Aleah’s blog

In Act V of Hamlet, Hamlet is returning to the palace in Denmark when he meets two gravediggers.  Shakespeare describes them as clowns, which suggests a sense of situational irony. Why would clowns be in a graveyard? It’s ironic that they are there since clowns are perceived as happy and uplifting while a graveyard is usually identified with sadness. However it can also be a play on the relationship between life and death since they are very closely related. In this case life would be represented by the clowns and death by the graveyard. 

As someone wanting to pursue a career in cyber security I am curious to know how many people actually know about cyber security and how it can be beneficial for them to know more.

Hamlet is a play that has many different themes and a tone that changes often. A few of those themes are revenge, trust and human nature. These themes plus hamlet as a dynamic character help establish a tone that is uncertain and introspective.

Love is often described as a noun but not necessarily in the way that people use it. For example, people often say they put love into what their doing like cooking. And somehow it makes their cooking better. How can you really tell? In my opinion haven't really experienced this. My older brother is a chef and the food he has cooked for me is great but I don't really has to do with love more than it has to do with the skills that he has been taught because he enjoys cooking but not really loves it. It is important to be passionate and love doing something but personally it has been difficult for me to pick up on this through the material ways it is shown.

Change is an essential aspect that many people face throughout the course of their life. Whether it is a change of environment, a physical change or even a change in how someone thinks we all make a few in our lifetime. Now this concept isn’t just seen in the “real” lives of ordinary people but is also apparent in many forms of literature. For example in the play Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, the author takes us on a journey following the lives of both static and dynamic characters. Hamlet, the protagonist, is one of the most dynamic characters. Due to the tragic loss of his father the audience gets to see the changes Hamlet undergoes: how he acts, how he is viewed by others and the change of his thoughts. Throughout the play Hamlet is never truly himself. The death of his father and they betrayal of his mother force Hamlet to start acting and thinking in different ways. Not only was he feeling angry to start with, the appearance of his father’s ghost only escalated the proble...

Comedy and tragedy blend well together. There is no doubt that Hamlet is a tragedy with traces of humor. The humor in Hamlet produces a sense of relief for the audience since there are many serious and intense scenes that do occur. Humor also allows those scenes to be portrayed a bit different and almost softness them up. In addition, this humor contributes to keeping the audience's attention because the use of humor may be hard to catch and is ironic at times.

If Hamlet was updated to setting with today’s technology a lot would change. There would be no need to send messengers and I’m guessing security on a royal family would be much higher. Therefore making it harder to kill someone and there would most likely be camera footage that could be checked to see if some people’s stories checked out. There may also not even be a need to kill Polonius if a camera could’ve taken his place. The technology that we have today would have the potential to change almost every aspect of Hamlet.

   Hamlet is easy to relate to as we get to know the themes more. For example, the action and inaction theme is very prominent in the play and in modern day life. Whether it is ordinary people or people we see in the media. Hamlet is often too busy overthinking to act on something. This can be seen in students deciding if they should take risks that puts themselves out there such as public speaking. Another way people may be able to relate to Hamlet is how he acts one way but in reality is someone completely different. Even though the reason Hamlet does this is for revenge many people do this in society just to fit in. The trust or lack of trust revealed throughout the play is very apparent in today's society. The way Polonius doesn't trust Laertes can be seen in many parents relationship with their children. Especially since technology has made it easier to have more control on children rather than letting trust have a greater impact on their actions.

       There is never a dull moment in Hamlet. Something is always happening whether we know it or not. During acts one and two there are many events that are essential to the plot. Starting with act one scene one four guards are stationed outside of the Elsinore castle in Denmark. As they are guarding they believe they see a ghost that resembles the late king/Hamlet's father.The ghost doesn't speak on why it is there so they make the decision to tell Hamlet about the ghost. In the next scene we learn that the new king is Hamlets uncle Claudius. He has taken over the thrown and married Hamlet's mother. Hamlet isn't very happy about this and can't believe his mom would do this to his father but he knows that speaking out on how he feels isn't going to help. As the act moves on Laertes is about to leave for France but he warns his sister about falling for Hamlet.        Towards the end of act one Hamlet is introduced to ghost and even though his fr...

Trust; the firm belief in reliability. Hamlet has both put his trust into people and shown to be trustworthy. This can be shown numerous times in Act I. For example, he trusted his friends to keep quiet about the ghost and trusted their word that the ghost existed and may even be his father. On the other hand Hamlet was trusted by the ghost of his father to listen to what he has to say but not be angry or seek vengeance on his mother or new step father. In addition the theme of trust wasn’t just shown in Hamlets interactions it was carried on to the relationship between Polonius and Laertes. Polonius made the decision to send Reynaldo to spy on his own son showing that he does not trust Laertes to be okay on his own.

