Final Blog

[Mrs. Lebo]

Please answer the following in fully developed paragraphs. This will
be your final assessment for the class.

1. How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
Answer with specific examples from your readings.

2. Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
discussed in this class. Tell us why you selected these three and
support with specifics from the readings.

3. Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class. What
worked, what didn't? What did you like, what didn't you like?
Suggestions?

You have been a great class!
Thank you!
Mrs. Hosch and Mrs. Lebo

[Treye]

The Hero cycle is the basis of all stories. If a story is successful
then it means that it followed this cycle well. There is always a call
or a meaning to the story. There is always something they are trying
to obtain as well. If they would just have the thing they wanted or a
certain part of the cycle wasn’t obtained or tried for then the point
of the story would shift or wouldn’t work at all. Every story needs to
have a meaning so without the hero cycle stories wouldn’t have a point
or be as fun to read. For example if you would read a book about king
Arthur you would expect to hear stories of his travels and of his
accomplishments. But instead you find it’s all about his horse that
wouldn’t be near what you would expect at all.
I believe the three major themes are Fate, Intervention of the Gods,
and Survival. Fate in my mind sticks out the most. Fate is all about
us. It is our fate to live, to die, to love, to laugh, to cry and many
more. Fate is all about accepting these things and things brought upon
you. Some people accept them with open arms while others cry out.
Intervention of the Gods also fits into this because when people cry
out they are usually cursing the Gods for what they have done. Gods
are used to this even ours today but its because of Gods that good and
bad things happen but also our choice. And last survival. Survival is
all about how some people just want to live at all costs and don’t
care who it hurts. While others want those around them to live and
protect them and sometimes its that quality which hurts the most. Not
that you die but that you don’t protect someone you thought you could.
I liked the blogs but at the same time I didn’t. I liked it because
it showed you what other people thought. I didn’t like it for some
questions. On the summary questions I felt that no one not even myself
really expanded so we all just said the same thing. The story is about
this person who does this and in the end this happens. And I believed
that question should be something we just write down for ourselves or
we could write it down and then the question we actually blog on would
be a view on what we read in the summary.

[Brittanee Deeringer]

1. I believe the cycle of the hero is important to literature by
helping us better understand the importance of each and every
character. In The Theban Plays, the cycle of the hero helped us
better understand the thoughts and decisions behind Antigone and
Oedipus.

2. The three major themes I believe that we covered in this class
would be civil disobedience, the right thing for the wrong reason, and
fulfillment of ones own pleasure. Civil Disobedience is important and
very significant in a way that we could relate it to every story we
read and still be able understand the meaning behind it. The right
thing for the wrong reason was very significant in the Theban Plays
and in The Odysseus of Homer. I think this theme is important in life
too. If you do things just for the glory your living a fake identity,
and you're a very egotistical person. Fulfillment of ones own pleasure
is kind of the same way as doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
You don't truly know how good a friend is until they prove that
they'll be there for you even if it is no benefit to them. I can
relate to this theme in all sorts of ways because you might need help
or just some one to talk to and if they are willing to be there for
you even if it's not to their advantage it makes a person feel better
about themselves.

3. I liked the blogging that was done in this class it's an easier way
to communicate with your classmates. It also helps you get your
opinion out without being interrupted. Overall I think the blogging
helped me comprehend the stories that we read and really understand
and answer the questions I had about some of the events that were
taking place.

-Brittanee Deeringer-
11-14-2008
World Lit.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[alicia]

1. How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?

Answer with specific examples from your readings. ---- ANSWER---- I
personally never truly figured out the cycle of the hero. Although it
did play a huge role in certain books such as the book that I had
chose for my author project. The book’s name was Jasmine. She traveled
from India to America with missions in-site. She never truly finished
or realized when her missions were complete. Although in parts of the
story she could have ended her most important mission; her will to
stay alive and move forward. She had contemplated taking her life
because she was going through really tough times and didn’t know how
to handle them. She ended up finally realizing that her life couldn’t
end here. In this book she became a hero to a man named Bud, but in a
way she was also his hero. He had taken her in as a loved one with out
even knowing her. She helped him get through the tough times after he
had gotten shot and was paralyzed. In the end though she left Bud on
his own and thought it was time for her to be another person’s hero.
It also showed things such as the tragic man which I thought would
have been Prakash or even Bud at certain times in the story. This book
truly portrayed all of the parts of a cycle of a hero. I have truly
learned a lot more about literature as a whole from this one class and
even this one book because now after going through the whole trimester
I finally am beginning to understand the cycle of a hero.

2. Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
discussed in this class. Tell us why you selected these three and

support with specifics from the readings. ----Answer---- The three
themes I want to discuss are Love, Revenge, and also the view of
afterlife. The reason why I had chosen love for my first theme was
because there is some kind of love in each and every one of the
stories that we had read. Such as the love for another, or the love of
wanting to be known and remembered as a hero. The books we had read
went into deeper meanings for the word love itself it truly gave me a
better understanding of how many different kinds and levels of love
there truly are. Revenge took place in most of the books such as
Hamlet because his father had died and he found out that his uncle had
killed him to become king and to marry his mother. He took revenge by
killing his uncle but in the end Hamlet, his uncle, his mother, his
love, and his loves father and brother all died because of the wrath
and affection and the loss of Love that Hamlet had felt. The last one
I want to briefly talk about is the view of afterlife. In most of the
books there were gods that were talked about and what happened and
were your soul would go after you left the earth physically. I don’t
truly know what I believe in but the books we read gave a lot of good
insight and reality to what some of the possibilities could be.

3. Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class. What
worked, what didn't? What did you like, what didn't you like?

Suggestions? ----Answer---- I really didn’t like blogging at all. I
think I may have liked the class a little more if we didn’t have to do
it all of the time and beings it was so knew and I have never
experienced it with any other class I didn’t really remember that I
actually was supposed to do it all of the time. It may work better if
it wasn’t such a knew experience.

[taylor]

1. I believe that it applies to literature because in every book that
you read there seems to be some sort of a hero. In the story Beowulf,
Beowulf was a hero for saving the country from Grendel and the dragon.
Oedipus kills the Cyclops by stabbing him and goes through many
challenges to get back to his country. Luke Skywalker was also a hero
in Star Wars. In every book that we have read there is always some
type of hero that tries to save somebody or do something heroic.
2.
Relationships were a big theme because in every book that we have read
there is some kind of relationship that occurs during the course of
the story. In Hamlet, Hamlet had a thing for Ophelia off and on
throughout the story. In every story there was somewhat of that sense
of belonging and type of relationship that people look for.
Survival is another big theme throughout the books that we have read
because in every book, it has seemed like someone or a group of people
is killed. In Beowulf, Grendel and his mother and the dragon die and
then Beowulf is killed fighting for his town. In Hamlet everyone
started killing each other because they were seeking revenge on each
other and everyone kills each other by the end of the story. In every
book it seems like there is always someone or a group of people that
are trying to survive but seemed like most the important people in the
stories died.
The other theme I thought was important was good vs. evil. In the
books that we read there was always a good side and an evil side. In
Star Wars, there was the good side and the dark side. In Beowulf there
was Beowulf and the townspeople against Grendel and his mother and the
dragon who were on the evil side. In the stories there was a good side
and an evil side and they always started fighting and people were
always killed when it was all said and done.

3. I thought the format of this class was run very well. I liked how
we got our outline of the book and what we had to do each day because
that helped us even things out and by following it we didn’t get
behind or have too much to do at one time. I also liked how we were
only graded on our tests so that we didn’t have to worry about being
graded on homework but yet we still had to do it to understand what
was going on and to receive a good grade on the test. The blogging was
a good and bad thing I think because it was good to blog and get
people to write about what they thought but many of the people would
put them off and then they would look at other peoples and copy what
they have instead of writing what they thought. Some people did what
they were suppose to and others didn’t but I guess you’ll have that.
Overall I thought it was a good idea because it helped you understand
things that you didn’t know.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[day]

1. How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
Answer with specific examples from your readings.

It can apply to anything . in all books you need a good and a bad
character . you need to have trials , risings and fallings , and
people that help you along the way . even in little kid books there
is the good and the bad. Also in the hero cycle you the reader learn
something from what the characters do or did . it is meant to give you
knowledge.

2. Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
discussed in this class. Tell us why you selected these three and
support with specifics from the readings.

I think one theme is love . I chose this because in all the books the
characters did what they did for love. For example. When hamlet tried
to kill Claudius he did it because he loved his father and wanted him
to be at peace. And in star wars Luke started to train to be a Jedi
because the dark side killed his family and he wanted revenge. Luke
loved his family so he had to redeem them. The second theme is
revenge. I chose this theme because you can find at least one
character looking for revenge. in star wars Luke was looking for
revenge on Vader and the dark side . In Beowulf he was trying to get
revenge on the monster for killing all of the men in the pub / mead
hall. In Hamlet he was getting revenge on the king for killing hi
father. And the last theme is good vs. Evil. Every book we read was a
good vs. evil theme. The main one being star wars because you have
the regular boy who gets called to adventure and becomes a hero and
defeats the dark side or bad side.

3. Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class. What

Worked, what didn't? What did you like, what didn't you like?
Suggestions?
I think that it would have been more effective if the blog ?’s were
more like ?’s than what you read because people can just look at
others bogs and say the same thing . but I thought that it made things
clear for the nest ha used it correctly

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[bpaterni]

I think it applies to other literature because a lot of stories have
some type of hero in it, and they all go through the same type of hero
cycle. In all the books we’ve read, there’s always a hero, save for
maybe Hamlet. In Star Wars the hero was Anakin/Luke, for The Odyssey
it was Odysseus, and for Beowulf the hero was Beowulf. All these
heroes go through the same process called the hero cycle. From the
call to adventure, to the various helpers they acquire during their
journeys, to supreme ordeal where the battle between the hero and his
nemesis occurs. They all go through the same pattern of action to
finally reach peace.

The theme I think is most important is that of the human concern for
death. A lot of the heroes we read about fight so hard in their
travels because their put into situations where they don’t want to
die. I think this is important because we all want to continue our
lives and live to do other things. Another theme I think is important
is the fight between good and evil. And as stated in the third Star
Wars movie: Revenge of the Sith, the difference between good and evil
is merely their point of views. This is important because sometimes
good and evil have their disagreements and much death and destruction
usually occurs because of it. The last theme that I think is important
is loss of innocence because in order to become a hero there’s a line
you have to cross and from there you can never go back to the time you
were before.

I liked the blogging for the most part. One of things I didn’t like
though, was reading all these overrated clichés that some people used
in their posts. I’ll have to go back and look at some of the posts to
find specific examples, but I just remember that it just didn’t appeal
to me very much.

[racheal]

1. The Hero Cycle is basically the idea of having a main
character who goes on some sort of journey with the help
of other characters and faces a battle. They do not necessarily
have to win the battle, but at least try. The battle does not
necessarily have to be with weapons, because it could be
internally or with words. Almost every novel or book, will
have a relation to this, because every book has a main
character and a struggle.
In Gilgamesh, he had found a friend, Enkidu, and the
two went on a quest to find the gift of eternal life. On
their journey, though, they had little struggles and big
struggles. The two fought the bull who brought famine. Also,
the main struggle Gilgamesh faced was when Enkidu died
and he had to continue on alone.

2. The major themes we discussed would be the human
condition, that everyone must die, and the use of religion. In our
presentations, we discussed the human condition and how
other people have more obstacles to face than we do. For
example, many people in other countries wake up every
morning and wonder if they will die that day or live until
the next. The human condition can apply to anyone in
any country though. The theme of death is another one.
No one knows exactly when they will die, but they know
it will happen eventually and the cannot stop it. In every
book we have read death has happened and there was
no second chance. Some people accidentally die, some
people murder, some people are heroes that kill, and it goes
on and on. In Beowulf, the hero killed the two monsters
to defend the people of it's land. In Hamlet, though, the
King killed his own brother out of lust and power.
Lastly, is the theme of religion. In Beowulf, there
were many examples and references to God and how
he protects them. In my presentation, I saw how many
people rely on God to get them through the day and to
support them. For many people, the belief in something
greater than what they have around them is all they have.

3. I liked blogging, because it was a chance to just say
what we wanted to say without it being judged or graded
on accuracy. We could say what we felt about one subject
or theme and it was just our opinion. It was also a chance
to read other people's views and that gave us a chance to
look at subjects from another perspective.
It also, made sure that we all stayed together in the book,
because we had to have our blogs in by certain dates. It was
difficult sometimes, though, having to read so much every night
to stay with everyone else, but having a lot of time in class to
read in class though did help.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[shuey]

1.In every literature work there is some kind of hero and the cycle
that they go through. They all had traits that helped them overcome
the issue that they were having. They all were hero's for the time
frame that the story took place. Without the hero the bad guys are
always going to be in power and there won't be much of a story because
the bad guy won't have anyone to stop him.
2.I think that the three themes were: search for knowledge, proper
burial of the dead, and love. I think that these are the major themes
because they were in each story that we read. In Gilgamesh he was
searching for knowledge about what humans did. He also felt love from
the woman who was sent to take him away from the animals. In The
Theban Plays they want a proper burial for both of the brothers
because it is there right as a human to be buried. The sister loves
her brother enough to put her life on the line to give him the burial
that he has the right to. In Hamlet love is shown by Hamlet to both
his dad and the woman he loves. He tells his dad that he will find
who killed him and Hamlet does because he told his father that he
would make things right. He knows that he can't have anything with
her because he is of a royal family and she is of a common family.
These themes are in all of the works that we read.
3.I think that the blogging was a good experience because we got to
share are own thoughts and read what others had to say about the
readings. I didn't like that after you posted something and saw that
you didn't like what you said there was nothing you could do. I liked
being able to get on the computer and not have to write it on paper.
I wish that there was a spell check on here. I enjoyed the class
(even with all the reading) and will remember it for years to come.

[sharp]

1. Because there is always a similar trend in different story’s. In
Hamlet the main character Hamlet was trying to do what’s right and
eventually follows the cycle of the hero until things go down hill.
They also all have a similar problem that they try to overcome and
deal with in there own way. All heroes’ show a very similar way in how
they are introduced to the problem or there call to adventure. They
all also have many helpers or just a few that help them throughout the
book. The struggles they in counter set them apart from different
characters in how they handle their task and if they do it the good
way or the wrong way.
2. I think some of the major themes we used are hubris, the human
condition, and love. I think that hubris showed a big part because it
was shown in most of the plays and it affected the characters in how
they made decisions and why they had so much pride in themselves. In
Beowulf the main character Beowulf had so much hubris that it make him
succeed because he could back it up and show that he was the strongest
warrior out there. The human condition is a very thought out and main
idea of every story because its why a character does something and why
they would want to if its for revenge or just doing something because
they can. The human condition is a very important part of every book
and will continue to be in books today. In all the books we read love
had a big part to do with them. In
Hamlet the main character Hamlet’s love committed suicide, which made
him go on a rampage and even kill people. In every story love plays a
big part in it because it can change something that happens and
changes the characters outlook on life itself.
3. I liked blogging because we got to see what everyone else had to
say about the topic and better understand the story. Something I
didn’t like was that it didn’t have a spell check. I think blogging
was a great idea and allowed us to further educate ourselves about the
book were reading and to comment on other peoples blogs.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[Amanda Dunnick]

Please answer the following in fully developed paragraphs. This will
be your final assessment for the class.
1. How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
Answer with specific examples from your readings.

-Ever hero book has this cycle. It explains how the hero is called to
adventure and who helps him and much more. For example, it explained
how Luke was called to adventure when he was in the bar looking for a
pilot. The hero always goes through tests. Hamlet was tested when his
girlfriend basically broke up with him and never talked to him. It
tested his emotions and his mind. The helpers always helped the hero
get through the cycle. The threshold of adventure was like when
Beowulf fought off Grendel and took his arm. The cycle of the hero
just basically explained how the hero went through all of his
adventures and struggles.

2. Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
discussed in this class. Tell us why you selected these three and
support with specifics from the readings.

-The three major themes that I believed we used most were good vs.
evil, values, and legacy. Good vs. evil was brought up a lot when
talking about themes. For a hero, there was always and antihero. For
an example, Gilgamesh was the good and the evil could have been
Humbaba, the Bull of Heaven, or others. Values were also brought up as
a theme in any story because the main characters in the stories had
values. Hamlet’s values were Ophelia and his father. He lost both of
those and went basically insane. I believe legacy was the most
important because all of these characters had some sort of legacy
after the story was over. Hamlet was known for being crazy and also
some sort of loving. Beowulf was known for being the strong and
powerful man. Another example was Luke in Star Wars was known for as a
great hero that saved a planet. All of these themes fit into our
stories in some way or another.

3. Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class. What
worked, what didn't? What did you like, what didn't you like?
Suggestions?

-I think the blogging helped me because I got to know what the other
classmates where thinking about the story and how they had questions
and the story we were reading. Other students also helped me out
because they may have answered a question that I had. Blogging helped
me get to know a chapter or an act in a story better by reading what
other people said about it. I wish I would’ve tried more by blogging
and responding to other people’s blogs. I think if I would have, I
would have probably understood the story or a part in a story better.
In all, I think it helped me out a lot. I thought it was a great
idea. :)

[Angel K.]

1. How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
Answer with specific examples from your readings.

The cycle of the hero fits in every hero play. It has a pattern that
it goes through that can help you through out the story. I also
believe that it has a purpose for certain parts in the story and
should be there in order for it to kind of make some sort of sense.
Also the success of the story depends on whether or not the story goes
through all these stages in the cycle of the hero. For an example,
Beowulf hit all of these stages like for the call to adventure was
when he went over sea to help the people and when they had asked him
to help kill the mother as well.

2. Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
discussed in this class. Tell us why you selected these three and
support with specifics from the readings.

I think the three major themes that we talked about are: revenge,
good vs. evil, and view of the after life. I chose these three themes
because I think most of the stories that we had read almost all had
most of these themes. There was usually a story that had a hero in it
that was killing off the bad guys, which would be good vs. evil. For
the after life, I believe this was also in our stories a lot because
there was always a death in the story and I think in each story there
was always a different view of how they would die or where they would
go or even try getting them to come back to life, like the story
Gilgamesh. Also one of the main stories that had this was Beowulf when
they believed that dying in battle would be honorable to everyone. The
last theme I chose was revenge. I don’t mean to have the same
explanation, but this also was in a lot of stories as well. Some
examples for this theme are: Beowulf, when after killing Grendal his
mother wanted to get revenge for that, Hamlet, when he wanted to get
revenge from his uncle and in the end Laertes wanted to get revenge
from Hamlet, and Star Wars.

3. Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class. What
worked, what didn't? What did you like, what didn't you like?
Suggestions?

I think the blogging helped a lot because not only did we just get
what our own selves thought about the story, but we also got the rest
of the class to view what they had to say about it. Also, I think it
was a way to sort of help each other and us by communicating with each
other instead of just our class or just ourselves. I liked how we
could ask questions on the blog and be able to get the answer by
reading each other’s blogs. I think this is a good way to communicate
with reading books.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[Ed]

1. I think that the hero cycle relates to all literature by being
universal and the same way in every story. No matter what you read the
cycle is the same. We saw this by seeing a modern day film like Star
Wars that depicted this then also reading The Epic of Gilgamesh which
is a very old story. Through both of these stories you see that the
same things happen. The first thing that happens is there is always a
call to adventure. Then after that there is always some sort of
threshold crossing where the hero has to actually start is journey.
Then he finds some helpers and has some tests. Then by the end of the
story there is always a triumph. Then they have to recross the
threshold for their journey home. Then at the end of it all they gain
something, elixir. Then after this they get back into their normal
world and life.
2. Good vs. Evil is the biggest theme of all time. In almost any book
you ever read it is the good guys versus the bad guys. In every book
we read this theme was present.
I think that love is also one of the biggest themes because to go
along with the good and the bad guys they are always trying to get the
girl. In every story even if it is small there is always a love affair
going on somewhere.
After- life is also in almost every story that you read the main
character is trying to do something about his after-life situation.
They all have different views on what they need to do and what is
going to happen when they do these things but they all do stuff. Also
some of the people's views are that the after-life is gonna be hard
and not fun so they search for immortality. And others can't wait till
they die so that they can take part in the great things they think is
gonna happen after they die.
3. i liked the blogging. I think it was kind of a hassle to get done
sometimes but if you really posted a quality answer and someone else
did too i think it really helped when it came to the understanding.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[jordan n.]

The cycle of the hero goes with most literature , because a lot of
stories have hero's, and every hero go through the same hero cycle.
Like Beowulf, Star Wars, and Odyssey, they all had a hero in them
going against the the evil ones. They all go through the same cycle,
from call to adventure, to the threshhold of adventure, to the
triumphs to the elixir, with other steps in between them. The hero
cycle is what makes many literature books interesting and exciting.
That is why there are so many books with someone who wants to be a
hero, and it goes through the steps he takes to become a hero. The
hero cycle can also get you more involved in the book, by figuring out
the each step of the cycle. It can make reading more fun and make this
type of literature more understandible.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

> Please answer the following in fully developed paragraphs.  This will
> be your final assessment for the class.
>
> 1.  How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
> Answer with specific examples from your readings.

>
> 2.  Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
> discussed in this class.  Tell us why you selected these three and
> support with specifics from the readings.

> I think the 3 main themes we had were Hubris, ignorance is an excuse, and we are all going to die. I chose these themes because first, every story there is hubris in it. There is always someone that is high up above all the other people, because he is a king or is really powerful. I don't think we have read a book that hasn't had someone that was Hubris in it. Next is ignorance is an excuse, I picked this one because there are a lot of books we read that someone did something wrong and didn't know what they were doing was wrong, or said they didn't. Like the Theban Plays, the main character married his mother and killed his father without knowing it. He later find out what he has done and pretty much kills himself. The last theme i chose is We are all going to Die, and I chose this one because in every book we have read someone has died and a lot of the time the strongest and most powerful people die, like the hero's. Like in Beowulf, he ends up dying after killing all the monsters, and in Hamlet at the end of the book, almost everyone dies that took place in the play.

> 3.  Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class.  What
> worked, what didn't?  What did you like, what didn't you like?
> Suggestions?

In this class i liked the blogging and the way you graded the test,
because it helped us out a lot and if we didn't do something that we
should have, then it would show on the test. Also all the blogs I
thought helped me understand the books better and also let me see what
others thought was going on in the book. I liked the take home test we
got because it gave us more time to take our test, because when we
take them during class, we never have enough time and always end up
rushing a couple of the paragraphs we write, and almost always the
last questions we do will be way shorter than the rest and not very
good.

[Jess]

1. In every story there is a hero/main character. And along the way
they have friends who help, and have struggles to get to before they
get to their goal. In the Odyssey his call to duty was the end of the
war to go home. Helpers in Gilgamesh were Enkidu. Crossing the
threshold was shown in Beowulf when he went to the town here Grendel
lived to defeat him. Tests in the Odyssey were shown when he was
captured by Calypso and when his shipmates were turned into pigs.
Supreme Ordeal was shown in Beowulf when he was going against Grendel.
Triumph was shown in Gilgamesh when he and Enkidu defeated the
monster. Flight back home was shown in Beowulf after he had killed
Grendel and Grendel's mother. The threshold battle that led to a death
was in Gilgamesh because Enkidu died.

2.Hubris was one of the major themes we talked about because in most
of our books the hero seemed very arrogant. In The Odyssey, Odysseus
came off as arrogant because of his story telling. Gilgamesh also
seemed very arrogant because he had the attitude that he was the best
and strongest, and kind of flaunted that he was 2/3 god. In Beowulf he
seemed arrogant because when he went to kill Grendel, he wasn't
affected personally by him, but did it to make himself look like a
hero.

Good Vs. Evil was another big one because in all these stories we read
it from the good, and the good went out to defeat the bad. In Hamlet,
Hamlet was after the king because he killed his father. In Beowulf he
went after the "bad" who was Grendel, to save a town from being
killed. In Gilgamesh, he and Enkidu went to kill the monster that was
guarding the forest. In the Theban Plays Oedipus wanted to kill the
guy that had killed his father, even though later he learned he was
the one that killed him.

Free will vs. fate was the other big one we did with most of the
books. In the Odyssey he felt like he was forced to do some of this
because of how the god's intervened. In the Theban Plays they tried to
escape fate because they left Oedipus out to die so the prophecy
wasn't met. Oedipus had his free will, and was trying to escape the
fate of the prophecy and not believe it when he heard it. In Gilgamesh
it was there because there was a prophecy that said that someone was
going to be just as strong as Gilgamesh, which turned out to be
Enkidu.

3. I thought blogging was a good idea. The good thing about it was
that you could go back and read what other people had to say when you
were studying. It was also a good way to figure out what was going on
in the book because other people knew. The thing I didn't like about
it that I like about class discussions is that there isn't really
people talking back and forth and bouncing ideas off each other. In
class discussions I think it leads to more ideas about what's going on
and what things mean and symbolize instead of...I read blah blah blah.
The blog was more along the lines of people stating what they read
instead of talking about ideas about the book and the themes and
such.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[jacy]

1. In almost all the novels we have read in class, there has been the
hero cycle. In all types of literature, there is almost always a hero
and it explains the process he or she goes through. They go through a
series of obstacles to achieve success and face many difficulties.
Examples: In Beowulf he goes through the hero cycle. A discussion we
was determining if he was a braggart or a hero. I said that he was a
hero but was slightly arrogant. Another example was when we watched
the Star Wars movie. I think that this was the only thing in class (in
contrast to the Odyssey) that really showed all parts of the hero
cycle.


2. I think the three major themes that we have discussed in class are
fate, revenge, and ritual.
Ritual was in Hamlet. The controversy over whether or not Ophelia
actually drowned herself. They don't give her a proper burial or any
kind of farewell ritual because they think she killed herself and that
was not something to be honored in that era. But really, any life that
has ended for whatever reason should be honored. Another example was
in Antigone. Eteocles got an honorable burial from Creon but
Polyinices doesn't and also is not supposed to be mourned for any
reason because she "betrayed" him.

Fate was very active in Oedipus the King the Theban Legend. He was
destined to kill his father since he was born and to become his own
mother's husband. When Oedipus finds this out, he tries to intervene
and to stop the prediction. He didn't know that his "parents" were not
his biological father and mother, so he left them to try and save
them. Eventually along the way, he sets himself up for this
prediction. Fate played an important act in this because he tried to
stop it.

Revenge was played the most in Hamlet. Hamlet's father comes to him as
a ghost and wants vengeance for himself. He wants Hamlet to kill his
brother because he married his wife and took his thrown. He pressures
Hamlet into taking care of his dirty work for him. I also that that
revenge was shown in Oedipus the King the Theban Legend. Like I said
in the section about ritual in Antigone, Eteocles got an honorable
burial from Creon, but Polyincies did not. I think this is because
Creon is upset because Polyincies fights for the opposing side and
this upsets Creon. Him not giving her a proper burial or letting
anyone mourn over her is kind of like his revenge. He doesn't let any
of the people that loved her mourn over her or bring her flowers.

