My journal for A DOLL'S HOUSE

• I loved Ibsen’s style and the solution to the problem. Although he presented the problem and found a solution, he also left it open for a discussion as to whether the character’s action was right or wrong. To illustrate, Nora left Helmer at the end of the play when she opened her eyes and recognized some realities about her life. The action she did might not be right, according to some people. Some women choose to stay with their husbands whatever happens. This is a debatable action.

•             I found an interesting point that women could not borrow money in Ibsen’s times. I knew women were under control of their husbands or their fathers, but I did not know this borrowing situation. I searched from the internet that what the women’s rights in those times were. Then, I found “Married Women’s Property Act”. The reason of the act’s start is that a woman could not sell or transfer any freehold and make contracts. This male dominated society has changed since Ibsen’s times, but not completely. Even now, this dominance can be felt by a lot of women. In the lesson, one of my friends defended that women want this system. According to him, we, as women, do not want to join parliament or any government stuff. On the contrary, Esra said men were controlling the written things, so women did not have equal right with men. I agree with her. For example, in the play, Nora said :“… a wife has no right to save her husband’s life? I don’t know much about the law..”. Nora did not know the law because her father and her husband did not think that it was necessary for Nora. Nora was perceived just as a doll.

•             After I read A Doll’s House, I wanted to find out in this play what the similarity differences from Death of Salesman were. I learned in the lesson, Ibsen’s play was realistic. Therefore, everything in the play was related to the real life. I mentioned about male dominated situations. These events, like not being considered as an individual may happen to anyone in Ibsen’s times. In Death of Salesman,  Willy had “American Dream” and in those times, a lot of people had these thoughts which means working hard help you to have a better life. To talk about the differences, while reading A Doll’s House, we forget that it is a play. I found myself into the play because it goes chronologically like TV serials. However, in Death of Salesman, there are flashbacks. That is, Willy lost himself in his memories and the scene immediately turned to past. It was hard to follow while reading it. The other difference is related to the importance in the plays. For example, while in A Doll’s House, presenting and solving the problem was important, expressing feelings, sorrows or hopes was the important thing in Death of Salesman.

•             One of the lies in the play is about eating macaroons. Can these macaroons be a sign of something ? I think they can be some taboos which were related to woman’s rights. Torvald did not want her to have them. I searched on the internet to find out what else these macaroons may represents. I found it can be a symbol of rebellion. I agreed with this statement. It was to be rebellious against her husband.

•             Everybody could recognize that Torvald called Nora as a little, cute animal. This was very annoying for me because Torvald treats Nora as a father likes his daughter. For example, on page 8, Helmer called Nora: “… the squirrel…my lark…” all the time. Moreover, on the same page, Torvald did an action like a father got angry with his daughter. It was written that “[ He goes up to her and takes her playfully by the ear]”.

•             Do Nora has any similarity with other characters in the plays which we read during the semester? The answer is yes. I think Nora resembles Jocasta and Linda. They were loyal to their husbands and they loved their husbands so much that these women could do anything no matter what it took. For example, Jocasta and Linda gave up their kids to protect their husbands. Additionally, Nora committed a big crime by imitating her death father’s signature and borrowing money as a woman for her husband. All of these actions were only for their husbands.

• Through the play, Nora was changing in terms of her character and her thought. In the first act, Nora was acting childishly and believed that the law might forgive her for her crime which was about imitating the signature and borrowing money. Also, she thought when Torvald learned the truth; he would pay Nora’s debt money. She said : “ If my husband gets to know about it, he will of course pay you off at once …” on page 26. In the second act, Nora used Dr. Rank’s love for her own benefits. She asked him to keep Torvald in the room while she was dealing with Krogstad. Although Nora told Dr. Rank about her past memory which was to love her father and her servants in two different ways (One of love which she had for her servants was because of their talking. Nora’s love for Dr. Rank looked like this.), Dr. Rank did not care and helped her.  In the final act, Nora turned to an adult and she gave up her childish behaviors. After Torvald captured Krogstad’ letter, Nora realized Torvald was not her husband she had known for years.On page 63, Torvald said: “ You have destroyed my whole happiness. You have ruined my future…”  She did not expect this reaction from her husband. While leaving from her husband, she said she did not believe in miracles anymore. I mean, she opened her eyes now. Therefore, I concluded that Nora changed totally.

•             Briefly, I wanted to see differences between Nora and Linden. Therefore, I wrote their similar features on a piece of paper. I found that Nora was more energetic than Linden. As I mentioned before, Nora, like a kid, did some actions without thinking about their consequences. However, Linden was more thoughtful and believed that a marriage should have honesty. Also at the end of the play, their roles changed. Nora destroyed her marriage while Linden was finding her happiness with Krogstad.

