Fences

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Quater 1 Reflection

      Quarter one is finally over! This quarter has been very interesting for me in AP Lit. There were times were  I felt like giving in and there we times were i felt wow is how its going to be once I get to college. This quarter has challenged me to think in new ways that I didn't even think was possible for me. It has opened my mind up  into a new way of thinking and now reading a novel, poem, or play isn't just regular reading. It's more than just reading, there is  annotating, Socratic seminars, and also TPCASTing(which I hated). I think out of the three i really enjoyed annotating it gave me the sense that I actually understand what I read.
      My weakness throughout this quarter would definitely have to be, finding it hard to write an essay without getting stuck or contradicting myself. I would get frustrated and tired of thinking, mostly because of procrastinating and waiting to finally write my paper on a sunday night. Which of cousre led to a not so good paper. My favorite thing that I learned was how to write a college paper. It gave me a sense to how college writing is going to be and what professors look for in your paper. The handout that was given out was really helpful and didatic. It broke down step by step of how your paper should be. It explains the do's and don'ts when writing a paper. I know with the continuation and erudition of keepin up with this process, my papers will be on the level that i want them to be on. I am really looking for forward to this quarter and what it has to offer. Know that I am aware of the mistake that I have commited I can work hard to improve and correct them. Hopfully I can master all these skills by the time I graduate.

Oedipus and His Downfall

Prompt: In Oedipus Rex, is Oedipus a helpless victim of fate or were there ever times when he could he have acted to prevent his own downfall?

         Can a person choose their fate or even try to change it? In the play Oedipus Rex written by Sophocles, Oedipus could have acted to prevent his own downfall. Sophocles uses the literary device characterization to portray Oedipus as a tragic hero.  A tragic hero is a person high up in their community and does something that leads to their downfall. In this case Oedipus is the King of Thebes; he fulfills his destiny of killing his father and marrying his mother. Sophocles uses the literary device characterization to help emphasis the meaning that Oedipus could have acted to prevent his own downfall.

        One factor that led to Oedipus’s downfall is that he is guilty of hubris. His excessive pride made him a powerful man. Oedipus addresses the chorus and says “I curse myself as well…if by any chance he proves to an intimate of our house, hear at my heath, with my full knowledge, may the curse I just called down on him strike me!” I feel like Oedipus determination is getting the best of him. His majestic tone he carries through out the play. He has assumed the hero stance from the start of this story not knowing of his fate. Oedipus has grown impatient with the blind Tiresias for not speaking his wisdom when Tiresias is brought to the place. Another example of his immense pride is his encounter with Tiresias.  Oedipus says “Creon the soul of trust, my loyal friend from the start steal against me…so hungry to overthrow me he sets the wizard on me, this scheming quack, this fortune- teller peddling lie” He has become paranoid, possibly scared, and incredulous in his pride and in so doing has selfishly pointed the finger at Creon, his “friend” and brother-in-law. His anger is ruining his own life. Oedipus could have been less determined and less confident 

         Another example is when the chorus speaks and says “pride breeds the tyrant violent pride, gorging, crammed to bursting with all that is overripe and rich ruin- clawing up to the heights, headlong pride crashes down the abyss- sheer doom!” The chorus is saying that Oedipus pride is causing him to act tyrannical and all this is just building and climbing up to “sheer doom” his horrid downfall. By not listening to what others had to say only blocked him from discovering the truth about his life. His arrogance has to pay the consequence for it, which leads me into my second claim.

         The blindness of the truth is another factor that leads to Oedipus’s downfall. Avoiding of the truth often leads to Oedipus disgrace at the end. One way he attempts to avoid these truths are by blinding himself, mentally. Oedipus questions Jocasta about how may people participated in the murder. He says “You said thieves – he told you a whole band of them murdered Laius. So, if he still holds the same number I am not killer. One can’t equal many.” Oedipus continuously tries to escape the fact the he is the murder. He correct Jocasta when she mentions more than one person had something to do with the murder and he is positively certain that it couldn’t have been him, but when Oedipus seeks the killer of his land he discovers that he is the murder of this terrible deed. Oedipus blinds himself from the truths that he cannot accept, until he is forced to see and so physically makes himself blind. Oedipus blinds himself from the fact that he killed a man on the road as he was traveling to Thebes . He does not want to remember what happened because he comes to see how he is some how connected with Laius and the murder.  He also say “I will speak out now as a stranger to the story, and a stranger to the crime.” Here Oedipus is talking to the chorus that he has nothing to do with the crime and is just a stranger. He excludes himself from the fact that he knew of the murder. This leads me into my final assumption.

              Overall I think Oedipus could have prevented his own downfall. There were many actions he could have taken to do so. In this story Oedipus pride got the best of him. His overconfidence judges him as a tragic hero. He is blinded and his real truth is not seen.