3. I liked the blogging more than I thought I would at the beginning
of this class. There are some things I do and don't like about it. I
like it because you get everyone's perspective on all the novels and
sections of the books, but its kind of hands off. I know this is what
the class is supposed to be preparing us for, but it was different
change. It gave us more time in class to read and get all of our
activities done, which was nice, because then there wasn't as much to
do outside of school. When we started World Lit I didn't think I would
like it at all, but as the course went on I grew more used to it. The
discussions in class about the book helped also in addition to all the
blogs and discussions online.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[Kayla]

1. The cycle of the hero applies to literature because everyone has a
journey to look forward to. It just takes the book in one big circle.
The characters start somewhere, they go fight some place else, and
then they end up back where they started and either die or live. The
cycle of the hero helps the book take place. It gives the book
something to talk about. In Beowulf the cycle of the hero was the
whole theme of the book. It was a journey for Beowulf to show his
people that he could be a hero even if they didn't believe it.
2. I think that loyalty was a big theme. The characters in every book
had at least one good friend that they told everything to. That one
friend kept secrets from the other or ended up helping out the
character who was in help. In Hamlet his one good friend he had was
Horatio. He helps Hamlet with all his troubles and doesn't give away
his secrets.
Hubris was also a very big theme we talked about in class. In all the
of the books we read there was a lot of supreme pride that was going
on. Every one had something that they were proud of. The characters
all wanted something done they way they wanted to do it and when it
was done they were extremely happy. Hubris was a big part in Beowulf.
The towns people showed a lot of it when they went to help him fight
Grendel.
The last big theme that we talked about was purpose of disguise. In
The Odyssey Athena was disguising herself so that she could tell
people that Odysseus was home. people would disguise themselves so
that if they were wrong then no one would know who they were.
3. I think that it worked. It helped me understand the book a little
bit more when I read what other people had to say. I think that maybe
if some people had really good questions that you could reply to them
or have the students reply to them and tell what they think. I didn't
like that if you didn't blog you couldn't take the test but I
understood that it was part of the class so just do it. I didn't like
all the sad, everyone dies stories.

[Katherine]

1) Many great writers used the cycle of the hero in their literature
to help express what the character goes through. It applies to
literature because in every story, someone plays the role of the hero.
That hero goes through the never ending cycle of the call to
adventure, tests, triumph, flight, threshold struggle, and getting an
"elixir," and leaving behind a legacy forever. The cycle of the hero
was very evident in The Odyssey. We read about his struggles to get
home to his wife, be with his son, and avenge his household from the
suitors. There are examples of the cycle of the hero in every hero
story, and it lays the background for why heroes experience what they
experience.

2) Loss of Innocence was a theme that we discussed in many of the
stories we read. I chose it as a major theme because I think it plays
a big role in literature, not only from what we read in this class,
but in modern literature as well. In Gilgamesh, Enkidu loses his
innocence to the prostitute, but also in sense that he was forced to
see things that most young men wouldn't have had to, and he had to
experience things that he wasn't necessarily ready for. He is a nature
oriented man, and that is stripped from him. I think loss of innocence
is a great example of an important theme for literature because it
shows the reality of characters, and a weakness.

I believe that 'Good vs Evil' is the most common theme in literature.
Every story has a good guy and a bad guy. There is always a sense of
wrong and right, who's the hero, who's the villian. In Star Wars, Luke
Skywalker is the "good guy" against Darth Vador, the ultimate sense of
evil. I think it's important to recognize as a prominant theme because
it's something that everyone can identify and understand.

My third theme is Intervention of the Gods. The characters' belief in
a god or gods gives them hope. It's almost like it gives their lives
meaning because they have someone to please, something to look up to,
something to hope for. Their view of the afterlife ties in with this
theme because some characters believed that their gods would look out
for them and send them to a "heaven," while others believed everyone
that died was sent to a place like hell. In stories where there was
more inclusion of the gods in a specific character's life (like in
Odyssey) there was hope that they would go to be with the gods after
death. This is an important theme because it shows the cultural
differences, and different beliefs that they have.

3) I thought that blogging was a good thing to use as a study tool. It
helped to see what other students were getting from the stories, and
different views that they had. It was also convenient because if we
only had discussions, it would've been easy to forget some things, and
it's hard to get everyone involved in class discussions. I think it
would be good to have maybe a few more specific blogs that really get
down to the point of the story, opposed to just a summary of what was
read.

[spenc]

The cycle of the hero universally applys to literature because in all
the books you read they have one hero or the main protagonist and he
has a main quest/conflict. On their journey to solve their said
conlflict or quest they pick up helpers that help on their said quest.
In the book Gilgamesh he finds a partner and his best friend. He and
his friend go and fight the devil of the forest and defeat him
together. this is just one example of the hero cycle in all our
universal literature that we've read.

Revenge- I selected revenge in this book because in almost all our
books revenge is one of the main themes. In all the books we've read
they want to get revenge on the antagionist for something they've
done. In beowulf grendels mom kills the kings best man and he goes
and gets revenge for him. In Hamlet, hamlet wants to get revenge on
claudius for killing his dad.

Mans inhumanity to man- in all our books the people don't treat man
like they should and people die left and right. In hamlet poisoning
the drink and using poison on the blood is inhuman and wrong.

Pagan- In most all of the books the main characters have a god they
believe in and they do everything and or lots of things based on their
religion. In hamlet he doesn't kill claudius the night of the play
because he thinks that god will take him into heaven because he is
repenting. In beowulf he says everything he does is because god wills
it.

I think the blogging didn't really work to be honest. I don't think
people really read what other people said and no one really got into
it. But i did like that since we had to blog it really made me think
about the books and how to summerize them. Because of that i
understood the book more and thought about it more. I think we should
just discuss more in class rather than blog.

[AmandaStefl]

1. The cycle of the hero is used in almost all great stories with
slight differntiations. Writers from all around the world use similar
tactics in writing their own novels/stories. It can apply to science
fiction, romantic, tragedies, folk tales, hero stories or any other
kind of literature. The hero cycle was portrayed through Luke,
Odysseus, Oedipus, Antigone, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and Hamlet. These
main characters all have their call to adventure and then spend the
rest of the book gaining helpers, facing tests, and the supreme ordeal
at the end.

2. I think out of this trimester with the books we read, the three
most important themes are: intervention of the Gods, meaning life, and
fate. The intervention of the Gods was present in The Odyssey with
Odysseus trying to get home. Some God's were with him helping him
along the way and others were against him, trying to kill him at sea.
In Beowulf, Beowulf wasn't a god but a warrior but the god's were
still always on his side and could say favored him a bit. Grindle
doesn't know God and that's why Beowulf believes he will defeat
Grindle. Beowulf says the God's will decide my fate as he dives into
the lake.

Another present theme is the meaning of life. In star wars Luke is
trying to find out who he is, and trying to convert his dad back into
the good person he once used to be. The entire story of Gilgamesh is
him searching for his identity, and realizing it's how he is
remembered in the long run. Hamlet tries to do everything he can to
seek revenge for his father's life and in the end dying to do what he
believes he is expected to do. Antigone does what right even through
she would be punished by society. She found the greater meaning life,
and knew her brother deserved a proper burial just like her other
brother.

My last theme is fate. Fate was present in every story he read. In the
Theban Plays, it was not Oedipus's fault that he did not know who his
real parents were and it is fate that the prophecy would come true. In
the Odyssey, Odysseus was destined to return home, he fought all the
challenged and made it back to reclaim his kingdom and his wife. In
Hamlet, it was fate that once the revenge had started it would not
stop until in this story everyone main character had been killed.

3. The blogging experience was helpful while re-viewing for tests. But
I only read certain people's blogs. I think a lot of people just typed
something quick to get it done. Which helped no one. I would just
probably say if you do it in the future make certain guidelines of
what each blog needs to contain. Instead of people blogging about what
happened, which everyone should already know if they really read it.
Make them post the questions they have or insights they have picked up
that others might not have to. The blogs can be a great resource if
not abused.

[Mr. Slave]

1. The cycle hero is very helpful and very obvious in many books and
movies. Two great examples of the hero cycle for both movie and book,
is Star Wars and Odysseus. The hero cycle is also very helpful on the
test even if it’s not a question on it, because it helps the reader
realize and think about what’s really happening in the story. I think
that students should be more influenced to use the hero cycle to as a
reference of a study tool for any class you are reading a book in.
2. The three themes that I think are the most common are love, reality
and most defiantly good versus evil. Every story has a good versus
evil in it. If it’s not the main purpose of the story is somehow part
of it. Love is another main theme because it is also in every story.
It is either a guy loving a woman or the love in a family. Reality is
my last main theme because as much as every character wants to be
powerful, live forever, be the richest, have the most woman, they
always fail at something and end up being stopped or realizing that
they are human and have feeling and there is nothing they can do about
it, so they just have to like there selves the way they are.
3. Yep, this is probably one of my favorite questions so far in my
bloggong experience! Yes i do believe that blogging was very
resourceful and kind of cool to see everybody else's view on the
story's we were assigned. It was neat to see what questions students
had about certain things and how other students could help them out by
their blogs. Even though sometimes blogging got kind of annoying, it
was very important part of the class and was fun to be able to discuss
about all of our stories.

