Oedipus

1. Why do you think it is that the oracles choose to only release partial information when asked a direct question? This occurs when Kreon goes to the oracle to find out how to end the city's plague (1221) and when Teiresias is asked to reveal the murderer (1227).

2. If Teiresias knows all truth then why didn't he answer the Sphinx's riddle rather than wait while the citizens of Thebes died?

These are two of my questions from the first reading of Oedipus and I don't think I ever had them fully answered in the way I would have liked. In my group the main conclusion was that the oracles wanted to limit the information they released in order to prevent him from changing the course of events that were part of his fate. I don't feel that this reason is accurate because at the beginning of the novel the oracle revealed that the son of the king and queen would murder his father and sleep with his mother. This caused the couple to pin the ankles of their newborn and to send him out into the countryside to die. They were making an effort to change this prediction, but were unsuccessful. Why didn't the oracle tell them that they would make this attempt and fail? It was fate that Oedipus met his father on the road to Thebes and committed murder. It was fate that he solved the riddle of the Sphyinx and became the king. I don't believe that they were ever given choice in any matters of their life. Every move they made was part of the gods' plan for them. So why didn't the oracles just tell them everything? It was selfish on their part not to and I think the only reason they didn't disclose all information is because with full information given to all characters, the play would be pointless.

Thesis Statements

         I believe that thesis statements are the hardest part of any essay. I'm not good at introducing a topic and then summarizing the entire essay in one sentence. It scares me knowing that this sentence is the basis of my entire paper and the idea that I must support throughout each paragraph. This sentence helps structure the rest of the essay, giving the reader an idea of what argument is going to be answered and how each paragraph will be structured. When there is more than one idea in the thesis then it is safe to assume that I’ll be dividing the paragraphs by each idea.

         If I'm given a prompt then I don't want to copy it completely for my thesis, but at the same time I want my thesis to relate back to the question being asked. It is so important to be original, especially on the AP test where everyone is given the same prompts to answer. If the reader reads a thesis that is relatively the same multiples times then they are probably going to be bored once they reach your essay. However, figuring out a balance between copying and being off topic is hard for me to do most of the time. If my thesis ends up being off topic then my entire essay is ruined and won't address any part of the prompt. So much rides on one small grouping of words. 

I found this link helpful in explaining how thesis statements should be written:

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml 

The Bonesetter's Daughter

This past weekend I started reading my second outside reading book, The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan. Ruth's mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the book, the same disease I have been studying in my research lab at the University of Kentucky. I have only seen the research component of the disease, never the effect that it has on families that have a relative suffering from Alzheimer's. I value the memories I possess and the people that are part of my life. I can't imagine what it would be like to gradually forget these things. Ruth's mother makes the decision to record her previous life, long before the disease wipes her memory, creating a blank page in her brain. Her story outlines how she became the mother and sister that she currently is to Ruth and Gaoling. It goes back to her origin as a baby, born out of wedlock after her father is killed on the wedding day of her parents. Her father’s family takes the mother and child in to their home after Ruth’s mother agrees to allow the oldest sister in the family to claim Ruth as their own. The families in China at the time seem to care just as much about their perceived appearance as families today in the United States. A lot of people find their worth in money, while in China they find their identity in their family pride. In the United States it has become acceptable to have a child with a man that isn’t your husband. In fact, there are many teenage pregnancies and the media has sought to glamorize this situation, but in China it is an embarrassment. It is interesting to see the differences in culture while reading the book.

Existentialism and Selfishness

Existentialism (noun): a modern philosophical movement stressing the importance of personal experience and responsibility and the demands that they make on the individual, who is seen as a free agent in a deterministic and seemingly meaningless universe.

Existentialism isn't a topic that I enjoy discussing in class. I agree with parts of both essentialism and existentialism, but I don't believe that either should be able to stand alone as a school of thought. God put us on this Earth with the freedom to make our own choices, along with the freedom of whether or not to agree with and follow Him. He knows exactly what I will do with these choices and already knows my story even if I don't myself. It is because of my faith that I completely disagree that all human beings are selfish in their actions. The camp I mentioned in class was a Young Life camp, a non-denominational Christian organization that I have been a part of since my eighth grade year of middle school. I have absolutely no idea what compelled me to apply for a position on Work Crew, but I did. I spent one month away from my friends and family, folding the same sheets, towels, and table linens every day for approximately 8 hours. There were days when I would break down crying because I hated my job more than anything, but I continued on because I had made a commitment and I wanted to make the camp experience enjoyable for all of the campers. How can you tell me I'm selfish in making myself miserable while working for others with no pay? Also, I was part of a medical mission trip to Ecuador this summer where I had no contact with anyone within the United States for ten days. My mom signed me up for this trip and I was given the task of helping in the pharmacy by filling and translating prescriptions. I couldn't flush anything down the toilets, I took ice cold showers daily, and I dealt with the awful smell that surrounded me all hours of the day. Yes, I am selfish a lot of the time, but that doesn't mean all of my actions are selfish. I didn't do either of the activities this summer to benefit myself. I did them so that someone else could benefit.