Blood Wedding #4

The first symbol is the knife and weapons used to kill. This is present both at the beginning and at the end of the play. I think it shows up mostly from the mothers perspective because it was something that changed her life very drastically and had a huge impact. It is also used to foreshadow what will happen in the end of the book. It is so significant because it is a tool that can be used to destroy someones life in only a few seconds. It develops the character of the mother and how she is so protective and passionate over any harm to her family.

The second symbol that is very present is the agriculture and idea of growing things. They talk about the son buying the vineyard and that is where he gains his wealth from. They also relate a persons life to that of a flower and when they are healthy and happy they are alive and well, but when they aren't so well off they are covered in weeds and turned to dust. The mother relates her husband to a carnation and how he smelled like them. I think this develops the idea that a persons life can be taken away just as easy as a flowers and how fragile they really are.

The Wild Duck Journal #3

The Characters who hold the most blame are Gina and Werle. They are the two who began building this mess and should be responsible for all the lies they told. If it wasn't for them hiding the truth from their families there would have been the unraveling of the lies that led to Hedvig's death. The character who is without blame is Hedvig she was just an innocent girl who was just going along and then she was thrown into the lies that her mother told. Then the only father she knew ended up leaving, for a young girl it would be a traumatic experience especially when you have no idea of what caused it. I think that Gina should have more blame than she takes. Everyone is concentrated on the fact that the Werles started and uncovered the lies, but Gina should be blamed just as much. The only ones that take responsibility is Hjalmar and that isn't until he calms down from being upset. Werle also takes the responsibility of giving Hedvig a good life even though it isn't upfront he provides her with a family and makes sure that family has a stable income.

The Wild Duck Journal #2

Ibsen uses the motif of decay, disease, and illness to show that people may not be sick with a real illness, but actually be sick because they aren't fully aware of the lies that are being woven around them. Gregers hints throughout the beginning of the book that Hjalmar is blind to some of these things that are occurring. "You've got an insidious disease in your system"(Ibsen170) With this Gregers is suggesting that Hjalmar is blind to the lies. Gregers is also always asking Hjalmar why he thinks Werle was being so nice to him. "Tell me - when you became engaged - was it them my father got you to - I mean."(Ibsen125). This is when is always hinting about the big secret of the story and plants the seed that later grows into the truth coming out. Hjalmar is always blind to the fact that Gregers is trying ti destroy his life he refers to him as a friend. "That's why he needs a friend's watchful eye." (Ibsen177).  This even has the reference of the eye and that Hjalmar's eyes might not be as clear as he thinks.

The Wild Duck Journal #1

         The character who has the most false conceptions about others is Hjalmar. He was blind to all the secrets that were made around his family. He was even blind to the fact that his own wife had lied to him about their child. He was unable to see that the way he was set up with Gina was very unusual and how everything fell into place so easily. I think that he is a kind hearted man who doesn't expect people so close to him to lie about things so major. He was also unaware about all the aid that his family received from old mad Werle. This was given to them so that the former mistress and the her child would be setup for life. Hjalmar didn't pay any attention to this until Greggers came along and planted the seed that would eventually grow and destroy the Ekdal family. When Hjamlar finally finds out about all of the secrets everyone has he looses it and becomes a very different person than we had known him to be. He couldn't stand the sight of Hedvig which was complete opposite of the way he acted earlier in the play. We also see that before the play ends Hjamar returns to his family and tries to reason with what had happened but by that time it was to late and the damage had been done Hedvig killed herself. Then Hjalmar realizes that he had made the wrong reactions and returns to the old understanding kind Hjalmar we met at the beginning of the play.  

Dystopian Journal #1

The motifs of the dystopian novels help to show what the people in the society connect with or what they value or maybe even what they aren't aloud to have but keep in secret anyways. It shows something of value and importance that determine the outcome of the book. The setting helps us to understand what the people of the dystopia are living in and how they are controlled and what they are aloud to do and what they can't do. This is important because it gives us the idea of why they feel the way they do about the government and its control. The language of a dystopia helps show how monitored the people of the society are and how much they are aloud to think on their own and what they are aloud to say about their society.

Journal #4

In the end of the book Meursault comes to realize that he isn't afraid to die because it makes no differences once he dies the world will keep on going. Even if he wasn't going to die then, he would eventually die that's just the way life is. He realized that there was no real reason for him to live no one to love him they were all gone and that made no difference to him. I don't think Camus wanted us to  come to this conclusion. I think he wanted us to think of all the events that happen in our lifetime and appreciate them because someday we will be on our deathbeds recalling our lives and we should be using that time to have fond memories not ones that will question us till death because we don't know why we live.

Journal #3

I think that Camus divided the novel into two parts to show how Meursault went from an normal man who was someone that went with the flow and never took a care to what others thought of him and how he felt towards others. In the second half Meursault began to think about why he was doing things and that made it easier to connect with him because we could see his view and not the view of others around him.