This Play write is yet another example from ancient Greece that explains tragedy. Two brothers have killed each other, one fighting for the ruling king, one fighting against. The brothers are royalty in the kingdom, but the only one who is buried properly is the brother that fought on the kinds side. These brothers had two sisters, one of which really hates how only one of her brothers is having a proper burial, while the other will rot, and be eaten by wolves or scavengers. She decides that she will go and bury him. The king decides that If she (Antigone) does bury her brother, that it will be against the kings law, and that he shall have her assassinated and publicly shamed. The oracle tells Creon to let her bury her brother, or he will have to deal with the death of his son. What is tragic, is that Creon tried to save them, but when he arrived to bury the brother, he finds Antigone and his son dead. The tragedy is that he decided to do good, but it had been too late before he was able to change for good.
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In class this week, we watched a TED talk that brought up an interesting view on the choices we make. The ted talk consists of Dan Ariely talking about how some simple choices people make in life are made for them. He gives out a random statistic of European countries participation in their organ donor's program. It shows a graph of various countries and the results show that the turnout was either very high, or very low. He talks about how certain cultures may affect these numbers, but he compares nations with similar cultures that are on the graph and it shows that countries with similar culture can have completely different numbers! He provided the evidence of how this is fact. The reason why these countries had different outcomes of their organ donor programs was because of the wording of the question of "would you like to be an organ donor". On the federal form s of the countries with high organ donor participation, the question was "mark this box if you do not want to be an organ donor", while the countries with low turnout asked the question "mark this box if you do want to be an organ donor". This evidence provided a conclusion that people will participate if the question is formed a certain way. I found this very compelling because I began to thought about what types of decisions I may have made on a strategically worded question. This also impacted me in a way that i will have to think about my decisions are bit harder, and really dissect the question in order to understand it. This is also a good thing to know because now I can potentially word a question in order to get the results i want. I found this TED talk to be very useful and thought provoking, and am glad we watched it in class. Sex With Mom Was Blinding!First, Let me explain the title. This is in reference from the to Alain de Buttons TED talk, when he gave the plot of Oedipus to a bunch of tabloid news writers, without giving the name of the play away and they gave it the head line "Sex with mum was blinding". I give it this title also because of how exciting the book was and how enjoyable reading it in our AP literature class was. Oedipus hits every curriculum about tragedy. We find that he is a very well respected character who has everything to lose, but wants to achieve a large goal and save his town to be the rightful savior and king. In every tragedy the hero begins his quest to achieve their goal, but they have a tragic flaw that ends up hindering their success. In Oedipus's case it is ignorance of who his real parents are that takes down his hopes to be Thebes savior and king. It began with a prophesy that said that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus tried to avoid this prophecy by fleeing his thought to be parents, and killing a man before competing his journey to a place called Thebes. When he arrive, he marries widow of the king, to become king of Thebes. They have four kids together. Fast forward a while to when Thebes is cursed and everybody is starving and can't reproduce, Oedipus talks to the Oracle for help. The Oracle tells Oedipus that the killer of the old king must be killed, in order for Thebes to prosper. Oedipus questions many people until a servant arrives and reveals that Oedipus's real mother is now his wife, and had abandoned him to die in order to avoid the prophecy, but Oedipus's parents from the town he fled picked him up and raised him, until Oedipus heard of the prophesy, which he then ran away from them, and the man he killed along the journey was actually the old king, which was also his father. Oedipus then realizes that he could not become the savior because he was the one causing Thebes to die, His wife/mother kills herself in disgrace, and Oedipus gouges his eyes out because he cannot see any more evils he has committed. This story follows tragedy definition of following a hero through their quest to achieve something, then they find their tragic flaw that will never allow them to achieve their goal, ultimately resulting in death, or no possibility of a successful life. The attention to tragedy's structure in this play really helped me as a reader follow along, and grasp the gravity of the situation. The author laid out all the Oedipus had to lose, and built drama