1. Granted that Machiavelli’s own historical context is remote, how far does his pattern of contrasts between political ideals and concrete realities apply today?

One of the biggest thing to take from this is the use of fear as power. Being feared is what holds weight. This concept from Machiavelli, is still current today, all around us. Fear is a primary reason people do the things they do. A great example is the current gun debates going on today, there is a fear pitch on both sides. One side is using fear that having guns will cause more accidents and school shooting and so forth, meanwhile the other side of the debate, wants guns because the fear of not having guns and being vulnerable to many things. Fear is the root of the topic, just like with Machiavelli’s uses fear to employ power. That tactic is still widely used today in our government.

2. Sister Juana de la Cruz cuts off her hair to force herself to learn more quickly, although she knows that among young women, “the natural adornment of one’s hair is held in such high esteem.’ Finally, she enters the convent (where woman had their heads shorn). What other works have you read that emphasize the importance of a woman’s hair? Why does it seem to have so much symbolic value in such a range of cultures and times?

I am not too deeply versed in why the hair of woman is of such importance throughout history. However, I do know that in the bible in Corinthians I believe it mentions about woman having a lot of hair it is glorious (something along those lines). Also in Muslim culture, the women keep their hair covered, more so it wasn’t until the last twenty years ago, when women started cutting their hair really short. From what I understand, is a woman’s hair is very important and has a sexual image, which is why I believe they cover their hair in some places. Rapunzel is the only story I can really think of that has anything to do with a woman’s hair, where her hair used for a ladder, that doesn’t really have anything to do with this topic.

3. Bear in mind that the Aztec warrior’s highest duty is to bring home live captives for sacrifice. Give the Song for Admonishing a careful reading and decide–without researching the entire Cantares Mexicanos–what possible meaning might be assigned to the figurative terms “flower’ and “song.’

I believe that the song is being used a form of praise and prayer to the gods for battle and for the sacrifice of the captured. Flowers are possibly used for battle to represent power or how great of a warrior one is.

1. The Tenth Story of the Tenth Day: Why is Griselda being tested?

Griselda is being tested to prove her loyalty to her husband. He put her loyalty to test by pretending to divorce, kill their children and find a new wife. However, he realized that she stayed loyal through those test and realized that she was a good wife.

2. Compare the frame tales in the Decameron, and The Thousand and One Nights. In each case, what is the reason for telling stories? Do the stories accomplish the purpose for which they are intended? How important is the relationship between the tale and the teller?

In both tales the stories were used as a distraction. However, in The Thousand and One Nights the stories had a purpose of not only keeping the king from killing more woman, the stories were used to eventually change that person. In the Decameron the stories were being told to take their mind off of the plague that was going on around them, the stories were used as break from reality. To summarize the stories were used in The Thousand and One Nights to change stop the king, they weren’t intended to be stories being told for pleasure, in the Decameron they were used more for pleasure of the stories.

3. In Laustic, what does the nightingale symbolize? Explain your answer.

The nightingale symbolized love. Love between the wife and the best friend. Once the king captured and killed the nightingale it symbolized that the relationship through the windows with the best friend was no longer. However, when she sent him the small casket with the nightingale inside, it showed that she loved him and wanted him to know that.

During Dante’s journey through hell he received quite an eye opener. Through his journey, he saw the nine levels of hell. After seeing all of hell and the terrible punishments associated with each level, Dante realized that he must live his life now understanding that if he doesn’t live well or live according to God he will find himself in the place he just visited, Hell.

For me, I raised as a Christian, although I don’t follow as much as I should, it did provoke some thought for me. Before reading Dante, I never really thought about Hell in layers and there being different punishments for each one. None the less, it did make me think about how Dante must have felt after seeing all that, I tried to put myself in those shoes. I found myself thinking that, if I had taking that journey I would change a lot of things in my life.

1. How are we to understand Shahrayar’s madness? Does it make sense to you? That is, are male egos in macho societies that frail, or is his a special case?
Ok where do I start, trying to understand Shahryar’s madness is in my opinion, like trying to understand why people commit suicide. One can’t fathom the idea of committing suicide or murdering someone until they find themselves in the same struggle. So trying to understand Shahryar I don’t think is really something we can do until we have been there. However, does that struggle make it ok?

No, Shahryar’s actions were an act of evil and I no way ok, do they make sense? Yes, they the reason or motive is clear. Shahryar is a king someone in high statue, he gets his pride degraded, humiliated if you will. Of course that brought great anger. In those days women were inferior to man, and for a woman too betray him was extremely embarrassing, disrespectful and brought him great anger. Again do I think its ok, defiantly not but, the motive is clear and there is no mystery as to why he did what he did. When you degrade a man’s pride in this macho society it forces a prideful man to act with his ego. In fact I hold a great deal of respect for men and women who can maintain humility and self-control, when confronted with issues that deal with ego and pride.