•             When I finished to read the play at first, I thought the end was a bit disappointing from the point of Torvald’s view . After Nora decided to leave her husband, she said “.. I take nothing from strangers.” on page 71. Nora spent her years with her husband, but she called her husband now as a stranger. Although Torvald begged her, Nora’s decision was to make herself happy. These thoughts came to my mind just one minute while thinking. Then I strongly agreed with Nora’s decision. Torvald deserved loneliness. In the end, I thought he was selfish. When Helene brought a letter which was from Krogstad and about withdrawing his threat, Torvald became happy because He would not fall into disgrace in front of the society. He did not think Nora saved his life by borrowing money before he took this letter.

My journal for HAMLET

• This week we are cheek by jowl with Hamlet’s study guide and the play of Hamlet. I learned information from general overview of Hamlet’s plot, characters etc…There are two generations as old and young. Youngest ones represent humanism. Hamlet and Fortinbras is in this generation. Although Hamlet hesitates to get revenge and questions everything, Fortinbras gets revenge. I didn’t understand where humanism is in Fortinbras. If I don’t consider this, I can say that they resemble each other. After their fathers’ death, both have nothing.

•         In general view, Hamlet resembles to Oedipus. In both plays, heroes try to find out the murderer of their fathers. At the beginning of the resolution of events, they become suspicious for the murderer identity but they wanted to prove that. To talk about the difference, Oedipus makes decisions quickly but Hamlet is thinking to take revenge during the whole play and he cannot decide.

•          One of the most interesting things in Hamlet is “acting” as thematic focus. There is a play within the play. Besides that, the actors don’t show the roles of their characters. For example, Gertrude is acting like loving wife and Claudius is acting like a great King. When I thought these acts, I found Hamlet so cleverly  written work and thinking deeply.

•         In the wedding ceremony, I admit that Hamlet has right on his side. He is in melancholy. He used such words that affected me in act I, scene II, line 10, “defeated joy”, “dropping eye”, “mirth in funeral”. Hamlet’s father has died but that there is a wedding is very contradictory and disappointing. The other contradiction is Leartes comes for the wedding but Horatio comes for Hamlet. We can understand that who is in the part of good or bad side. Moreover, Claudius doesn’t want to understand Hamlet’s sorrow. He threatens Hamlet like a kid. He says in act I, scene II, line 94 “Tis unmanly grief”. Claudius is not gentle enough to understand this event.

•          In Hamlet’s first soliloquy, he talks about death and committing suicide. With these soliloquies, Shakespeare can easily show the characters inner thoughts to the audience or the reader. Therefore, at the almost beginning of the play, I can conclude that Hamlet is questioning his environments and some thoughts. If there weren’t a rule about committing suicide, it is forbidden in the religion and he didn’t know it was a way of going to hell, Hamlet would take his own life.

•           It is so weird that King Hamlet doesn’t want to revenge on his wife. He says to his son: “Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive/ Against thy mother aught” in act I, scene V, line 85. King Hamlet also mentioned that she will be judged in heaven. However, Hamlet is so hung up on her mother’s sexual relationship with Claudius that he always mentions about this as incestuous.

•          In act II, we meet with Hamlet’s madness. It is intentional and I think he can hide his feelings and sorrows by wearing a mad mask metaphorically.. Therefore to collect proof to find whether Claudius is the murderer of his father or not becomes easier by acting like a mad. It  is a very good idea.

•          I understand Hamlet’s feelings and he explains his feelings by giving suitable examples from life. He says Denmark is like a prison, in act II, scene II, line 245. Sometimes, people like me may feel that this country or this living place is like a prison. It is because of hopelessness and loneliness. Also when I miss the control of my life, I feel like I’m a prisoner. Maybe, Hamlet may think that his life is out of his control because he doesn’t want all of these: death of his father, leaving the kingdom to Claudius or marriage of his mother etc…

•          In act II, Hamlet arranges a play which is about one brother kills the other. Hamlet and Horatio watch Claudius' reaction and they prove his guilt with this play. I found this idea very wise. Therefore even here I can conclude that Hamlet cannot be really mad because a crazy person cannot think any of this. Moreover, in this act, Horatio is remarkable for me. He is the person who is trusted the most in the play by everybody. That is, he is witness of seeing the ghost of the King and he doesn’t tell anybody. Moreover, he is witness of seeing Hamlet’s uncle’s reaction. Unexpectedly Claudius trusts Horatio. To illustrate, in act IV, scene VII, after Leartes and Hamlet fight during the burying Ophelia, Hamlet walks away and Claudius says to Horatio look after Hamlet.

•          After Hamlet was questioning death, now he starts to question existence by sating “To be or not to be…”in act III, scene I. He doesn’t know which the best choice is : to continue to suffer or killing yourself.  After some self discussions, he is questioning why we choose to suffer. A few years ago, I read something on the internet which is related to this suffering. There is Buddha who says life is suffering. We have both physical and physiological suffering . Because of being life imperfect and complex, we have power to deal with these sufferings. However, according to Hamlet, its reason is that we don’t know what happens after the death. In act III, scene I, line 79, He says: “The undiscovered country…” Death resembles an unknown country. This is a very nice example while understanding his thoughts.

