how on earth is that photo showing a guy putting a flower in a rifle of a clearly agitated soldier relevant to a altruist? Well best believe that it surely demonstrates selflessness. The soldier can easily shoot the young man in the face and kill him. The young man is clearly aware of that but that doesn't stop him at all. He doesn't care. The young man still puts the flower in the rifle because the issue is beyond him. He is being selfless because he is in a dangerous environment trying to prove a point and trying to protect those that are not able to be there due to fear, shame, or irrelevance. The young man is stating I don't care if you kill me, just stop killing others.

Their is a great amount of symbolism in this photo. For example the flower represents earth, which represents us. A flower is something fragile, sweet, a nice gesture. So by putting something as endearing as a flower in a machine that is used to kill people symbolizes peace. It means why shoot bullets? Lets shoot flowers, lets make peace! This photo is iconic. It was in the running for a Pulitzer prize. ( I believe it should have won, but what do I know) This was a very popular photo that shocked many people because it brought awareness, which was the whole entire point of it. This photo was taken in a anti-war march at the Pentagon in 1967 due to the Vietnam War. This was when they were drafting many young men to join the war. This was also the beginning of the psychedelic era, and soon after "Flower Power" became the main symbol of the whole anti-war psychedelic era. ( not bad for a fellow altruist)

Being a true altruist doesn't mean that you have to be naked and hungry because you gave away all your clothing and food to the people that are less fortunate. Being a real altruist is being active in the sense of trying to make a difference in some one else's life because their needs seem more important than your own. This can be as small as cancelling a date because your little sister needs your help with her homework or something huge like standing up for what you believe in and being in a photo that documents a iconic event in American history. Its all about actually caring and communicating your feelings to try to get a positive result so someone else will achieve something and that is pure satisfaction for a altruist.

Goblin Market 2.1 (Revision) **Please check**

Christina Rossetti was a woman who had a very avant-garde approach to writing poems. She stepped outside the box and spoke about so many things that were not orthodox in a subliminal way. I got a brief biography of her here. Rossetti was a girl who was born in London and was home schooled by her mother. She had brothers and a sister who became very prominent artists, writers, and poets of their time. After her family went through some issues she became very depressed and decided to become a Christian. Rossetti also became some sort of a muse for her brother. 

Rossetti started writing at the tender age of seven, and her first published poem was at the age of eighteen. She is categorized as having a feminist sense of style in most of her poems. Most of her characters are women who slowly have the archetypes of heroes, and innocent people who end up transitioning to a good person or present demonstrations of selflessness. “Goblin Market” has to be one of her most well known poems. In this poem she has two women as the characters who sacrifice their lives to save each other. Also it shows a bond that two sisters have together that may seem inappropriate, I don’t believe that the text she has chosen is meant to be taken literally. For example when she mentions in the poem for the sister to suck the juice out of her body for the sake of her own life. Also this poem may seem feminist because this is really similar to the story of Adam and Eve but instead of an Adam character she chose another woman.

The plot to this story has to be compared to the tale of Adam and eve in the sense of the forbidden fruit but I believe the symbolism means much more in both tales. The tale starts with two sisters named Laura and Lizzie who collects water from a river each night. They hear the songs of the goblins as usual who sell fruits. Everyone knows not to talk or attempt to purchase anything from the goblins. The reason why is because there was a girl in the same town who ate the fruit and became very sick then eventually died. But that did not stop Laura from the curiosity and craving of the fruit. Since she did not have any money she decided to trade in a lock of her hair for a fruit. The goblins agreed and she received the fruit. She ate the fruit and became frantic and engorged the taste and experience of eating that "forbidden fruit". Laura starts craving the fruit again and was impatiently waiting for the goblins song indicating that she can buy some more fruit. To her surprise she could not hear the goblins but her sister Lizzie did hear the goblins songs. 

Afterwards Laura starts to become very sick because she does not have any more access to the fruit. Time passes and Laura is about to die so Lizzie goes to the goblins and tries to buy some more fruit with money for the sake of her sister's life. The goblins became upset because she wanted to pay for the fruit with money. Also they became upset because wanted the fruit for her sister and not for herself. With that said they become violent and forcibly make Lizzie drink the juice of the fruits and she rushes home and tells Laura to drink the juice from her body. Laura does so and by the next morning she becomes healthy.

