Romeo and Juliet

So our class just began reading Romeo and Juliet and so far, it's really not as scary as I thought it would be. I was not so sure about what to expect when reading this play by Shakespeare because, well, it was by Shakespeare and that should make any freshman Honors English student want to go cry in the corner. It's not like I thought it would be bad, it was actually quite the opposite. I thought it would be too well-written; so intricate and detailed that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between lines of dialogue about love and lines about hate. However once we began to read it, I realized that it wasn't as bad as I had imagined and that I can actually read Shakespeare, or at least this certain play. Once I began to really read in depth and think about what it was I was reading, it all started to make sense and could get the gist of what was going on. But what has helped me the most through the adventure of reading this play so far is that you need to really read, not just skim, and that sometimes, reading it over twice will be the most effective.

However, what fourteen year old understands every single word that Shakespeare wrote? Definitely not this one. There are a lot of instances when what the characters are saying makes no sense, and probably more often than not. My strategy for these dilemmas is to reread the trouble spots and then, if I still don't understand, keep reading. If nothing seems to be making sense plot-wise because of not understanding that trouble spot, then I'll go back and analyze further. A lot of times, though, these trouble spots don't even matter and are just put in there for who knows what reason. Another aspect of this writing that gives me issues is syntax. Even though Mrs. Bross specifically told us that sometimes, Shakespeare uses different sentence orders to emphasize importance, it still tends to trick me here and there. A simple example of this is in Act 1 Scene 2, when Paris is speaking to Capulet and says, "Of honourable reckoning are you both;". Even though this line is not of much importance, it simply shows that everything Shakespeare wrote had a specific purpose and in this case, he wanted to show that "honorable reckoning" was the most important part of this sentence. Therefore, he put this first, even though he could have just written, "You are both of honorable reckoning." The fact that he chose to write this entire play like this may bring some confusion, but it altogether shows how great of a writer Shakespeare was.

On to the next book!

Well, now that our multicultural memoir unit is over, I've decided that it's time to take a break from memoirs. I mean, the past three books that I've read were memoirs so this time around, I took a recommendation from my friend who is quite the reader. I'm not that big of a reader, so it wasn't like I had a whole line of books on hold until I finished Twelve Years a Slave. There was one book I was interested in reading- a memoir called, Taking Flight, by Michaela DePrince, war orphan and star ballerina. However, like I said before, I was kind of done with memoirs at the moment and my parents said that the book would have to be a Christmas present. So, when I saw my reading friend the other day, I asked her if I could borrow any book of hers and she told me that she would lend me the book, Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.

Since I'm not very opinionated when it comes to reading, I just went along with what she said that I would like most, based on the fact that reading is not my favorite hobby. She told me that this book moves pretty quickly, which is something that I really enjoy in a book because once a book begins to move slowly, I immediately put it down and move onto the next one. Anyways, when I got home and began to write this blog, I looked up the book that she was going to lend me and I was pulled in right when I read the synopsis. It's about the relationship between Clay and Hannah, a girl who committed suicide two weeks earlier. When Clay finds a box of cassette tapes of Hannah describing the thirteen reasons why she decided to kill herself on her doorstep, he finds out that he was one of the reasons. It sounds so intense and so interesting that I can't wait for her to give me the book tomorrow. Not only does the plot sound interesting, but from the reviews I've read, it sounds like quite an inspiring book. One review that stood out to me was this, "This book changed my life. Gave me more hope. And I encourage people to read this book. Especially my best friend, because for a while I saw her as Hannah. Without this book I'm not sure Id have the courage to stand up like I can today.” Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm super excited to get reading.

Twelve Years a Slave

In our multicultural memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup, the most important idea that the reader learns throughout Solomon's hardships, is that, even in the darkest times, there is hope and if you maintain that hope, then you will persevere through to a pleasing outcome. Although there were times in the book when Solomon went against this theme through his actions, he always had that hope in the back of his mind that things would turn out right. Since you probably haven't read this book, you're probably wondering why it would be so difficult for Solomon to keep faith in whatever it is that he is doing. Well, the reason is that Solomon lived as a free African-American in New York in the 1850's, a time period very popular for slave owning. However, when he was bribed to play his violin in a circus, traveling to Washington D.C., he soon found that he was being used when he woke up one morning, in chains, waiting to be sold into slavery. After twelve years living in the hardships of slavery, Solomon was finally saved by his friends from back in New York, but those twelve years included life-changing experiences that would never allow Solomon be the same man he was before. Now you can see why it would be so difficult for Solomon to keep faith in his freedom, when years of slavery were lying ahead of him.

This picture of Solomon as a slave shows
how much his life changed as a slave

Solomon as a free man, from the movie

During this time period, it was beyond difficult to escape slavery, almost impossible, even. So why was Solomon able to be sold into slavery when he was legally a free man? Well, just a few days before he had been kidnapped, Solomon obtained papers that legally said that he was a free man, but those were somehow taken from him and, even though he begged and pleaded his freedom, no one would listen to a word he had to say. His masters even threatened his life for claiming that he was a free man, which shows just how much discrimination against African-Americans was happening at the time. Since so many white people felt this way at the time, it clearly explains why escaping wasn't even near reality at the time. According to this article from history.com, on the underground railroad, escaping slavery was something that even the bravest souls feared. The risk of being caught by slave masters was so great that even the most well thought out plans could shrivel at any moment. Abolitionists, like Harriet Tubman, aided many slaves to their freedom through the underground railroad at the time. And although Solomon didn't escape through the underground railroad, this just goes to show how difficult it'd be to help someone out of slavery. These difficulties also show how important it was for Solomon to keep hope because if he didn't believe in his escape, this probability of it happening would be very slim.