Response to Course Materials (12/22/2013)

Happy holidays to you all.
Our days in AP Lit since the last "Response to Course Material" was dominated by Hamlet. Dominated. I mean, even while I laid in bed sick, Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech looped through my head. To die, to sleep. Funny enough, when you are sick and miserable, those two things are the only things you ever think about. Anyways, after we read through Hamlet the first time, we then watched a bag full of various movie interpretations of Hamlet. The diverse takes and interpretations of the exact same text was interesting, and I believe that they should remind us all of why Shakespeare remains relevant today.
Although we watched multiple movies, I feel compelled to discuss only the ones that really interested me.
The first movie we watched was, ah, "American" to me. The movie was a perpetual cloud of anger and angst from Hamlet. Claudius was too timid to be either a well-developed or compelling character. I did appreciate the setting, especially with the "chess board" floor that a classmate brought up. Overall, I didn't really think that Shakespeare intended for this much anger, more brooding and more thinking and less flamboyant anger.
The David Tennant Hamlet was interesting. Although it was not as traditional as the Jacobi Hamlet (the second movie we watched starring Patrick Stewart) it still relied less on props and settings and more on acting, which I particularly enjoyed. It was interesting to see Tennant's interpretation of Hamlet, more deranged and unrestrained than the other movies. Claudius was also portrayed as more of a complex figure, tying in nicely with our latter discussions about the essays. Overall, staying traditionalist with the set up and presentation while having a more modified interpretation produced an interesting production that was interesting to analyze.

Mandela was avatar of upending world
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/06/opinion/rothkopf-mandela-of-his-time/index.html?hpt=op_t1

Nelson Mandela was, to say the least, a legendary character. Following his death, a number of people wrote tributes and articles in remembrance of this man. This is one of the many I articles of that I speak. David Rothkopf uses diction, syntax, and language to convey the unique greatness in Nelson Mandela.
The diction that Rothkopf uses illustrates not only his respect for Nelson Mandela but also his belief in that Mandela was a one-of-the-kind great figure for the entire world. Mandela was described as "hope incarnate", singling him out as not only unique, but something greater. The diction that describe his past life further conveys the greatness that the author felt about Mandela, for example: "remarkable" and "graceful and dignified" serve not only to compliment a man, but also conveys to the reader a sense of greatness from a man that has past.
The language that Rothkopf uses is conversational, yet reflective.
However, of all the literary devices that Rothkopf uses, his use of syntax is the most prevalent. Particularly his use of parallelism. Three consecutive paragraphs begin with "Mandela", not only emphasizing the subject of his article, but also using the name in a kind of reverence. The parallelism also develops in the same section of the article. "He was a powerful symbol..." and "He was hope incarnate" and "He was a message..." emphasizes the figure of Mandela as an "avatar" of a world in turmoil. Rothkopf also uses parallelism to construct a homage to Mandela's achievements: "The unshakeable has been shaken" and "The unbreakable had been broken" further emphasizing Mandela as not one of ordinary men.