Journal Entry 1 Medea

The chorus' in Medea and Oedipus vary greatly. For starters, the most obvious difference is who comprises of the different chorus'. In Oedipus, the whole chorus is citizens of his city, so you can infer that there are both men and women in that group. In Medea however, the chorus is only comprised of women. This shows the gender roles that were around during Greek century were very different. Men tended to only care about those who were in higher power than themselves, usually only other men, while leaving any woman who is not young and desirable to rot. Women on the other hand cared for those men in power as well as other women around them. Another difference between the 2 chorus' is how they act. In Oedipus the king, the chorus wanted Oedipus to solve the problems in the sick city of Thebes. Before the tragedy of Oedipus is revealed, Oedipus is seen as a grand figure willing to help the denizens of his city any way that he can; so it is the chorus who needs help. In Medea, the role is reversed. Instead, it is the chorus' that comes to try to comfort Medea, who is in emoitonal distraut over Jason choosing another woman over her. Medea is seen as a very emotionally hurt woman in the beginning of the play, one who seeks vengence as well. The chorus is there to try to comfort her, instead of Medea helping the chorus.

Journal Entry 5 Oedipus

Sophocles evokes fear and pity among the memebers of the audience in various ways, in his plays.

In Oedipus, Sophocles makes the audience feel fear by showing the massive change that happens to Oedipus. In the beginning, Oedipus is kind and caring, but later gets distrustful of everyone, finnally ending in misery. It gets the audience members to think that they themselves might be caught in the same kind of loop as Oedipus, thus causing fear among them to change so they don't become like that. The audience also feels fear in Oedipus. This happens when Oedipus is argueing with Tiresias over Oedipus' future and fate. With a first glance, the scene seems exciting and thrilling, for if no one has seen the play, then they would be wondering who really did kill the person. However, a classic Greek audience member already knows the stroy of Oedipus. So, when they see Oedipus trying in vain to go against his own fate, it evokes pity, for the audience already knows that the "helmsman" has already been caught in his twisted fate, and that he is too blind to see it.

In Medea, Sophocles makes the audience feel fear and pity, as in Oedipus. The audience feels fear, for when Medea kills the king of Iolcos. This would strike fear in the hearts of the audience, for Iocles did in for love; she thought that it would help Jason move up to the throne. However, it ultimately lead to their casting out. This would make the audience afraid, for they would not like to end up like the couple and let their emotions cloud there judgement of what they should do. The audience also feels pity for the couple. This is revealed when Medea has to kill her own brother. The reason why is because you can surmise that Medea was likely close to her brother. So it evokes pity on the audience, since they know that Medea had to decide to act, and chose the lesser of 2 loves.

Journal Entry 4 Oedipus

The image that I chose to track was the image of eyes.

"Come to [...] your own father's hands that served his once bright eyes so well-" (Sophocles Oedipus 248:1622-1623). This is spoken by the now broken Oedipus. He tell of how his eyes were once bright. This could mean that it could be his innocence, of how he supposed himself uncorrupted. This is because Oedipus, before he found out the truth, never thought that would fulfill the prophecy. After the prophecy was fulfilled, he no longer had that innocence about him, so he gouged out his eyes in torment.

"You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know!" (237:1405-1408). This again refers to Oedipus' self-inflicted blindness. He also does this in order to prevent him from seeing anymore of the grief in the people that he caused them, since he is the one that caused the misfortune for the town. He also gouged out his eyes because his eyes fooled him; he could not tell who his real parents where. Thus, as punishment, Oedipus gets rid of his eyes. He did it so he couldn't be fooled by such things ever again.

"Blind who now has eyes, beggar who now is rich, he will grope his way toward a foreign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step" (185:517-519). This is what Tiresias tells to Oedipus before he leaves Thebes. It foreshadows the torment that will befall on Oedipus. However, Oedipus chooses to ignore the words of the wise man, rather believing that he can still change his own destiny.

