Bryan Rooke

Ms. Sweezey

Pre-AP English

13 February 2013

      In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the reader is introduced to a character named Sir Toby who seems to only drink and sing as well as causing problems to or with other characters. Though this seems like a minor role, Sir Toby helps drive the plot by helping the love triangle between Olivia, Orsino and Viola move forward.

      From reading Twelfth Night, one learns that Sir Toby is a very merry person who enjoys drinking and singing, as well as being free-spirited. This is one of the major reasons why I chose Sir Toby because he is a man who takes the time to stop and smell the flowers and enjoy life. The other characters in the novel are more focused on trying to win over their true love. Though Sir Toby enjoys life to its fullest, he is an alcoholic. It is to the point that Sir Toby makes ridiculous arguments to stay up drinking, “To be up after midnight, and to go to bed then, is early; so that to go to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes,”(Shakespeare 74). From this one can see that Sir Toby would rather stay up late drinking wine instead of getting some sleep, “Come, come; I’ll go burn some sack; ‘tis too late to go to bed now. Come, knight; come knight,” (Shakespeare 88).

      Though Sir Toby is an alcoholic, he does have a relation to other characters and plays an important role in the novel. Sir Toby is the uncle of Olivia, who is part of the main love triangle. He is visiting her in order to comfort her because she is in mourning due to her brother’s recent death. This is the second reason why I chose Sir Toby because while his niece is very depressed and saddened by her brother’s death, Sir Toby is drinking, laughing, and overall acting the opposite way than Olivia is. Thus, Sir Toby makes the story more interesting because he provides a counterpart to the main plot since Olivia is in mourning, Orsino is depressed Olivia does not love him, and Viola is upset Orsino does not love her. Actually, while the three main characters are upset and sad, Sir Toby is laughing, singing, and partying, “But shall we make the welkin dance indeed? Shall we rouse the night-owl in a catch that will draw three souls out of one weaver?” (Shakespeare 78). As one can see, Sir Toby wishes to sing a catch, which is a certain type of song, so loud, that it will raise the roof and wake owls, which is the exact opposite that Olivia would want to do.

      Lastly, Sir Toby plays a role in moving the main plot forward. Not only is Sir Toby related to Olivia, but he is also friends with Sir Andrew and Maria. This sort of friendship helped create the plot to make Malvolio, a servant to Olivia, look like a fool, “He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt drop, that they come from my niece, and she’s in love with him,” (Shakespeare 86). As shown, Sir Toby is participating in a practical joke that involves making Malvolio believe Olivia is in love with him, even though she is mourning and she denies being in the presence of men. Without Sir Toby taking part in the joke toward Malvolio, the plot would not go on in the same direction.

I am posting my new years resolution here just in case my reply does not show up.

      My new years resolution is to try and make it to regionals in tennis. I have made a workout plan to go to the gym everyday. I will obviously play tennis, then do twenty pull ups and twenty push ups. If I fail, then I will make myself run half a mile. If I do this for a week without failing, I will reward myself by doing half the usual amount on the weekends, giving myself more free time. If I make it to regionals, then I will reward myself with more tennis! If I do not make it, then I will double the normal amount of pull ups and push ups. I hope everyone else has resolution and I hope you all obtains it!

      The song I chose is Through the Fire and the Flames made by Dragonforce. I chose this song because after listening to the lyrics multiple times, I saw a deeper meaning. Though the lyrics talk about hell a lot, what it is really saying is that, no matter how many problems one faces when trying to reach a goal they need to keep fighting. It also talks about fighting through life and the hardships that a person goes through. We can see that they are talking about fighting for their dreams in these lyrics:

On the wings of a DREAM so Far beyond reality

      They have dream, but the dream looks to be too far away, to the point it is beyond reality. However, they work hard in order to reach this goal. There is also some allusions in the song. In the beginning, they say:

On a cold winter of morning,
In the time before the light.
In flames of death's eternal reign,
We ride towards the fight

      This is an allusion to the Army and their saying that they run towards the fight and the terror, even though they know they are going into a place where many have passed away. They make another allusion, but to America and its military:

I'll break the seal of this curse if I possibly can,
For freedom of every man

      The seal represents the evil that is in the world. They want to break the curse because it will bring freedom to every man, or in other words, they want to defeat the evil in the world so everyone can have freedom.

