Thinker or Doer?

I would say that I am more of a thinker than a doer in most aspects of my life. Similarly to Hamlet, I prefer to consider every possibility and every possible consequence of my actions. When I have a decision to make it takes me a very long time to make up my mind. I often have to ask for other opinions also before making very major decisions. Since  Hamlet is a thinker and not much of a doer, it must be difficult for him to have to make the decision of whether to kill his uncle or not without consulting anyone first.  In some cases this can be a good thing, but in other situations it can be negative.

Thinking before acting can be positive because it hinders any rash decisions that could have poor end results. By thinking things out and considering consequences it is less likely that I will make a major mistake. Another reason why being a thinker is positive is that I am usual happier with my final decision than I would have been with a spur of the moment decision. For example, when going shopping I am usually more happy with the purchases I make after thinking about whether I really want the item or not than I am when I quickly decide to buy something without considering whether I need it or will use it.

Although their are positive sides to being a thinker, their are also many negative aspects. For example many times I will put things off because I am thinking about them off so long instead of actually doing them. This happens often with projects and homework. One particular assignment that I put off for a very long time but was constantly thinking about was my college essay. I thought about my essay for months, when in reality it would have been easier to have just sat down and done it and see what idea I came up with along the way.

In my opinion,  I think that it is important to be a doer and to be spontaneous in some cases but in other cases be careful and think things through. Whether one is a thinker or a doer the most important thing is to have good judgement.

Question

In the poem Question, by May Swenson the author the speaker is a man who worries what he will do when he loses the things that he considers to be most important to him. He dreads losing his horse, his dog and his house. He begins to imagine what his life would be like without these things that he holds so dear. The thought of losing his companions and his house saddens him deeply as it would anyone else. It is difficult to imagine life without the things you have grown to love and appreciate. The speaker tells the audience all of the things his dog, horse and house have done for him over the years that he has probably taken for granted. This reminiscing adds to the speakers appreciation for the things that he loves and makes him wonder where he would be without them.

I think the reason that this poem is so powerful is because it is something that everyone can relate to. The poem has a broad audience. Not everyone necessarily dreads losing the same things as the speaker, but everyone has something or someone that is important to the them that they would never want to imagine losing. For this reason, the message of the poem is universal.

The short stanzas of the poem are effective. It gives a voice to the poem and allows the reader to imagine that the speaker can barely utter these words because he does not want to imagine his life with the absence of his treasures. The questions also add to the poem. Through the questions the speaker is able to effectively share his thoughts with the audience and allow them to understand how important his dog, horse and house are. The questions show that he would be lost if he were to lose these things. The questions also help to place the reader in the speakers position allowing everyone to wonder, what would I do if I were to lose what I love?

To Be Or Not To Be

"To be or not to be? That is the question" (3.2.55) Almost everyone is familiar this famous line from William Shakespeare's well known play Hamlet. However, it is not so regularly recognized how often we ask ourselves this very same question. Although some decisions and questions may seem small and insignificant at the time, all of our decisions lead to who we will be and who we will not be. These can include major decisions, such as to attend college or not to attend college  or in Hamlet's case to live or not to live, all the way down to, to eat breakfast or not to eat breakfast or to do homework or not to. Our decisions and our habits make us into the people we are, and deciding to do something or not to do something builds our character over time and defines us.

One question I have struggled with lately is to keep my job or not. On one hand it is extremely stressful to maintain good grades and work however on the positive side it betters my time management skills and prevents me from pushing my responsibilities aside until the last second, and also it is nice to have that extra money. To be a working student or not to be, that is my question and although it does not seem like that big of a question, certainly not as life changing as Hamlet's question, it will impact me no matter which decision I arrive at.

Hamlet's question is much more intense. He is wondering if life is worth it anymore because everything around him seems to have gone horribly wrong. Hamlet is extremely disappointed with his life and considers ending it. This a huge moment n the play because the audience realizes just how much everything has affected Hamlet, with his father's death and his mother marrying his uncle. Everything is weighing down on him so heavily that he has been brought to a very dark place where he has come to ask himself this end all question.

Parental Involvement in Hamlet Act II

The Act opens with Polonius speaking with his servant Reynaldo. The readers soon discover that they are discussing Laertes and that Polonius is ordering his servant to spy on his son. He gives Reynaldo money and to go to France and letters for Laertes. He gives him strict instruction on how to pursue Laertes and how he can find out exactly what he is up to without making him look like a disgrace: "You must not put another scandal on him [...] But breathe his faults so / quaintly / That they may seem the taints of liberty" (2.1.29-32). Polonius is an example of an overbearing parent who does not seem to trust his son's judgments and choices.   Polonius seems to desire control and he is able to achieve it through his parenting. His actions in this scene tell the reader that he does not truly trust his son, whereas earlier in the play he seemed to support his decision to go back to school and was confident in his ability to be on his own now he wants to check up on him to make sure he is being mature and responsible. This amount of extreme parenting is not appropriate, since he let his son go out on his own he should allow him the opportunity to make his own choices and become an adult without being spied on and watched over. Polonius is not justified in his actions during this part of the play, because he made the decision to trust Laertes to go off to school and is now going back on his decision by spying on him and is also taking away part of the freedom that he granted him. I believe that most of the major  and most important aspects of parenting have remained constant over the years.  Some parenting habits that have not and will not change are that parents are always going to be protective of their children and that parents will want to make sure their kids have good reputations. Although these habits are common it is how the parent goes about maintaining these habits that determines appropriate or inappropriate parenting.

