Saturday, February 9, 2013

Response to Course Material #6

     First blog post as a second semester senior! I recently looked through all my blog posts and it's actually very helpful. We've covered so many things, and if it wasn't for the blogs... It's impossible for me to remember all of them because we barely take notes in class. Anyhow, it's second semester, and we've started a new play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and continued with more practice on MC questions.
     When reading Hamlet, I just saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as a pair of betrayers; nothing more, nothing less. However, after reading through almost half of this new play, it's really childish, but I see them as the pair of two bad guys in Disney movies or cartoons. You know, one really lanky man and one short clumsy chubby guy who tries to do as they are told from a person of high authority, but ends up screwing everything up because they just don't have common sense. I understand that this play is absurdist with repetitions and no one having a clue what they're saying, but at the same time consists of a deeper meaning behind. However, this one is extra hard to grasp. It could be because we haven't finished reading it. Something I do like about this play would be the witty and sarcastic remarks between the characters. It's really funny and their double meanings are a bit more obvious than in Hamlet. I guess i'll have to read to the end to actually analyze the real Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
     Multiple choice practices make me feel comfortable while answering, but completely throws me off with the number of questions I incorrectly answered. I sometimes feel that if I studied and used more challenging vocabulary, it would become easier... but that's only to a limit. I find myself easily grasping the meaning "around" the concept, but definitely not to the core. The advice I found to be most helpful was to think in the point of view of the person who wrote the questions and answers. That kind of helps me throw out the illogical answers. That doesn't work all the time though, so I'm trying to look for other ways. Overall, the play and MC questions are a good way to challenge myself and test my abilities.

3 comments:

  1. Hey Gloria!
    I am glad I am not the only one who needed a little refresher course on the stuff from the beginning of the year and that the blog posts helped you remember! That's a hilarious take of R and G, but did the movie change how you viewed them in your head? The movie definetly added some definition to them since I could never tell them apart before.... :P haha I am the same way with MC stuff, "If only I had the will power to actively expand my vocabulary." :)

    Keep up the good work!

    Erin Donahue

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  2. I agree that the blog posts are very helpful when trying to summarize what we've learned this year, I think the summary/analysis posts are especially helpful because it helps me remember the plot and important elements. Moving on to R&G I really like the image that you created and I think it describes them well. Reading this book has really changed my view of them, because in Hamlet I also saw them as evil characters who just betrayed their childhood friend. Did you see any similarities between characters in Hamlet, characters in R&G are Dead, and characters from our past readings? I have the same issue as you do with multiple choice, and I think it happens because the passages have a variety of meanings. I think doing more MC practices will help all of us feel more comfortable of our abilities. Overall this was a thorough and well thought out post, great job!

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  3. I really like how this is organized. It makes it a lot easier to read when there isn't one big, daunting paragraph. This will really help you later on when you try and study from these!

    Good work!

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