Essay Week 13: Everyone is Bad!

I’m choosing the theme of “Bad Guys” for this week’s essay topic because I read Dante’s Inferno and pretty much every single character in this story is a bad guy. This varies a little bit from what we usually think of as bad guys because in this case they aren’t really antagonists, they’re just sinners. The ghost of the poet Virgil is guiding the storyteller, Dante, through the various levels of Hell. As they progress through the circles of Hell the punishment for the bodies they see there get progressive worse in conjunction with the severity of the sins they committed while living. Therefore, essentially everyone in Hell was a “bad guy” to some extent!

The thing I found most peculiar was who each circle of Hell contained and what sins were deemed more severe than others. Even those that were Christians and lived good lives were in Hell because they did not get baptized, which is why Virgil is there. The “rankings” I found most surprising were the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th circles of Hell, which were the heretics, the violent, and the fraudulent, respectively. One would think that heresy would be the farthest thing from going to Heaven and that harming people through violence would be worse than the non-physical forms of harm, such as lying and thievery.

A level of sympathy is definitely formed for some of the beings in Hell, but others not so much. It’s pretty obvious that most of the characters deserve to be where they are but the punishment definitely seems severe sometimes, such as being submerged in boiling blood or going on forever getting your head chewed on.

It definitely seems like some of the “bad guys” learn their lesson, except that doesn’t really help them out here. Virgil is remorseful for his situation and others stop to tell Dante what they did and seem shameful about it, but even if they are not remorseful they are still stuck in Hell for eternity, which is depressing!

Found this to be a good summary.

Bibliography:

Dante's Divine Comedy translated by Tony Kline (2002). Dante's Inferno Unit.

Image Info: Web Source: Wikipedia.

Essay Week 12: Women's Roles in Britomart

This week I read the Britomart unit. I’m pretty sure this is the first unit I’ve read where a female has been the main character in the story with the exception of Alice in Wonderland. That was a children’s story however, so it is much more common to have a female lead. This unit was unique though because it is about knights, which are traditionally male characters.

Britomart was a female but she was dressed up as a knight the entire time and trying to conceal her true identity when amongst the men. I think this made the story even more unique, but the author didn’t have a woman simply defeating men throughout the story. Britomart won every battle or competition she found herself in, but this was due to the fact that she has a magical spear and shield that she stole at the beginning of the unit. This is unknown to all of the characters in the unit, but the men definitely fear Britomart once they start fighting her.

I think having magical weapons being the way that the woman is successful in this unit still falls into the traditional male roles and does not present anything groundbreaking or unique. Other than Britomart, all of the other characters fell into “traditional” roles. Women were given as prizes to the knights and the knights were seen as the protectors of their ladies.

Another notable addition is that there was a woman who followed Britomart throughout her journey. She was an old nurse that took care of Britomart in the castle she lived in and the disguise was actually her idea.

Lastly, the entire theme of the story is Britomart searching for true love, which is actually just a face she saw in a magical mirror. Overall, this was a very fun unit to read and it was unique that the main character was a female who was disguised as a male, but the story still fits perfectly into “traditional” roles. 

Bibliography:
Stories from the Fairie Queene by Mary Macleod (1916).

Image Info: Illustration by Paul Mercuri (1860-1861). Web Source: Wikipedia.

Week 11 Essay: Setting and Landscape

This week I read the Alice in Wonderland unit and the thing that left the most lasting impression from this story was the landscape. I’m pretty sure I’ve only ever seen the movie once, but I was very young, so I did not have a picture of the setting and landscape in my head before reading this. Even without the movie, the story did a great job of making the setting come alive.

It helps that there are very unique elements in the story, such as a talking rabbit with a pocket watch and tiny hallways and doors that only 1 foot tall people can fit through. Even the “normal” things were very vividly described though, such as a tall colorful mushroom with a caterpillar that is smoking hookah on top of it. The list goes on with a garden and playing cards as the gardeners, the Mad Hatter, and the Duchess who has a pig for a baby.

The overall impression I got of the setting and landscape was a very colorful one, almost with a childish and playful tone to it. The setting was a definitely a fantasy setting rather than a realistic one, which I think helps the imagination run even more wild when picturing these stories.

I was surprised when I started thinking back about the readings to realize that the setting really didn’t play that big of a role in the story. More so it was the unique characters that made the story and the only thing the setting affected was the miniature size of everything. There was no weather described and the season of the year wasn’t even described, except that there were leaves coming from the trees, but this detail had nothing to do with the actual story.

Even though the setting was not a critical part to the plot of the story, it is still what made the story entertaining and come alive, which is what helps make a good plot anyways.