•           Does Hamlet really love Ophelia? I wondered that because I recognized there are some distance between Ophelia and Hamlet. I think they are supposed to love each other. However, they don’t have any dating or specific romantic dialogues about love. To illustrate, When Polonius asks his daughter her thoughts about Hamlet, she says nothing positive. Also Hamlet rejects Ophelia by criticizing her make-up in act III, scene I, and line 145. This nominal love can be caused by parents, because Gertrude says on the graveyard of Ophelia: “I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife” in act V, scene I, line 240.

•          Recognition scene is the excellent. It is during sword fighting between Hamlet and Leartes. Finally Hamlet tastes what the death looks like. While he is dying, he says “the rest is silence”. I think the silence here may represent that he is about to die and he cannot say anything anymore.

My journal for DEATH OF A SALESMAN and MILLER

            

•           Miller has same ideas with Aristotle in terms of features of tragedy but Miller added the common man to it. We can understand from the title of his play “Death of a Salesman” that salesman is a common man and anyone who is a salesman is common. In Aristotle's time, tragedy generally related to high born people or for high class. However, now we have no more kingdoms or such important class differences. Maybe because of that, Miller used common man. Everyone has the same brain and even the common man can understand the same thing with what a high class person understands. The only difference is background knowledge. I found these sentences very realistic.

•           After I learned aboutMiller’s life and some background knowledge of “Death of a Salesman,”, I asked myself why “American Dream” have a big role in people’s lives. I couldn’t understand the reason of that people need more and more. I skipped to think economic crisis and World War II. There were 2 classes in the society as riches and poor so people had great target to reach. It is to be rich. When they have much money, they will be happier. That is a consecutive dream.

•           I read the whole essay of Miller and I thought almost all heroes have tragic flaw. That is, Oedipus’ tragic flaw is hubris. Then Death of Salesman came to my mind. Willy Loman’s tragic flaw is to be unable to accept reality. Whole play is based on and continues with this flaw. This flaw gives a shape to play.

•         In the essay, tragedy is defined as the consequence of man’s needs to evaluate himself. If man fails, it is because of environment or society. These words appeared in my mind while looking at an image with some sentences after reading the essay. The image includes skeletons with black suits and all of them are the same in appearance. There is a statement on them: “ Get a job. Go to work. Get married. Have children. Follow fashion. Act normal. Walk on the pavement. Watch TV. Obey the law. Save for your old age. Now repeat after me : ‘I am free’” Man is in such a system that tension between the society and man becomes tragedy. Like Biff and Willy, one of them , Willy tries to fit society’s requires such as American Dream. The other one, Biff tries not to accept this commonness and then he find himself in the situation that he wants to go Alaska with his brother to be rich. Whether you accept to adapt or not, there can be tension.

•           In the play, I didn’t understand why Willy was obsessed with Biff. Biff has stolen some stuff and he cannot lead an ordinary life. All of his troubles are because of Willy. I think he wasn’t a good father for his children. To illustrate, when Biff stole basketball, Willy says “Coach will probably congratulate you on the initiative”. This encourages him and as a child, he thinks it is not a bad action. In the present, Willy and Biff always argue about working and money. I thought Willy understood his fault during his day dreaming so he wants to make his heart free about growing children well.

•         In the class, it was said that this play is like Willy’s mind. There are flashbacks and turns to present. Therefore, it was very hard for me to follow.

•         After  reading Death of Salesman, I realized some differences from Oedipus. Firstly, there is no chorus in that play. Secondly, place is more than one place. Thirdly, Willy is jumping past time from the present. These comparisons helped me to think deeply.

•         I found Linda in the play repulsive. The reason is she is almost aware of what’s happening to his husband. Also we discussed this in the class. She doesn’t do anything. Moreover, she is different from the others in that she has no dreams. She just supports her husband by saying this patiently “You are the handsomest men in the world.”  Furthermore the money he earns is not enough but she says he is doing well. However, I can say this, she is more realistic than Willy because Willy lives in dreaming world. Linda confesses she is aware that there is something wrong with her husband and she says to her children “He won’t be all right …He is dying Biff.”.  In some parts Willy says “I’m alone”. Maybe because of his wife, he came to this situation. Linda doesn’t talk too much or share her ideas with her husband so this and some lies pushes him toward loneliness. 

•         I wondered what if Willy had a stable job and average salary, would he be dead now ? According to me, he wouldn’t be but he would have same complex life with full of day dreaming. Maybe the stress made him so unrealistic person. American Dream requires working hard. When he works hard, he wouldn’t be satisfied with his work. He would always want much money and also their needs would increase with their developing life conditions.

•          I learned during the lesson, Solon is asked who the happiest person is. Solon’s answer is quite convincing that your materials may fly away at any moments and proper thing is death but honorable death, like defending your country or someone. I can say that Willy is the happiest person because his stress was gone when he died and he died for providing his family a better life with the life insurance.