He wished that he could disappear or that he could commit suicide. Everything about life seemed flat/useless. It seemed like the world was a place where only bad and ugly thrived. He couldn't believe that his father was gone. His father was a much better king than the one they now have, his uncle. It was even harder to believe that within a month of the death of his father his mom was now with his uncle. Even though Hamlet's father had loved his wife so much she didn't take time to mourn. He doesn't think things will end well but Hamlet knows he can not speak out about it. 

Some high school students need to be told what to do all the time and reminded or threatened when they don't get the job done.  Independent work can be challenging, but I like it because it allows me to show what I know on my own. It also can be a little less difficult due to the fact that I don't have to communicate with others to get work done or rely on other people to do their parts. However, independent work can be difficult without teachers constantly reminding us of what to do due to many people having the tendency to procrastinate. This teaches us to be responsible especially since once we leave high school no one will constantly be reminding us of what we need to do. 

meme- images, videos, pieces of text. All forms are usually humorous and considered to be apart of today's culture. virus- a code that has the ability to be detrimental by corrupting or destroying data blog- a website that an individual or groups updates regularly that discusses any subject they want to wiki- a website that allows collaborative editing URL- world wide web page website- location connected to the internet WWW- world wide web internet- global network that provides varieties of information/communication 2.0- superior or more advanced version of something open source-  denoting software where the original   source code is made available 

Frantically looking through my bag for what seemed like the hundredth time I ensure that I have everything I need for my long journey. Most importantly, my ticket, money and passport. My excitement turned to nerves overnight. All I could think is "what if something goes wrong? What if they aren't there when I land". But I know that I can't let my negative thoughts prevent me from going. I look at my phone seeing that the time reads 9:32 am meaning I need to leave right now so I don't miss my flight. But would that be such a bad thing? Maybe I should wait a little longer. I look around at my cozy apartment but know I need to take this risk. With that final thought I open my door and take the first few steps on my new journey.

Cliche;  an adjective but not a noun. Most stories I come across have plots that are cliched. They’re simply too predictable, which is something that is lacking in my life. Why you might ask? Well I can answer that in one word, anxiety. It's always made my life more of an experiment than anything. There isn’t a doctors appointment where I don’t hear “Well Alicia, that didn’t work so maybe we should try this?”. It just makes each day more feel more impossible than the last. The feeling of constant worrying and like your heart is going to explode is one I wouldn’t wish on anyone.  “ Alicia?” I looked around to see who called me only to realize the movie was over and my family was already walking towards the door. I grabbed my trash rushing to catch up. As I walked behind my family I remembered how much they meant to me. They are the reason I keep going, the reason I don’t give up. If I ever lost those two parents whose love never stopped or those two rambunctious little br...

The novel Misery is about a novelist, Paul Sheldon, that undergoes a car accident and is rescued by nurse Annie Wilkes who turns out to be his biggest fan. As the story continues we learn that she isn't just his biggest fan but is actually obsessed with Paul. We aren't the only ones reading, so is Annie. However as she continues reading one of Paul's novels she does not like how it ends up. Due to this sense of disappointment Annie decides to take matters into her own hands and keep Paul around a bit longer (this includes a little torture) until he rewrites the novel her way. The theme of this novel is very apparent. It is the one thing that Paul is working towards, survival. Due to the author's suspenseful and negative tone with a little bit of hope I can imagine his morning routine starting out late as he stumbles out of bed and grumpily begins his day only looking forward to his first few sips of coffee. For example King states "She reached in and took out a h...

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of tales created by Geoffrey Chaucer sometimes between the time period of 1387 and 1400. These tales didn’t focus on one social group of people but instead gave  an outlook into the historical and sociogical lives of different social classes in the late Middle Ages. Author, Chaucer was born in London England and became a servant to Countess Elizabeth of Utsler. However, he is mainly known today for his work “The Canterbury Tales”. During the era this was created in the Great Schism was also occurring since the stories do take place in the late Middle Ages leading to the renaissance era becoming more developed.   Sources: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/c/the-canterbury-tales/about-the-canterbury-tales https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.biography.com/.amp/people/geoffrey-chaucer-9245691 http://www.thefinertimes.com/Middle-Ages/events-in-the-middle-ages.html

This blog will track the my senior year and exhibit my growth not only in English but in general throughout this school year. With that being said I welcome you to follow along the course of this exhilarating year!