Charles Dickens

Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens, he very imaginative and had a lot of talent even as a child. He had a good childhood up until his father(who had been living beyond his means) was put into prison for debt. Dickens then had to work in a shoe factory when he was only twelve years old.  This time in his life was something that very few people knew about until after his death but it was always brought up in the themes of his novels. He was very driven and wrote many novels, a few of his classics that are still read today are Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and David Copperfield. Dickens had great success in writing after having several hardships to overcome making him an admirable person because he never gave up. Another thing that makes him stand out among other authors is that he didn’t have a lot of school education, most of what he learned he did on his own.

Shakespeare Webquest

1. He was born in Stratford on April 23, 1564

2. There are no definite records that Shakespeare ever attended school but he is believed to have attended grammar school in Stratford, however he did not go on to University education. Because of the quality of his writings he is believed to have had a good foundational education.

3. Anne Hathaway, he was 18 at the time and she was 26

4. Susanna, Hamnet, Judith

5. London

6. an acting company, later to be know as the King’s Men

7. He retired to Stratford in 1611 after living in London for around 23 years

8. April 23, 1616

Stop 2

1. Men worked the fields growing crops, women took care of the home and children.

2. A bethrothal was like a promise of a wedding, kind of like an engagement but more binding, the couple was still not really considered married until the wedding.

3. Boys were legal to marry at 14 and girls at 12 but they weren’t considered of age until 21.

Love was considered to be a foolish reason to get married.

Parents weren’t as close to their children as they are now.

Stop 3

1. The Globe was built in London. 1599.

2. It was considered to be his, all of his plays were performed there.

3. They sat high up in the balconies

4. They were the poorer people and they stood on the ground right next to the stage.

5. The globe was torn down in 1613 and rebuilt in 1999.

 

 

Time to Shine

The Pantene commercial was set in China. The main character in the story wants to play the violin but no one else believes she can and tries to bring her down because she is deaf. Eventually all of the negative comments work and she begins to believe she can’t succeed at playing the violin. The only person who believes in her is a man who plays violin on the streets, who is also deaf. He tells her that in order to see she must close her eyes, which seems pretty ironic. After the man’s death she begins to believe in herself again and plays during a talent show. Everyone is speechless at her performance and it is easy to see that she is the winner of the show and has gotten her chance in the spotlight and proved to everyone who had brought her down that she could shine.

Very Superstitious…..

During the Renaissance time period most people believed in ghosts and spirits. Today people who believe in ghosts are thought by some to be crazy or hallucinating but during Shakespeare’s time period people who had encounters with spirits were considered to be completely normal. During the Renaissance time period there were many plays and books written involving ghosts because for the times ghost sightings were so common. Like today ghosts were usually seen in grave yards, old houses, places where people had died, etc. Today there are people who still believe in ghosts and supernatural occurrences. I personally have never seen a ghost before however I’m not ruling out that they could exist and I believe that there are people who can connect to spirits who have passed away, for example the Long Island Medium. Below is a link to a video called behind the read, about the Long Island Medium

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/long-island-medium/videos/behind-the-read-love-from-beyond.htm

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Assignment 7: Our Growing Effect on Nature…

After watching the video of the Lyrebird, an amazing wild bird who has the ability to mimic all types of sound, I realized that our society has had a greater effect on nature than we sometimes realize. The Lyrebird was able to make camera shutter sounds, chainsaws, car alarms, etc., all sounds that animals wouln’t be exposed to were it not for us. Our lives keep encroaching on the wild animals and their habitat more and more every day and I believe that if we don’t get a handle on it soon, we won’t have any wildlife left for future generations to experience.

Self Image and the Evils of Media…..

People, especially women have more self esteem issues in today’s world than they did a few generations ago. In today’s society we have grown to believe that the skinnier you are and the more makeup you wear the more beautiful you are. As if women don’t have enough self esteem issues already, we strive as a whole to look more like these women who have been plastered all over magazines, tv commercials, movies, etc. because no matter where we go they cannot be avoided. The goal however to look like these so called “Perfect” people is unrealistic and will never be reached. There have been so many girls who have died or came very close to it because they have strived so hard to look like the people from the movies and magazines they are constantly surrounded by when in reality those actresses and models don’t even look like that themselves.

But the media doesn’t stop with self image, they also try to tell us what is the perfect lifestyle and because we are constantly seeing these things, as American people we believe we have to strive for the best and become upset when we fall short of the so called “Expectation of perfection.” The media makes it out to be that you arent successful unless you live in a 10,000 sq. ft. home, have 10 cars in your custom garage, and make millions every year but this depiction of success could not be further from the truth.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2006/10/27/media-can-damage-self-image/362.html

Evil Queen vs. Salem Witches

In my opinion the witch from Snow White was much more evil than any of the Salem witches I have read about so far. In the Salem Witch Trials it seems to me that there are a lot of people who just didn’t like some of their neighbors or desired something of the other neighbor’s and accusing them of witchcraft was an easy way to be rid of them. The reasoning behind accusing these innocent people, (like greed and jealousy) were a lot like the reason the Evil Queen turned into the witch and poisoned Snow White. She didn’t like Snow White because she was a threat to her throne and was more attractive than the Evil Queen. In today’s society we associate everything that has to do with witches and witchcraft as being a bad thing and in a way it dates all the way back to Puritan times and all of our feelings toward witches stems from the Salem Witch Trials. In many ways I believe our viewpoints on witchcraft have remained the same but I don’t nessicarily believe in witches, but if they do exist I wouldn’t think that they are all evil and terrible, just like with any ordinary people, some are good and caring some are not. The Puritans of Salem were to quick to judge about many things and I don’t think there is any way that there were that many witches in a single town. The puritans tried to make one another believe that they were all good and would never have a reason to lie about another person in Salem but in alot of the trials I don’t believe that was nessicarily the case.

Salem Witch Hunt Experience

In the Salem Witch Hunt Experience I plead not guilty and was hanged anyway for witchcraft. Had I actually been there in 1692 I’m not sure what I would have done if I was truly innocent. If I had plead guilty they would have probably sent me to the gallows for sure but had I plead not guilty there would have still been “evidence” against me and I might have died anyway, truthful or not. So it would have been a very difficult decision to make as far as which way to plead. Even though I was disappointed that I had died even though I told the truth if faced with a situation like that I would still probably plead not guilty because a lie is a lie no matter how big or small and the Puritans especially believed so and at that time after being accused of witchcraft they needed as much of God’s help as they could get because the odds were definitely stacked against them.

Identifying Races

On the PBS website we did an excercise called “Placing People” in which I did terribly on (only got 6 correct). This made me realize that I am quick to judge on what a person’s race might be and I noticed that I’m not always right and you can’t always be sure just by looking at someone’s skin color, hair, or facial features what ethnicity they are. Placing the people was somewhat difficult because there were many of the people who could have been a few different races so it was hard to determine what to classify them as. I  think it was important to realize that we aren’t always right just by our visual assumptions and that in my case I shouldn’t be so quick to judge a person’s race just by looking at them.