Zeitoun

In the first stage in Campbell’s stages in the journey of the hero, The Ordinary World Zeitoun is introduced to the story sympathetically. The reader gets to see Zeitoun’s background, where he came from and how that might have resulted in the situations he finds himself in throughout the novel. He would always face dangerous situations as a child.  Zeitoun could not wait for when his older brother would take him fishing. He was accustomed to the diligent life style back in Syria and that affected many of his choices later on in life. Such as, the decision he made by staying behind to take care of his home. 

ZEITOUN

      Zeitoun is a person who has built everything he owns from scratch. He has great  pride in everything he and his wife have accomplished over the years and he refuses to let a hurricane destroy that. Zeitoun has many heroic traits, he decides on his own to stay behind to protect his home, his store and the neighborhood. He has a chance to leave and go stay with Kathy's family but he is too stubborn to do so even though he knows the hurricane is too strong to prevent any more damage. Zeitoun will not allow anyone to insult his wife or workers. During times when his business could not afford to turn down any jobs he left a work site because a man was making rude comments to his wife and his workers. I find this to be heroic because it takes a great deal of strength to do that in times of need. Zeitoun is also extremely stubborn. On an everyday basis him and his wife are constantly competing with each other. Even if she is right about something he will not admit it. 

Image for Electra- Lambrini, Brian, Renetta, Chloe

We are using this image to portray Electra because this characters' traits are much like hers. Electra doesn't get attention from her mother or Agamemnon. They don’t give her new pairs of clothing or clean her. She is much like a prisoner in a cell who is trying to escape. Bellatrix clearly portrays Electra's treatment in this image. Electra is seen as a crazy woman. Bellatrix's hair makes her look a little insane as well as her clothes that are old and dirty. Even her stance which shows that she has attitude. She looks like a dirty servant but one with pride. This connects to Electra because she was treated awful by Agamemnon and her mother yet she still has pride in her Father, and stands firmly in what she believes in even after his death. 

Apollo

More about Apollos romances.
://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/g/apollo.htm

More about the story of Apollo.
http://www.helium.com/items/1357738-apollo-the-greek-god-of-the-sun

Apollo

     Apollo was the god of the sun, prophecy, oracles, plague, healing, disease, music, song, poetry, archery and the protection of the young. He was in love with Cassandra because of her beauty but because she did not return the favor he cursed her. Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy. After Apollo realized she would never loved him he wanted to punish her. He couldn't take back the gift her gave her so he made it that no one would ever believe her predictions. Her whole life she lived in misery as she would try and stop bad things from happening but no one would ever believe her because of Apollo's curse.

Boys Don't Cry

Part 1: The characters' environment plays a significant role in their attitudes towards the unusual. Their small town location limits their ability to open their minds and think beyond their standard normality. Homosexuality is not tolerated within their social realm, making it okay to persecute the gay individual.

John is a very disturbed and problematic young man.  He seems to be easily irratated by things that are petty. The violence at the end of Brandon's story is caused by John.  Lanas mother also played a significant role in the violence as she was the one who told John where to find Brandon, knowing that conflict would arise.


Part 2:  Plato's Allegory of the Cave fits perfectly into the lives of the characters in Boys Don't Cry.  Lana is constantly struggling to get out of her "cave" and see the "light". Lana's desire to escape helped her accept Brandon for who he is. As Plato said, once someone has seen the light they will never go back because they've accepted the truth. This applies here.
  It is difficult to communicate with those who are still stuck in their own cave because of their close minded approach to unusual situations, in this case John or Lana's mom.

Laramie Project Research

This article is about 5 separate attacks on gay men that might be linked to the same attackers. All the attacks happened in a matter of 2 months. All the victims had similar stories, they were all beat and cursed at. Their attackers always started off by insulting the gay men with a homophobic epithet.
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/08/06/gay-men-targeted-in-5-d-c-hate-crimes/

Presidential Debate

Lambrini Argenas

     

President Obama and Governor Romney clearly have conflicting ideas regarding the direction of our country. Romney strongly disagrees with almost all of Obama’s plans and ideas. He constantly stresses the importance of the free market. Romney feels that businesses are better among less government regulations. He implies that business should rely on the excellence of our people and states, not by the federal government.  At times, however, it is difficult to determine Romney’s authenticity. He seems to be more concerned with “saying the right thing” and saying what the American people want to hear with terms like “more jobs” and “tax cuts,” rather than formulating legitimate plans with substance.