Explication of "Ballad of Birmingham"

The speaker of this poem is an African American mother living in Birmingham Alabama during the 1960s. The occasion of this poem is a traumatic event: the bombing of a church on the day of the Freedom March. This poem is set during the Civil Rights movement, when blacks were protesting for equality and an end to segregation. The poem opens with the daughter of the speaker asks her mother if she may "march the streets of Birmingham / In a Freedom March today" (Randall 4-5). The young girl wishes to protest racial segregation of schools and other public facilities with fellow African Americans, however, her mother denies her wish saying it is too dangerous. Instead the speaker tells her daughter to attend church, because it will be safer: "The mother smiled to know her child / Was in the sacred place" (21-22). The mother does not want her daughter's life to be in danger and therefore sends her to the safest, holiest place she can think of, church. Randall foreshadows the last lines of the poem when he explains the young girl's appearance for church head to toe: "She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair, / And bathed rose petal sweet, / And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands / And white shoes on her feet" (17-20). Soon in the poem tragedy strikes the protective mother. When she learns of the bombing at the church: "She raced through the streets of Birmingham / Calling for her child" (27-28). The diction in the poem shows how devastated the mother is and sickened that such an awful thing could have occurred in such a holy place. She must wonder, if church is not even safe anymore where is? The ending lines of the poem are saddening and the sadness of the speaker is evident, she has now lost the one thing that she had been trying with all of her being to protect. The mother is shocked and refuses to believe that her daughter could really be gone: "'O, here's the shoe my baby wore, / But, baby, where are you?"' This si a strong line for the author to end on that sticks out in the reader's mind and shows the intense emotions of the heartbroken mother.

The poem follows a pattern of four line stanzas. Within each of the stanzas, two of the four lines rhyme. In my opinion the rhyming makes the poem seem to flow better. It seems as though the speakers intended audience are other African Americans who have also experienced tragedy during the Civil Rights movement. Another possible audience that the speaker and writer could be addressing is to those who are carrying out these horrific acts of violence towards African Americans, attempting to make them understand the loss and pain they are causing.  

Hamlet's Family

In the first three acts of scene one in the play, we are introduced to Hamlet's family. The dynamic of the family is very strange. Hamlet does not seem very fond of his new family "situation" that has resulted following the death of his father, the former Danish King. He makes it incredibly clear that he thinks his mother remarried to his uncle far too soon after his fathers death. He also makes a point to say that his mother has not grieved properly and has moved on incredibly quickly to marry his uncle, Claudius. Hamlet seems to be the only member of the family who is grieving over the loss of his father. It seems that King Hamlet was highly admired and many people saw him as a great leader who was extremely brave and courageous. Hamlet does not see his uncle as an equal to his late father and does not think that he should have the privilege of marrying his mother or inheriting the throne. Hamlet says that his uncle and his father were nothing alike which insinuates that he does not think he deserves his father's life. It is possibly that Hamlet also resents his uncle because he thought that he was next in line to be King but instead his uncle swooped in and stole his dreams and his mother.  Claudius also is not grieving properly over his brother's death and is basically telling Hamlet that he is fretting too long over the subject and that he needs to move on. This shows that Claudius is insensitive and full of himself, not caring about the feelings of anyone else and Hamlet seems to be the only family member with morals. It seems clear that throughout the play, this strange family dynamic will intensify and end explosively.

Goals For This Year

My goals for this year are set even higher than in years past because this year's accomplishments will help to determine my future. My first goal for this year is to achieve a higher score on the SATs then I did previously.  A goal that I have set for the school year as a whole is to earn all A's and B's and get on the honor roll. Reaching these two goal will in turn help me to reach one of my biggest goals for this year, which is to get accepted to the colleges that I decide to apply to. The most difficult school that I am planning on applying to is Northeastern University. By aiming to get into this school I have set a very high goal for myself. I hope that I can reach this goal through hard work and dedication throughout this school year. Another goal that I have set pertaining to college applications is to write a strong college essay. A goal that I have set specific to this class is to achieve a better score on the AP exam for AP Literature than I did on the AP exam for AP Language. I hope to become a stronger reader and writer in this class throughout the course of the year, and also hope to enjoy the reading material. My over all goal for this year in and out of school is to not get overwhelmed with stress and to be able to have a positive outlook on everything, in doing so my hope is that this year will be enjoyable and memorable.