Rough Draft

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."

Cassius says this line to Brutus when trying to convince him to kill Julius Caesar. Cassius is explaining that Caesar needs to be stopped before he rules Rome. Brutus knows Caesar's intentions. However, Brutus thinks of Caesar as a friend. This leaves Brutus with a tough decision. Cassius means that our actions are our own. They are not decided by fate or coincidence. Their decision not to try to remove Caesar from power sooner is the reason they are underlings. Additionally, their 

John Green changes the wording because he sees how our fate affects our decisions. Hazel did not decide to have cancer. It was forced upon her. It was fate. Because she has cancer, some of her decisions are affected by it. Her choices are set to fit her limitations and also the drive to make the most of what she can do. 

For example, Hazel's cancer led her to meet Augustus. Fate. The fault in Hazel's stars led her to what she considered to be a fault in herself. She got close too Augustus and is now scared she will hurt him when she passes away. 

Thanatopsis Analysis

1. Thanatos means death and opsis means sight. It contributes to the meaning of the poem by the literal interpretation of death and that whenever death saddens someone, their supposed to take a look outside and see that it will come, but hoping that nature will comfort them.

2. shroud-a cloth or sheet in which a corpse is wrapped for burial
   pall-a cloth, often of velvet, for spreading over a coffin, bier, or tomb
   narrow house-grave
   sepulcher-a tomb, grave, or burial place
   All of these words further increase the importance of the impact of death on the poem. They are words that signify death and everything about it. It shows that death is the main idea/theme, even though it's not supposed to seem like a bad thing in the poem.

3. The poem is highlighting the fact that we will all die someday, but is about life. This is because, even though the poem talks about death a lot, Bryant also mentions that nature would, essentially, soothe the worries of death. This puts life into focus and is basically telling people to enjoy life because one day everyone has to die.

4. The tone is bright in the first part of the poem. This is because Bryant is talking about nature and the hope that it brings. The tone shifts at about the time Bryant talks about the "Old Ocean" and waste. This changes the tone to a slightly sadder tone because, at that point, Bryant starts talking only about death; however, Bryant doesn't talk about death in a bad way, because he still talks about some form of hope.

5. Elegy-a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or lament for the dead
Conventions of an elegy mean that an elegy is supposed to move from saddness to consolation, but not necessarily happiness.
Thanatopsis: all about nature

6. Thanatopsis descrides elements of nature in vivid detail, making it seem visible to the reader. The poem paints the landscape of a valley with a river flowing through it.

7. This poem is a Romantic piece because of the way it uses abstract elements to convey human emotions. It is a Calvanist piece because of the way it describes religious aspects of nature. This poem is a historical piece because it reflects the beliefs during the Romantic era.

Witch Hunt Web Quest Answers

1. The trial was very odd. There was no real evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I was guilty. The things that were used as evidence made no sense. The only thing the jury had to go by was talk of unrealistic or coincidental occurrences. No one listened when I denied being a witch. I thought the petition would set me free but the girls that accused me quickly turned the tides.

2. Arthur Miller stressed the ideas that could be related to McCarthyism. He was trying to show the relationship between the “Red Scare” and the Witch trials. However, certain things in the trials didn’t make sense as an allegory to McCarthyism and he took out certain characters that didn’t fit his analogy such as Cotton Mather, who was a magistrate on the court during the Salem Witch Trials.

3. At first I thought Linnda Caporael’s theory could definitely explain the illness of the the girls who were called witches. However, when I read the second article I saw a quote from Dr. Peter Hoffer asking why only the girls had been infected by the fungus. The theories that the trials were a result of a cruel prank or revenge seem to make more sense. John Proctor, a victim of the trials, did have an affair with Abigail Williams, who was the first girl to show symptoms of witchcraft. John and his wife were both accused of witchcraft by Abigail.

4. I believe Arthur Miller had a great point about Americans being scared of Communists. People in the time period were ignorant as to what Communism was. They were just scared that America would treat their citizens like the Soviet Union treated people under Communism. They had a twisted idea of what Communism was because of the brash actions of the Soviet Union, such as blockading Berlin. In turn, Americans took outrageous actions in order to try to keep the Communists in America at bay. Friends turned on friends for things like playing soccer or not saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

5. The mass hysteria that was around during the Red Scare was similar to that in the Salem Witch Trials. Americans were fearful of something they had no clue about. The same is true for the Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, nobody had any real evidence that witchcraft existed, but still made accusations. For Americans during the Red Scare, it was the fear of Communists taking over America.

6. During each event, there was a mass hysteria that had arisen from an issue in society. In the "Human Rights Watch" article, during the Salem Witchcraft Trials, and the Holocaust many people died as a result of many people being scared by something; but during the Red Scare and in Japanese internment camps (in America), many citizens of America were not killed, but deprived of their rights in an effort to protect all American citizens.

7. George Santayana's quote means that if we cannot learn from mistakes made by leaders and civilizations before us, we will make the same mistake under other circumstances. Learning from history is knowing what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. Arthur Miller reminded people about the consequences of irrational fear based on ignorance.

