Diseased Denmark!

The state of Denmark is healthy while King Hamlet and Gertrude are in power.  When King Hamlet suddenly dies and his brother, Claudius, steps into power, the country becomes diseased-a ghost appears to Hamlet contributing to the idea that the country is now filled with disease.  

During the first scene summary, Marcellus states, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”   He does so after watching Hamlet follow the ghost into the dark night.  The ghost reveals to Hamlet, “And in the porches of my ears did pour/The leprous distilment” (61-64).  Since the ghost represents King Hamlet, ghost Hamlet displays to his son an intruder and murder replaced his place with his wife, Gertrude, in the kingdom.  The late King Claudius doesn’t symbolize the strong and courageous kingdom he inherited.  Instead Claudius is weak and pitiful if what the ghost displays to Hamlet is indeed true.  Therefore, Denmark is lead by weak leader which makes the entity of Denmark weak.  When leadership is diseased, it isn’t long after until it shows in the country as a whole.  Claudius decisions affect the nation of Denmark as a whole.  Diseased decisions lead to a diseased country.

before and  after

Just as if one entity of government is diseased the whole will soon follow, fresh foods are similar.  Two weekends ago, my mom had me open a box in the kitchen full of squash bought from the farmers market on sale.  I immediately noticed some fungi on the top squash.  The further I looked into the box, the sooner I realized extensive amounts of fungi among the squash.  The small amount of disease on the top did not translate into the rest of the box; the entire package of squash was diseased.  There was no way my mom and I could save the diseased squash.  The entire box was thrown out.  If the play is like the box, I predict the entire government will be removed just like the squash-too much decay throughout.  Death is eminent in Denmark. 

The Essentials of Humor

Sometimes a sense of humor is required.  Not everything one reads can be serious and straightforward.  Although I might wish it to be straightforward at times, I realize now that the reading would get boring.  A spice of life is at times exactly what is needed to change a point of view.  Jonathan Swift uses satire in “A Modest Proposal” to convey his ideas about how to receive nutrients during difficult times.  He proposes that women should have babies, so that they may be eaten by others for nourishment!  My first reaction was repulsion.  I couldn’t tell whether or not I supposed to take this man seriously or what.  Only later in class did I realize “A Modest Proposal” is full of satire.  Swift is making fun of eating babies and mocking the idea; he doesn’t mean for the reader to take him seriously.  Jonathan over exaggerates his ideas in the way he describes eating each baby and saving the women only so they will produce more babies to eat.  Ha. Ha. Ha. Although I am not a fan of the use of satire simply because I have difficulty deciphering when and where writers are making use of their humor, my understanding of the many different worlds of humor writers can implement is essential.  Be warned: Not every writer can be taken so seriously.    

Curies' Killing Substance

Since when I was little my family lived out in the country on a two acre piece of land, nature has had a special place in my heart.  We planted a garden and harvested apples and peaches from our fruit trees each year.  There were even eleven one hundred foot tall pine cone trees that marked the territory around our yard from the farmer’s corn, soybean, and tomato fields.  All and all, the care and cultivation of nature and protection of life means more to me than scientific discoveries.

In the essay “A Measure of Restraint” by Chet Raymo, the scientific discovery of radium leads to many causalities, because its properties are unknown.  The essay begins with an anecdote about how a six year old girl dies after covering herself in a mysterious powder.  She has no clue the substance in which she covers herself in is cesium-137 (a radioactive substance).  Even female factory workers who paint the handles of clocks with radioactive paint put the brushes continually to their lips in which to sharpen the brush tip.  Thus, later in life all these women receive jaw deformations and mouth problems.  Just like the little girl, they are unaware how harmful and destructive Curies’ glowing substance in reality actually is, because it is new and undiscovered yet.

The essay sweetly exemplifies upon the famous quote, “Ignorance is bliss-” at least from the viewpoint of scientific discovery.  If humans decided to not go out into the world and discover unknown substances, animals, or plants, we would be safe from their at times dangerous, unknown consequences.  Sadly, humans feel it is their right to own nature and exploit every substance available; casualties and injuries from scientific discoveries will continue to occur.   

Money, Humans' Necessity

One of the timed writing responses this week asked writers to analyze the rhetorical strategies Hazlitt emphasizes during “On the Want of Money.”  While I had fun quickly churning out a response to this timed writing, upon receiving the essay back, I discovered I had misread several of the strategies Hazlitt implements to convey his ideas.

