This Land is Your Land-Grapes of Wrath Chapters 1-10

In the book The Grapes of Wrath the land plays a big part in the story. The land is used by the author, Steinbeck, to tell the passing of time, describe the time period, and set the mood for scenes and passages in the story. The main family, the Joads, define themselves with the land by relating the land to their history. Their land held for them their family so in a way, the Joad family was a part of the land. hat plow, that harrow, remember in the war we planted mustard? Remember a fella wanted us to put in that rubber bush they call guayule? Get rich, he said¨(111). In this quote the Joad family is sort of remembering all the good times with their farm before they leave for California. All of their history and memories are linked with this land and they are very connected to it. Leaving is very hard for them. ¨But you can start. Only a baby can start. You and me-why, we´re all that´s been The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that´s us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can´t start again¨(113). This quote really solidifies for the audiences understanding as the family states it. This family is the land were they have lived, fought, and grown. The land is the center of the story and the characters. It is like the Native Americans that have lived on the American land then before any other group of people. They were and are very much a part of the land. They relay on it and it is their history and their livelihood. They were forced to leave and it really caused problems for everyone. Writers such as Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman have also grasped onto this idea. They put land above all of their other topics knowing that it is the most important things in life that we depend on. Since Native Americans to American writers to the Joad family, the land is an important part of everyone´s life and like the Joads, becomes part of the history and life.

The End?-Hamlet Act 5

Out of all the themes that are present in this book the one that is the theme of Madness. Obviously it is mentioned several times in the play and it is acted by the characters whether by choice or by circumstances. These are the obvious instances of madness. Ophelia becoming crazy after her fathers death and Hamlet and his actions of madness and deliberate madness are just some of them. However there are many instances were I got an underlying feeling of madness from the writing. Especially in the fifth act there was a ruched and crazy feeling. I felt like he last scene was madness. There are people dying all over the place and fighting and yelling and I felt everyone had gotten a touch it at the end. The whole plot to kill Hamlet did not go as to plan and everything felt like a tower collapsing. In one moment there was sword fight going on between Laertes and Hamlet and I'm reading one word lines, and in the next moment the queen, king, Laertes, and Hamlet are all dead. But I don't just think that it is a cool way to end an action driven tragedy. I think that it is part of Shakespeare's genius. As we read on throughout the act we feel a sense of urgency and madness ourselves. The change in dialogue exchanges and action sequences with everything going on at once, we feel as though it is harder and harder to understand and we start to loose focus on what is going on. The madness came through in the play and we got a taste of it as well. That to me makes the theme that much understandable.

"To be or Not to Be" Crazy-Hamlet Act 4

As the play progresses we start to loose the line between Hamlets play acting and actual madness. We start to see some actions that actually show forced and acted madness. But in other situations, Hamlet says and does things that lead us to question whether he is still acting. Some people we can see that Hamlet is really play acting. When he talks to Polonius we can see right away that nothing he says really makes sense and it feels very forced. However it feels the opposite when we see him talking to Ophelia. Nothing he does or says makes sense and the things he does seem out of his character from the first three acts. We start to see a real conflict within his character especially in this act. We see him want to keep being crazy to follow out with the plan, but we see him start to loose it to desperation. I think Hamlet is starting to get mixed up in too many emotions. His want for revenge for his father, his love for Ophelia, his need to act, and his want to keep his family together. Between finding a way to kill his uncle and avenge his father and keeping his relationships alive, Hamlet is stuck between acting and real life.

Exstacy and Madness-Hamlet Act 3

Act three is the climax of the play as all of Shakespeare's play are written. In act three the is the first death, the death of Polonius. Polonius is killed while he is trying to listen to the conversation between Hamlet and his mother. The theme of death has been put on hold since before the play started as the king was killed before the first act. In this play I think the themes of madness and death overlap each other. As the madness increases, the deaths increase. The madness and death started with the Claudius's madness to become king which ended in death. The madness of war began before as well which resulted in more death, even the death of King Fortinbras. As we watch Hamlet throughout the last three scenes we see him pretending to be mad to fool everyone. But in act three as I was reading I saw less and less of Hamlet trying to deceive and more of Hamlet jut being crazy and me not understanding his intentions. With his killing of Polonius I saw that as an act of Hamlet, not an act of him trying to be crazy. Of what I know of him from the first act he doesn't strike me as a type to kill someone even if they were caught listening into royal conversations.

The Games of the Mind-Hamlet Act 2

Though it does not seem like Hamlet is really that connected to Ophelia from the first act, she is the first one to see him as his mad self. It is probably the most odd scene yet in the play the description of Hamlet entrance to Ophelia's room and doing what it was that he did. Which was to stand there saying nothing while holding her wrist and then walking out he door while keeping his eyes back at her. As the theme of madness starts to play its role in the play, I think that it was very smart for Hamlet to start with Ophelia to begin his reputation as crazy. First, Ophelia's father is Polonius which is right hand to the king and also someone who is likely to tell the king right away whatever his daughter would tell him. Second, if Ophelia believes, than everyone will believe. Doing this also gives some insight to Hamlet. We know that he was told by the Ghost of his father that he must get revenge without putting his own soul at stake. We see that Hamlet is actually very smart in his choices and he knows what he is doing especially the choice to become mad. As Act 2 unfolds we see Hamlet's mind in a new way as he becomes crazy, or smart.

"Father" versus Son-Hamlet Act 1

The first act in Hamlet really does it's job of setting up the characters and their relationships. One of themes of this book is family relationships. We can see right from the get go that Hamlet is a person who cares about his family and will stand by them. The play opens up with his father having just died and his uncle has married his mother to become king. Almost immediately it is seen the distaste hamlet and his uncle have for each other. His uncle thinks he is a pussy and is grieving for his father too long even though its only been two months. Hamlet thinks his uncle is a lying thieving man who should not be king or married to his mother. It really sets the stage for many more disagreements in the future. On page fourteen King Claudius tells Hamlet that he is disgracing his father by mourning and that he is disgracing himself and heaven. This will give way to Hamlet having bad feelings toward Claudius in the future. Hamlet later empresses in his soliloquy how he feels about his uncle. It also here introduces the theme of imbalance throughout the play. Hamlet describes the situation as “things rank and gross” on page fifteen. Hamlet puts out the themes for play here and relationships.

What I'd do if I could

Everybody has one of those crazy dreams about something that they'd wish they could do in their life. Whether it was inspired by watching a great film with stars all with the talent or jealous rivalry with a sibling, everyone has some talent they wish they could share or have the time to learn. Mine of course is something I can't really do at all so naturally it is something I would want to do. I wish that I could break dance. I know it seems like everyone picks that one, but it is something that I wish I could do. If I were to find my self in a tight situation and on a dance floor, I would have to worry about making myself look like a floor because everyone would be too astonished by my skills. So if I had the time that is what I would do with it.