The author uses the imagery of eyes in order to characterize Oedipus. The eyes show that even though Oedipus can see, he can't figure out the truth, even when it is right in front of him. Oedipus even states that he is "Oedipus the ignorant" (182: 451). This shows that he is ignorant to all of the things around him, only taking in the things that he deems worth his time. The imagery also shows the tension in the play. For while the time that Oedipus can see, he is wrought with discontent, for he constantly worries about the prophecy. After he blinds himself, he then lives in agony, furthering the tension that he has, for he feels that he needs to save himself from his crime, thus putting a large burden on him on top of being blind.

Journal Entry 3 Oedipus

• Sophocles basically describes the men as being the prominent ones, the ones with all the power and glory. The women often take a more subordinate role, and are only widely renowned as long as the fame of the husband lasts. Such is how Jocasta is well known, being married to Laius and the famous Oedipus.
• I think that Jocasta's reaction was good in some ways and yet bad in others. It was good on how she tried to comfort her husband is good. This is because, not necessarily just women, but all people, should show compassion to the people that they love. This reveals that strong relationships are important within a person. However, she, like Oedipus, overreacted at the end of the act. It was when she was trying to dissuade Oedipus from finding the truth out about his birth. She could have handled it a little bit better, or could have just told Oedipus what she was thinking. Instead, she freaked out and "locked" herself away from him. So it tells how women should be supportive of their husbands, but also how they should not overreact with decisions he makes and tell him their opinions.
• Oedipus is the exact person that guys should not model themselves after. He's the kind of person that has a kind of cover, and then exposes the true, grotesque self that he is. All of his arrogance and anger, rage, irrational fear and worry are also things that guys should try to stay away from. Creon, however, is what people should aspire to be. He does not let his emotions get to far out of hand, and he makes sure there are facts to back up his words. That is how men should be: cool, calm and collected.
• The male gender seems to speak to the women as a kind of crutch. The man always trusts the woman more than anyone else that he knows. He also turn to her when he needs her, but other than that, she is basically supposed to be on her own. Men speak to themselves how they are going to protect that which they have, and how they are going to prevail. The women talk to themselves how there husband is doing and if there is any way that they can help their husbands.

Journal Entry 2 Oedipus

I think that Oedipus is showing signs of a deficient leader. This is because of how the man changed so drastically in this part of the play. In the beginning of the act, Oedipus gives a grand speech in front of his public, basically saying how he will use any sort of resource to hunt down the perpetrator of the crime the murder of Laius. And so, already hearing from the oracle, from the word of Apollo, he seeks out the man Tiresias. When Tiresias arrives, Oedipus makes a big show of how he is so thankful that Tiresias has come and how Tiresias is the one who can save the city. After Oedipus forces Tiresias to tell him the murderer, after of course Oedipus forces Tiresias to tell him after Oedipus discredited Tiresias and said he was working against the city, Oedipus doesn't even believe him. He went through all the effort to find the mystical all-knowing prophet, and he basically rejected him, (even though Tiresias is never believed). That is a very bad way to spend his resources, or treat the opinion of another, and defiantly more wiser, person. Also, Oedipus told Tiresias to "Rescue yourself, your city, rescue me-" (Sophocles 2:2:355). This shows how Oedipus basically put himself and his possessions before the rest of the city, since after saying that line, he hastily said "rescue everything infected by the dead" (2:2:356). A leader should not put himself before the people of his city. He should always try to care for them first. Lastly, after Tiresias stated that Oedipus was the killer, Oedipus immediately tries to put the blame onto another person: Creon. He tried to make a scape-goat, even though all Creon did was get Tiresias, by showing that Oedipus wondered if "this conspiracy his [Creon] or yours [Tiresias]" (2:2:431). This shows how quickly Oedipus wanted to have the blame off of himself. A leader should take responsibility for his actions, or if the accusations of said actions are false, then a leader must remain cool and collected, and explain his innocence, rather then blaming another.

My impression of Oedipus changed drastically. In the first part of the play, he seemed so nice and caring, even if he was a little bit pompous and full of himself. You could see how he wanted to protect his people and care for them. He was also a lot calmer. In the second part of the play, he becomes more erratic and hostile. He also states how only he wanted to be saved, before adding everyone else, showing selfishness. He also became very poisoness and angry at something that there was no need for anger for.

I would describe Creon's personality as loving and obedient. This is due to how he did not angerly challenge Oedipus' decree against him, he just wanted his king to listen.

