Anna’s Blog

We started school in a little, two-room school…which was Sims Chapel School sitting next to the Sims Chapel church. First, second, and third grades were in one room; and fourth, fifth, and sixth were in the other room.

I think this quotation describes teaching conditions that are very similar to what Grant had to deal with.  Just like Shirley Gray (who wrote the quote), he had to teach six grades in a church, which is no suitable place for learning.  Both teachers were deprived of good materials and books that we now take for granted today.  This quote also supports the fact that A Lesson Before Dying is definately based on true stories and conditions.

The Shakespeare production that I saw outside of class was Romeo and Juliet with Claire Danes and Leo Deo. It was set in modern times in Los Angeles, but still used the original lines from the play. Compared to the ways that Macbeth was reinterpreted in the videos that we watched, this movie was very strange. It was very different from Shakespeare’s original play because everything happened really fast. It reminded me a lot of the fast paced beginning of Moulin Rouge, which is kind of strange because when I read this play in eighth grade nothing about it reminded me of Moulin Rouge. It wasn’t a very good film and I wouldn’t really recommend it.  It’s really confusing and I was sick of watching it after 20ish minutes.

I definately think that the least violent way to settle what is going on in Iraq would be to partition it into three separate nations. There is so much conflict in the Middle East over religion, that it seems it would be best to simply make new countries that only have one religion. That way, there wouldn’t be so many problems caused over different ideas and beliefs. Also, the United States would be able to leave the situation soon and withdraw troops as soon as the new countries were formed and set up. A downside could be that there would be various wars between the new countries, or that the partition doesn’t happen very smoothly. As said by Ivan Eland of the San Francisco Chronicle…

Many opponents of decentralization or partition use the example of the civil war during the break up of Yugoslavia. Yet that is not the only model. Czechoslovakia and most of the Soviet Union broke up peacefully. The citizens of artificial countries often want self-determination because other groups within the country are trying to rule them or don’t recognize their culture, language or religious preferences.

This idea is also more practical compared to increasing the amount of troops or just taking them out of Iraq all together. This is because we wouldn’t have to have a draft of some sort passed, and our country would not be targetted as a nation that only caused more problems in the middle east. Leaving now would show that we lack courage and give the US a bad reputation. A partition would definately help the situation, however, and basically everybody would win.

    The different adaptations of the Scottish play we have studied are both similar and different.  The one that is most similar to the real Scottish play written by Shakespeare would be uMBatha.  This is because the plot and characters are still in the same as in the original.  There is the same ending and storyline, only the play takes place in Africa and that version of Macbeth is trying to become the chief of his clan.  In this adaptation of the Scottish play, there is not a lot that is lost or gained because it is so similar to the original.  For the same reasons, it was my least favorite of the three versions of the play.  It was basically the same as the original, only not written quite as well as Shakespeare had.  The adaptation that is the least like the original play is probably the Japanese version, Throne of Blood.  It has a completely different ending, in that the last scene of the movie is Macbeth being killed by the army.  Instead of the last one being Malcolm, son of Duncan, being crowned king (and therefore ending the play more heroically rather than tragically).  Also, they left out the character of Macduff, who is the true hero of the play and goes to England to bring back an army which kills Macbeth.  Without him, the movie was a lot more depressing.  Mostly because of those reasons, my favorite adaptation of the Scottish play is the Travesties.  This is because they are very funny and made the play a lot lighter and happier, rather than being the heavy tragedy that Shakespeare had intended for.

It was definately worth reading The Kiterunner. Even though it’s really, really long, it is definately a good book. Because it’s so long, there are a lot of different themes and lessons that can be learned from this novel. A lasting understanding that it left me with is how a person who grew up in Afghanistan must feel after all the changes that have taken place there. The book goes from the beginning of Amir’s life, when his home country is still very safe and friendly, to much later in his life when the Taliban invade. The book has showed me that group after group imposed their evil beliefs on Afghanistan, such as one of the beliefs of the Taliban that women should remain inferior to men. Also, the book shows the quick progression of how Afghanistan sees evil acts and crimes committed more and more often. Now what I would like to find out more about is why the Taliban and other groups, such as the Russian military, felt the need to invade that country and harm innocent people. The book only exposes how evil those groups that invaded are, and that kind of leaves me to think that the Afghanis are completely innocent and it is not their fault that the Taliban invaded. It’s possible taht something happened, however, that could have led to the way that evil was imposed.

The Kiterunner has been really good so far. Even though it’s really, really sad, I think it’s a really great book. It’s sort of depressing because most of the people in the book, aside from the main character Amir, have died.  With some of them, Amir has made peace and repaired their relationship (for example, before his father dies of cancer, Amir gets married and goes to college, which finally made his father proud of him).  But then his relationships with some of the other characters are not fixed before those characters die.  When his childhood friend Hassan is killed by the Taliban, Amir had still never apologized for all that he had done to his friend when they were younger.  There is one way to repay Hassan, however, and that is to retrieve his son from the now dangerous Kabul and rescue him to safety.  It seems that Amir’s relationship with him was very important, because he became determined to save Hassan’s son from danger.

The whole time I’ve been reading I thought the book was a true story, though, and that the author was writing about past experiences and their own life. It turns out that it’s really just fiction, but I think a lot of the stories about Afghanistan as a country are based on fact. For instance, the way that the author shows the Taliban as horrible, irrational people that only make more problems in Afghanistan is probably very true. I really like the author’s writing style. He uses a lot of detail and keeps the book really interesting with a lot of stories.  I’m excited to keep reading…