Such as how I ended up discovering of the two sentences the essay is composed of, the longer sentence symbolizes a stream of oppression.  Through the first read, I had the belief money was being personified by all the actions separated by commas during the second sentence.  Another misread included how I believed the author was trying to convey to readers the literal want of money can lead to a person’s downfall.  Instead, William wishes to reveal to readers that the lack of money can lead to misfortune!  With a second and third read, I discovered Hazlitt is a true proponent of the necessity of money.  He truly believes, “…one cannot get on well in the world without money,” and therefore goes on in the essay to describe what a life without money would be like/look like.

I agree with Hazlitt.  Without money, people will have troubles in life.  Money is what makes the world go round.  It is a sign of status and good fortune throughout the world.  While reading the piece more carefully, I found more minute details that assisted me in appreciating the piece increasingly more than I did through the first read.

Fear of Public Space

This week in class the question of whether we as students can affect a change in public space was brought up.  My answer to this question is quite simple.  As students, I believe it is our job as members of a community and young leaders to cause positive changes to occur. 

Such as in “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples, Staples is able to cause change to public spaces in Chicago as he simply walks through the streets.  His ability to change the public space is through the fear people, women in particular, have of him because of his race, African American, and being a young male.  It’s ironic that Chicago goers have fear of him; he graduated with a PhD from the University of Chicago and he is unable to even “take a knife to a chicken.”

I further began to question the fear and structure students and people in general sometimes have.  When people hold onto a daily way of life in which each day is pre-set-up and planned, public space is difficult to change.  It is the spontaneous nature of life in which changes in life and public space are able to occur.  If more people decide to come to life with open minds and positive attitudes, change will be more likely to transpire for the clear-cut fact that people are ready to learn and contribute to their community and classrooms.     

Our Differences Make us Similar

Sarah Vowell utilizes compare and contrast to explicate upon how she and her dad are different, but ends up finding out upon further examination that they are the same person.  It is through their differences that Sarah reveals they are in reality the same.

Even though the house is divided and represents the Civil War, Sarah and her father are found to be similar.  While the Democratic sign is in the top window and the Republican campaign sign is in the bottom window, the directions in which the signs are presented allude to the Civil War.  The liberals lived in the North while the conservatives lived in the southern states.

When Vowell discerns her house is divided up into territories, she is calling upon satire and humor.  The reader laughs along with her as she paints the picture of her house divided up in military style.  Who knew the relationship between daughter and father could be so ironically funny?


I enjoyed reading "Shooting Dad" because it's essence in which it highlights upon how people that are different may in reality be the same.  I can relate this in my own life very well.  I'm a daddy's girl, so it is actually my mother that I feel I am the most dissimilar to.  My dad often regales upon how my mom and I don't get along all the time, because of the fact that we are extremely similar, even though both my mom and myself still refuse to accept that we are the same.

Fake Legends

"Nobody knows anything about Shakespeare the person.  It is all legend, it is all rumor." (Jeanette Winterson)  Winterson connotes legends are fake.  Even though Shakespeare was a real person, no one knows what he was truly like.  Does this mean that all legends are simply lies people began telling themselves until they became grand enough to be legendary?  

In "Arm Wrestling with My Father," the father figure is legendary to Brad Manning.  As the final arm wrestle develops, Brad states, "I wanted to win but I did not want to see him lose."  This quote exemplifies the degree to which his father's strength means to him.  All throughout his life, his father has beat Brad in arm wrestling enough times that his father is legendary to Brad.  To win though, Brad relates it to catching the "Big Joe" fish at his grandpa's house.  The win means more to Brad than keeping his possibly fake legend alive.  The reason it could be possibly fake is the legend of the father's strength and protection is only legendary to his son, Brad Manning.  To anyone else in the world, Brad's father is not a legend, but that is the beauty of legends-they can exist where they are needed most.

Professor Trelawney produces the prophecy of neither can live while the other survives in the Harry Potter series.  She is referring to the rivalry between good versus evil-Harry versus Voldemort.  While Voldemort's evil and dark magic is legendary to everyone in the world of wizards because of his terror, he is legendary to Harry for the special reason that Voldemort murdered Harry's parents and marked Harry's forehead in the same night.  In the end though, Trelawney's prophecy predicts Harry of Voldemort will have to die; there isn't room for both of them to be legendary.  Harry tricks Voldemort.  Harry's legend lives on while the legend of Voldemort dies-just as Brad's father looses his legend of strength.