My journal for OEDIPUS THE KING

•  Sophocles’ Oedipus the King  starts with plague. It is a sickness and if this pollution hadn’t happened, Oedipus wouldn’t have wanted to find out who is the murderer of Laius. Also the play is arranged around cause and effect so that each event cannot be separated from each other. For example, because of plague , Oedipus sent Creon to Apollo to ask solution. In line 107, we can see the solution which is to find the murderer of Laius. Oedipus goes to Teiresias and it goes on like that. Moreover I like word changing in the play. To illustrate, Teiresias is the blind man but he is the one who sees the truth. In contrast, Oedipus is the healthy man and he has bright eyes but he is the one who cannot see the truth that he is the murderer of his real father. It is clear irony in line 457.

•         Who is the guiltiest in the play? This was asked by Mr. Boyd in the lesson. I answered it quickly as “Oedipus”. However, when I think the whole play deeply,  the misdeed starts at the beginning times which are before Oedipus was born. In line 777,  Jocasta says she let her husband whatever do with the son. She didn’t prevent the King about killing her son. Therefore , she is the murderer, too. She decided that intentionally. However, Oedipus didn’t know the man he killed is his father. If he had known, he wouldn’t have done such a cruel thing.

•         I started to wonder about Jocasta’s character. She was a loyal wife and she applied whatever Laius said. On the contrary, she always comes out against Oedipus while he is trying to reveal the murderer . As she refuses the prophecies and she tells don’t pay attention those sayings like in line 1040. Moreover, she is such a woman that when Oedipus blamed Creon as murderer, she begs Oedipus to save Creon’s life. She didn’t do the same thing for her child and she sent her son to death in cold blood.

My journal for THE POETIC FOR ARISTOTLE

• While we were learning Ancient Greek Theatre’s origins, Mr. Boyd asked whether TV shows or movies affect us. The reason of asking this question is  that in those times people realized the theater influenced them. I agree with those people. That is, nowadays there are a lot of TV serials and some people who watch them internalize actors’ roles. For example, in an episode, there was a woman who had a love affair with another woman’s husband. When this woman goes outside in real life, some on the street shout at her because they believe her character is like her role in the episode.

•          I wonder how this theater or TV shows can affect us so deeply. For example, if one of my friends asks me to change some of my traits, I may ignore him/ her.  I think this great impact is due to the fact that visual things like theater have resemblance with our lives.

•          After the lesson, a question came to my mind. It was why the actors had masks in Ancient Greek Theater. To illustrate, if one had to be a woman, he could wear girl costumes and use make up. That is enough. When I came to my room, I searched that on the internet and I found some information about this. There are a lot of reasons but the best reason which is acceptable for me is that the audience focused on his actions not his appearance such as his face. Also using masks are more convenient because the actors can change their roles without losing time by changing just the masks.

• Through reading “the Poetics of Aristotle”, Aristotelian unities appeared as time, place and action in a tragedy. I think these are very elegant ideas. That is , Time has to be in 24 hours in a tragedy according to Aristotle and this makes the play clearer. Moreover, the play looks like actual life by limiting it with one day. The other one is place. The whole play is at one place. Therefore, actors don’t have to change background and scene can be arranged effectively and glitteringly. The last one is action. There should be one aim in the play . Thanks to that, audience focuses on one thing and they don’t have to try to understand from what they should take lesson. I like these unities. Oedipus is the best example for it.

•          Aristotle put “plot” as the first feature of a tragedy, but why?  He explains it as “the soul of a tragedy” (pg:4,  2^nd parag. ). Maybe it is because of that plot forms the play. It is not just full of acts and scenes; also it contains ways to show the play better.

My journal for THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

• I thought Janie had a very imaginary and creative mind that she had another world in her mind.  She described the nature or saw it in a different way.  For example, in chapter 2, under the pear tree, she described marriage by referring bees.  Then, the narrator asked, “Where were the singing bees for her?”  These bees could be the symbol for men.  That is, she looked at the nature from her specific point of view and commenting on the natural events according to her world.  She wanted to be with a man who was romantic.  The other example was in chapter 4, Joe Starks said, “Call me Jody lak you do sometime.”  I understood this Janie established another name for Joe or she made a reduction for his name.  This showed again that Janie interpreted his name according to her world.  She wanted to say sometimes Jody, so she called him as Jody.

•             While reading the novel, from time to time, I got upset.  My first sadness was that Janie had to get married Logan at the end of chapter 3, and she understood marriage did not make love.  I was sorry for her because she wanted to marry having a love relationship with her husband.  The other time I got upset for her was that Jody wanted her to tie her hair up.  She was dominated by a man who Janie thought she loved him once.  Last disappointing moment was the scene of that Janie killed Tea Cake, in chapter 19.  These sentences were very emotional while reading it “It was the meanest moment of eternity.  A minute before she was just a scared human being fighting for its life .”

