Persi's Blog

    In ELA, we talked about the Hero's Journey, a common cycle seen in many books and stories. One detail we did not go over as much happens at the end of the journey. The purpose of a hero's journey is to get to achieve something in the end. Maybe it's a cure for their little sister(The Last Book in the Universe). Or winning a fatal competition(The Hunger Games). In the Odyssey, I believe that what Odysseus is hoping to get back is his wife, Penelope. During the course of his journey, he is reminded of her and this spurs him onwards towards home. Rather than become rich or famous, Odysseus just wants to get back home and see his wife once more. Pretty romantic guy.

       When Penelope asks Odysseus' old nurse Eurycleia, to wash his feet, Odysseus becomes extremely nervous. He knows that as Eurycleia is his old nurse, she will recognize an old scar that his has above his knee. Of course, he is correct in assuming this, and once Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus, she becomes joyful at having found her old charge again. But he doesn't seem as happy to see her. Penelope is in the room at the time, although she has been distracted by Athena and does not notice the exchange. The nurse tries to explain to her who the old beggar truly is, until he grabs her around the neck. "Do you want to destroy me?" he asks.        Odysseus needs to disguise his identity so that he can both find those who are disloyal, and so that he will be able to rid his home of the suitors. In order to make sure those who know his true identity do not slip up, he uses force to scare them into keeping quiet. It's a wise tactic, and Odysseus is c...

Throughout life we are constantly learning new things. Education is about gaining necessary knowledge so that we better understand our surroundings. As people gain more knowledge, they become more aware of their realities. If slaves gained knowledge through education, they would be able to voice how they felt, and be better able to express their realities to others. They were generally kept from becoming literate, and had little to no education so that they would not think of escaping. I also think they were kept from having proper educations as a way to be separated from their masters. It would be similar to how we teach our pets a few tricks, but do not teach them more complicated tricks as they could escape more easily. All in all, true freedom is hard to come by, as is true knowledge.

One of the biggest reasons for the harsh punishments that slaves endured over minor offences was that their masters were trying to keep them under their control. Slaves were very cut off-they were not allowed to read or write. They were also sometimes separated from their families at young ages. As slaves are free-minded, free-willed people, there is always the possibility that they would rebel. The whole point of this was to keep them from rebelling. And if a slave did something majorly against the rules, they were punished even more severely to ensure that it would not happen again. The slave masters thought that if they used harsh punishments for even the most simple things, then the slaves would not want to step out of line again.

     Out of all the poems that we have read so far, my favorite was Monologue for an Onion by Suji Kwok Kim. Almost the entire poem was an example of figurative language, each stanza with its own underlining meaning. The poem focuses on the point of view from an onion, which is something you don't really see in poetry very much. I really liked the way the author used an inanimate object-the onion-to voice strong emotions. She compares the many skins of an onion to herself, saying that she is only made up of layer upon layer, with no center. Speaking directly to the reader-she explains that we can never get to her heart. Through cutting the onion, we are getting nowhere, although the tears we shed seem to be proof enough to us that we should continue. Overall, I think the author did an amazing job of portraying the onion as herself and the words she used to go through with this idea were just right.

    Today the IHSS class went on a field trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, specifically to visit the Out of the Amazon exhibit. the displays focused on telling the story of 13 tribes, showcasing headdresses, clothing, and woodwork among other artifacts. The biggest amount of artifacts were the ceremonial headdresses which were mostly made of bird’s feathers and only used once. Many of the other pieces focused on animals: peccaries, bees, bats, tarantulas, scorpions, monkeys, bullet and fire ants, and jaguars, to name a few.     Overall, I thought the exhibit was well done and respectful of the people whose culture was being showcased. All of the artifacts in the exhibit were used once by the people of the tribes and then given to the museum, because the tribespeople believe that after the first time they use a religious object, it loses it’s powers. There are countless dangers when living in the Amazon. Most of the tribes are vegetarian, relying heavi...

    Prompt;  What is the difference between the speaker of the poem and the poet, and why is it important to understand the distinction?       Everyone reads the underlying messages of poetry differently and, in doing so, takes away different meanings from it. The original author starts with a set opinion of the meaning of their writing, but as it is read by others, or speakers, it's meanings can change and grow. Similar to how a tree starts off as a seed and grows more and more branches until it has become a tree, and even then, it continues to grow.       The poet’s work is like a piano piece, the words are set, and can be changed and modified, and it is up to the speaker to say the poem the way they want to. A piano piece is always played a different way unless it's recorded, just like a poem. The speaker can evoke and put whatever emotions they wish to into their reading, while a poet has already put emotions that may n...