Tiresias I would describe as cautious, and yet prideful. This is due to how he wanted to protect Oedipus from the truth that he knew, but, when his hand was forced, was willing to tell the truth to Oedipus. Tiresias also seems a little bit cynical, for he didn't seem to have a lot of faith in Oedipus being able to deal with what he was about to tell him.

Oedipus reading 1

Summary-

1. Oedipus is introduced and is asking the people gathered round his alter why they have gathered there and what can he do to help.
2. A priest of Zeus states, for the crowd, that everyone has gathered, young, old, married, unmarried, to tell Oedipus that the city is falling apart and sick.
3. The priest then further states that since Oedipus has overcome challenges before, such as the Sphinx, and is then a men above the rest, so he has the power to help save the town of Thebes and rule over a fertile land.
4. Oedipus pities them, and knows the anguish felt by all since he is the king, so he figured out the one cure: to send a man, Creon, to Delphi to speak to the prophet to find out what has to be done to save the city, and states that Creon should be back, right as Creon comes back.
5. Creon says he knows what the oracle said good news, but is worried about how the people would react, so he offers Oedipus to go inside to speak, but Oedipus would rather have the people here the news.
6. Creon then explains that Apollo says to cleanse all the evil from the land, and says to start by banishing or killing the man you killed the former ruler, Laius.
7. After hearing this, Oedipus then desires to know where the person who killed Laius is, where Laius was killed, and if there were any witnesses, which Creon states that the killer is in Thebes, that Laius was lost on the way to the Oracle, and all but one person was killed who saw the crime, respectively.
8. Creon then states that the man who saw the crime said thieves struck him down, which Oedipus thought unlikely unless the thieves were payed, then Creon stated that when Laius died, no one else came to lead, and they didn't try to find the killer for the Sphinx persuaded the people not to look into it.
9. Oedipus then says that he will find the murderer and bring him to justice no matter what, town is then happy to hear him say that.
10. Townspeople are praying to the gods to let the curse on Thebes end, and asking the gods to strike the sickness down and protect them, and they'll do anything to make it happen.
11. People then lament how the city is dying, people are becoming sick and poor, that it is a great thing starting to waste away, and how so many women and children die, and how the gods should rescue them.
12. In one final plea, the townspeople pray to individual gods, Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus to beat back the death of the sickness.

Literary Techniques

• Imagery- the imagery of death helps to convey the tone of the city of Thebes. It tells of a city desperate for revitalization and salvation, how the people want to be saved from death by the various deities.
• Repetition of cry- the repetition of crying out shows the disparity of the situation. Also reveals how emotional Greek people are, for they don't speak out to different gods, they cry out, voices in panic and grief over all the death. They also actually cry over all the deaths that have occurred.
• Rhyme- the rhyme of price and sacrifice emphasize the ancient ways of the Greek. Most often then not, Greek people did not just give money or pray like in modern day church, most of the time, either an animal, or even sometimes a child was to be sacrificed to the deities of ancient Greece. Thus, the Greek paid a high price, for sometimes animals were very important, like to farmers and herders, and no one wanted to give up their son or daughter.
• Rhyme- the rhyme between rise, cries, and eyes (pg 169, ln 213-217) all have a kind of "I" sound to them. This helps to convey that each and every person in the city at that point is suffering in the city. Not just a group of people.
• Simile- "Thebes like a great army dying"(pg 169, ln 194) - this simile again hints at a few different things. In a more literal sense, Thebes could have been a powerful nation at one time, and now is just wasting away, and is now weaker then it used to be. It could also mean that the people, once disciplined and prosperous, are now weaker, and can't do as much as they used to.
• Metaphor- "there is no sword of thought to save us" (pg 169, ln 195). Once again it is kind of a war- like reference. It also shows that the people are without any kind of dictating action, they want the change to happen, but they are not passionate enough to take the issue into there own hands. It also means that the people do not think for themselves, that they rely on the gods to answer questions.
• Interesting to point out that a lot of the time it is the children and the women that are falling victim to the sickness. Also the ones doing the crying a lot of the time are seen as women, it does not specifically mention men, like it does women on (pg 169, ln 309). This could emphasize how the Greeks lived in a male dominated society.