      Like most songs, Through the Fire and the Flames has a chorus, which can be seen as Anaphora, since they say the same thing over and over again. The way it is preformed helps to since this band plays metal music. This type of music helps make the lyrics more intense and meaningful since metal music is usually dark. If someone were to just read the lyrics, without any music playing, it would not make a lot of sense. Thus, to fully understand the meaning of the lyrics, the song must be played in the background; otherwise it would not be the same.

22 May 1789,

      It is official now, the Revolution against our King has commenced. Even Father has taken arms with our friends and has gone off to fight against King Louis XIV. Mother and I wish Father comes home in one piece, for life without him would be very hard. I am not sure whether or not I should help the Revolutionaries. I feel an obligation of some sort due to the fact Father is participating. If I help, hopefully this war will end sooner. However, if I help, the patrols in the town would surely find out and have me executed. This truly is a time of hardships and difficult decisions. Next week I will be the age needed to fight in the war, which seems like the best option. Life in a country split in two would be very hard, so if I go and help Father, our friends, and the rest of the Revolutionaries, maybe life could go back to what is was like before Louis XIV had declared war. 

      Fighting seems like he best option for me. Currently, Mother and I have just enough food to care for both of us, yet I can see the prices going up more. If I were to fight, I would get a good pay for it as well as a decent amount of food. As good as all this seems, my life would be put on the line everyday. I am not even sure if we can win against a King, let alone against the nobles. Such talk like that would be considered treason. In fact, yesterday I saw someone killed on the street because of saying something similar. I have to go and eat dinner, but before I go, I must write down the major question which is:

Will I join the revolutionaries in hopes of defeating King Louis XIV?

      If anyone is to read this while I am away, ask yourself the same question and debate whether or not you will fight for your country. I think I have my answer, but I will still ponder it for a couple days since signups end in 3 days. Maybe, just maybe, when I go to fight, I will able to see Father, and he will be very proud of me, for fighting for my country.

Revised Hero Comparison of Odysseus

      Most modern heroes have very similar qualities or characteristics to each other; They are smart, strong, handsome, and rich among other things. Overall, they posses their society's perfect traits. The ideal traits of the Greeks can be seen easily in the character Odysseus. Odysseus is smart, and always debates with himself of what decision is best for the situation. He is strong because he has long endured pain, sorrow, and sadness. He is also very rich, because he sacked the city of Troy, even before he wen to war, he already held a lot of money. Lastly, he is handsome because even the Goddess Calypso wishes to marry him. Odysseus however has flaws too. Since Odysseus is very smart and strong, he becomes cocky. When he becomes cocky, he causes his own demise. All of these traits can also be seen in many recent heroes, like the Avengers.

      In The Avengers, the main heroes are the Hulk, Ironman, Captain America, and Thor. All four of these heroes have some, if not all, of the traits listed above. The Hulk is strong, smart, when he is not angry, and handsome. The Hulk however, is not rich. In fact, he runs away for most of his life, going to poorer countries, like India and South America. Ironman has all four traits listed, and as well as Thor. Captain America is smart, strong, and handsome. However, like the Hulk, he is not rich. These traits relate to society because most people wish to have these traits and so this is reflected into the heroes. Though these traits have stayed the same over many years, heroes are beginning to change. Now, heroes have superpowers or use technology to fight crime. The Greeks did not believe in fighting crimes but instead focused on adventures and how the Gods played important roles. Recent heroes fight crime with technology(Batman) or with superpowers and the reader cheers them on. In the Greek society, the reader, or in this case the listener, would cheer on the hero as the hero faces many trials and enemies.
      As one can see, overtime, the main traits of heroes and movies have changed. In this case, the traits might have changed due to the fact that in The Avengers, there are multiple heroes. In The Batman series, Bruce Wayne has all of these traits but that is because he is the only hero whereas in The Avengers, there are four heroes. The paths that heroes undergo have changed as well. In ancient history, heroes went through many strange adventures. Modern heroes go through adventures, but not the same way. Modern heroes usually have to fight the villain that has escaped from jail, like Batman fighting the Joker. The adventure is the hero fighting evil, losing at first, learning something new about themselves after they lost the battle, and then having a major battle which decides the fate of the hero and the villain.
      It is evident that the journeys heroes now and in the past take are quite similar. Th only difference is that the evil, the final battle, and the mind changing experience for the hero, are now much larger, and therefore much easier to identify them. Odysseues is fighting evil all the time, surving from the God's wrath and constantly at war to not give up and to keep fighting to see his family. In conclusion the traits and events that occur in the hero and their journey have become more emphasized.