The symbolism in the poem is all about trends. The main trend I see is details. When it comes to the fruit she makes the fruit sound so amazing and she is also very detailed about the experience that Laura is going through while eating the fruit. What I believe the symbolism is that it’s the pureness of her body, maybe her virginity. Also the fruit has to be a reference to the forbidden fruit as its stated in the bible. I believe it’s a legit analysis, considering that she converted into Catholicism.

Another symbol is the chants and cries of the goblins. Its represents the people who everyone sees doing things that we all wish we could do but know that its morally wrong. I believe that Rossetti wanted a certain reaction to the story and its confusion. The reason I say that is because a mixed review is the best because you have to link a personal experience and connection with the poem which will be resulting the ultimate reward. 

In line 20-25 it states “Our grapes fresh from the vine, Pomegranates full and fine, Dates and sharp bullaces

 For the archetypes in this poem it has quite a few. Laura has to be the Adventure seeker, the person who wants to find out what something is like, hence tasting the forbidden fruit. I believe that is Laura’s archetype because she is so tempted to try the fruit since she knew that it would have a negative impact. Maybe she wanted to see what the big deal was. Lizzie would be the hero because the selfless act that she did to save the life of her sister, Laura. If it was not for Lizzie, Laura would’ve eventually have died and Lizzie would’ve died shortly after if she did not make Laura drink the fruit’s juice out of her body.

I believe this poem is about losing their innocence like when a young girl loses her virginity before being ready, just because they become tempted. I believe that this is much more deeper. My analysis of this poem is that Rossetti is dealing with inner demons, and the only way she can cope is by writing hidden messages within the poem. I believe that she might be talking about her sexuality and how much she is trying to stay away from temptations. She knows the consequences because of her religion so she decides to shut that part of her life off. So this may seem some sort of escape for her because she can make believe that she did give into temptation but she had a very bad result afterward so she needed to be saved. Maybe this is a cry for help for the real life “Lizzie” to come and revive her.

Blog Entry 1.3 (Revision) **Please Check**

I have chosen the poem “Identity” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. If you click here you will be redirected to the poem. Thomas B. Aldrich was a young man from New Hampshire. Afterward his father moved him to New Orleans to reside with him, but due to the sudden death of his father he was sent back to New Hampshire. According to wikipedia Thomas B. Aldrich went through a phase, which resulted in a “semi-autobiographical novel ‘The Story of a Bad Boy’ (1870)". This novel paved the way for other writers, like “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. After he went through the initial “bad boy” phase Aldrich ended up working for his uncle in his business office. He skipped college and went straight into business. He felt like he did not want to waste time learning in a classroom when he can learn what he "really" needs to know in real life experiences. The result of that is that he ended up meeting many influential people and helped him get started in his career.

“Identity” is a very short poem, but its straight to the point. This poem also has a lot of examples of symbolism. It’s a poem depicting the atmosphere and situation that’s going on. 

Desolate, which means something that is abandoned or lifeless.

Wind meaning the air that is flowing from high pressure to low pressure.

Twilight means the time between the sunset and dusk, when there is light out but the sun isn’t out yet.

No Man’s Land means a place where it’s uninhabitable for the human species to live. Hurrying means, to move with speed.

Shapes mean something is seen in outline or imaginary form.

Face is the front part of the head.

Bade is when you express a greeting or farewell.

Cried means when someone utter articulate sounds usually through grief and tears.

A-gape means with the mouth is wide open with surprise or eagerness.

Shuddering means quivering with fear, dread, or cold.

Gloaming with light meant the same as twilight.

Died means to cease to live.

So you might ask why all these definitions? Well if we crack what each word means then we can rewrite the poem in a simpler way so we can re-read and understand what we previously understood. With that being said lets try it now...