Rough draft Dystopian novel

The Resistance

Try living in a society for a day, where there are no luxuries, no emotions allowed except hate, and there is no place in the world to go where a person is not under a the scrutiny of another. 1984, written by George Orwell, creates this brutal society where the general population is kept inferior and in constant fear. This society falls under the rule of a party call INGSOC led under the figurehead of a man named Big Brother. George Orwell uses Winston’s physical and psychological rebellion against Big Brother to convey how people desire to control their own lives; this shows that no matter how oppressive the government is, there will always be resistance de to human nature.

The primary ways that Winston fights against society show us that human nature is to rebel against an oppressive government that is in place. The primary reason that he does this I s due to the protest that he feels within his own body. While discussing the truth or untruth of the history texts, he states, “The only evidence on the contrary was the mute protest in your own bones, the instinctive feeling that the conditions in which you live were intolerable and that at some other time they must have been different” (Orwell 63). The fact that he feels this protest in his bones to the oppression that the government puts on him shows us that, although he has never lived in a better time, the instincts of his body are that this is no how he was meant to live. Through this we can see that he is unhappy with his conditions in Oceania and that he wishes for it to be different. The fact that he wants it to be different also shows us that it is in his nature to want to be fulfilled and happy. This is Orwell’s way of showing us that it is in human nature to rebel against an oppressive government that doesn’t fulfill our needs. Winston also shows us that it is in his nature to rebel when he participates in the Two Minutes Hate, “Thus, at one moment Winston’s hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police; and at such moments his heart went out to the lonely, derided heretic on the screen, sole guardian of truth and sanity in a world of lies” (Orwell 16). The fact that Winston, instead of hating the enemy of the Party, instinctively turns to feeling hope and love towards Goldstein shows us that it is a natural occurrence to hate the object that is oppressing you, and also natural to love that which stands for your freedom. This demonstrates that the people will automatically rebel against anything that oppresses them. Orwell shows us that this is a natural, good thing to do through Winston’s rebellion.

One of the ways that Winston specifically resists the government of Ingsoc by using his mind. The two ways by which Winston uses his mind in order to fight against the power of Ingsoc is through his diary and the article on the capitalists. The first is his diary. Winston first finds the diary in an old shop in a proletarian market. After buying the item, he committed an act that could lead to his death. Yet, as he mused about a past recollection, “His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals - DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER over and over again, filling half a page” (Orwell 19). This is where Winston reveals the first inklings of his hatred of the Party and Big Brother. Even though he had to mask his true intentions, he was still starting to resist against the government of Ingsoc. In the diary, even though he could be killed for writing in it, the book allows him to reveal what he really thinks about the government he serves under. After he writes in the diary, he starts to think of the consequences of the action: a visit from the Thought Police. Winston began to become paranoid at the thought of the police arresting him, and yet does not try to redeem himself with any words of condolence. Instead, he writes further in his diary, stating that “theyll shoot me i don't care theyll shoot me in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother” (Orwell 20). The passage written reaffirms what Winston previously wrote. Winston could have done many things to reconcile what he has done, from smudging the ink so it was illegible, to burning the book, or “to tear out the spoiled pages and abandon the enterprise altogether” (Orwell 19). Instead, Winston wrote more with animosity towards Big Brother, for he ‘did not care’ whether anyone would find out about the diary or not; the diary reveals Winston’s true thoughts.

Another way that Winston used his mind to resist Ingsoc was through the photo and article on Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. Winston first comes across the photo in an article that he needed to change in the Ministry of Truth. When he first saw it, he was so overcome with fear over the photo that he pushed it under the other papers that he needed to “fix”. This led to Winston using his mind, since he was able to deduce that “The point was that at both trials all three men had confessed that on that date they had been on Eurasian soil. […] There was only one possible conclusion: the confessions were lies. Even at that time Winston had not imagined that the people who were wiped out in the purges had actually committed the crimes that they were accused of. But this was concrete evidence;” (Orwell 67). The photo was not taken seriously back when Winston first had the photo, he was not completely against Ingsoc yet. But, with the hindsight granted from experience, he would have decided to keep the photo if he was resisting the government during that time. This shows that Winston would like to change events, make it so he could further resist the government. Even while Winston was being tortured, when they showed him the same photo, he cried out “’It exists!’ […] it did exist! It does exist! It exists in memory. I remember it” (Orwell 204). This further proves that Winston resisted the government that was trying to say that the photo did not exist. By proclaiming that the photo did exist, Winston went against what the government was trying to force him to believe.