by letting us know that Oedipus was the reason that Thebes was failing, but not letting Oedipus to figure it out until the servant comes and explains the horror and that the prophesy had come true. The author then goes even further to show the reader how tragic it was when Oedipus's wife-mom hangs herself. It illustrates how fast this hero full of hope and promise had fell to the sole reason Thebes was failing. The public had lost all respect in him as their hero crumble in front of them. In Arthur Miller's article on "Tragedy, and the Common Man", he applies the old definition of tragedy and how it was studied, to the new modern world. In the beginning of his article, he explains how Tragedy used to be, and who it was associated with. He explains that in old play writes such as "Hamlet" or "Oedipus", tragedy was only made tragic, when it happened to people of authority. Basically saying that the when the people with the most to lose lost, or did not compete their objective, that was tragic. The old way was basically you had to be a king figure or something close to that to have true tragedy happen to you. He then goes on to state that people today relate to those stories through the emotions that everyday people have felt thorough reading these pieces of literature. We all want to fit into a role in a society, just like Oedipus, who wanted to be the king that saved Thebes. Miller then states that we only see what is truly tragic when the hero is fighting to become that person in society, and can't reach it becasue of something called the tragic flaw. The tragic flaw refers to the characteristic or event that is stopping the character from fitting into the role of society that they wanted to. In Oedipus's case, his flaw was that he indeed had killed his father, and was the one making Thebes suffer, meaning he could never become the king to save Thebes because he was the one causing its collapse. Reader can relate to this because we all are afraid of never making it in the position we want in society. Miller then goes into what I think is the most important part of his article, where he compares his definition to the modern one. The definition in the dictionary of tragedy was a "story with a sad ending." Miller argues there is more to it than that. He argues that tragedy can not take place unless victory is possible. The whole message of a tragedy is the hero determination to reach his pr her goal to fit in society. It reflects hope that a character has. The character will realize their tragic flaw, but by doing so even if the ending is sad, the story ends with a lesson that affects the reader in a positive way. It teaches them to realize their tragic flaw before it ultimately tears them down, it remind them that they have hope, and with determination they can reach their own position in society, just like these kings and noble people had tried to do. It reminds the common man, that just like these tragic kings, we have hope in finding what will make life a success. This perspective really was eye opening in away that it connects modern people with themes from the past. If we all compare ourselves to these kings, we learn that we must find our flaws and fight them in order to achieve our desired place in society. It reminds people to always strive to make themselves better so they do not gain respect just to have it all taken away from one tragic flaw. The main thing that says which I think is vital for the modern world, is to look at tragedy as a lesson, instead of just a sad story. Tragedy teaches us what not to do, be expressing how a hero lost everything. If we take the lessons from tragedy, we can avoid a tragic life of our own. In Alain de Button's TED talk, he describes what it is like to find success in today's world. He explains how society teaches us what success is, and tells us to chase it. Society also tells us that our life is in our control, and if it is good, then people should like you, and if it is bad, then it is all your fault and you are seen as a loser. He describes how unfair this is and gives a rather frightening statistic which says that suicide rates among developed countries are higher than anywhere else on earth! People are so caught up in what society tells them what success is, that if they do not fit into what society says is winning, they feel like worthless failures and some take their own lives. He explains how tragedy back in acient greece was used to study and undertand how people lose. It is usually when people lose respect or love, or life. he compares some old writings to new newspaper headlines and explains how todays world reacts when they hear about Oedipus. The news paper siad "Sex with mum was blinding". This shows how we laugh at a loser instead of understanding how he lost. we do not care enough to study or think for ourselves to prevent tragedy, instead we laugh at each others tragedy, until it happens to us. The main take away that I have found is that, in order to have success, you must know what you are chasing after, and what you will lose to capture that success. I think that this is immensely important, in order for a person to have inner peace.
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AuthorJustin is a high school student, currently enrolled in AP literature. ArchivesCategories |