2. Both the vizier and his daughter, Shahrazad, tell tales that surround their human characters with important animals, but the animals play different roles in the imaginative worlds of father and daughter. Compare and contrast the powers attributed to the animal world in The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey and The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife with those described in The Story of the Merchant and the Demon. How may these differences reflect the contrasting visions of gender relations so central to The Thousand and One Nights?

In the merchant and the demon story the gender is turned, it seems that the demon is a woman and the having the control and the power over the men. On the contrary, in the merchant and his wife the males have the power and animals and women are inferior. It shown because at first the male was manipulated by his wife, however after hearing from the rooster and the dog.

3. Do you believe the penalties suffered are appropriate to the sins committed in Dante’s Inferno? Why or why not?

This was very interesting because the penalties for the sins seemed very random. It seemed that the penalties weren’t specific to the sin. None the less, it also showed that some sin is worse or less bad than others. It was weird to see sin as a tier system. It makes me wonder if heaven is the same way. Tiers for how good of a person you were. Either way, I thought the penalties weren’t appropriate in the regard that the penalties were kind of random.

I think for someone to be a hero there doesn’t always have to be a journey. I do agree with our first lesson about the hero’s journey, I think that a hard journey and overcoming something makes you ‘also’ a hero. However, I think that even though Rama was a “perfect man’ he can still be a hero. My reasoning is that in order for someone to be a hero they have do something that that helps someone else in the end. An example would be maybe the X-men (any of the good ones). The X-men did nothing to earn any of the mutant powers, they just so happen to be born with them. Now some of them used their powers for fun, some for good and some used them for evil, but it’s the ones that used them to fight against the evil ones, are heroes. They are heroes because they used their ‘gifts’ or ‘powers’ to help protect humans they don’t even know. In my opinion that’s heroic. There for Rama can be heroic even though he didn’t follow the classic heroes journey. He was perfect and noble. I don’t think he needed a journey of failures and success to make him heroic, he did what was right and important, someone who can always do the right thing, someone who can choose the harder path because it’s what is right, that person is a life hero.

Well this answer is quite simple. I think Arjunes wasn’t as much afraid to fight, but afraid of making the wrong choice, whether to fight or not. He faced a dilemma whether or not to follow his warriors code or to follow is moral conscious, to not fight against family. Whether choosing to fight was the ‘right’ thing, he a hard spot to be in. However, Achillies was a coward that only fought for pride and revenge, I feel they are very different.

1. How do Islamic perceptions of Heaven and Hell differ from those of Christianity and Judaism?

These religions are similar on a broad perspective. Basically follow the laws written, and you will succeed to heaven. However, there is more to it. With Judaism and the Islamic people, they must follow the laws written and the good deeds they do is what gets them in to heaven. It’s not just believing but also following the laws. Furthermore, the amount of good deeds they do in the Islamic culture will grant you more rewards in heaven. On the contrary the Christian religion is very similar but, the biggest thing is confession of your sins followed by real repentance. In the Christion religion the good deeds still exist, however spreading the word of God id the most important thing once you’ve accepted Christianity. The Christians are told not to live in the flesh of the world and to live for God. With the Christians there is no extra rewards for you in heaven based on what you’ve done on earth like the Islamic.

2. Although Jesus was a Jew, the religious institutions created in his name proved difficult for Jews to embrace but attractive to Greeks. What elements in the Nativity and the Passion narratives seems particularly and culturally familiar to a pagan audience?

Similar to Achilles, Jesus was born from a woman that God impregnated. The Greeks are familiar with this type of divine intervention. Making it easier to accept. The Jews rejected Jesus as the messiah because he did not fit all of their criteria of the returning messiah and he was born with no wealth or power. There is debate today about the prophecies that the Jews expected to be fulfilled when the messiah returned. One portion of the debate is whether or not the prophecies were supposed to be fulfilled when Jesus came the first time, some believe once they are all fulfilled he will return again.

3. Jesus claims the redeemed sinner is more precious to God than the righteous person who never sinned. This implies a conception of God unlike that found in the Old Testament or in The Iliad. How does this emphasis on human repentance and divine mercy change human relations to God? What different aspects of the divine/human relationships were emphasized in Gilgamesh, or The Iliad?

My answer to this is going to be a little bit pieced out. I will say that I am no theologian, however my father is a non-domination Christian pastor, so I have a relatively decent understanding of the old and new testament.

I would first argue that precious is an inaccurate word in this question, to elaborate, God has an equal love of everyone that follows him and for those that don’t. However, god loves to see a son repent and turn towards him. Now this doesn’t make him more precious but, it is a joyful moment to see a son return or turn to him.

Also God is in my opinion establishing a point. The emphasis is being put on repentance of sins. Saying that someone who has never sinned isn’t any better off than someone who just recently turned to God, unlike is the Islamic culture where you earn higher statue that way. Moreover, I think is trying to show he loved when any person chooses to accept him, and it brings great joy in heaven.

