Prejudice

As we finish with our unit on Much Ado About Nothing, consider what stereotypes (racial, class, gender, etc.) are present in the play and how they effect your interpretation of the events portrayed. Do you think Shakespeare believed in the stereotypes he presented or do you feel he was attempting to teach his audience a lesson about misjudging others or about forcing people to conform to tradition? Your intial POST is due on 1-17-08 and your comments on other's blogs are due on 1-23-08.


Nearly all of Shakespeare's plays contain some form of a stereotype. This play focuses on the stereotype that all bastards are evil. Either your legitimate or your existance is worthless. Don John the Bastard is the villain of the play. I believe that Shakespeare is using hyperbole in order to show people just how far we go with our stereotypes. First, Don John attempts to hurt his brother by telling Claudio how Don Pedro has stolen Hero, "I heard him swear his affection" (II.1.160). Don John's initial plan fails, so he devises a scheme to insult Hero. He tells Claudio that she is disloyal, and lays out a plan so that Claudio will believe it, "Even she--Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero" (III.2.95-96). Shakespeare is clearly making fun of our sterotypes.

Shakespeare shows us what our prejudging does when he shows how Don John's treatment leads to his behavior. Don John is always treated as a lesser and he seeks revenge for this treatment. Perhaps if Pedro/Pedro's father/Claudio... treated him better (as an equal), none of this would have happened. Shakespeare does is this in the Merchant of Venice too, where Shylock is so mistreated that he is driven to demand a pound of flesh from a man who could not pay what he owed. In this play, and in most of his plays, Shakespeare exagerates our stereotypes so that we may see our faults.

MAAN: Ethics

Much Ado About Nothing has lying of two forms, lying for yourself and lying for another. You can't ever be completely sure that lying is justified or not, but in general, if you lie for the benefit of another, it is justified. Lying for another is seen when Don Pedro, Leonato, and Claudio make sure they are overheard by Benedict while they are talking about Beatrice's love. Although Beatrice never once said, "O sweet Benedick! God give me patience" (II.3.145-146), the lie is meant to make Beatrice and Benedick happy. There is no malacious intent here, only an acceptable lie. It is also justified to lie if the lie will protect another. In McCarthyism, lying to keep someone off of a black list was completely justified (Evan S. also gives a really good example of the Holocaust; people lying to hide Jews). If the intent is to help another, lying is justified.

In MAAN there are also selfish lies. Don John, who seeks revenge upon Claudio who defeated him in battle, lies in order to harm him. Don John, seeking to trick Claudio into refusing Hero announces, "I came hither to tell you, and, circumstances shortened (for she has been too long a-talking of), the lady is disloyal" (III.2.91-93). This lie is for only the benefit of Don John. It is a harmful lie and one that is can not be considered moral. However, this is not always true. Going back to the Holocaust, a Jew that denied being a Jew (a lie solely for him or herself) is justified because it saves him or herself and does not harm another. Lying for yourself is justified if its purpose is not malicious, but rather to protect yourself.

Poetry: The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken by: Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,/And sorry I could not travel both/And be one traveler, long I stood/And looked down one as far as I could/To where it bent in the undergrowth;/Then took the tother, as just as fair,/And having perhaps the better claim,/Because it was grassy ans wanted wear;/Though as for that the passing there/Had worn them really about the same,/And both that morning equally lay/In leaves no step had trodden black./Oh, I kept the first for another day!/Yet knowing how way leads on to way,/I doubted if I should ever come back./I shall be telling this with a sigh/Somewhere ages and ages hence:/Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - /I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference.

This poem by Robert Frost illustrates the joy in being unique and different through a comparison with a path in nature. To me, his poem means that if one only follows what others do, they will miss out on the beauty of life. Frost shows this through a central metaphor. He begins with a walk in a forest. He continues along until he reaches a fork in the road. Instead of walking on the dreary, well trodden land, he chooses instead to be different, to take the road less traveled, the more beautiful, green road.

He also demonstrates the joy in being unique through his word choice. In the seventeenth line, Frost says "I shall be telling this with a sigh". In my opinion, he uses the sigh to demonstrate how peaceful and happy it was on the, "Road Not Taken" (1). Frost's poem is summed up in his final line, the line describing what it meant to him to choose the other path, "And that made all the difference" (21).

Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." 1 Dec 2007 .

Quarter One Debrief

Meditate on the events of quarter one. How did you do in this class? What did you learn? Which of your academic skills improved? Where are you still struggling? How is the class environment? What can you do to further strengthen the learning community in our classroom? What are your goals for Q2? Basically, how did things go for you and what can you do to improve or to make things more successful for yourself and others?

I thought I did well in this class. I struggled slightly in essays and in organization. I also learned a lot and made improvent in both of those categories. I also learned how to write a thesis statement (9th grade didn't really cover Thesis S.). I am still struggling in both of these areas (essays/organization. The class environment is good. Writing in class and sharing ideas makes it easier to progress and makes the environment more comfortable. Some goals for the second quarter are thesis statements, essay writing, and organization (both in essays and overall). I think continuing along the current path (writing a lot, practicing thesis statements in class, and various classroom activities) will best help me progress.

Kite Runner 5

At the end of the novel, the main characters are Amir and Sohrab. Sohrab is the son of Hassan who was the brother of Amir. To Amir, he represents redemption. When he was younger, he witnessed Hassan being raped, and said nothing. Amir betrayed his best friend when he needed him the most. Now Hassan is dead and Amir wants to adopt Sohrab. Only through this can he succede in fulfilling Rahim Khan's wish, a desire reexpressed later on just as was expressed earlier, "There is a way to be good again" (Hosseini 2). Amir is desperately in need of redemption.
This leads to the main conflict, Amir's desire to adopt Sohrab may not be possible. To some, this means that Sohrab must go back to an orphanage or live in Kabul. To Sohrab and Amir, it is not acceptable. Sohrab reflects Amir's desperation through his actions. Although Amir would never have considered this an acceptable solution, Sohrab tries to kill himself. Amir relates the experience, "Suddenly I was on my knees, screaming... Later, they said I was still screaming when the ambulance came" (Hosseini 343). Amir is desperate for a chance to be better, and he intends to become better by helping a homeless orphan and bringing his lost nephew back into the family.

Kite Runner 4

The main characters at this point in the book are Amir and Rahim Khan. Amir receives a letter from Afghanistan saying that he needs to come. The letter was from Rahim Khan. Rahim is sick and dying and he wants to tell Amir his story. Amir finds out that his boyhood friend Hassan married and had a child. He also finds out that Hassan was his half-brother. Then Rahim tells Amir that Hassan and his wife are dead, leaving his child an orphan,

"No," I breathed.
"-- and order him to kneel--"
"No. God, no."
"-- and shot him in the back of the head."
"No" (Hosseini 219).

This leads to the main conflict of dealing with the past. Similar to Oskar's "betrayel" of his father, Amir feels that he has betrayed Hassan and in order to make up for it, he wants to find Hassan's child. It is Rahim's dying wish, "I want you to go to Kabul. I want you to bring Sohrab here" (Hosseini 220). Amir does not want to risk his life in Kabul, an extremely dangerous place, nor does he want to betray Hassan again. In the end, Amir gives in. He will try to find Sohrab, and bring him home.

Kite Runner 3

The main characters at this point are Baba, Amir and his wife Soraya. Amir is now going to college. His wife, an Afghani like him, is a teacher. Baba is now dying of cancer. An ardent smoker, he has lung cancer and will most likely die soon. He refuses to have chemotherapy, as he feels that to postpone the inevitable would dishonner him. He is still to proud to accept it, "He had the same resolved look on his face as the day he'd dropped the stack of food stamps on Mrs. Dobbins's desk" (Hosseini 156).

The main conflict at this point in the novel arrises from the lack of honnesty displayed. Soraya, like Amir, had a secret that she had hidden within her. When she was eighteen, she eloped with an Afghan. He was into drugs and the whole thing ended poorly for everyone. Soraya is greatly ashamed of it. When she tells Amir, he forgives her because he understands the feeling. Amir however is still being torn apart by what he did to Hassan, "I opened my mouth and almost told her how I'd betrayed Hassan," (165). By not letting out his terrible secret, it is eating him up from within. Amir must learn to deal with his past, or his future may fall apart.