[Trevor]

1. I think that the hero cycle applies universally to literature
because in pretty much every book we read in this class had a hero of
some sort. From Luke Skywalker to Beowulf, each of the characters that
were considered heroes usually and almost always went through most or
some of the hero cycle. The climax of the story is usually at the end
of the hero cycle, for example, when Luke Skywalker killers Darth
Vader. That was the single most exciting part of the book in my
opinion. Or when Beowulf kills Grendel and the Dragon, and when
Odysseus kills the Cyclops by stabbing him in the eye with a dagger.
Each of the heroes also had some sort of good friend or companion. For
example, Gilgamesh and Enkidu and Luke and Obi-Wan. All of these are
examples of how the climax is meet through the hero cycle. The hero
cycle, in my opinion, is one of the parts of literature that makes
stories interesting and exciting.
2. I think that the three most important or the three most used themes
in the stories we have read are free will vs. fate, good vs. evil, and
relationships. In almost every story the theme free will vs. fate is
discussed. Oedipus is the prime example of this theme; his fate was to
kill his father and marry his mother. This was his fate given to him
by the gods and there was nothing within his free will that he could
do about it. Another good example is Odysseus, his fate was given to
him by the gods and also gave some intervention and helped him
throughout the story. His fate was to not die and find his father.
The next theme that is significant is good vs. evil. Every story we
read had some sort of good vs. evil portrayed in its context. The
ultimate good vs. evil is portrayed in Star Wars with Luke Skywalker
vs. Darth Vader. Luke was the good guy and Darth was his father but
very evil and from the dark side. Even in Hamlet I think there is a
sort of good vs. evil. Some may not think so but I think Claudius is
kind of an evil figure with Hamlet being the good guy. This is one of
the very little examples of good vs. evil and may not be as inevitable
as the example of Star Wars.
The last theme is relationships. Relationships apply to almost every
story written and definantly every story we have read in this class.
An example is Hamlet and Horatio, they were best friends and Horatio
was someone who Hamlet could trust and he was always there for him.
Also another prime example is Gilgamesh and Enkidu, they did almost
everything together and Enkidu is also a great example for another
theme, that being the theme of a hero’s companion. All of these themes
were very important and I think they are the most significant from the
stories that we have read in this class.
3. I kind of liked the blogging because it sort of got us away from
reading for an hour straight during class. It gave us a chance to use
technology during the class and made the class so it wasn’t strictly
reading and taking notes. I also liked it because it helped me to
understand the stories better and also let us put our opinion out on
the blog for others to read. I think that is the reason it worked is
because it helped us understand the books better and helped us put
down our ideas for others to see. I think it was a good addition to
the class and I think you should continue using it in the future.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[Ryan]

1. The hero cycle is used universally in many famous books and movies.
In the Odyssey, Telemachaus and Odysseus go through the hero cycle.
Star Wars is written directly with the hero cycle and goes more in
depth than most movies or books. Beowulf, one of the oldest pieces of
literature uses the hero cycle. Beowulf battles against Grendel,
Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. The hero cycle is known worldwide
and has created many great novels and movies.
2. One key theme was good vs. evil. Good vs. Evil was present in
Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and Star Wars. In Gilgamesh the good was Gilgamesh
and Enkidu and the bad was Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. In Beowulf
the evil was Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. The good was
Beowulf and the group of his followers. Another key theme was view of
the afterlife. Gilgamesh was afraid of death and sent out on a quest
to gain immortality. Meanwhile Antigone would give her life to honor
her brother with a proper burial. Gilgamesh and Antigone have very
different views on the afterlife. Antigone views death more optimistic
while Gilgamesh is very pessimistic. The search for knowledge is a
very important theme because it is present in many of the books we
read. Gilgamesh searches for the knowledge of immortality and Hamlet
searches his uncle to see if he killed his father. In the Odyssey,
Telemachaus searches for the whereabouts of his father, and in Star
Wars, Luke searches for the power of being a Jedi knight.
3. I kind of liked the blogging because it made me put my thoughts in
to words before I got to the tests. It also helped when I was confused
about what was going on I could look on the blogs to find someone that
knew what was going on and understand through their blog. In the
future you could try making it an option not mandatory, just to see if
students would blog to help them understand the books even if it
wasn’t graded. You could tell them that it wasn’t graded but would
help them understand the stories and do better on the tests. It would
be interesting to see how many students use the blog without it being
graded. I think that it was a good thing and should be used for this
class in the future.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[Ashley]

1. The cycle of the hero helped me understand the outline of the
story because it cave things like: helpers, tests, call to adventure,
thresholds, etc. and it helped organize things and pick out specific
events. Also when we used the cycle of the hero for the books we read
the cycle was the same you always had the helper, test, thresholds,
call to adventure, etc. and in every story like Odyssey, Gilgamesh,
and even Beowulf the hero’s all have similar characteristics and they
all seen to fit into the cycle.
2. I think that there are many major themes that we discussed,
although, I think that survival is used in almost every book we read.
Odyssey had to go through all of these battles and tests so he did
everything in his way to survive, in Gilgamesh he wants to be young
and live forever so he goes to the bottom of the sea to find the
special plant that will make him young again, just so he can survive
and live forever, but then he realizes that it doesn’t matter anymore
even though when he dies and won’t physically be there but spiritually
he will. Also in Beowulf the monster (Grendel) is killing everyone and
they all try and fight to stay alive until Beowulf comes and kills him
and then you have Hamlet where it was basically a book about how you
don’t know who will die next, to survive you pretty much had to stay
sane and know what was happening at all times. Also fate played a
major part in every story, whether it fate in Odyssey and how the gods
sometimes were just there, they always seemed to appear when he needed
it most. Also in The Theban Plays and how the whole entire story was
based on fate, because fate kept him alive when he was suppose to be
killed as a baby, fate brought him to his mom and how he killed his
father, it was all just fate, although it was suppose to happen. Love
was important, in every novel love had its role, in Hamlet he loved
Ophelia and they couldn’t be together because she was not royal and
also he was insane toward her and when he came back it was too late,
odyssey and how his poor wife loved him and didn’t marry all that time
until he finally returned right as she was choosing someone to marry
because she gave up hope, even though while he was gone he kind of had
a mistress. In The Theban Plays he loved his children and his mother/
wife, but he knew what he did was wrong and so he ended his life and
was taken away from his kids/siblings.
3. I think that bloging was great we could all discuss how the story
was going and ask questions, and I liked it because everything is on
the computer I didn’t have to worry about handing in papers or
printing off papers and it also helped me understand what was
happening because we all put all our thoughts on here and if I didn’t
understand something, someone else did so then I could just read about
in my own language… ☺. It would have been nice if like lets say I
asked a question then someone could reply specifically to that
question instead it just put it all in the whole thing like unless I
posted question then that might work… I don’t know how to really
explain it through typing but over all I loved the bloging.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[nathan]

1. The hero cycle is a universally applied to literature because all
books have this.They have a climax and many trials. They have helpers
that get them through the tough times in the story as well. Hamlet is
helped by his good friend Horatio. Gilgamesh is helped by Enkidu.
Odyssues is also helped by all of his oarsmen when they had to defeat
the cyclops. All the main characters went through major trails and all
won the major trials. Through all of the trials, their helpers were by
there side.
2. One theme that was in every book was good vs. evil. Every story had
this as a theme. Beowulf had to fight monsters and defeat them.
Gilgamesh also had to fight monsters and defeat them. Hamlet went had
to defeat the evil king Claudius. Odyssues also had to overcome
monsters and he had to defeat the suitors that were destroying his
home. The next theme was view of the afterlife. In many of the stories
we read this theme was present. In some stories the view of the
afterlife was good. Some stories that the view was good was the Theban
Plays . Some were very pessimistic as well. Gilgamesh wanted to become
immortal because he was in fear of the afterlife. I believe in the
stories that this theme is pessimistic is because they fear the
unknown. The last theme i will be talking about is fate. In every
story, the character runs into his fate. Oedipus ran into fate when he
killed his dad and married his mom. They tried to get rid of Oedipus
when he was young so that it wouldn't happen. But as they found out in
the story, you can't run away from fate.
3. I thought the blogging was a very good idea. We could go to the
blogs anytime if we needed something answered. On the weekends or at
night when your studying when no teacher is there is when it would
help me a ot. If I forgot something I could go there for help. It also
helped organize my thoughts. Some problems with it were some students
wouldn't do them, or just do them on the last day. I don't think you
should grade them but try to enforce it more. If you gave a little
more class time for the blogging I think they would have gotten done
by more students.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

[Freese]

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:

> Please answer the following in fully developed paragraphs.  This will
> be your final assessment for the class.
>
> 1.  How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
> Answer with specific examples from your readings.
>
> 2.  Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
> discussed in this class.  Tell us why you selected these three and
> support with specifics from the readings.
>
> 3.  Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class.  What
> worked, what didn't?  What did you like, what didn't you like?
> Suggestions?

1.I believe the hero cycle is a universal way of writing. When you
look at books we have read like the odyssey or Gilgamesh they all have
a type of hero cycle. The hero cycle can transfer or relate to most
things. When you look at an old book like the odyssey it has a hero
cycle. People can relate to it now it days to. Star wars are a new
movie it also has the hero cycle. The hero cycle is a way of following
the main character or the hero. You can see in some books how his
journey is or what stage of the hero cycle the book is in. In a movie
like star wars you get to watch Luke grow in his journey from a boy to
a man. I think it is a way for people to understand other cultures
writings.

2.Love, Relationships, and Reality are all major themes in my eyes.
Love is the first one I’ll explain. I think love has a very strong
hold on people. It makes them do things that they wouldn’t normally
do. In Hamlet, Hamlet does things that are crazy just to redeem his
father’s name. He does all of it out of love for his dad. The next
them is relationships. Relationships made the books interesting. It
complicated things sometimes like in Star wars Luke’s relationship
with Darth, his dad, made it hard for him to kill him. In the
beginning Luke didn’t know it was his father. In the end when he found
out he couldn’t end Darth’s life. The Last theme Reality. In books
like Hamlet people put on an act or pretend to be something they are
not. In the case of Hamlet not being real put many people to death.
Reality is hard for some characters to understand. Hamlet had a hard
time understanding his father was dead and his uncle killed him and it
lead him to being crazy.
3. I think the blogging had pros and cons. The pros were if you were
not understanding the book you could go to the blog and see what other
people were thinking to how there understand was. It’s sometimes
easier to understand a high school student’s point of then compared to
a high school teacher’s point of view. Also you got to break the book
down and talk it out with some of the students. The cons were it
sometimes was almost a hassle. When you were trying to get the book
done and other schoolwork done it’s a hassle to have to blog. In a
perfect world everyone would participate in the blogging if they had
time and did it on their own instead of having it to be done so you
could take a test.

