Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Summer Reading Responses

1. To what extent is Oedipus responsible for his own fate in the Play?
Oedipus is responsible for his fate firstly by not believing Tiresius who told him that he is responsible for Laius' death. Oedipus continues to get angrier and angrier but he cannot accept the fact that the man he killed was Laius. Towards the end of the book he also could have listened to Jocasta and not ever found out who his true parents are and he would have been hidden from the terrible reality that Jocasta is his mother.
2. How good of a king is Oedipus? In what ways does he excell? In what ways does he fall short? Oedipus is made out to be a very good king at the beginning of the book. He was the king every one wanted. He listened to his people and their every needs, and was willing to do anything he could to make thebes a better place. I think he becomes a much worse leader when he starts denying Tiresius' prophecy that he is the one who killed Lauis, he begins to get angry and begins to only think aboout himself.
3. What is Kind Oedipus' tragic mistake?
I believe his tragic mistake is insisting that he know who his true mother and father are. This brought the realization that his feared prophecy had come true. He now realized that everything he had devoted his life to avoiding he had accidentally done.
4. In what ways does Minority Report support or refute Oedipus' notion of destiny?
I believe that the movie both supports and refutes the notion that you cannot control your destiny. In the scene where John "kills" Mr. Crow it happened just like the procog's had said it would, even though John didn't actually pull the trigger. But at the end of the movie the Precogs predicted Lamar killing John and just when the police show up, Lamar kills himself. I think both of these scenes show that you have a predetermined destiny, but that it can be changed slightly.
5. In what ways are eyes used for?
1) Precogs: The precogs can see things that will happen in the future, mainly  murders.
2)John Anderton: His eyes are mainly used so that people can determine who he is. They are used to get him into special places and later so the police can try and find him, which is why he gets new eyes.
3)The Culture of the world: The world's eyes are scanned all over so add's and computers can talk to them and sell them things, or just remember things about them.
6. In American culture today there are many things that we have that are similar to the movie, such as screens we can manipulate with our hands. iPhones seem very similar to the screen John uses however we just simply touch it with our hands. I think that in the next 44 years we are definitely headed for some major technological advances. Most likely not like in the movie where we can predict murders, however technology is moving at a fast pace. I think that in preparing for the future we don't necessarily lock us into one fate or another, I just think it will keep us pointed in a certain dirrection.

1 comment:

  1. Timbo,

    Interesting (if brief) list of movies. Some good ideas begin to emerge in the summer read responses, but remember to use textual evidence wherever you can.

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