Thinking outside the box.

"Hell is other people." 

Think about the place you have chosen as your hell. Does it look ordinary and bourgeois, like Sartre's drawing room, or is it equipped with literal instruments of torture like Dante's Inferno? Can the mind be in hell in a beautiful place? Is there a way to find peace in a hellish physical environment?

My hell would be somewhat a mixture of both ordinary and torturous. Though I like to consider myself exempt of showing it, there are two things I fear greatly; failure and loneliness. My hell would be similar to a small white room. No windows or door, no ability to grow and transcend. The only thing this room would contain is a television stuck on replay. It would play nothing but my past mistakes and failures. The room would be so small that I would be unable to escape, having to consistently watch my self fail time and time again. Voices would echo throughout the room but none of them would be able to hear me. I'd be all alone, no source of comfort or refuge. Forever confined to isolation and failure until the day I died. It's ordinary because my hell is so simple but torturous due to the amount of pain it would inflict on me, having to endure it every single day with no sense of relief. I suppose you could say that the mind could be hell in a beautiful place considering that hell is different for everyone. "The mind is a beautiful place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." (John Milton). We go through day to day life thinking that certain things are hellish and unbearable and never stop to look at the beauty in every struggle. Every struggle makes us stronger regardless of how weak we may feel at the moment. I feel like their is peace in a hellish physical environment depending on the extremity of the hell. For example, let's say someone's version of hell would be having to work out and diet almost all day every day. Physically, their body is going to feel like they are being tortured, but once they find a way to escape this hell, won't they have come out stronger? Not only would they be physically conditioned but mentally as well. Learning to endure and press through the pain of physical and mental beings is a very valuable when it comes to overcoming a challenge.


Could hell be described as too much of anything without a break? Are variety, moderation and balance instruments we use to keep us from boiling in any inferno of excess,' whether it be cheesecake or ravenous sex?

Most definitely, too much of anything is considered to be dangerous, let alone compared to hell. There needs to be a balance in everything that one does. Some high school students like to describe finals week as a form of hell because they all know that they will be spending the previous week cramming and studying without proper breaks.If most students studied throughout the year in moderation, would studying for finals really be so bad? Eating massive amounts of cheesecake without time to regroup is something of the sort that would make someone never want to eat cheesecake again. Just as having excessive amounts of sex could tire or hurt a person to the point where just the mere though of it would be pure torture. Keeping a balance and variety is what keeps us sane. If you keep a pot of water over a burning flame, would it not too burn into nonexistence?

How does Sartre create a sense of place through dialogue? Can you imagine what it feels like to stay awake all the time with the lights on with no hope of leaving a specific place? How does GARCIN react to this hell? How could you twist your daily activities around so that everyday habits become hell? Is there a pattern of circumstances that reinforces the experience of hell?

The dialogue is somewhat descriptive, it gives a sense of setting when Garcin and the Valet talk about the room and what it's like to stay in it. It actually sounds somewhat similar to my hell, no escape. Though the staying awake part sounds quite dreadful, my imagination on being confined is very colorful. Garcin reacts much better than I would. At least he managed to calm down. I can honestly say my life is already curbing to into hell. I'm home alone quite frequently and a majority of my friends live in different regions of California. I have a car but nowhere to go, I'm confined in a box with no exit. Though being in school for the entire day would also be considered hellish on my part, I cannot sleep or roam in my box freely when I'm at school. Repetition reinforces hell. Without change we can not develop and without development we are stuck.

Lit Project

Group Etherpad link.

Be sure to create an oovoo guys !

I'll create the Prezi soon.


~Jasmine.

Allegory of the Sonnet

Dear Darkness, you've been there with me from the start

Your glorious shadows dance forever within my heart;

Your presence always suffocates this room

That your gloomy atmosphere tends to consume.

But lately your presence has begun to fade

After the bright Light had entered and left you dismayed.

This bright Light pains me so

Oh sweet Darkness, where did you go?

You raised and brought me to life

But your new found absence has caused us strife.

Dear Darkness, The Light wasn't so bad in the end

Since our meeting, Light has enabled me to transcend

I'm sad to tell you that this is our goodbye

The Light has taught me new things like the birds, the bees and the sky.

1. The Allegory of the Cave represents humans inability to comprehend and believe what they can't see.

2. The shadows and the fire were key elements of he imagery used. The fire represented enlightenment and understanding while the darkness represented the doubt that prevents us from understanding the unknown.