•             I like Janie’s some thoughts.  In the novel, she was not interest in political issues.  Instead of this, she was interested in happiness and love.  She spent her life without thinking any social problem or politics.  Because of this, Janie could not be happy with Jody.  When she was with her friend Mrs. Turner, Tea Cake heard that Mrs. Turner wanted Janie to meet her lighter brother in chapter 16.  Then, he did not allow Janie to see Mrs. Turner again.  Janie followed what he said although she liked her as a friend.  I thought, if a person gives up her friend for her boyfriend, she must love him madly.  Alternatively, Janie wanted to be just happy and she did not want to discuss this with Tea Cake, so she accepted his idea.

•             Tea Cake was a liar.  He stole Janie’s money and lied about it in chapter 13.  Then, gambling appeared in the novel.  I thought, Tea Cake spent all her money on card games, but he lost and he did not dare to say this loss.  He wanted to gain Janie’s love and trust again, so he proposed to gain lost money from gambling.  Last semester, I learned from my drama analysis lesson that gambling can be a reference for the chance.  You cannot control the cards and you cannot always win.  To win, you should try more and more or play more.  This gambling looked like Janie’s life.  She tried to find love.  She seemed playing gambling on her life.  Finally, she found her love with Tea Cake.  I understood that a lie or chance might affect our lives in some way .

•             I remembered The Great Gatsby in which we witnessed to racism.  For example, Tom said on page 16, in chapter 1, “Well, it’s a fine book… The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be- will be utterly submerged.  It’s all scientific stuff; It’s been proved.”  He talked about white people should not mix with dark people. Like this novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God had also some racism examples.  One of them was in chapter 16.  Mrs. Turner disliked blacks and she said “Mis’ Woods, Ah have often said to mah husband, Ah don’t see how uh lady like Mis’ Woods can stand all them common niggers round her place all de time”  She loved Janie because of her kind behaviors and hair style.  However, she hated Tea Cake because he had dark skin.  Moreover, in chapter 19, a man said while gathering dead bodies “Don’t dump dem bodies in de hole lad dat! Examine every last one of’ em and find out if they’s white or black…They makin’ coffins fuh all de white folks.” This was a clear example for racism.  Even their dead bodies were not considered the same as white bodies.

•             I think the scene of dog’s biting Tea Cake could be a symbol for the fight between white and dark skinned people.  The dog was described in chapter 18 as powerful and angry.  In those times, white people were angry because they thought they were superior to dark people and they did not want to be seen in the same status with dark people.  If I think the dog as white people, the dog gave harm to its environment and bit Tea Cake who has dark skin.  Tea Cake was described as over tired.  It could be a reference for all dark skinned people that they were tired of being threatened as slavery by white people .

•             Again, like The Great Gatsby, this novel remembered me the class difference.  Gatsby and Myrtle wanted to be like high class Daisy and Tom. They made reaching the high class an aim for their lives.  In Their Eyes Were Watching God, at the end of chapter 6, Mrs. Robbins said “… Mist’ Starks, please gimme uh lil piece uh meat fur me and mah chillun.”  Jody was on the high class because he provided the Eatonville lamps, post office etc… and he earned a lot of money from this.  The other people were hungry.  This was a difference.  The other proof was spittoon.  Not all the people had a spittoon, so it was the symbol of prosperity.

•             At the beginning of the novel, men’s dream like looking ships at a distance was told.  In chapter 18, the dialogue between Bohaman boys and Tea Cake was “Indians don’t know much…  De white folks ain’t gone nowhere.  Dey oughta know if it’s dangerous.”.  Tea Cake as a man looked at Indians’ departure at a distance.  There was a coming hurricane and he decided to stay by thinking that white people knew everything right.  Tea Cake did not move.  The nature is controlled by God, so we can think of the nature as a symbol of God.  It was told in the novel when the hurricane appeared “Six eyes were questioning God.”  For example, people forget God sometimes and when they feel hopeless, they rely on God.  Tea Cake should not have waited for other white people’s departure.  He had a mind and he could have acted according to his mind.  However, they understood nature’s power, God’s power, so they started to worry about their lives now.

My journal for THE GREAT GATSBY

• We moved to Jazz age.  In this age, there were people who love parties, hanging out and smoking all the time.  I have not imagined this kind of life until watching the video about this age in the lesson.  Our guest writer was Fitzgerald with his novel of The Great Gatsby.  In the first chapter, I met Nick and his life a bit.  I think Fitzgerald wanted us to think Nick was a reliable person.  He came from a good and wealthy family, he was in the war, he graduated from Yale and he wanted to work in Eastern to have a career.  All these things put a person in a good quality, so we can trust this person.  Unlike Holden in The Catcher in the Rye, Nick told us events that he did not witness.  For example, the conversation between Wilson and Michaelis was not witnessed by Nick.  Nick said in chapter 8, on page 171, “… a car stopping outside.  It was one of the watchers of the night before who had promised to come back…”  Therefore, this was a bit strange and how can he know this in detail?  Moreover, at the beginning of the novel, Nick said “In consequence I’m inclined to reserve all judgments…”  However, throughout the novel, Nick made judgments about people and he was affected by his feelings while judging them.  To illustrate, Nick said for Myrtle in chapter 2, on page 28 that “… the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door .”  Maybe, she was not so fat.  When we considered that Daisy was Nick’s cousin, I could say that he might be affected because Myrtle was Daisy’s husband’s mistress.  Although Nick seemed reliable, he was not.

