Post 12: Tragic Public Figure

Robin Williams
Comedian & Actor
July 21, 1951 - August 11, 2014

I grew up watching Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, Hook, Flubber, RV, and many of the other movies Robin Williams was in. Robin Williams could make anyone laugh or smile or even cry. His was a dynamic actor and a hilarious comedian. He was truly loved by America, that is why his death was devastating to nearly everyone.

I remember when the news came out, I couldn't believe it. Then I found out his committed suicide I was in even more disbelief. How could someone who makes people laugh for a living, be suffering with depression?

President Obama said, "Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between.  But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien -- but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit.  He made us laugh.  He made us cry.  He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most -- from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets." http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/showbiz/robin-williams-dead/index.html

For some, his death hit close to home. We realized no matter what a person portrays on the outside, we never know what they are battling on the inside.

Modern tragedy is something that moves an individual or group in how they perceive the world. We become affected by the tragedy since we can relate to it in our personal lives.

Classic tragedy normally involves a hero or heroine and the gods. This isn't relatable to our everyday lives, but the classic tragedies have a deeper meaning that we can relate to.

Post 11: Tragic Short Story

October 23, 2012
"What about naming it Alexander Wren if it's a boy and then Auden Rose if it's a girl?!" she exclaimed excitedly as the points at the circled names in her notebook dedicated to their first born child. Her husband smiles at his wife and says, "Sure, I love them both." This made his wife smile and jump with excitement.
The couple was going to wait until the day the baby was born to find out the sex of the baby. The couple chose on a yellow and green bedroom set and already decorated the whole room. The wife spent hours and hours in the room rocking in the white rocking chair reading to her unborn child.

December 14, 2012
The couple was on their way to their last doctors appointment before their due date. The wife was in the passenger seat pinning things to her Pinterest page while her husband drove. The weather out was nice, but there was a lot of traffic due to the holidays.
"I'm so excited for our growing family. This will be the best Christmas present I will ever receive," said the husband as he reaches for his wife's hand. His wife looked up from her phone and had tears of joy in her eyes. This was the last time her husband will ever see her smile. The couple was hit head on by a drunk driver. The couple was taken to the hospital. The wife was taken into the O.R and had an emergency delivery. The wife lost too much blood and did not make it. The husband suffered minor injuries and survived. The baby was delivered and was healthy.

December 25, 2013 (one year later) Christmas Day
The husband sat in the yellow and green room holding Auden Rose in his arms. His daughter was one year old. He sat there looking at the best Christmas gift he ever received. He sat there and was mesmerized by how a tragic accident was both the worst and best day of his life. He knows that he could not have made it through this year without his daughter. He is living every day trying to be the man that his wife knew he was.

Post 10: Comparing Modern Epic Heros

After reading a few of my classmate's post, here are 2 that stuck out to me: One was Shrek and the other was Katniss Everdeen. Both of these characters are heroic in their own ways. Both characters go on a journey that make a change in their world. However, Shrek's acts are more revolving around himself while Katniss' acts are selfless out of love for her sister. When it comes to my chosen character, Oh, I think he may compare more closely with Shrek. Both are characters going onto a journey for the better of themselves (for the most part.) This does not make either character less of a hero though.
These 3 characters are similar to classic epic heroes in the sense that they are all brave and make a huge change without that even being their drive for doing whatever it was that they were doing.
These characters are all heroes because they took it upon themselves to make a change.

Post 9: Modern Day Epic Hero

An epic hero is defined as a character in a poem who is noble and brave and is affected by great events or admired by his achievements.

In the CrashCourse video, John Green states that tragedy is most interesting when the mostly good character makes a big mistake. This invokes compassion and more emotion from the audience. This statement made me think of the animated movie called Home.

In this movie, the alien named Oh, is a clumsy alien and most of the other aliens do not like him. However, the audience cant help but to fall in love with his cute, quirky character. But since Oh is clumsy, he makes a big mistake and ends up sending out an email to the "bad guy" telling him where him and his people are moving to. Long story short, Oh ends up fixing the situation, with the help of his human friend Tip. While fixing his mistake, he leads his new friend back to her mom and he helps save the planet Earth. Oh shows bravery when he is on is journey to fix his mistake.

The aliens who first did not like Oh and were annoyed by him, end up admiring him for his achievement and befriend him.

Post 8: Views about my Wikipedia article

So far, "The Pillowbook" has been my favorite piece of literature. The thing I like the most about it is how it feels like I am reading a diary. However, the Wikipedia article fails to emphasize any of that. All it states is an overview of it. It mentions the "Borgesian Lists" but gives as little as their titles for an explanation as to what it is. It also states it is "as valuable as a historical document" but gives little to no explanation as so why it is valuable.
It closes of by saying, "In general, this piece is written in brief statements, where the length of one paragraph is relatively short, and it is easy to read the contents, even for modern Japanese speakers."
So basically this article leaves a lot of room for me to work with and add to since the original author failed to add much detail to parts I saw meaningful and worthy of more detail. Even though this story is short and easy to read that does not mean her work should be looked over. Her work is worthy to be analyzed in detail and that is what I plan on doing by adding to this Wikipedia article!

Post 7: LOVE

Love. Love is everywhere. It is in every city, every era, and every religion.

When I think about where love was first developed, I think about Shakespeare and his sonnets and plays on love. I also think back to the movie called "Letters to Juliet" which is a movie inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

I believe that for some people to believe in love, they need to know that there is an origin to it. I think that is why people have no let go of love poems and sonnets written centuries ago. Of course there is the element of the fact that is his history and culture, but there is still the fact that love existed then, it still exists now. As for this movie, their love was compared to Romeo and Juliet's love. Romeo and Juliet were both young, dumb, and in love. Their love was genuine and pure. However, if you compare their idea of love to someone like the Wife of Bath, you're in for a rude awakening. For most of her husbands, their love was not pure nor genuine. It was lustful as is was greedy.

Since we have both works of literature that illustrate so called "love" we can easily say that the idea of love has been around or years and years and within many areas of the world. There is no specific answer as to why the idea of romantic love began in the aristocratic courts of early countries other than these stories were pleasing and entertaining and still are today.

Post 6: S&M compared to The Wife of Bath

'Cause I may be bad but I'm perfectly good at it
Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
But chains and whips excite me

It is clear to see that Rihanna is open about her sexuality when the song S&M released. It caused a huge debate about Rihanna's openness even though she was very blunt about it.

Or where did he command virginity? . . . He spoke this

to those people who wished to be perfect; and by your leave,

gentle people, I am not one of those people. I will use the

flower of my life in the acts and fruits of marriage.

In this quote from The Wife of Bath's, she questions where the idea of virginity even came from as well as claim herself to be imperfect. Next, her quote about using the flower of her life and fruits of marriage could easily mean she will use her sexuality for her benefits and she will use her fruits of marriage hence her multiple marriage and sex partners.

These two quotes are from two total different time periods, but both have the same concept of freedom within their sexuality. Rihanna mentions the fact that she "doesn't care" just like how the Wife of Bath basically does too when she says she is not perfect. By saying she's not perfect, she's giving herself the excuse to be sexual and flirtatious.

However, even years after The Wife of Bath, the norms still haven't been set. Rihanna's sexual lyrics had people sitting uneasy, even though the fact of women liking sex has been around for centuries.