[mallory]

1. The Cycle of the hero universally applies to litterature becuase in
all the stories we have read it takes place. One main character goes
through the steps it takes and meets different people to help him go
through the stages of the Cycle of the Hero. The hero always has a
mission they need to fulfill. In beowulf, Beowulf trys to protect his
town and his people.
2. I think the three major themes are
- Man's inhumanity to man because all the books we read had to do with
protecting a town or a friend or something
-determination becuase they all had determination to do whatever their
task was in the book
-Survival all the stories the hero fights to survive or to save
otherss
3. I like blogging becuase its a easier way to learn about the book
and be able to find out what other people think.

On Nov 14, 8:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:
> Please answer the following in fully developed paragraphs.  This will
> be your final assessment for the class.
>
> 1.  How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
> Answer with specific examples from your readings.
>
> 2.  Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
> discussed in this class.  Tell us why you selected these three and
> support with specifics from the readings.
>
> 3.  Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class.  What
> worked, what didn't?  What did you like, what didn't you like?
> Suggestions?
>

[tylern]

1. The cycle of the hero show in all literature. All stories have a
hero and villain. All stories have people helping the hero and
something that calls the hero to adventure and all stories have a
threshold that is crossed and a triumph with test that get the hero
prepared for it. In Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is the hero and Humbaba is
the villain. In Hamlet, Hamlet's tests are preparing to kill Claudius
through the Mousetrap and fighting with Laertes.
2. The three major themes were man's inhumanity to man, good vs. evil,
and relationships. man's inhumanity to man is shown by Hamlet getting
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed and not showing remorse for it.
Good vs. evil is shown by Beowulf fighting Grendel, his mother, and
the dragon. Relationships are shown by Odysseus never giving up trying
to get home to his wife, no matter what happens.
3. I didn't really like blogging. It worked okay, I guess, but I
didn't like what I wrote being able to be seen by everyone. I think
you should get rid of blogging for classes.

[Joc]

1. I believe that the cycle of the hero applies to all literature.
Because there is always a call or a meaning to the story or some point
that they wanna get across to us as readers. And without the cycle in
a piece of literature the book wouldnt all fit together very well
because you would only have certain points and not all of them. Like
Luke Skywalker he was the hero and had to go through the whole cycle
in order to get done what had to be done.
2. I think a major theme would be fate. Fate is our decision to think
whether we will live or whether we will die. Another theme i choose
would be revenge because like in Hamlet when he wanted revenge on his
uncle for marrying his mother after his fathers death most everyone in
life wants revenge on someone somehow. And the last one i think is
important would be Relationships because like in Star Wars when Luke
Skywalker liked the Princess or when Hamlet liked Opelia but he hated
his uncle. There were many different relationships in all the storys
that we read.
3. I liked the blogging because i felt like it helped me understand
stuff that i didn't before and reading others blogs and comparing them
to mine. Blogging was also important i believe because if you couldn't
understand one way it was taught then you can go to the blogging site
and look at the way everyone else was explaining it. So overall i
think that blogging helped me comprehend the storys alot better than
what i would have if we didn't have it.

[Shelby]

1. The cycle of the hero breaks down the story into the different
important parts. It helped me understand The Odyssey a lot better and
also with Oedipus and Antigone. For The Odyssey it showed the
similarities between the father and son.

2. I think the biggest theme we discussed was hubris. A lot of our
readings had that as one of the themes. I think it was played out most
in The Epic of Gilgamesh, because at the beginning Gilgamesh was full
of himself and being the almighty king. Another theme would be beliefs
and values. I think every book has its own showing of people's beliefs
and values. People's beliefs differ in many ways so each book shows it
in a different way. In Beowulf, people valued bold and riches, and
showing strength in war. In The Odyssey they also believed in that,
but they also valued their families a lot, which we didn't really see
in Beowulf. The last theme that I think was one of the major ones was
the search for identity. In all the books we read there was a search
for identity. Telemachus wanted to know his father, Oedipus wanted to
know his history, Beowulf wanted to be king, and Hamlet had to figure
out what to do without his father. In many of the powerpoints for our
individual novel projects, the search for identity was one of the key
concepts.

3. I liked the blogging. It was an easy way to share our ideas and
help figure things out. I liked that I could easily access it from
home if I didn't get the reading done in class. It helped a lot when
we were getting ready for tests to see what other people said about
the book and themes and everything.

[Janae Nibbelink]

1. The cycle of the hero is universal because all through history
stories needed to be belivable and needed to be understood. The cycle
shows the hero going through trails that help him or her grow in many
aspects of life just like we all do. So this cycle shows the hero's
trails and makes them more belivable to the genaeral public.

2. Three major themes that we discused this trimester is Good vs.
Evil, Search for Knowledge, and Honor. Good vs. Evil because most
stories has the protagonist dealing with an antagonist that isn't
always a person somtimes it is an idea or a state of being. Search for
Knowledge because everybody in the world is searching for something
and this theme really brings it together. Honor because everyone in
the world wants to be held in good regard with people and associate
that with honor, like being courtious at all times and belive it or
not everyone has honor of verying degrees and it can be hurt.

3. The blogging was a great idea for the different periods of the same
class to share thier ideas to others and a better discasions could be
done. I didn't like how for hamlet there were no promts for any of the
acts so that just left people leaving summeries if they reallyt didn't
have any questions about the text. I think that for next time all
blogs should have some kind of question prompt at the begining and
that least once for every blog posting the kids should have to reply
to another student's blog and that would get more of a discasion on
the blogs themselves.

[Matejka]

1. The cycle of the hero is in every book that you will read, there
will always be some sort of hero. All the heroes have traits from the
cycle of the hero to help them in their adventures and stories. In
Beowulf he always did what was right just because it was the right
thing to do. He went to help people that he didn't know well, just
because they were in trouble and couldn't fight off Grendel
themselves.
2. The three major themes in class that we discussed I think would be
revenge, relationships, and survival. In Hamlet, he was trying to get
revenge on the king for killing his father and wouldn't stop at
anything to avenge King Hamlet's death. The same in Beowulf, he went
to help the Danes with Grendel and after he avenges all the deaths
that Grendel has caused by killing him, Grendel's mother comes and
tries to avenge her son's death but ends up dying. Relationships is
another big theme because there were many relationships between the
characters in all books good or bad. In Hamlet he loved Ophelia but
couldn't be with her because he was born into royalty and she wasn't.
She was just the daughter of Polonius, who was a servant of the king.
In Hamlet, he did anything he could to survive and avenge his father's
death, he was sent to England and was going to be killed there but he
rewrote the letter which then said that his two friends were to be
killed instead of him.
3. I think that the blogging idea was a good one. I liked that fact
that if you didn't quite understand what the reading was about or you
wanted to see what others thought about the book you could log in and
read others posts and see what they thought or got from the reading
that you may have not. I liked posting too because it would get you to
think at a higher level and more in depth about what you read.

[Jesse]

1. The cycle of the hero applies to all stories in some way. The
hero cycle is a creative way to get people to read books. It keeps
them interested in the book. The cycle must be good in order to do so
otherwise the story will be boring. This way authors keep readers
interested in the books and readers will continue to buy books by that
author and that author will make a lot of money.

2. I think the three major themes are survival, values, and search
for identity. Survival is important for life. If a person or species
didn't or couldn't survive then they would be dead or extinct.
Survival is what keeps us alive. We as humans do things that keep us
alive everyday like eating, sleep, and take shelter. Animals do
similar things to survive also. Values are a necessity to everyone.
Values make everyone an individual and makes them who they are. Every
hero has his/her own values which make them more appealing to a
different audience. Finally for search for identity, every hero
searches inside themselves to see who they really are. Every hero
thinks they are something different then what they really are then
they come to terms with the fact that they must be heroes for the
greater good.

3. I didn't really like the blogging because if someone wanted to try
and understand something in the story and they needed help with it
they could go to Mrs. Hosch, Mrs. Lebo, of possibly another student.
I think it would be fine if we didn't blog every day, or we could do
one blog at the end of the week or something. I think the blogging
could be done without but it's not my call.

[KSchoolman]

> 1.  How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
> Answer with specific examples from your readings.
>
> 2.  Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
> discussed in this class.  Tell us why you selected these three and
> support with specifics from the readings.
>
> 3.  Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class.  What
> worked, what didn't?  What did you like, what didn't you like?
> Suggestions?

1. There is always a hero in every book. They cycle of the hero is
basically they cycle of life. Everyone at some point in their life
will encounter all the areas of the cycle of the hero. It doesn't
apply to just heroes it applies to everyone. If you actually sit down
and think about it you can come up with examples from your own life
that fit the hero cycle. In literature there is always a main
character and he/she is usually faced with some confrontation or
problem and in order for that problem to be solved the hero cycle must
take place. Hamlet is called to adventure when the ghost appears and
talks to him and tells him Claudius is guilty and must be killed. He
has all his helpers along the way like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
and Horatio. He encounters many tests along the way like Ophelia and
the plots that Claudius and Polonius put up against him and he also
tests Claudius during the play. They all end up fighting, Ophelia
dies, and eventually the problem is solved but not without going
through the cycle.