Wonderland.

Web Source: Wikipedia

Essay Week 10: The Cherokee Trickster

When reviewing the readings this week from the Cherokee Unit, one of the things that stuck out to me the most was the tricksters and fools category. The common trickster throughout the stories was the rabbit, who appeared in six of the stories. The characters were never given a name, but the rabbit was often challenging the other animals to competitions, such as duck hunting against the otter and a race against the terrapin. The rabbit does not do well in these competitions however, because the terrapin fools him and he also tries to cheat at duck hunting.

Other activities that the trickster rabbit gets involved in are stealing the otter’s coat, stealing the possum’s tail, and filing the deer’s teeth down. In each of these cases, the rabbit was trying to obtain an item from another animal that he was jealous of. Unlike the competitions, he is actually successful in stealing these various items from other animals.

In a different scenario, the story of Flint Visits the Rabbit actually portrays the rabbit as a hero. Although he still uses his “trickster” ways to accomplish his task, the task is actually a noble one this time for the benefit of others. Flint has been helping to kill all of the animals and the rabbit bravely decides to visit him and trick him into falling asleep at his house. The rabbit successfully makes him blow up and even gets injured the process.

Not much is given as far as information of other characters interacting with the trickster, except the ones that he tricks into competitions or adventures. There is no talk about the other animals trying to get him back and he is never talked about except when he is actually involved in the story. Overall, the trickster in this unit seems to be more of a fun, outgoing character than a sinister one trying to cause trouble.

Rabbit.

Image Info: Web Source: Wikipedia.

Week 9 Essay: Native American Heroes

Since the title of the unit I read this week was Native American Hero Tales, it’s only fitting to do my essay about heroes! These tales were not about the typical definition of a hero though. Out of the eight stories in this unit, only “The Attack on the Giant Elk and the Great Eagle” was about someone who accomplished something heroic. The character in that tale was Jonayaiyin and he was given the task of killing two giant creatures that had been destroying humans. He goes off on his hunting adventure and comes back victorious, much like you would expect your everyday hero tale to go.

The other tales, however, were more focused on characters that either accomplish something or evade someone or something who is bothering them. The “hero” in “The Jealous Uncle” and “The Jealous Father” is actually just a boy who escapes someone trying to harm him. “The Son-in-Law Tests” and “The Dirty Boy” seemed to be tales that were more about tricksters than heroes. In each story, a character, or set of characters, uses magic to accomplish what they are seeking, but neither of the accomplishments were what I would normally consider heroic.

“Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away” and “Dug-From-Ground” were both about characters that were transformed. In one case, the characters were transformed from animals to humans and in the other case, the main character was transformed from a root to a human. In each story these characters continue on to live happy lives, but never actually accomplish something heroic.

With all of this being said, perhaps the Native Americans had a different definition of “hero” than what we would normally think of, or what is found in tales such as the Greek myths. In these tales, a hero was simply someone who lived a successful live, which could be defined as getting married or just simply living with their families.

Lots of this week's characters lived in tipis. 

Bibliography:

Image Info: Web Source: Wikipedia.

Essay Week 7: Congo Folklore and Family Relationships

This week I read folktales from the Congo Unit. A very common theme across the twenty or so stories was family, with most stories containing siblings and having a characters mother in the story as well. The parents were not a very integral part of the story, but there always seemed to be a mother present. At the very least, the stories would at least start by saying the main character or characters were the son or daughter of whatever the parent’s name happened to be. The most common family interaction was between siblings, especially brothers. In The Vanishing Wife and The Twin Brothers, the main characters are a set of brothers who do not get along. A number of stories were based on a brotherly quarrel that causes them to split and head separate directions.

On a side note, something interesting that I noticed is not all of the siblings or characters were in human form. There were leopards, antelopes, crocodiles, and numerous other animals that were given very human-like characteristics. They could think, talk, and interact like humans and seemed to be interchangeable with them in the stories I read. These animals would have arguments and quarrels just like some of the brothers did in each story.

Another important family relationship in the folktales was marriage. From what I can remember, pretty much each story involved male characters that had a wife (or wives) or went searching for a wife. Marriage was so important that a few characters were even gifted beautiful wives by some form of magic.

There weren’t a lot of common themes that seemed either promoted or discouraged as far as families go, but there were lots of men who had multiple wives. Other than polygamy, there didn’t seem to be any other common themes though, except quarrels between brothers that ended in fighting!

Animals found in Africa.

Bibliography:

Image Info: African Animals from The New Student's Reference Work (2006). Web Source: Wikipedia.