Somewhere in a very lifeless lonely area, where no man can live and the sunlight is visible but the sun is not. There were two shapes, which meant that there was two people. Finally they saw each other face to face. Then they greeted each other and one who was scared asked the other who he was and the other replied that he didn’t know whom he was because he just died the night before.

This poem is depicting that one of the shapes is a ghost. But I kind of believe that its actually one person in the poem. I feel that this might be what a person is asking himself. He is asking himself things like who is he? Then he replies that he died last night because last night might have been a traumatic experience or something in that aspect might of happened to him. Its like he is talking to himself inside his head. I believe that he did not mean this poem so literally, I believe its about the questions that we ask ourselves when we are in the beginning stages of growth and finding who we are or want to be. For example it’s the moment that you experience something like getting in a car accident the first thing that comes to your head is am I alive? Inside your head you are asking yourself questions trying to figure out if you are alright. That’s what the character is going through he is trying to figure out if he is alright because he believes that he is dead, being somewhere that he shouldn’t be. Maybe hell or modern day New York City.

Poem: http://www.poetry-archive.com/a/identity.html

History: Paragraph one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bailey_Aldrich

Definitions:

Desolate

Wind

Twilight

No Man's Land

Hurrying

Shapes

Face

Bade

Cried

A-gape

Shuddering

Gloaming

Died

Entry 1.2: Internet Research (Revision)** Please Read**

What is one of the most common household pet? Well that is the feline, also known as the cat. According to this the statistic of people having cats as pets are over "87,720,000" That's a lot of cats in homes. But what does that bit of information have with the supernatural? Well its known that most religions, cultures, beliefs, etc, have some kind of acknowledgement of cats being supernatural. For example in my background cats tend to be a huge superstition. They are believed to bring bad luck to people because its linked to some kind of demonic behavior. Cats were never welcomed in the homes of people. If someone was given a cat that person will be offended and even come to the conclusion that the person that tried to give them the cat were trying to perform some acts of "black magic" and terrible bad luck.

The reason I chose a cat was because I find them interesting, and I also caught a re-run of a show called "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" on television. In that show their is a black cat that is named Salem. Salem is a evil warlock that was sentenced to live the rest of his life as a black cat as a punishment for his wrong doings. I find it ironic that cats are common household pets with it having so much history about the supernatural. When I did a simple search I got tangled in so much information about the superstitions, beliefs, even praise of cats. This was all from previous ancient civilizations. For example in this website it states many different types of beliefs of the cats and broken down by origin and reason. One of the things it stated was that "Ancient Egyptian priests kept sacred cats and used them to predict the future. Every twitch of a whisker, yawn, sneeze or stretch foretold some coming event." Cats telling the future? Well that was apparently a huge belief back in the Ancient Egyptian era. Cats were being praised in Egypt.They were considered a sacred animal and the pharaohs were the ones that had access to this animal due to its mystical powers.

Also in that same amazing website which you can access it again here stated, "According to French lore, a girl who treads on a cat's tail, has no chance of finding a husband for the rest of the year." A major superstition and a reason to stay away from a cat in my opinion. I have learned that the cat is known to be in fact a supernatural being. No matter if the supernatural capabilities is positive or negative its there. I chose a cat because I believe that something that you think is harmless can have the ability to make people feel uncomfortable because of their beliefs and superstitions. I've never seen a fairy or vampire, besides seeing people dressed as them on halloween, but a cat i've seen endless amounts of time. I just feel that its more relevant to everyone. Its nice to pick a scary topic thats so close to home, it's a frightening thought that if one of the myths may be true and you have a magical creature as a pet. It will never be clarified if its true, but its good to know what everyone else in the world would perceive your household pet. 

Citation:

First paragraph

http://www.avma.org/reference/marketstats/ownership.asp

Second and third paragraph

http://www.richardharland.net/otherbooks/SASSYCAT/Cats+Supernatural.htm

Blog Post 1: About Me

My name is Wes, and I am a Fine Arts Major. I am expecting to graduate by the end of next spring so its no time for games :) Trying to graduate on the Deans list, so pretty wrapped up on school work. Into fashion, music, and all the arts. Just enjoying the whole blogging experience.