Chrissy

The narrative by Mr. Oswald P. Bronson relates to Grant Wiggins from A Lesson Before Dying. The narrative talks about how school teachers were well respected and recognized. The teachers were strict, impressive, and taught the students obedience. This reminds me of Grant because he was tough on his students and didn’t let them step out of line. He was also sought out by Miss Emma to talk to Jefferson because he is educated. I think that Grant is respected in his community because he has been to college and has taken up the career of an educator.

I watched the modern version of Romeo and Juliet with Leo Dio. I liked it but it definately wasn’t what I expected. It was set in a really big, modern city but they used shakespearan language. I was actually really impressed at how well the director managed to blend the modern setting and the plot, which wouldn’t necessarily happen in modern times. There is a huge fight at the beginning of the play that takes place at a gas station. Someone gets murdered and the gas station ends up in flames, and the Capulets and Montaques who were responsible for the damage didn’t really get punished. There were some scenes like that which didn’t really make sense, but overall I thought the movie was good. It was fun to watch and easy to follow. I think it was a good adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s plays.

Of the three adaptations of Macbeth that we’ve seen or read, I liked The Throne of Blood the best. uMbatha wasn’t anything special and I thought Travesties was kind of dumb. I guess it was clever how all the lines in the play were rewritten and arranged to make it funny instead of dark and gloomy, but it takes away from the quality of the play. I liked The Throne of Blood the best because considering how long ago the movie was made and that it was in a different language, I could still clearly follow the plot and make connections to the real play. The director also changed the storyline a bit to make everything fit into Japanese culture. I think the biggest changes occurred during the second half of the movie when the director chose to emit a Macduff character. In the play, Macduff was a significant character whose sufferings helped portray how fully Macbeth terrorized the land while he ruled. He was also the character who ended up killing Macbeth. Then instead of the Macbeth character dying at the hands of an enemy army, he was killed by his own soldiers. This was definitely a twist from the original version of the play. I suppose it’s not at as meaningful that was he wasn’t killed by one specific individual, but this type of ending added a different type of meaning. It showed that the Macbeth character was so despised and unsupported even his own army wanted him dead. I think The Throne of Death followed the plot of Macbeth well, but had a few twists that made it unique and interesting to watch.

I think that The Kite Runner was definately worth reading. I know I had highs and lows throughout the whole thing but in the end I think it was worth it. It wasn’t boring and definately didn’t have a disappointing ending, so I have to admit that I liked it. I think the ending was probably my favorite part of the book. It was a simple scene with Amir and his nephew, Hassan’s son Sohrab, flying a kite together just like Amir and Hassan used to do as children. Amir was finally at peace with the memory of Hassan and what he did to hurt him, and he’d paid Hassan’s memory a lasting favor by taking in his orphaned son. While this story did form throughout the steady crumble of Afghanistan, I don’t really think the book is centered around that bit of history. I think it’s mostly about how Amir made a big mistake as a child, and it haunted him his entire life. He suffered with the guilt of what he did because he had a conscious, he had virtues, and was a good person despite what he did. In the end, he faces his mistake and performs an incredible act of bravery and good. He finally felt redeemed and at peace. A line often repeated in this book is “There’s a way to be good again”. I think that’s the message I’ll take away from this book. No matter how badly you mess up, if you care it’s never too late to be good again. What I’m most curious about now is where the author got the inspiration to write this book. The plot is really creative and at the same time easy to believe. There were times when I felt convinced it was a completely true story. I wonder what gave Khaled Hosseini all those ideas.