Ethan Lang's blog

      When first watching the play Waiting for Godot, I had a lot of thoughts that were running through my head. I had a tendency of getting lost or confused in their constant dialogue as it was personally a bit hard to follow all the time. I was able to sort of grasp some of the play though such as the relationship of Vladimir and Estrogen and how Estrogen has a sort of dependency on Vladimir. With that being said, I also did not grasp some of the play. My confusion had mostly begun once Pozzo and Lucky were introduced. Pozzo suddenly walking in with a man pulled by a rope had me form a lot of questions in my mind. Vladimir's emotions towards both Pozzo and Lucky were also very question inducing. The way he was quick to scold Pozzo first and then instantly switch his anger to Lucky had me question just exactly what this could mean for both the overall meaning and Vladimir's character. Lastly, the speech that Lucky gives when he is "thinking" seemed like a bunch of g...

     While doing the poetry panel project for The Road Not Taken  by Robert Frost, there was one key issue for our group in analyzing our poem which was the actual interpretation of it. In the poem, the final stanza is often the most noticed compared to the rest. With it reading "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference", there was a common inference of the poem as a whole meaning that the speaker's life has benefited in a way by taking a less common path. Out of context this would be a reasonable assumption but when reading the previous stanzas it is clear that this is a total misinterpretation of the meaning of the overall poem. With all of the stanzas being taken in mind the actual meaning can be along the lines of the paths actually being equal with neither of them being less or more travelled. This whole thing has taught me two things in poetry. 1, when it comes to poems especially the shorter ones all lines are very important i...

      Going over my mentor poet Rudy Francisco and his work has been easier to digest then I initially thought it would. For one, the language in which he writes with in his poetry is not completely outdated and I can actually understand the words that come out of his mouth. But another thing is not having to read the poems by myself as he often does live poetry performances. I can get tired very easily reading so much poetry so being able to just listen to Francisco perform his own work has been very nice. It also helps that he is an outstanding performer. The enthusiasm and passion that he carries with all of his work does a great job of keeping his audience hooked. The firm tone he always keeps speaking in and his constant continuation barely pausing for breaths and audience reaction managed to completely catch my attention and never let it go. The amazing delivery Francisco constantly displays is definitely one of the reasons he is considered one of the bett...

      When first introduced to poetry in elementary school, I thought poems were fun to read given that all the words would rhyme and the overall message of it would just be some frog walking across the street or something. However reading poetry now, it turns out that the words won't always rhyme and the messages being presented would be more than a frog leaping around.  The only thing that did seem to stay the same or at least similar, was the length. The length being shorter would seem like a good thing at first, but when the writers start to try to compress the meaning of life into 20 lines of poetry it does start becoming a bit much. With that being said, me losing interest in poetry would be an understatement. Not only did I not find reading poems as fun anymore I also found more difficulty in trying to break them down. Poetry in itself is something that is first presented as something very simple but gradually becomes more and more difficult. The difficulty fo...

      Throughout our lives, being taught and told to do or think certain things by teachers or parents has always been apparent. We always look up to a certain role model rather that be an older family member or a famous athlete, trying our best to model ourselves after them. Listening to every piece of information or wisdom they can possibly give off, having a role model or teacher is a key part in growing up. The influence from others can play a big part in the sort of person someone can be. This is seen in the story Siddartha as well. Govinda, is a character who looks up to Siddartha greatly, following in quite literally all of his footsteps. Govinda is greatly influenced and taught by Siddartha, given that Siddartha is a big role model for him. Even when Govinda breaks off with Siddartha, it is to follow the teachings of another role model he has, which is Gautama Buddha. Similarly, Luke Skywalker from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope also has a teacher or role...

        Going into the school year, English wasn't a class I was necessarily excited about. Especially with this years AP English being more focused on literature, as reading had been a passion of mine that had died out in 6th grade when I couldn't read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books anymore. But I feel like the stories and ideas that had been brought up and analyzed in class have been really interesting. When being able to apply some of the topics brought up in the stories we had read, I found it easier to be more involved in breaking the stories down. Especially with blogging, putting out the ideas that I have is very refreshing and makes the class feel like less of a class. With the freedom to read write our in class essays about an independent reading book of our choice, I could find topics that I personally enjoyed which made both reading and writing more exciting for me. When reading I used to tend to just take all things at face value but this class has forced...