“To embrace her was like embracing a wooden image” (Orwell 58). Winston’s wife felt no pleasure in having sexual intercourse, and she was part of the anti-sex league. The government wanted people to have sex like Winston’s wife did, they didn’t want people to have pleasure because the people might rebel against the government. They were trying to take all the emotions away except hate. For example, the government wanted to take away orgasm scientifically so that people would not feel pleasure during sexual intercourse, but rather just do it for pro-creation. “No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act” (Orwell 105). Winston tries to show that he is rebelling against the Party by having sexually intercourse with Julia. The party views sexual intercourse as something that is very wrong and that people should not feel pleasure in doing so. But Winston does it anyways and this quote shows that the action he takes in fact does hurt the Party.

The natural tendencies to physically and psychologically rebel against an oppressive government show that people want to control their own lives. Those people will try their hardest to rebel against the one in charge for as long as possible, since rebelling against the society usually ends up in severe punishment. So, do you think that you’ll be able to survive in the suffocating, totalitarian atmosphere of Airstrip 1?

Dystopian novel group paragraph

My laptop is having issues, so I'll print it out at school, if I can.


One of the ways that Winston specifically resists the government of Ingsoc by using his mind.
The two ways by which Winston uses his mind in order to fight against the power of Ingsoc is through his diary and the article on the capitalists. The first is his diary. Winston first finds the diary in an old shop in a proletarian market. After buying the item, he committed an act that could lead to his death. Yet, as he mused about a past recollection, “His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals - DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER over and over again, filling half a page” (Orwell 19). This is where Winston reveals the first inklings of his hatred of the Party and Big Brother. Even though he had to mask his true intentions, he was still starting to resist against the government of Ingsoc. In the diary, even though he could be killed for writing in it, the book allows him to reveal what he really thinks about the government he serves under. After he writes in the diary, he starts to think of the consequences of the action: a visit from the Thought Police. Winston began to become paranoid at the thought of the police arresting him, and yet does not try to redeem himself with any words of condolence. Instead, he writes further in his diary, stating that “theyll shoot me i don't care theyll shoot me in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother” (Orwell 20). The passage written reaffirms what Winston previously wrote. Winston could have done many things to reconcile what he has done, from smudging the ink so it was illegible, to burning the book, or “to tear out the spoiled pages and abandon the enterprise altogether” (Orwell 19). Instead, Winston wrote more with animosity towards Big Brother, for he ‘did not care’ whether anyone would find out about the diary or not; the diary reveals Winston’s true thoughts. Another way that Winston used his mind to resist Ingsoc was through the photo and article on Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. Winston first comes across the photo in an article that he needed to change in the Ministry of Truth. When he first saw it, he was so overcome with fear over the photo that he pushed it under the other papers that he was assigned to fix. This led to Winston using his mind, since he was able to deduce that “The point was that at both trials all three men had confessed that on that date they had been on Eurasian soil. […] There was only one possible conclusion: the confessions were lies. Even at that time Winston had not imagined that the people who were wiped out in the purges had actually committed the crimes that they were accused of. But this was concrete evidence;” (Orwell 67). The photo was not taken seriously back when Winston first had the photo, he was not completely against Ingsoc yet. But, with the hindsight granted from experience, he would have decided to keep the photo if he was resisting the government during that time. This shows that Winston would like to change events, make it so he could further resist the government. Even while Winston was being tortured, when they showed him the same photo, he cried out “’It exists!’ […] it did exist! It does exist! It exists in memory. I remember it” (Orwell 204). This further proves that Winston resisted the government that was trying to say that the photo did not exist. By proclaiming that the photo did exist, Winston went against what the government was trying to force him to believe.
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