8. Another example of another "witch hunt" was when Americans put citizens of Japanese descent into internment camps. America was shaken up by the attack on Pearl Harbor. The people were so scared that Japanese spies and terrorist cells existed in America. There was no real proof that either existed. All of it was just irrational fear because of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

9. I liked the activity about the Salem Witch Trials. It let you experience everything an accused “witch” would go through from the beginning to the end. It also expressed the emotions and actions that the accused when through in great detail.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Questions; Jonathan Midgett and Marques Miles

1. Jonathan Edwards intends to persuade the congregation to repent.

2.People that believe in God, but will still sin. The Puritan congregation is the audience.

3.Abate would mean to relieve, according to the context.

4.He emphasizes his point that says that people are so close to Hell & damnation.

5.To elaborate and illustrate the “world of misery”. Other appositives are used in the sermon.

6.Makes audience feel powerless because they can’t keep themselves out of hell with just their effort.

7. I think Edwards uses semicolons so he remembered to pause between each phrase when he spoke that part. He repeats “not willingly” to emphasise his point.

8. Jonathan Edwards develops the simile by repeating the conjunction “and”, adding more and more detail to the simile. The imagery in this sermon is used to employ fear in the audience by putting it into ways that they can understand, such as the bow and arrow reference.

9. He is making the point that God is angry with people for their sin and that inevitably they are going to hell for their sins.

10. Edwards appeals the foundation of Christianity: the Bible, which is considered to be a figure of authority as it was written by followers of God. This is evident from his reference to Genesis 19:17.

11. For the most part, Edwards has a tone that seems to try to show the anger that he says God feels towards humanity. The sentence “There are black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads… and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you.” shows this.

12. Spoken texts like this address a person or group of people. “This is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ…”

Edwards is talking to a congregation whereas written texts don’t address a specific reader. They tell the story of the main character.

13. His sermon uses the fear of hell and the wrath of God to persuade the audience to convert their hearts. A persuasive text will normally explain why the author is trying to persuade you and then give you reasons as to why you should agree with them.

14. The 5th paragraph may have evoked such a response. The vivid comparison of the fury of God’s wrath to a bow and arrow would’ve certainly given the audience a clear picture of what His wrath is like.


15.

Metaphor Analysis of the Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is filled with examples of metaphors. The easiest metaphor to see is in the title of the short story. The yellow wallpaper plays a significant role in the progression of the story. The narrator finds the wallpaper absolutely hideous, so hideous in fact that she asks her husband to sleep in another room because she can't stand it. As the story progresses and her mental strength deteriorates, the narrator finds herself intrigued by the wallpaper. The narrator's imagination creates a pattern on the wallpaper that does not actually exist. Instead of focusing on the ugly yellow color, she studies the pattern. As she studies the paper she sees what she thinks to be a woman trapped inside of it. Towards the end of the story when the narrator had succumbed to insanity, she tears the paper off of the walls and creeps around the room in a way that terrifies me to think of. (I had to turn the light on when I was rereading the story.) So to put this in a way that takes a lot of words to say, the wallpaper represents male dominance and also feminine submission during this time period. The wallpaper driving the narrator insane represents freedom. It was against the status quo for a woman to openly speak out against the will of men during the time this story was written. Insanity is also against the status quo in not just that time period but any time period. The "smouldering unclean yellow" color is a reference to the "illness" that her husband believes she has. To combat her "illness", he prescribes lots of rest and time alone to relax and recover. He refuses to let her leave the room. As an example of her submissiveness, she says "I wish I could get well faster." The wallpaper soon becomes more that just a symbol the narrator being imprisoned. It ends up being the thing that imprisons her. The bed also serves the same purpose as it is immovable and further contributes to her confinement.

As you dig deeper into the story you find other metaphors that take a little background knowledge to understand. In ancient cultures, the moon was associated with female power. This was a present idea in the story as well. During the day, the narrator was confined to her room while her husband was at work. This is a symbol of the role of the two genders at this time. The men worked and provided for the family while the women tended to the house. However, during the night while the husband was asleep the narrator was free to let her mind wander. At one point in the story, she actually gets up and wanders around the room at night. She says the paper reveals something different in the moonlight. It acts as an escape from the male-dominated confines of the day and allows her to roam freely, much like the woman that the narrator sees in the paper.

Introduction to Me

My name is Jonathan Midgett.

          I play tenor saxophone in the marching, concert, and jazz band. Music is the thing I am most passionate about. I play it, I write it, I sing it (very badly), and of course I listen to it. I've written a few songs but I mostly write freestyle verses. My favorite genres of music are punk (mostly metalcore and post-hardcore), rap, rock and jazz. My favorite artist is Ray Charles and my favorite song by him is Unchain My Heart. You'll see me waving my arms around like an idiot because I'm conducting the music I'm listening to. Because of that, I've found out why I could never be a drum major.

          I love to write. To me, it's one of the greatest ways to express myself and vent when I'm having hard times or even when I'm having good times. I said before that I've written songs and freestyle verses. Writing freestyle verses is so much fun because the rules of the English language don't have to apply. Of course you have to rhyme with verses but you get to play with the pronunciation of words. You get to switch up the order of your sentences to make them fit the rhythm of the beat you're writing to. When I don't want to be confined to the rhythm of a song I like to write spoken word. I mean, there is a rhythm to it but you get to make it. You get to change it whenever and however you want throughout the piece.

          That's really all the important stuff so I guess I'll wrap up with a few smaller details about myself. I run the mile and 800 meter in track. I'm a Chief Petty Officer in ROTC. One of my pupils is bigger than the other and I like to take long enthusiastic walks for no apparent reason (not without my headphones).