•             While reading the novel, I could not decide whether the following events were a symbol of homosexuality or not.  These refer to the end of the chapter 2.  Nick said he just remembered this “I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets, clad in his underwear…”  Moreover, these refer to the definition of Gatsby’s smile.  Nick said in chapter 3, “It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.”  These showed the homosexuality.  However, when I looked at these from another perspective, these had another meaning.  In those times, people gave importance to money and they started to act fake like fake smiles, fake conversations etc…  Because of this fake world, Gatsby’s smile could seem to Nick as a real and natural one.  Therefore, he could be affected from this .

•             In chapter 4, there was a huge list with people, who were invited to the party.  I thought these names could have a meaning.  If they had not had, there would not have been such a long list of names.  Beaver is an animal.  I suspected from this surname.  Then, I looked at other surnames’ meanings from the dictionary.  Becker is a European fish, Leech is a kind of parasite, and Blackbuck is an Indian antelope.  These all surnames are the names of the animals.  This guest list told us something, which was uncovered in the novel.  When all guests came to the party, they were drinking and eating too much, they were hanging out with other partners despite having already one partner.  They were out of humanity.  They acted more like animals.  Fitzgerald chose these surnames and these surnames gave the novel a mystery.  Maybe, my thoughts about surnames can be a bit nonsense, but I believe this had some meaning .

•             One of the symbols in the novel was T.J. Eckleburg.  The valley of ashes was mostly in the tone of grey with the exception of Eckleburg’s blue eyes.  These colors can be considered as some feelings there.  For example, blue reminds us positive feelings like trustworthy.  When I think of the blue of oceans or sky, it gives me comfort.  His eyes were smaller than his body, so I can understand that there was so little trustworthy there.  However, when I think of gray in psychology meaning, it is between black and white.  Its meaning can be authority or conservative area.  All things in the valley of ashes were gray and this means there were some hiding truths like cheating the husband and escaping from being the murderer of Myrtle etc…  However, this gray covered this truth.  Therefore, this was not emerged by Wilson.

•             I think Gatsby has the feeling of loneliness in the crowd and he isolated himself from his environment.  However, there was one character that was the loneliest in the novel, according to me.  This was Nick.  At the end of chapter 1, Nick said the last sentence as “Then I was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station…”  At the end of chapter 5, Nick said, “Then I went out of the room and the marble steps into the rain, leaving them there together.”  Most of the chapters ended with Nick’s loneliness.  He indicated this for each chapter.

• I have not seen a character like Tom.  He was so selfish that he wanted all women for just himself.  He treated them as objects.  When he needed Myrtle, he called her to come to the train station.  When he got angry to her, he hit her.  To talk about Daisy, both Gatsby and Tom considered her as an object.  Gatsby believed when he was wealthy, he would obtain Daisy.  He did not even think of her life.  Tom did not want to be alone, so he kept Daisy in his pocket.  However, this was also the choice of Daisy.  She said about her daughter in the first chapter, “… I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”  She knew that Tom was cheating on her.  She did not go away because Tom gave her his prosperity.  Therefore, she wanted her daughter to be like herself who chose prosperity.

•  When I finished the book, I sympathized with Gatsby.  He wanted to get Daisy and he set out to get her.  He did illegal things, but his desire and passion was so strong that he did not even think of what these illegal things can cause.  Tom was in good condition because his prosperity came from his powerful family.  Gatsby tried to get this wealth alone.

•  In the lesson, we said that Gatsby followed American Dream.  There were dark sides of dreams.  In real life, sometimes I do something I want, but it does not give the feeling, which supposed to be.  Gatsby gained a wealthy life, but he was still unhappy.  He thought when Daisy saw him with this wealth; she would come with him immediately.  According to me, Gatsby’s first fault was he showed himself as if he was rich.  The other fault was his desire to change.  He wanted to put himself into something, which did not reflect Gatsby himself.  For example, he had a large library.  I do not know if he read or not.  He wanted to show himself as sophisticated.  Therefore, besides American dream, this novel can be related to the identity.  The answers of how we can see ourselves (like Nick sees himself honest or Gatsby sees himself wealthy and equal to Tom) and how environment can affect us could be found in the novel after reading it .

•  I finished the book and I started to think what did Gatsby “the great”.  I found an answer.  He was rich and gave parties.  He had a car and a luxury house.  Society knew Gatsby with his parties and his wealth.  This “the great” was seen by the society.  Actually, he was not great.  He committed crimes and he was poor without illegal things.  The novel’s title was a bit paradoxical when I thought in this way .

