Courtesy

I'm interesting in learning about the word courtesy, because when I saw that this was a word on the list something about it made me want to know more about it. I want to know the history of the word, how it came to be, and how it has evolved into the word that we know. And see if the first meaning has changed a lot or nothing compared to the meaning used nowadays.

William Veeder, "The Women of Frankenstein"

Mary Shelley’s sense of weakness in herself and womanhood made her defensive in frankestein. She makes the argument that women are less weak and men are weaker. 

The weakness of the females characters are not defined by the melodramatic simplifications

At first we think Justine is a weak character, but the court scene minimizes her weakness. At first we don’t see her as a weak, we see her as a victim. But later when she is unable to save herself, she becomes weak. 

Focus shifts away from the nature of true woman and onto that conventional target of Roman clergy. Mary Shelley presents the true woman as debilitatingly weak but as touchingly vulnerable. True woman presented not as “feminine” weakness. 

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight and El Canto Del Mio Cid

    Heroes appear in all the books we read. They might be obvious, like the ones slaying dragons or fighting in battles, or they might not be that obvious. They might just be heroes because of the things the do, the small things they do. At first we might not think they are heroes, but it doesn’t matter how small they thing that they do is, they are still heroes and the stories revolve around what they do. All heroes, obvious or not obvious, are bound by a code of honor and loyalty. This is specially true when talking about medieval heroes. These heroes had to have honor, and do everything they could to maintain that honor and if it was ever lost they had to regain it. There loyalty, was probably the most important part, though. They swore loyalty to a king, a lord, someone who was above them. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Song of Mio Cid, both present these virtues and the core theme of their stories. Despite de fact that Sir Gawain and El Cid were geographically separated, their loyalty and their honor was the most important thing to them. 

The first comparison that exist between these two stories is the amount of loyalty that both Sir Gawain and Cid el Campeador present. Sir Gawain shows extreme loyalty to King Arthur when the Green Knight arrives at the dinner and challenges the King to a “game”, Sir Gawain is the only one of all the Knight to come forth and accept the challenge in order to protect the king. Sir Gawain is already loyal to his king, but by accepting this challenge he will prove is ultimate loyalty to the king. El Cid Campeador is already loyal to the king, but after he is banned by Alfonso (king of Castile and Leon) because El Cid was planning to overthrow Sancho, another nobleman, and Alfonso thought he would do the same to him. El Cid felt that he needed to prove his loyalty to Alfonso, so he created an army and he set about conquering the moorish territories of Spain and to present them to the King. After he conquered Valencia, Alfonso Pardoned him and he was able to return. 

The most important virtue that knights had to have was honor. Most epic poems are about knight who go on adventures to prove their loyalty to their king or to regain their honor. Sir Gawain’s honor is challenged when the lady of the castle plays more games with him and she offers him gifts that then he is suppose the exchange with his host. These gift present a challenge for him, since he can’t tell the host how he received those gifts or he will lose his knightly honor. El Cid Campeador’s honor is also challenged in his story, although they are very different, the two challenges include women. After El Cid is forgiven by Alfonso, the King offers El Cid to marry off his daughter to the princes of Carrion. These Princes decide to leave their wives by the side of the road. When El Cid hears about this he feels like his honor has been lost and asks the King to find the Princes and cancel the weddings. Once this happens is honor is restored. 

It is interesting to see how both challenges to their honor, are because of the women in their life. Sir Gawain is afraid to lose it, if he tells the host who gave him the presents, and El Cid does everything in his power to regain his honor. 

Both of these examples, although different, they represent the importance of loyalty and honor for the knights and even more importantly they represent how these virtues were important both in England and in Spain. 

Old Norse influence on English

Vikings invaded Great Britain between 800 and 1100 AD.
They did not impose their language on the people, but they incorporated some parts of their language into the english. The words incorporated were for everyday use. Some of these words were:
Kniv = Knife
Vindue = Window
Plogr = Plough
Hus = House
Egg = Egg
Fader = Father
Moder = Mother


Probably the most significant contribution were the names of towns. The Vikings added -by (means town or village) at the end of names to created the names of villages were they first settled. -thorpe (same meaning) was added to the villages were they later settled. 
Some of these names are:
- Selby, Whitby
- Scunthorpe
Not only did they influence the name of places but also last names. They did this by adding -son (which means son) at the end of the father's name. (Later they started adding "dottir" (which means daughter) to the father's name)
- Svensson, Gustafsson, Karlsson...

The Picture of Dorian Gray

        Choosing my summer book was a daunting task. It always is for me, I never know what book to choose. I always do research on the titles that I recognize and then I usually choose the one that I find most interesting or that has the best reviews. This year I chose The Picture of Dorian Gray  by Oscar Wilde because I was really interesting in reading this books, because I thought the subject it covered was really interesting, and also very relatable to nowadays. I chose it, because I think it is really interesting how a story written in the late 1800s can still be relatable to topics nowadays. It was really interesting that a topic of beauty, people always trying to stay beautiful, and doing whatever they can to stay young is as current news now as it was back then. Nowadays, though it is even a bigger issue since a lot of people go through cosmetic surgeries to stay young and beautiful. 

The preface in this book is very important, it explains the importance of beauty in the social context of that time, and what they described as beautiful. The narrator wants us to know how beauty is seen in different kinds of arts, like for example when the narrator says “The artist can express anything. Thoughts and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are the artists materials for art”. 

“It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors”. This is a really important sentence, because it can show how art is seen by different people, how art is not the same for everyone and how the same piece of art can represent various things, depending on who is it that is reading, or seeing the piece of art. 

As the character show up in the book, there is a little explanation about the character and how they are going to be important in the story. For example, when the narrator introduces Lord Henry and Basil Hallward, he explains the setting they are in and what they do, and then hints how they are going to be relevant in the story.

The extreme life of Lord Henry is criticized in a mild way. What I mean by this is that we slowly see what is lifestyle is all about and not immediately. I think this is a good way of telling a story because it keeps yo interested and it makes you want to read more. 

My top 5 Books

The Sun Also Rises by Hernest Hemingway: I could really relate to this book since I grew up in Spain. I really enjoyed this book, although I was a little bit disappointed in the end, the end wasn’t what I was expecting. 

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: I read this book during my junior year. At first I didn’t really like it, but I ended up liking it in the end. 

The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger: At first I had my doubts about this book, but halfway through the book, I started to really enjoy it and could not put it down. The end was really surprising. 

One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: I red this book this summer, I had wanted to read this books for some years now, but never got around. I read this book in spanish. 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach: My father made me read this book a couple years back. At first I didn’t enjoy it at all, but by the end I really did. This is probably the first book that challenged me intellectually. 

Good Story Telling

Some books are great because of the way they are written, others because of the story they tell, Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is an excellent example of great story telling because the way it makes you stop and think of society’s views on some issues. Since the beginning of the book, there have been different passages that reflect the way people think about beauty and youth and what people will do to keep being young and keep their beauty.

“How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!" (Chapter 2)

This passage is one of the passages that I consider and excellent example of great example of a great story telling, because it shows how far a person would go to keep his/her youth. This passage shows what Dorian gray thinks of himself and how he thinks that the only way that he can live a happy life if he keeps his youth. These thought of always being beautiful and young start after Lord Henry tells him that his beauty and youth will allow him to live a life of pleasure. The vain Dorian becomes convinced immediately. Lord Henry sees the perfect opportunity to use Dorian’s insecurities to his own advantage, this showing how an insecure person can be taken advantage easily.