3. The Allegory shows how difficult it can be for people to feel comfortable accepting and believing in the unknown.  Enlightenment shines light or "sun" unto those whose thoughts are clouded by the shadows and allows them to believe in things they can't fully comprehend.

4. The prisoners are confined to the cave and prevented from expanding their mental horizons. All of the prisoners are incapable of understanding anything but the cave. Even their fellow freed prisoners could not convince them of the world waiting around them.

5. Failure. I really am my biggest enemy. I allow my fear of failure to cloud my mind and prevent myself from achieving all that I am capable of.  It's not over until I say it's over but once I convince myself that I can't do anything, the outcome has already been decided.

6. The freed prisoners are open minded and overjoyed while the cave prisoners remain narrow minded and pained.

7. Intellectual confusion and lack of clarity can occur from "too much or too little light". In other words, knowing too much or not understanding enough.

8. The prisoners are typically freed by outsiders of the cave. By working with the prisoners, they are able to free them from the cave . (Interdependence)

9.  There is a distinction between reality and appearance. Looks can be deceiving and lead us from the truth.

10.

To speak, or Not to speak. (Hamlet Remix)

Apologies for some of the video defects. The video had played differently on my computer and had changed when uploaded onto my blog/youtube.

The quote at the end is "If you have nothing positive to say, don't say it at all."

Hamlet Essay

Everyone can talk the talk, but it takes a true individual to walk to walk. Hamlet was all talk and no walk. In the end, all his talk lead him to talk straight to the grave. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." (Ephesians 4:29). Words are powerful tools that influence and predict future actions. The way we speak and what we speak of, they're all important factors of action.  Actions are for but the moment, word's will carry on for a lifetime. It's important to be aware of what we say and pay attention to the way we announce it. As individuals, we have the ability to speak life and death unto others. We each posses a powerful gift that can allow us to speak blessing or curses unto those around us but tend to forget that we get what we give. Throughout the play Hamlet only speaks of death and negativity . He remains skeptical and unpleasant from the moment he is introduced to the audience.  Hamlet's character remains mentally corrupt throughout the play, speaking in a tone of hate and disgust from the moment we meet him. The bible states that the tongue is sharper than a two edged sword. It's ability to destroy is more painful that any weapon. This being said, Hamlet was his own poison. Harsh words and vengeful thoughts not only killed those around him but they also caused the final blow that ended his life.

Words are weapons, they are intended to protect but in the wrong hands they often destroy. Hamlet used words as a defense mechanism.  Standing up for himself and what appears to be his fathers honor, Hamlet single-handedly  manages to corrupt the palace. After analyzing the play I came to realize the cause of every ones death was Hamlet. Once he had spoken everything began to descend.  "O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself to dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!" In Hamlets first soliloquy, Act I Scene II, he debates whether or not to kill himself. Though he does not act these claims out, they are the beginning to the train wrecked tragedy that is Hamlet. 

Think about it. The tragedy all starts with a few words. Hamlet claims that he will kill Claudius for murdering his father, he soon creates a play to expose Claudius for the swine he is. Once Claudius has been exposed, Hamlet soon confronts his mother which then transcends to Hamlet killing Polonius. Ophelia then commits suicide due to the melancholy of losing her father and Rozencratz and Guildenstern are killed in Paris. Hamlet then returns home bearing more negative words that lead to the death of Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius and Hamlet himself. The entire tragedy was caused because Hamlet didn't know the power of words and how they can affect the life of others as well are himself. By allowing his self-overhearing to remain negative, his negativity soon landed on those surrounding him and caused them to suffer as well. Though the results of Hamlets negativity we're a bit extreme, we all suffer or have suffered the same problem. As a student, it's common to being to doubt myself in my work. The more I doubt my abilities, the more realistic my doubts become. While learning To be, or not to be, I began to doubt whether I could memorize it in time and recite it as well as my peers. It soon became difficult to memorize what I was reading and I keep mispronouncing and stuttering my words. I got to the point where I became unable to progress. My frustration soon began to frustrate others and they too began to face difficulties. 

Words are the gateway to actions. If misused and abused, the words go from letters on paper to problems in reality. We cannot achieve our goals and reach for great things if we don't have the mindset for it. Hamlet's words were driven by death instead of life, now he's dead and so are his loved ones. Had Hamlet been more positive, his story would have ended differently. Hamlet had a theme and an important message hidden within the text. that expressed the importance on the way we speak. We must strive to keep positive and ensure that our self-overhearing is encouraging us to live better. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." (Ephesians 4:29).