•  During the discussions in the class, I found something about curtains.  Nick told about curtains in so detail that he said in chapter 1 “The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though…”  I thought it could be a message.  Curtains were moving, so something or someone can move on their lives.  However, others, like couch, cannot move.  Like Gatsby and Myrtle, even they wanted to change their fate, it did not work.  They died like unborn child.

My journal for THE CATCHER IN THE RYE ( from my drama class)

• While I was reading the book, I thought it was just related to a boy’s foolish thoughts.  Also, I was not used to see these kinds of slang words in the novel.  For example, at the beginning of the novel, Holden used the word of “goddam” or “phony”.  It was weird.  However, I appreciated the author because so few people can dare to write the events so naturally and clearly.  When I started to think and see the life of Holden, using slang words did not seem so weird.  Especially boys in those ages use this kind of language.  I felt what Holden told to us was true.  However, this feeling turned to complexity for me in chapter 8.  That is, he lied a lot to the people.  For example, he lied about his name and life of Ernest to Ernest’s mother in chapter 8.  Then, lies came in an order.  Therefore, now I believe Holden was contradictory.

• After the drama analysis lesson, novel analysis seemed to me a bit hard.  It is not just because of novels’ length, also because of characters.  The first novel, which was The Catcher in the Rye, has many characters in each chapter beside of the hero, Holden.  Even in the first chapter, I met Old Selma Thurmer, Old Spencer, D.B., his parents, Robert Tichener, Paul Campbell, Mr. Zambesi etc… All of them were not main characters.  To look from the good side, there was also so detailed information that I could visualize easily what Holden wrote.  For example, in chapter 11, he told something about Jane.  It was: “When he did, I asked Jane what the hell was going on.  She wouldn't answer me, then… Then all of a sudden, this tear plopped down on the check board.”  I imagined this scene like a movie scene.  Therefore, I thought that this book should be a movie.

• In chapter 9, Holden wanted to call someone.  This situation, which was an attempt to call someone to talk, appeared in other chapters, too.  For example, he said “… as soon as I was inside, I could not think of anybody to call up.”  In chapter 15, he again wanted to call someone, but it was Jane.  However, he called Sally.  I felt that Holden wanted to fill his times with somebody.  He did not want to be alone.  Maybe, he was afraid of loneliness.  Therefore, he felt himself in the need of some other people.

•    I was wondering what Holden felt after getting kicked out from the school and while going to New York.  I thought, he had no goal in his mind for his education life and his future life.  Therefore, he might have thought the feeling of being independent. In chapter 1, he went to his history teacher’s home.  He took his own decisions there.  In addition, he went to New York because he did not want to be or feel like adults although it was impossible.  He criticized the adults all the time.

• I love Holden as a teenager because I thought my teenage years and I was a bit like Holden.  He was rebellious against adults, his parents and his brother D.B.  I was like him, too.  Salinger showed the features of teenagers very well in the novel.  Years ago, we thought as teenagers, adults could not be able to understand us and their speeches about our future were like a fish story.  Moreover, Holden thought Spencer did not listen to him and Holden dreamed another thing while Spencer was talking to him in chapter 2.  These are the perfect examples of teenagers.

• I found Holden’s thoughts about adults out of balance.  He said he was the most terrific liar in chapter 3; however, he blamed adults to be phony and liar.  This showed he was also at the edge of being an adult.  He always saw bad sides of being an adult.  For example, Stradlater was a womanizer and his brother D.B. left them.  These kinds of behaviors wounded on Holden.

• In the class, we discussed if Holden was talking to a psychologist or somebody else.  I thought he was talking to us.  For example, when I wrote some events on my diary, I used words like I was talking to the diary.  I personalized it.  Therefore, Holden might have seen the readers of the book like his psychologist or someone who listen to him all the time.  Holden said in chapter 1: “Don’t even mention to me.” and “If you really want to hear about it…”  These kinds of sentences can be used in diaries, too.  We do not write all we have done for each day.  We write just important days.  Holden’s adventures after kicking out from the school would be important for him, so he did not mention about his parents.

• It was very interesting that Holden used slang words even for the girls except nuns.  He mentioned about nuns as innocent people.  For example, in chapter 17, Holden said to Sally that “You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth.”  These were very bad words for a girl.  In contrast, he was careful with his language with the nuns. He did not want to talk to them about Romeo and Juliet because the play had some sexy parts.

• I recognized that Holden was sometimes a dreamer.  In contrast, Sally was more realistic.  On page 71, Holden said “How would you like to get the hell out of here?  ...  We’ll stay in these cabin camps and stuff like that till the dough runs out…”  Sally objected to him: “We are both practically children.  And did you ever stop to think what you’d do if you didn’t get a job when your money ran out?  ...”  Despite of Sally’s realistic point of view, I liked Holden’s thoughts.  They were full of honesty and related to the nature; however, his decisions about whatever he wanted to do in a minute were a bit lunacy.  Maybe, this was because of his youthfulness.

