Haiku

Hope I do this right...

Grass
Grass dance in the breeze.
Violent storm around the corner.
Thunder clapping.

Distance Runner
Heart wrenches in despair
One last push of dare
do it again.

Glory
Corners of a golden world
Everlasting mountain tops,
Within our grasps

DRJ #4

• Things are have gotten nifty in act four and five. My first reaction was the death of poor Ophelia, I have picked no sides in this story, but the with the side of the innocent. Although she did take part in spying for Polonius, I felt like she was just being used and taken advantage of. I am a "Ophelia sympathizer". She seemed to me to be the only one in the story I can only feel sorry for. Hell, I feel sorry for everbody. They all lost in their worlds of madness. I thought it was smart of Claudius to take care of Hamlet by just shipping him off to England. No confrontation necessary. Such a simple way to handle a nuisance. However, it was also clever of Hamlet to fake his incident with the pirates. I was surprized how fast the ending was. although act 5 scene 2 was long, then ending was quick with everyone dying. It was by far the most entertaining part of the scene!
• The character that I noticed mostly was Laertes. He was driven to punish who was responsible for his father's death(Polonius). However, I did seem skeptical whether or not he truly loved his father. When Claudius questioned him if he Laertes grief was a illusion, I began to wonder if Laertes was really grieving or seriously wanted to kill who was responsible(Hamlet). Perhaps Claudius was just nugging at Laertes to get him motivated to plot the killing of hamlet. After all, He Laertes does go on to describe how he'll kill Hamlet. Poison tip.
• The theme I think is destruction. I'm not sure how to go about explaining it, but Laertes dies, Hamlet dies, Gertrued dies, and Claudius dies. Just total destruction of noble life in this one scene. It's the destruction of not only "noble" people of noble birth(with barely any noble intensions), but It's a destruction of an entire family.

DRJ #3

• First reaction to act three was in the beginning when Hamlet was being a complete douche bag to Ophelia. I can't help but feel sorry for her. However, as for the Hamlet, I find it hard to sympathize for him and his cause to regain his throne. I also found Hamlet's behavior quite strange in Scene 2 when he says to Ophelia "That’s a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.(That’s a nice thought to lie between a girl’s legs.)".  His conversation with her is quite strange before the play. It's almost silly of him to say that before the Play starts. I despise his behavior toward Ophelia. I found it funny how Claudius and Polonius were snooping around thinking Hamlet was being driven mad by love and how they're just driven by their narrow beliefs of the explanation of Hamlet's "craziness".
• Polonius was definitely creeping up to people's beeswax, always snooping around. Turns out all that snoop'n finally caught up to him. I found a bit of Irony how Polonius said he was in a play once, and played as Julius Caesar. He said that in the play he was killed by Brutus. Heh, heh, turns out that he actually does die later on by Hamlet stabbed just so similar to how Julius Caesar was stabbed . Polonius was a dead man playing a role that was to be his fate as Julius Caesar. Heh heh.
• I have to say, I think the them of this act is simply revenge, and here's why. During the play, Hamlet was eager to see Claudius's reaction. This was his motive during the play. In scene 4 when he speaks to his mother, putting her in a total guilt trip. That's where Hamlets emotions and motives truly lie. His emotions of his father's death and hatred for Claudius. His motive for revenge.

DRJ #1 Hamlet

• When reading this play for the first time, I really had a hard time understanding it from the book, so I got translations like everyone else. I became surprised on how much was going on between characters. They all seem to want something from each other and the drama that became of it. Hamlet seeing his fathers ghost and the
• The protagonist is Hamlet. He tries to claim his throne of King of Denmark and all while others are trying to make sure he is sane. There's indeed a lot of spying done especially with Reynaldo and Poloniums. They also rely on Ophelia to spy for them because of Hamlets "love" interest. It's hard for me to find the motives. This family is crazy.
• I think Shakespeare was showing the sides of family that no one expects. the trickery, the spying, and deceptions. Also all while it being a royal family, you can only imagine the drama thats happening all at once.

SSRJ#2: Walker

• This story made me feel like the character was not at peace with his past and had buried his difficult experiences by not telling his wife, daughter what kind of  a person he was when he was in Nam. The element that stood out to me the most was the poetic verse the veteran recited when he was on the medical mission in Nam in peace time. That verse seemed to add a romanticism into the hardships of war specifically the Vietnam war.
• The Author, to me, was adding a sense of symbolism in the end of the the story. In the story the veteran stated that it felt good to heal/help people and kids with defects, cleft lip or scars. He felt like he was redeeming himself for his brutal past. However when the Veteran failed to replace Dinh's thumb, the veteran wished so hard that the operation would succeed. Ultimately this was a harsh reminder to him that no matter how much he tries to heal, with all his power, he will always be the man of his past. What really nailed this symbol was the ending when he leaves in the plane and he thinks to himself how dangerous Vietnam is and welcomes the risk because it makes him feel like the part of the land. The leans the reader to contradict the veterans suspected attempts to redeem himself.
• What is your interpretation of the ending after failed thumb operation on Dinh? Do you think there was some symbolism there tied with the ending Veteran Dr. was in the plane?

SSRJ#1: Faulkner

• This story made me feel curious. It started out with Miss Emily's death and went into explaining Miss Emily's past when she was alive. This drew me in to want to discover who this Miss Emily is. The element that stood out the most to me was the ending, when they discover the body. It was a huge surprise especially with huge evidence that she had lain beside it. Even the element in between the beginning and the end, still encouraged me to read. Elements such as the details mention about the older confederate soldiers gave a feel of a place with history. The only similar situation in my life are the old mysterious lady that once lived next door by us a few years back. i remember only seeing her when she went to get the mail, but always in her house...
• The setting of the story seemed to bring a huge amount of descriptive elements of the house as well as how it takes place in the south. The authors describes the house inside using "shadows" or "dark" kinda gives me a feeling of an eerie setting as well as a stronger curiosity to who Emily is. I think the author must knew that he was drawing the reader in with a sense of  wonder. It was the house and the curiosity of the people around town of the smell that came from the house, that added the more burning desire to know what was in that house, or further more, what kind of a person is Emily?
• If  the "husband" Homer Barron went missing and was not seen for years, why didn't anybody get worried about him(relatives, family)? They could have had further investigation and gotten a search warrant. Then the old Confederate soldiers can bust in her house with their confederate flags and muskets as a SWAT team and find out what was going on sooner.

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