Week of Jan. 20 - 24 Reflection: Post # 18

This passed week, we were focused primarily on Oedipus Rex. It was a relatively boring week, as we read silently in class on Monday and Tuesday. The tragic play opened my eyes a bit, and made me think of the intricacies of life and fate. Oedipus, throughout the play, tried so hard to avoid his inevitable fate, yet what he thought was right only led him straight into his worst nightmare. This exemplifies the fact that every small decision affects the life of not only yourself, but many around you as well. Applying this revelation to my life, it made me take decisions much more seriously than I ever had before. Even when I returned home I contemplated the choice of drink I would get, weighing the pros and cons and long-term consequences each choice might have. The play also told the audience that fate was predetermined, and there was no escaping it. In the modern world, this is not widely accepted, and I do not believe in this as well. I do believe that my decisions have a long-term effect on my life, though, and now I won't trivialize any decisions any longer.

On Friday, we had finished the play and we moved on to our eventual project on this subject matter. Our amazing and loving teacher Mrs. Cawlfield spent the day talking to the attentive and sponge-like minds of the students about Aristotelian tragedies and what defines a tragic hero specifically. As sponge-like minds do, we absorbed every word she was saying and might have even taken diligent notes. We would do this because we have to come up with a perfect example of a tragic hero from a film and apply it to the Aristotelian model while also comparing it to the character of Oedipus. I assume we will do incredible work with absolutely no flaws whatsoever and all get amazingly great grades. We will work on this project this week and it's probably going to suck. But maybe not!!