• I wondered why Holden collected broken pieces of the record in chapter 20.  Normally, when something is broken into pieces, we do not take it.  My thoughts about Holden were changing in each chapter I read.  Now, I thought Holden was an unusual character because he gave an importance to the things which other people did not pay attention.  This record may be the symbol of teenagers like the ducks.  No one cared teenagers who were very fragile at these ages. Because of this, pieces of the record were not nonsense for Holden.  He paid his attention to the pieces unlike adults.

• In the class, we discussed about the color of Holden’s hat.  It was red and the symbol of security and like his sister’s hair.  After I heard and notice these symbols in the class, I remembered that red color have some places in the novel.  In chapter 11, Holden told us about Jane and her past.  Jane was important for him.  When she cried, he kissed her whole face except her mouth.  In addition, Jane’s tears dropped on the red square while they were playing the game.  The other one was that Jane was wearing red and white sweater.  As a color of red, it might have this kind of importance for Holden.  Maybe, he remembered Jane.

The view of my digital life

     I found a web site that shows a picture of my digital life.  It was very easy to create.  I just combined the web sites that I used ( youtube, twitter and facebook) in this intel web site.  It automatically showed me which topics I talked about mostly, with whom I talked about mostly etc...  This picture looks like a brain storming activity and it is a nice look to see what you did in a general view in facebook, twitter and youtube.

LESSON PLAN- both... and, neither... nor, either ... or

     I gave some information about  the background of the school and my students.  This lesson plan I prepared was applied to just 10 ART TM and everything was fine.  All the students participated in the lesson and they liked visuals and my post activity. I will show my lesson plan and then upload some photos including my materials I used in the lesson.  This may help you to visualize the lesson.

Here are the some pictures from my materials:

I prepared a bag for my story from Gadget.  I put all the clues as sentences on the papers in this bag.

I stuck my Gadget and I started to tell my story.  Then, I stuck the pictures and clues one by one.

I used colorful papers for the exercises.  The town's football colors are green and orange, so I chose these colors.  Let's look how they seem: 

This is my post activity Mona Lisa Code GAME.  First, I distributed the papers showing which letter corresponds to which numbers.  Then, I stuck one paper which includes some codes.  These codes become a sentence with either or, neither nor and both and.

 The students who finished the first and found the correct sentence won rewards.  After the lesson finished,  I said the other students "next time, do better" and gave them a smaller reward too. :)

I hope you enjoyed it :) !

LESSON PLAN- articles

        In my practice teaching, I taught articles to my students. I wanted to share it with you because it can be an inspiration for you while teaching this topic or you can use it completely, so you can see how it works.
     
       Before that, You may want to know in which type of school this lesson plan was applied.  The school was a college in North Cyprus.  This means that the lessons are taught in English.  This school selects its students with an exam.  The school has classes from 6th to 12th.
   
        I used this lesson plan for two different classes.  Their age level, their class level and learning level are the same, but one of the classes was 10 Science ( mostly maths and science) and the other one was 10 ART TM( Turkish- Maths).  The students' profiles were very different although they seemed similar.  From the beginning of the year, I was observing both of the class.  I'll talk about firstly 10 ART TM.  This class consists of 13-14 students and their English is worse than 10 Science.  However, the atmosphere of the class  was very good and I liked this class.  The other class was 10 Science. This class has 21 students and their English is very good.  There are some Turkish students who came from England.  However, the students in this class gave me a hard time because They did not want to speak in my lesson.  Even if I asked simple questions like " give me an island name", they did not talk. In the previous weeks, they were very active, energetic and participating students with their teacher.  However, they did not participate in my lesson.  I applied the same lesson plan these two classes and I got different feedback for the same lesson plan.

This is my lesson plan:



     

WeVideo

      WeVideo is a web site which you can create a collaborative video. It looks like windows live movie maker.  However, you can create videos online now.

       The features:

• With the help of theme scenes, you can add a different atmosphere to your video according to its content.
• Videos, photos and audios are available in the video together.
• Small notes in the captures make your video more meaningful.
• You can share your video with your friends on facebook or twitter.

...

        Additionally, this is now available in youtube.
        This video can be used for the students in terms of warm- up stage in the lesson, discussions, breaking the boring atmosphere in the class, the students' homework.  For now, I just tried creating a video about my little sparrow.  I chose a memory theme for my video.  I think it needs a bit more time to arrange timeline and  notes on the pictures.

ATATURK THE GREAT LEADER!

Atatürk died at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul 72 years ago. He is the founder of the modern Turkish Republic.  Today, there was a ceremony in memory of Atatürk in my college.  I recognized when I was a child, this ceremony was done with a great sorrow and many people were joining the ceremony.  They were telling poems for Atatürk.   However, as we move away from the day of his death, this ceremonies were shaped in a shorter and different ways.  
I love him very much and I will remember his advices to the youth forever...