            In contrast, Obama seems to be more precise and substantial within his plans since he also provides examples. I strongly agree with his plan to pay doctors based on performance rather than the amount of times they are seen.  This increase of regulation among the medical system will highly limit, if not put an end to medical fraud, and we the people will finally stop getting “jerked around” as the president put it.  However, that is not to say that he too was not flawed. I often find it difficult to understand Obama as he seems to beat around the bush at times.

I honestly don’t know what to make of this debate. Both bring up good points and ideas. My concern is who is ACTUALLY going to make the difference and do something about our country’s current situation. As far as I’m concerned we haven’t made much progress with Obama, and Romney seems to bring up points without validation, along with his many contradictions.

Pandora's Box

                                                   Pandora’s Box

            A long time ago Pandora and her friend Sophrosyne went out for a walk in the forest. Pandora was a young and very beautiful girl, who was adventurous and loved nature. Sophrosyne was quieter than Pandora, but was very intelligent and mature for her age. She and Pandora did not have much in common but they were best friends since they were five years old. Pandora, since she was a chid was the more outgoing one of the two.  Sophrosyne was always more careful and always thought of her consequences before doing something.

            As they were walking in a beautiful forest in Cuba one day Sophrosyne noticed a light shining bright far ahead of them. She pointed it out to Pandora. Pandora was amazed and wanted to know more so they started walking towards it. The light seemed much closer than it actually was, they were already walking for hours and it was starting to get dark. Sophrosyne suggested that they should start walking back  home but Pandora is eager to find out what the light is and she begs Sophrosyne to come with her. Pandora threatened her that if she doesn’t go with her she will continue on alone. Sophrosyne was not going to let Pandora walk in the dangerous forest alone so she went with her. As they continued walking Pandora heard and strange whisper. She could not quite tell what it was saying or where it was coming from. She stopped walking and listened carefully. It was a man’s voice saying “Becareful, for what seems to be good may turn out to be evil and there is no turning back after you’ve made your decision.” 

            Pandora didn’t tell Sophrosyne what she heard because she didn’t want to her to get frightened and run away. For the rest of the walk until they reached the light she could not get the voice out of her head, she was trying to figure it out. At this point the forest was completely dark and the only thing guiding them was the light. Sophrosyne was yelling and crying, she was begging Pandora to turn back but her mind was set on one thing.

            Finally the two girls found where the light was coming from. It was on top of a mountain and the only way to go up was through a cave. They entered the cave, Sophrosyne was terrified she had never done anything like this before. She had a really bad feeling about the unusual light, she could tell that something was not right. Suddenly Pandora finds a bunch of gold coins and follows the trail of the coins into a bright room. It was so bright that they could barely see in front of them. In the middle of the room was a beautiful wooden box but the top part of it was made out of glass that you can peek through. Once she touched the box the room became dark. The light stopped shining through the mountain and the only thing they could hear was Sophrosyne crying.

            A few moments later a much dimmer light starts shining. It was coming from the box shining out of the glass. Pandora puts her head on top of it to see what is inside the box. Sophrosyne yells out “Don’t do it!”. Pandora puts her hand on the box and opens it.  Three hours later Pandora wakes up to be in the middle of a storm with Sophrosyne lying down next to her dead. Pandora starts crying hysterically. She couldn’t believe that what she did killed her best friend. The box she opened released all the evil in the world. A man appears next to her, he was a god. “I warned you! But now you have to pay the consequences of your childish actions.” He told her that Hades was furious with her for going on his grounds and releasing the evil. The only way she can save the world is by taking the box and bringing it to Hades. She started her journey right away, Pandora has never been this determined and even though she lacks self-control she can climb any mountain and run faster than any girl.

            Pandora succeeded in bringing the box to Hades but was stuck in the underworld forever. She didn’t think before her actions and now she has to pay a price for it.  Sophrosyne was rewarded for her actions. For the first time the gods decided to make a human a god. They brought her back to life and made her the god of self-control and restraint. It is said that every time Sophrosyne gets upset so does the weather. That is how hurricanes start.