2. Inhumanity was a big theme I think. In every book we read. Grendel
was being inhumane and killing and the Danes. Claudius was being
inhumane and selfish when he killed Hamlet for his throne and his
wife. I think inhumanity is so relevant because no one is nice to
everyone all the time. In the real world today we are surrounded by
violence and people doing random killings. We are surrounded with wars
of many different kinds we always have been throughout the history of
our world and we always will be. It just shows that there are always
people out there who are willing to do whatever it takes to get what
they want.

Survival was also another huge theme i think. Because ultimately
everyone is just trying to get by day to day and keep themselves and
others going. In almost every single powerpoint the main character was
just focusing on surviving whatever situation they were put in. Most
of them weren't thinking of others they were just trying to get out
alive. In my book Night, Elie survived the concentration camps during
the Holocaust, which is a miracle in itself. Sometimes we have to
fight very hard for survival physically, emotionally, and mentally
and sometimes there is a higher power that helps us out because it
knows we can do great things with the rest of our lives if we
survive.

Religion is also a big theme that tied into lots of our readings and
lots of our powerpoints. There is always going to be many different
religious beliefs between groups and as long as their is there is
going to be conflicting beliefs and values. In the powerpoints talking
about the Rwandan genocide it was a conflict between to opposing
groups that lived there. In my book about the Nazi Jewish holocaust it
was between the Jews and Hitler's Nazis. Religion was a relevant
problem back when shakespeare was writing and it is going to continue
to be a conflict in the future. Not everyone is going to accept that
people are different and that we have the right to believe whatever we
want. There are always going to be people that are extremely dedicated
to their religion and think it's superior to all else.

3. I liked the fact that we got to discuss with other classmates and
get some new ideas and maybe pick up on things we hadn't considered or
thought about. Sometimes it's nice to be able to have a student
explain something to you rather than a teacher. I didn't mind the
blogging as long as the questions were short and weren't too in depth
because i liked my class time to read but they were usually pretty
good. I think the blogging was a good idea. but for some reason mine
usually didn't work. i don't like that some people who you know didn't
read the book can get on and read everyone elses blog and come up with
one of their own. i don't think that's fair everyone needs to read it.

[Chris]

1. The cycle of the hero basically makes or breaks the book. If you
wouldn't have the cycle of the hero the book would have no point and
nobody would want to read it because it would be boring. Also, if the
cycle is interrupted then the reader will probably get very angry
because the book stopped suddenly. For example the third twilight book
ends with a big confrontation but nobody ends fighting. They all end
up being friends. Nobody expected this because of the rivalry that was
supposed to be between the werewolves and the vampires.

2. The three major themes were love, intervention of the gods, and
fate. In most of the books that we read, these three themes can be
found. In odysseus the themes can be found because Odysseus loves his
wife and has to rely on the god's power to get home safely. In Beowulf
the gods give beowulf his strength and he used it to fight the dragon
to defend his beloved kingdom.

3. Blogging was a great tool. It helped me to understand what was
going on when i didn't know.

On Nov 14, 7:06 am, "Mrs. Lebo" <al...@spartanpride.net> wrote:
> Please answer the following in fully developed paragraphs.  This will
> be your final assessment for the class.
>

> 1.  How does the cycle of the hero universally apply to literature?
> Answer with specific examples from your readings.
>
> 2.  Identify what you think are the three major themes that we
> discussed in this class.  Tell us why you selected these three and
> support with specifics from the readings.
>
> 3.  Please reflect on the blogging experience for this class.  What
> worked, what didn't?  What did you like, what didn't you like?
> Suggestions?
>

[Dalen]

1. The cycle of the hero universally applies to all literature
because no matter what the main character or hero always goes through
this cycle. In every book we have read, including mine for the world
author project, the hero always goes through a somewhat similar
cycle. Every book has its own hero and these heroes all are faced
with tests and supreme ordeals and threshold crossings to accomplish
what they are trying to do. Without this cycle in every work of
literature, there would be no excitement for the reader and it really
wouldn't even be a story.

2. One of the major themes relevant to most of the stories we have
read is decent burial. I chose this because I think it is a big issue
in a lot of literature. Like in The Theban Plays when Antigone wanted
a decent burial for her brother but the king wouldn't allow it.
Another theme that I think is important is survival. Most of the
presentations yesterday dealt with survival including mine. One
example I have is that when the character in my book was in the prison
camp in Cambodia he had to do such little things to keep sane and
survive like keep track of time and develop a daily routine to satisfy
his basic needs of life.
The last theme I want to talk about is fate/destiny. This is another
big theme in some of the books we have read especially The Odyssey.
In this story the prophecy told Odysseus that he was going to kill his
father and marry his mother and this turned out to be true. Odysseus
let fate play a big part in his life and he let fate control him.

3. Overall I thought blogging for this class was a good idea on Mrs.
Hosch's and Lebo's part but that doesn't necessarily mean I liked
doing it. I thought it was a great help to read other students' ideas
and explanations and it helped me to understand the books better. I
hated doing the blogging myself because i never really understood the
stories in the first place but reading what others wrote helped a
lot. I think that the blogging should continue for the World Lit
classes because it the students can help each other in this way.

[Nick M]

Well I think that the cycle of the hero affects every story and
how well it turns out. I dont believe that a story can be successful
unless there is a hero and a struggle that this hero must go through
in order to reach his goal. The cycle of the hero is important because
it involves the main character and the helpers or friends of the main
character which struggle to normally do what is right no matter what
the cost. This cycle also provides adventure when a demon figure comes
into play to really throw a twist which really pulls you in as a
reader. There is also always a point in the story where the hero is
changed mentally in some way, whether it be he has finally figured out
what the right thing to do is or something else. With every book that
we have read there has always been a character that has struggled to
find what he is looking for like Luke in Star Wars, he wants to try to
stop Darth Vader to save his people from harm. Also in Beowulf, he
comes from a far away country just to help the people from the monster
Grendel. In all of these stories they do what is best for the people
and that is why i think it is so interesting to readers.
I think that the most important themes we have discussed are good
vs. evil, fate, and revenge. Good vs. Evil might be the most important
theme because in all of our stories there has been a hero and a devil
figure. It seems that the evil figure always towers over good but over
time the hero prevails due to helpers and determination to help those
in need. There has always been struggles between the good and evil and
there always will be in the books that we read. Beowulf was the "good
guy" in his adventure and he had to go against 3 different kinds of
evil figures. It showed how determined he was and how good almost
always prevails over evil. Fate is also extremely important in stories
because people are supposed to do many things and life and it seems
when someone tries so hard to avoid them that fate takes its toll and
you just cant avoid it. In the Theban plays there is a lot of faith
shown because the main character is moved to another village and set
to live with another king and queen just to avoid fate and what was
said was going to happen. It just shows how sometimes fate is
inevitable because when he grows up he ends up killing his father and
marrying his mother anyway. They tried so hard to stop him but they
could just not out do fate. Revenge is a key theme in books because
people have things happen to them in which they get so angry that they
want nothing more than to get even with the person that made them so
frustrated. Revenge is shown in Beowulf after he kills Grendel,
Grendel's mother gets so angry that he killed her son that she wants
nothing more and will not quit until she gets revenge and kills
Beowulf.
I thought the blogs were helpful at times but they were also
annoying at times. I didn't want to stop reading early just to blog on
what I have read and waste my time doing that. But the blogs also did
really help me because if I didn't quite understand what I was reading
as well as I would have liked I could always count on other people to
know what they were reading and blog it so that others could
understand. I think it did help me more than hurt me because I was not
wanting to do it but it was good to go to when I needed help with some
of the harder chapters in the books or plays. It was also nice to
sometimes check and see what others thought about the story and to see
what their beliefs are in certain subjects. I also think it is a good
thing that it is mandatory because even if a student does not want to
blog it will help them understand the plot more than what they already
knew.

[Brittany]

1) The Cycle of the Hero is a guide for literature. It is nothing
more than just a summary of how most, not all, but how most literature
books play out. In every story there is a "hero" or the main
character who is doing good for someone or some apparent reason. For
example, Luke Skywalker was the hero in Star Wars while defeating
Vader. Hero's are all over whether we know it or not. Everyone has a
hero and most likely everyone is a hero to someone else.
2) The three major themes that I learned about are Decent Burial,
Relationships, and fate. I choose decent burial because of mainly my
morals. I believe that everyone should deserve a decent burial. When
Creon gives one of the sons a proper burial and throws the other one
above ground to rot, I think that Antigone did the correct and right
thing by sticking up for Eteocles who got an honorable burial from
Creon. That was one thing that really stuck out to me. Another is
Relationships. In my book that I read along with many other books my
classmates read, I could see that they all mentioned relationships in
some way. Relationships don't have to be good. One that I remember
from our class books is Luke and his father. The relationship changed
and was odd but that was such a huge play in how the book played out.
In my book, Don't Let's go to the Dog's Tonight, Bobo's relationship
with her parents, sister, servants, and natives varied. Relationships
are always going to be a part of life, good or bad, and I think that
is why its importance stuck out in my mind. Fate was also present in
every story we read. The most specific example of this to me was in
The Odyssey. Odysseus was destined to kill his father and marry his
mother. He thought he was doing the right thing by leaving his "mother
and father" but really he ran straight into his fate which was
declared by the prophecy at birth.
3) I feel both good and bad about the blogging process. I think it
helped me so much with questions I had because some of the types of
reading that we do I didn't quite understand how it was worded and
others did and told about it. That made it much more clear for me and
able to understand and feel more comfortable about the book. If I
really understood the book and felt confident about what I know and
thought about the book, like I did in Gilgamesh, then I didn't mind
blogging but if I didn't know really what was going on it sucked
because I felt like I was just confusing others. Overall I really
liked the blogging and think it worked out very nicely.

