“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge was my favorite piece of literature this semester. I liked it because of the imagery and creativity throughout the poem. Also, it was sort of a thriller and kind of scary which captivated me and kept me reading on through to the end. I also listened to a recording of the poem being read aloud, which gave it an even more ghost-story kind of feel when listening and following along in the text. I also liked how there was a moral to the story. In the poem, the ancient mariner is cursed to tell his tale for eternity as a result of killing an albatross for no justifiable reason except that he was bored. The mariner and the entire crew on the ship are punished: the crew by death and the mariner by eternal life. The mariner’s punishment is worse because he will forever have the blood of the crewmen on his hands and will relive the moment he betrayed the albatross when he tells his tale.

 

 

Literature

This may sound corny, geeky, or just plain uncool, but I cannot think of a piece of literature that I wished I never would have read. Each piece of literature have given different angles of perspective from which I’ve learned so much. Of course, there are some mind-benders that our teacher helps unlock. The most difficult piece of literature to wrap my head around was Emily Dickinson’s XLIII poem, The Brain; no pun intended. And when reading “The Metamorphosis,” there were details I didn’t pick up on when I first read this short story. However, when we reviewed the story in class, our teach pointed out and explained the details then suddenly it all made sense. She unraveled the deeper meaning within the story.

 

Deadly Showers

My reaction to the short-story, “This way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen,” was of utter disbelief and sorrow. It made me feel terrible thinking about what those people went through and what some of them had to do in order to survive. The fact that there were people capable of causing such astringent cruelties to others was astounding, yet not surprising given then recent events happening around the world. Although another mass extermination has not occurred, the preposterous shootings, bombings, and killings do demonstrate the grotesquely evil potential of human beings. I believe it is very possible for people to turn on other people in the United States. Given a mob-mentality to any group, that group’s ideology becomes clouded and misconstrued. A mob could be rallied against policemen, but is the “victim” ever questioned? What were they doing in a place they don’t belong and why in the world do they not obey orders given? That rise to suspicion? The same point could be argued vice versa. What was the police officer doing in that particular area and did that officer use such excessive force? Are the officers corrupt or correct? Are the victims innocent or instigating?

 

 

WWII / Auschwitz

I do not know much about the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. The only thing I do know is that they were bad and that it involved a forced incarceration of labor and/or eventual death of the Jewish peoples. The most exposure I’ve gotten with regards to how truly awful the events were, of having to go through all that torture, humiliation, and loss was in class when we watched some survivors speak on their experiences in Auschwitz.

The severity of the cruelty that went on is outright wrong on several levels. It is a wonder why the people, as a whole, did not revolt against this awful genocide. Moreover, how were the human beings that were inflicting such violence and murder upon hundreds of thousands of innocent people able to carry out an order to torture and kill other human beings, even though those people have caused them no harm.