      Odysseus is portrayed by Homer to be a hero who is supposed to show the ideal characteristics of Homer's society. Odysseus shows that he is smart, sneaky, strong, and more through out his journey. However, he also shows his flaws when he barely escapes the cyclops. When they are sailing, Odysseus calls out to the cyclops and tells him Odysseus's true name, "Cyclops, if any mortal man ever asks you who it was that inflicted upon your eye this shameful blinding, tell him that you were blinded by Odysseus, sacker of cities(Homer 150). Here, Odysseus brought his own demise. When he told his true name to the cyclops, he became the only sailor/fighter left alive from his crew. With this, he also stalled his journey home by another eight to ten years.
      However, his other traits were able to keep him alive and help him get home. Through his strength, he was able to survive the attack done be Poseidon on his make-shift boat. He is smart because he always debates on which option is the best for that specific situation. he is sneaky because he was able to trick the cyclops and with that he was able to survive. I believe Odysseus is not an ideal hero because he gets many of his comrades killed on his trip from Troy. However, he can be seen as an ideal hero from the Greek perspective because of his traits, his hamartia, and him doing well in sports.

            Most modern heroes have very similar qualities or characteristics to each other. They are smart, strong, handsome, rich, and many more. Overall, they hold their societies perfect traits. These traits can be seen easily in the character Odysseus. Odysseus is smart by always debating with himself of what decision is best for the situation. He is strong because he has long endured pain, sorrow, and sadness. He is also very rich because he sacked Troy and even before he went to war, he already held a lot of money. Lastly, he is handsome because even the Goddess Calypso wishes to marry him. All of these traits can be seen in many recent movies, like the Avengers.

            In the Avengers, our main heroes are the Hulk, Ironman, Captain America, and Thor. All four of these heroes have some, if not all of the traits that were listed above. The hulk is strong, smart when not angry, and handsome. The Hulk however is not rich, in fact he runs away for most of his life, going to poorer countries, like India and South America. The Ironman has all four traits listed and Thor does as well. Captain America is smart, strong, and handsome. However, like the Hulk, he is not rich.

            As one can tell, overtime, the main traits of heroes in stories and in movies have changed. This, however, might just be that way because this movie has multiple heroes. A super hero who has all of these traits is Batman. Anyways, the paths heroes take have also taken a new form. Odysseus, from The Odyssey, goes on an adventure to find his way home. He leaves the island he was trapped on, makes it to shore, and begins his long journey home, making and staying at friends’ houses. Now, modern heroes always allow a villain to escape jail. The adventure is the hero fighting evil, losing at first, learning something new about themselves after they lost the battle, and then have a major battle that decides the fate of the villain and hero.

            In reality, we could see that the journeys our heroes take are quite similar. The only difference is that the evil, the final battle, and the mind changing experience for the hero, are now much larger, as in that it is much easier to identify them. Odysseus is fighting evil all the time, surviving from the God’s wrath and constantly at war to not give up and to keep fighting to see his family. So in total, heroes’ characteristics and traits have changed a little and the events in the journeys taken by them have become more emphasized.