In Time for the Season of Giving...

Hello Everyone! If you don’t already know me, my name is Tori and I am currently a high school senior at Righetti High school. I am selling tickets to raise money in order to pay for a trip to Africa and Hong Kong with the 1 Dream Foundation, Athletes to Africa, April 4- April 15, 2012. This will be my first year attending, and I am really excited to have the chance to take part in this amazing opportunity. I will be able to travel and help people across the globe that are in need. I have heard so many great things about this foundation, and I am glad to be a part of it. I am selling tickets that are $40.00 each, which gives you the chance to be a part of this amazing opportunity as well, for free! I have until December 31, 2011 to sell my tickets, and then there will be a drawing for the winning ticket of a free trip! Your generosity would help me tremendously in being able to take part in this incredible opportunity, and would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to pass this on to ANYONE you feel would be interested in winning a free trip with us, and helping me raise money for my own trip. Thank you so much for your help!To get your ticket, please call Tori @ 805.268.5270 or Tami @ 805.310.2286

Checks may be made out to 1DreamFoundation.

And for more information, please check out the link below.

Sincerely, Tori Thompson

http://www.1dreamfoundation.com/1dreamafrica.html

My Big Question...Revised

What drives people to abuse their authority when its given to them?

Literary Term: Purpose

Purpose: the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used; an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.


There are many things we connect with purpose, such as our purpose in a project, in a dream, in every step we take, or our purpose in life...

Thinking Outside the Box

I found "Allegory of the Cave" and " No Exit" to be very similar. Both talked about how humans think in terms of life and what is to be real and expected.
Plato described humans as ignorant human beings, saying that whatever we saw must be real, even though they are merely shadows. Yet, Satre described humans as ignorant in the sense that they think they need physical objects to "torture" them. When in reality, people just torture themselves with their thoughts and other people around them. Both of their extended metaphors give enlightenment on hard complex ideas and make them easier to follow and understand.

Literature Analysis # 3: Catch 22

1. The plot is about how Yossarian ( the protangist) tries to be sent back home during War World Two. But can't because of many obstacles that are in his way. One being the catch of catch-22, which has many different meanings throughout the book. One meaning being how, if you are crazy, you can be discaharged, but Catch-22 states that once you say you're crazy, that means you're sane because you realize you are crazy. Basically going around in a circle. Yossarian's main goal during the book is too stay alive throughout the whole war and always fend for himself, which in turn makes the men think he's crazy.
2. I think the theme of Catch-22, is that, everything in life will always have a "catch-22" ( a circular reasoning)
In Yossarian's life, he not only had the written statement, but he also had his mental one too,  life is not worth living without a moral concern for the well-being of others, but a moral concern for the well-being of others endangers one’s life.
3. I think that author's tone is sarcastic, in the sense, that only person that really understands war, is the person everybody in the army thinks is crazy.
"His nature was invariably gentle and polite. He had lived for almost twenty years without trauma, tension, hate or neurosis, which was proof to Yossarian of just how crazy he really was."
"They were the most depressing group of people Yossarain had ever been with. They were always in high spirits."
" He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt, and his only mission each time he went up was to come down alive."
4. Heller's irony, hyperboles, foreshadowing and symbolism helped me really get the theme.

•  "There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he would have to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to." Irony is very prevalent in this quote, which basically makes you realize that the book is set around this one quote.
• The book is really one big hyperbole, in the sense that the author writes each character with huge exaggeration so you can really see what Yossarrian has to deal with.

My Big Question...

    We may not realize it, but there are a lot of people that have fatal attractions to wild animals. Becoming fascinated with animals like venomous snakes, bengal tigers, mountain lions, bears, etc. They house them as pets and form "strong bonds" with these animals treating them as part of the family rather than dangerous animals. What drives people to think that they can control dangerous animals and treat them as one of their own?


(Absent)

Hamlet Essay

Hamlet Essay

      There are many things that can be interpreted by Hamlet the character and Hamlet the play. By evaluating these two main factors, we are able to evaluate the impact of performative utterance on Hamlet and our own sense of self. Through this play we see how the way Hamlet speaks constitutes action in itself, how it impacts the characters and the plot, compares with our own “self-overhearing”, and how the way we reflect on our own experience creates a sense of memory, expectation, and real-world results.

      According to its original conception, performative utterance is a sentence which does something in the world rather than describing something about it. For example, the statement "I now pronounce you man and wife," is not true or false but instead 'happy' or 'unhappy', depending on whether or not it is performed properly. In Hamlet the play, Hamlet the character makes a vow to the ghost. Throughout the play he is haunted by that vow he has made and it drives him to fulfill it. Driving him mad with revenge. When we make up our minds to do something, we either do it because we know its what we have to do, or we complain and beat ourselves up at the fact that we failed to carry out our vow in our own sense of self.

       In the play, the way Hamlet speaks constitutes action in itself. His long, drawn out, self- debating speeches give the readers a sense of what he is feeling. We are able to see his thought process and inner most desirable or undesirable feelings. The way Hamlet thinks is action in itself because he is making up his mind on what he wants to do whether he has done it yet or not.
The way he speaks impacts the plot because we know things that the other characters do not. We are able to be a part of Hamlet’s thought process, impacting the plot and other characters. The things Hamlet says to the other characters is very precise and has a purpose. He is knowledgeable in his decision of revenge and wants to carry it out effectively.
     
      Our ”self-overhearing” is essentially our decision making process. We all have our own ways of making decisions and carrying them out. In Hamlet, Hamlet has a lot of intricate and tough decisions to make. He is battling with the decision of death, and holding in a massive grudge of revenge against Claudius. We are able to see how he overcomes his struggles throughout the novel, and through his thought processes. The way he speaks to Claudius is very intricate and witty, and he is careful not to give his plans of his revenge away.
In the end, we all have our own ways of reflecting our own self-overhearing. Creating a sense of memory, expectation, and real world results in our own lives. We all face our own challenges in different ways. Performative utterance is something we do not create intentionally, it is just a part of what we do, and the decisions we make. Yet, what you do with those decisions and thoughts, is ultimately up to you.