Ashley's Lit Blog

The Best Class Blogger i have read this term would be.... If i were to be frank, i think my answer might be a little unfair seeing as i have not read some peoples blog Posts. However, i have been on some and commented on most. But i cannot say that i have read everyone's Blog posts this semester. Unfortunately my opinions would only therefore be based on those who i have had an opportunity this Semester to Visit their blog sites and make comments on their blogs. Some once and others more than once.  Now from those whose Blogs i have read and commented on, i would say Isaiah Williams has the best blog i have read this semester. I chose him because in each of his blog posts in he went into detail and provided reasons for why he wrote about a topic or why he was in support of something. For instance in his Post 19, he talks about Dante's hell and goes on to support his belief by saying, " We still acknowledge that punishment and suffering is necessary to deter evils, albei...

We have read so many stories this semester. I enjoyed some, some not so much. Some were really long and others nice and short. But if i had to choose one story i wouldn't mind repeating, that would be Rumi's love Poems. For both Research documents we did for this class, i choose to use The Wife of Bath's Tale because  i found the main character to be very interesting and almost refreshing to read about. But i would not want to reread this story. Call it cheesy! but the poems have been my favorites to read this semester, most especially Rumi's. Well apart from the obvious fact that he wrote love poems. Rumi writes in such a provocative and Mysterious way that gives the reader a chance to interpret and define so many of his poems in their own way. His poems give us a a description of what it is like to feel so Alive and in love. And the same time telling the reader to go out and have those experiences for yourself. Take for Instance, The Silence of Love, in which it say...

Dictionary.com defines a hero as someone who is noted for courageous acts or nobility of character: I do believe that Hamlet is more of a modern hero than an ancient epic hero. When we think about Ancient epic heroes such as Gilgamesh, Hercules, Achilles and many others who might have had extraordinary super powers or even just very exemplary warriors. Unlike these characters Hamlet is just a Prince looking to avenge his fathers death. Unlike the Ancient Epic heroes, Hamlet behaves in the same manner many of us act today. Prior to him finding out from his fathers ghost that his uncle  Claudius killed him, Hamlet has the same type of relationship we see today with most children in families where a separation has happened. For example, though his uncle is now King and married to his mother. Hamlet shows his dissatisfaction with how quickly after his death their union happened and makes this known by saying :  "...That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it ...

Throughout the entire semester we have read some really amazing stories and poems. From The Wife of Bath who brings a whole new meaning to the word Feminist, Gilgamesh King of Uruk and  brave warrior, Poets like Rumi who write the most mind blowing love poems or even Li Po whose use of imagery in his writing brings every poem to life. When we read Shakespeare's Hamlet Prince of Denmark ,  i tried to think of what other character from any of the stories we have read this semester has some similarities to him. That Character would be Oedipus  from  Sophocles'  Oedipus The King . The first and the most obvious similarity between Hamlet and Oedipus  is that both characters are part of a royal family. Oedipus is the King of Thebes and Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark. We start to see more similarities when we look at the motives that led up to the tragic endings in both stories.  Both characters are fueled by the lost of their fathers and on a quest to find...

Thomas More's Story Utopia stands for  nowhere or no place  when translated.   The perfect Society! But can the United States be compared to Utopia? Many have seen it as a criticism of Contemporary European Society. But Utopia was also seen as the perfect society, something which would and can never happen because perfection in an entire country is not so easily achieved. Though most things might not be realistic,some are more or less true in the United States today. For example in Utopia it says those "who were of the nobility of their country, were in cloth-of-gold, and adorned with massy chains, earrings and rings of gold; their caps were covered with bracelets set full of pearls and other gems—in a word, they were set out with all those things that among the Utopians were either the badges of slavery, the marks of infamy, or the playthings of children. It was not unpleasant to see, on the one side, how they looked big, when they compared their rich habits with the p...

In Machiavelli's  The Prince  he talks about what it takes to be the ideal ruler. From the Elections to now, i would say that based on Machiavelli's teachings Trump has not been a good leader. According to Machiavelli, "the prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches." (252) Since being Elected president Trump has not done anything to make the people not hate or find him contemptible. He has also equally failed i fulfilling any of the promises he made prior to him taking over  as president of the United States. Apart from not coming through on any of his promises, President Trump has also been known to have a deeply misogynistic attitude. His vulgar, rude and insulting comments about women go against everything Machiavelli talked about. As a leader, "It make...

Don't touch my hair is a song by Solange Knowles. The song can be seen as an Ode to Black girls. A very significant verse of the song goes as follows : Don't touch my hair When it's the feelings I wear Don't touch my soul When it's the rhythm I know Don't touch my crown They say the vision I've found Don't touch what's there When it's the feelings I wear  Solange lays out these rules and speaks for many Black people when they say they want to be left alone and BE. The song is very empowering especially for those black girls who have learned or are just learning to embrace their natural hair. The song represents a journey to self-acceptance of one's hair and understanding that you're beautiful in the strands that you wear. It is your hair, it's the rhythm you know, your soul and your crown. Not something for people to marvel at because it doesn't fall under the eurocentric ideals of beauty. We didn’t come so far f...

They Say Beauty, Lies in the eyes of the beholder. Don't' wear Makeup. Why doesn't she have on makeup? Don't dress too Provocatively. WOW! she's so plain. Don't be too Loud, be more competitive but not too much Be thin but not too thin. Have perfect skin, Clean nails and white teeth. And above all always smile. The world created Perfection to make us feel more imperfect. But when I stopped and looked around. I saw the Imperfections with what was expected, and saw the beauty in Myself. So many have succeeded in having it all, but what's the point when you don't know how to love yourself. it is never a selfish thing to love oneself. In a world full of Kardashians, there is So much beauty in being you.

Should Socrates be in hell? In the Divine Comedy every sin has its own circle. In the First Circle, Limbo reserved for Pagans and the unbaptized. Many of the shades in Limbo are not really sinners, but people who were born before Christ, "and if they were before Christianity, in the right manner they adored not God..."(72) and had no opportunity to choose between good and evil. These virtuous pagans live forever in a place of their creation.They lived by wisdom, philosophy and thought, not religion. In the Apology when describing what he thinks death would be like Socrates says, "I will tell you: what has befallen me appears to be a blessing... for to die is one of two things: for either the dead may be annihilated, and have no sensation of anything whatsoever; or, as it is said, there are a certain change and passage of the soul from one place to another.And if it is a privation of all sensation, as it were a sleep in which the sleeper had no dream, death would be...