When reading Oroonoko, I couldn’t help but think about the movie Django Unchained starring Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio.  The stories had similarities in the idea that a slave has been separated from his lover because she has been sold into slavery.  Then by happenstance, they reunite on the same plantation.

It was interesting to see Behn’s idea of having an African prince becoming a slave, but when owned by the plantation owners, he is still treated with respect because of his overflowing confidence.  You can also see this in the film, although Django is not a prince, he shows great physical prowess and confidence that doesn’t necessarily have his enemies change their emotions towards him, but they do respect him.

In the end, these stories are love stories and it is quite interesting, the idea of fate, when both these slaves reunite with their loved ones even when held captive.  Oroonoko was a very interesting story to read and it’s similarity to Django Unchained kept me drawn into the story even more-so.

For the third and final essay, I chose to write about the topic which covered on gender politics.  This allowed me to really look at the characters, the wife of Bath and Miranda from The Tempest, a lot more carefully.

I realized that these two characters were complete contrasts of each other.  The wife of Bath was an independent woman who was comfortable with her relationships and sexual activity.  She looked at being a wife as an occupation and did well at it.  She used all this knowledge of sex and men that she had gained through experience and applied it to her marriages to reap the benefits.

On the other hand, Miranda had been isolated on an island for her whole life so she was absent the experience that the wife had.  She had only known three men her whole life, one being her father, so automatically she was very loyal and obedient to him.  When she laid eyes on Ferdinand for the first time, she was instantly in love because she was amazed by the sight of another man, leaving her vulnerable to Ferdinand.

This difference is very noticeable and is very black and white, meaning that they are complete polar opposites.  The wife is independent and lives life through her own terms, while Miranda “takes orders” from her father.  Both women live in a social, gender-based hierarchy that puts men above women, but the difference is that the wife understands her role and owns it, where as Miranda isn’t completely aware.

For the last couple of classes we have talked about Jonathan Swift and his view on satire.  He has a famous quote in which he essentially says that in the world, satire is like a glass where you can see everyone else’s reflection except for your own.  This is funny because it’s contradictory in itself, in the sense that satire is supposed to “make fun” of something or someone for the audience to see, but because people don’t see their own reflections, or refuse to, it doesn’t apply to themselves.  This quote is very interesting because I think it really brushes on what a majority of the people in our society are sub-consciously like.  People are able to see the flaws and wrong-doings of the others around them, but when it comes to assessing ourselves, it takes a little more effort to pick out the flaws.  I’d like to think it’s human nature, because we can observe from the outside, but what’s inside of us is hard to really observe and address because it’s happening in the moment.

The way I look at it is just like sports.  I’ve played basketball for most of my life and I’ve also coached and referee’d before as well.  Being a player as oppose to, say a coach, is very very different.  When a coach is talking to his players, he tells them what they’re doing well and he also addresses the flaws and tells his players how to correct them.  But as a player, it’s much more difficult to assess the flaws and correct them right on the spot because you’re in the thick of things, trying to do so much at once.  Of course it’s more difficult than someone just watching and nit-picking.

This is the same when comparing a person’s view on the people around them as oppose to themselves.  We’re watching the world around us, making it easy to say what should be done and what should happen or be improved, etc.  But when it comes to addressing ourselves, we are definitely biased, making it a little more difficult.  I think that’s what Jonathan Swift’s view on, not only satire, but in life is, and I think he has a very strong point.

For our second essay, I wrote about the relationship between the body and spirit within a poem.  I chose to write about “The Preparitive” by Thomas Traherne.  When I really analyzed it, it truly opened my eyes to what I thought Traherne was trying to accomplish through this piece of work.  Traherne’s view on the spirit compared to the body was that the spirit was more free to experience things, as oppose to life where we have limits and boundaries.  These restraints, if you will, do not exist while we are in a spirit form.  I also found it very interesting how Traherne formatted the poem.  When talking about life, he had short details inserted into stanzas, symbolizing that life had a time limit, whereas everyone dIes.  But when talking about the spirit, he used the majority of the poem to convey this idea to symbolize that the spirit is endless and free.

The poem of Death Be Not Proud, is actually very interesting!  Donne talks about how “Death”, in a somewhat degrading manner.  Many people view death as something so mighty that they should fear, when in reality, Donne is telling us not to fear it so.  He then goes on to name reasons as to why we shouldn’t fear death as much as some of us do.  He brings up the point that in death, we look like we do when we sleep.  And also that to anyone, whether it be a King or a simple man, death is the same, it doesn’t change.  He also mentions that even the simplest or smallest things, like a poison or charm could kill us.  He then concludes it by saying that death is quick, it basically has no way of competing with the lives that we live because after death, we then move onto an eternal afterlife.  I actually really love this piece of literature because it puts things into perspective.  A lot of people live life in fear of dying but Donne does a good job of belittling it and almost giving people a sense of hope and optimism so that they don’t fear death.

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