[Adrianne]

1. The cycle of the hero is very important in literature, because its
the basis of every story.
You need to have each element in the cycle of the hero for the story
to be a success. Most
stories don't have the hero completing a test all by themselves, they
usually have helpers,
and you must have a call to adventure for you even to start the book.
In the book, The Theaban
plays, with out having Antiogue and Oedipus have a call to adventure
the story would have never
happened. Almost every book has a character that has to accomplish
something, and there will
be tests and helpers, and a triumph. Sometimes the cycle of the hero
just isn't as noticeable.
2. I think the three major themes we talked about was loyalty, search
for identity, and the human concern for
death. In Hamlet, loyalty was a big factor in the play, many of the
characters broke the loyalty they had between
other characters. Like the Queen marrying Claudius right after King
Hamlet had died. Horatio showed loyalty to
Hamlet by staying his best friend, and not turning on him like many of
the other characters did. In Jocilyn Onnen's
power point, she used search for identity for her book. I think her
book, The Life of Pi, really showed this theme,
because he change his religion so many times. Obviously he didn't know
his identity yet, and it took him time to figure it out.
In almost every book we read, some character was concern with dying.
Like Gilgamesh, he thought it would be awesome to
live forever, but on his journey, he realize that everyone was going
to die someday, and their was nothing you could do.
3. I really liked the blogging, because if I didn't understand a part
on a story we were reading, more then likely someone else
did. Also it was interesting to read everyone's opinion on the books,
and how they understood it. I really don't think
there was anything that didn't work with the blogging, other then some
people could get theirs to work, but that is
something minor.

[morgan jo]

#1 I think that the cycle of the hero applies to my readings and
many other readings because just about every story has somewhat of a
hero figure in it. I think that a good book does have to have the
struggles of the hero, an antihero, and some kind of threshold
crossing, otherwise it would lose the attention of the reader a lot
faster if it didn't. The suspention of the struggles will really get
me interested because i usually apply things that happen in books,
movies, and short stories to my life. Also, I kind of put myself in
the main character's shoes. I think about what i would do in that
situation, and what i would do if i had to deal with an antihero. We
may not have people who are classified as heroes like superman and
batman (haha) but we do have those everyday people like policeman and
fireman that go through the same struggles that the heroes do in the
books. Like in my book, Paul Rusesabagina's call to adventure was when
he thought that he was responsible for saving all of those people.
Also, there are many different ways that the cycle of the hero is
shown in books. There are all different kinds of characters, but in
the end, the cycle will always have it's likenesses.

#2 The first major theme i think we discusses was the human
condition. The human condition lies within everyone. Most people don't
even know what the human condition is. I think that it was very
important for us to learn about this theme because then we are not
grouped with those who are clueless of it. The big thing with the
human condition is the knowledge of death. Everyone will die, but for
some, it will be sooner than others. There are different ways of
dying, obviously. There is man's inhumanity to man, and there is man
vs. himself. An example of this would be like in Keri's book, Night.
The author told how he went through the concentration camps, and it
showed how he was there when his father died, but he couldn't do
anything to try and save him otherwise he himself would die. This was
the example of the man's inhumanity to man.
The second theme that I am going to talk about is 4
phsycological needs. Those play a large part in literature. The needs
are belonging, fun, power, freedom. I didn't use this as one of my
themes in my world author presentation, but it did show up in my book
of course. The need for power. My book was about an African genocide
between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The reason they were killing each
other was definately because one race wanted more power than the
other. They couldn't have freedom in the country because they were
under strict rules from the militia and the african military.
The last theme that I am going to talk about is good vs. evil.
In every story we read about, there was signs of good vs. evil. My
example is going to be from the book Hamlet. The good person was
Prince Hamlet, and the evil person was Claudius. Claudius had killed
his brother, King Hamlet, and married King Hamlet's wife Gertrude.
Claudius had killed him out of jealousy because King Hamlet was
obviously in power of a country. This fits in with one of the
phsycological needs, power. Prince Hamlet, the good guy, wanted to
make Claudius pay for what he had done to his father and in the end of
the book, what he had done to his mother. Claudius killed them both so
Prince Hamlet killed him.

#3 I did kind of like doing the blogging, but I also didn't. It had
it's ups and downs. The things that I didn't like about it, is that
you had to do it. It had a due date, and it just seemed like one more
homework assignment that we had to add to our lists. The thing that i
did like about it, was that it was very helpful if i was confused on
what was going on in a book. I think that certain people did better on
it than others, but everyone did put forth the effort to do it. I
personally would like it better if we didn't have to do it, but if we
wanted to look back on it we could.

[Zinnel]

The cycle of the hero is only is in most books. And most of
the books that we read where based on the hero cycle. The cycle is
what makes the book interesting. Even though most books are based on
the hero cycle they are all very different from each other. The hero
cycle lets you make the story seem unique. The cycle of the hero
starts out with a call to adventure, and along that adventure there
might be some test and a gathering of other characters and this helps
make the story interesting and give it a good story line, and
eventually there is the supreme ordeal and that is the height of the
adventure, where the hero fights the bad guy of the story the vilian.
After he wins the gets whatever it is that he was questing for and his
life goes back to normal or is better than his old life and the story
is over. This is how it was been with all of the stories that we have
read in class. Beowulf was my favorite and it showed the hero cycle
very nicely. Beowulf's call to adventure was when he heard that a king
was in need of help, and he fought and killed Grendal. And his fight
with Grendal could just be a test or it could be the supreme ordeal.
The three major themes that I want to talk about are Good
vs Evil, Destiny, and proper burial. Good vs Evil and Destiny are the
two most important themes that I learned about in this class. Good vs
Evil has always been interesting to me and I enjoyed reading about it,
especially in Beowulf. In Beowulf, Beowulf fought many monsters and
killed them all he fought Grendal, Grendal's mother, and the dragon.
Good vs Evil always makes a book more interesting for me. Destiny is
another huge theme that we learned about in class and was represented
in all of the books that we read, even the book that I read for our
last project. Destiny is simple something that you can not change and
even if you think you are changing you are really just doing what you
are supposed to do. Your fate might have already been set out for you
or it might not have been but in the end we all die and that is every
ones destiny. Another theme is a proper burial and I only used this
one because it poped into my head. We all just feel that a proper
burial is a good way to remember the dead and just kind of let go of
them. It is important to most every one and deserved to be one of my
three.
I liked the blogging, you could see what others had written
and not actually have to talk to them. But I felt that people where
just copying what others had wrote. I don't know I liked it and I
think that you guys did a great job teaching us. And you should
continue using the blogging method.

[Jenn]

1. I think the cycle of hero is very important to literature. I think
it helps us understand the characters and what they are going through.
Every character follows the same cycle, so it is easier to see what
will happen next and understand why something is happening. The cycle
of hero is the same for every hero. In Star Wars the hero was Luke, in
Odyssey the hero was Odysseus, and in Beowulf the hero was Beowulf.
All of these heroes went through the same cycle. They all had a call
to adventure and they all had times when they struggled. In all the
books that we read the hero is trying to save someone or something.
They take any challenge and care more about saving them then losing
their own life.
2. I think that survival is a big theme because it seemed as if in
every book that we read someone was either being saved or someone was
fighting for their own life. I read Smilla's Sense of Snow and a young
boy had died after falling off a roof. Smilla goes out to discover
what the cause was of his death. She knows that he wasn't just playing
up on the roof and slipped and fell. She ends up going out and
researching the past events that have taken place. While she is one a
boat in Greenland with random people she fights to stay alive while
she is doing things illegally on the boat. She survives as well as
discovering the cause of the little boys death. He had a parasite and
this guy was coming to check on him because he knew that he had it,
but the little was scared of him and ran and the guy chased him all
the way up to the roof and that's were he fell. Survival in the other
books deal with saving others and doing what is best to keep the
people safe.
I think that Man's inhumanity to man takes play in every book that we
read as a class. Man's inhumanity to man is where people treat others
poorly and kill them. There wasn't one book that we read were nobody
died. Someone was always killed. I think even in our individual books
someone died. After listening to the presentations survival and man's
inhumanity to man were big themes for most of us. In Hamlet when they
poisoned the drink and put poison the the sword is inhuman and not
right. People were always after each other in all the books were read.
I think that Good vs. Evil was also a big theme in the books we read.
The Hero in he books were always going against the evil to protect the
people. In Star Wars there a good side and a dark side. Beowulf and
the townspeople were against Grendel and his mother as well as the
dragon. In every book the was a good side and an evil side and they
always ended up fight and people were always being killed.
3. I liked blogging a lot. It was nice being able to read everyone's
thoughts about what was happening in the book. It helped me get a
better understanding of what was happening and other ways to look at
the story. It was nice that they didn't have an exact date that they
needed to be done, but they were just suppose to be done before you
took you test. I enjoyed blogging and in helped me out a lot
throughout the trimester and knowing what was actual happening in the
books. =)