1. Madea is a woman, but Euripides has presented her as a figure previously thought of as exclusively male- A hero. Analyze her character in the play with that of Achilles and conclude with a judgement on whether or not you think Madea is a hero and why.

First off anyone who kills their children can hardly be a hero… The story of Madea, is play so I understand the extreme things used in the  story to bring in emphasis a moral point. Although unlike Achilles, Madea could not get over her pride and she let her misfortune ruin her life. Rage does funny things to people, but Madea let it go to far. Achilles  was able to swallow his pride sandwich and recover. Medea could not. Madea is no hero, the opportunity was there for her to be a hero but, she would of had to forgiven Jason for leaving her. She could have came out stronger and still kept her kids might I add. Hero shes not…

2. Job makes the claim that his life has been virtuous and devoted to the worship of God and so he does not deserve the calamities that have befallen on him. He asks God for an answer, but the voice from the whirlwind does not deal with his question. Why does Job accept God’s assertion of divine power and not press for an answer to his question? Why is he satisfied with what he is given? Do you find the end of the dialogue satisfactory?

When bad things to us, I think we mostly all follow the same initial track as Job. We have our remorse and wonder why. We think that things will never get better and the world is sitting on us. However, Job is a hero. He proved it. Job rescued himself and kept his faith in God. Which was good, because Satan was trying to break Job. This is a story of a trial that Job went through to test his faith in God. I think Job accepts Gods reply in the whirlwind,  because he knows he doesn’t deserve a answer, God doesn’t have to answer to man. Its up to Job place his faith back into God. When Job regained his faith, his life suddenly turned around. His property doubled and had a new family. Job is a hero, because hero’s persevere.

1. What movies can you recall–besides The Matrix, which was mentioned in the lecture notes–that follow the thread of The Hero’s Journey? When you cite your film, or films, be sure to judge whether or not you believe the general formula was appropriated well or poorly; and, moreover, describe a few scenes that match some of the stages of the journey, such as done in the video in the lecture notes.

Honestly, there are many great examples for this topic, and like Victoria mentioned, most heroic movie plots are very similar. However, there is one movie that comes right to my head (beside the Matrix, because that is my favorite movie of all time! It would have been my choice for this…). My choice is Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom. I love all the Indiana Jones movies and honestly any of the would fit the Hero’s Journey no problem but, I haven’t watched these films in awhile (I am not a movie person…at all) but, The Temple of Doom is the one that I have the best memory of. So lets explore why its so fitting, my memory is somewhat vague so bare with me if your a movie buff. Call to adventure: Indiana finds Intel about some magical stones, after being ‘setup’ following a plane crash, Indiana arrived to a small village where all the children have gone missing, these magical stones are responsible for this, thus the call to action for Indiana.Now, super natural aid and mentor are sort of meshed together in this flick, because he gets help from a person in this great library where he finds clues and information to direct  his journey. I would say he gets the opposite of super natural aid (or where mother nature supports the hero) because in the Indianan Jones movies the ‘supernatural’ seems to guard the mystical item thus working against him. Now, Indiana certainly gets his series of helpers along the way, followed by a series of shortcomings where he is unsure what is the truth. Usually around half to two-thirds the way through the film he finds the “Abyss” or as mentioned in the reading this would be considered the Apotheosis. He finds some great information  or understanding that leads him to know exactly what to do. However, instead of the trials coming before the abyss they come after, because usually once this great information is dawned on him, he gets captured, and in the this film, gets brain washed for a little while, making his friends have to save him in order for the mission to carry on. After they rescue him, they scatter and fight a bunch of bad guys  and barely succeed in their mission as they flee to victory and Indiana saves the day and then he ‘returns home’ to do professor things.

2. Do you believe current cinema either meets or fails to meet the human needs expressed in the four functions of mythology? Those needs would be: the need for mystery; the need for a picture of the universe in which human beings belong; the need for a picture of our society in which each person belongs; the need for a picture of our own psychology that helps with the transitions of a human life, from childhood to adulthood, from adulthood to death. Can movies meet any of these needs? Why or why not?

Well as Simon mentioned, I think that in making movies directors and writers  work to touch on all those topics, however, in the film I chose I don’t thick they were successful in doing ‘all’ of the functions (if they were trying too that is). Now, the use of mystery is obviously apparent  in all the Jones films, but the last topic “the need for a picture of our own psychology that helps with the transition of human life…” is not so apparent and really not present for that matter. It does show the diverse setting for different characters and that each person has their place is this mystical world.

Movies can defiantly meet those needs, it may be hard to meet all of them though. The reason I think they  try to meet those functions, is because those four functions are the basis of human life really, since we’ve been alive there is always mystery in the world  around us and the need for a picture of the universe is different from person to person so meeting those needs provides depth and uniqueness to a film (i.e. Avatar compared to Star Wars). The transition of human life function also follows my previous comment, in some films its vital for making the setting and plot.