Dontaye's Online Journal

In the Tempest and Frankenstein there is a constant dispute between powerful and oppressed voices, by this I mean a certain type of hierarchy. In the Tempest there is constant shifts in whom has the most power such as act 1 scene 1 where a king is put down by the orders of a boat swain during a storm, also in Frankenstein there is an sudden boost in power when Victor witnessed the electricity striking the oak tree. These are brief descriptions of what happens in theses scenes that link to powerful and oppressed feelings of all the characters

In act 1 scene 1 we see a tempestuous storm obliterate a sea vessel planed out by Prospero and Ariel. In this scenario Ariel has the power as it was the one who created the storm and destroyed the ship but Prospero had the control over Ariel, if it wasn’t for Prospero, Ariel would have not done the tasks given to it. On the ship Prospero’s brother, Antonio, was sailing with a few other higher from different regions whilst the storm was over them there was a huge disruption in hierarchy. Alonso, being king of Naples, is supposed to have the most authority over everyone on the ship and the boatswain, the lowest so during the storm Alonso does not know what to do or how to conduct himself on the boat however the boatswain has trianed and knows what to do during times like this

Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!
yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the
master’s whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind,
if room enough!

The boatswain orders the people on board the ship, you can tell that it is very important because the use of exclamation marks at the end of the first three cheers. In my opinion, boatswain is trying to get the attention of all the mariners and then gives out short and precise instructions. At the beginning of each instruction, it starts with a verb, by having a verb like take, tend, blow means that he is giving direct orders for certain actions to be carried out, it can also show a sense of panic because you are saying short instructions to preserve time and maybe to save themselves

In chapter 2 the lightning scene victor is in the middle of a thunderstorm when he witnessed the destructive power of lightning exerted on the grand oak Tree which in this case was blasted to a stump and remnence of the tree were scattered around, whilst observing the event victor was intreeged and was also inspired, inspired so much that he wanted to study chemistry. “watching its progress with curiosity and delight”

While victor was researching different aspects of chemistry he was fascinated in some of the finding that have been discovered and he wanted to venture deeper into chemistry in doing so he dedicated his life to finding all the known facts about that subject. Victor lost all connections with his family and they started to worry about the mental and physical condition he was in. He then became obsessed and was focused on completing his goal ‘ to bring life back to the dead ‘ which is mentioned more in the later chapter

“I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed” “destiny was to potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction”

when the lightning stuck it unlocked the evil power which later comsumes Victor in the comming chapters “I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed”. I feel that him thinking this show us that his thirst for power and that he was waiting for that part bof him to be dicovered also by saying “my utter and terrible destruction” could suggest that he knows he is being drawn into evil.

‘ I escaped, and rushed down stairs. I took refuge to the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited ‘

during this scene victor had just created the monster and was feeling proud of his acomplishment, however when the monster finally moved this sent a shock to victor and he instantly rejects it with little time to think about his action, the monster then seeks Victor. I feel that the power that Victor once posessed has been replaced by the monster because in my opinion Victor is constantly running away from the monster who is persuing him also when the monster finally confronts Victor, it demands that Victor create a female counter-part which Victor creates and destroy, i think this is important because this show denial in the power that the monster has over victor

Come forth, I say! there’s other business for thee:
Come, thou tortoise! when?

in these lines this shows the control that prospero has over caliban ” come forth, i say ” this is demanding that caliban show stop what he is doing and listen to his masters orders or there will be consequences. “come, thou tortoise!” I think this sugguests a slight disobediance from caliban to prospero by say that he does not want to follow the orders that he’ll be given

As wicked dew as e’er my mother brush’d
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye
And blister you all o’er!

Caliban still want to take revenge on prospero for what he did to he mother and when he is faced with prospero always curses him in a manner which would result in death or suffering, in my opinion i feel that caliban has his own power over everyone because he know the island of by heart and is one of main reasons why prospero has not killed him, so in a way Caliban has a small bit of control in that aspect. “a south-west blow on ye
And blister you all o’er!” this show us that he want both prospero and miranda to be scarred for life like having a blister or it could just sugguest that he wants them to both die

This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first,
Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst give me
Water with berries in’t, and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee

caliban is cliaming this island as his own as his mother was her first and he talks about how the island taught him throughout the time that he has been on it

the actions that the monster prefomed out of rage and anger drew Victor closer and closer to him. As soon a Victor destroyed the monsters counter-part the monster set out the hunt victors loved ones one-by-one, by doing so it is trying to cause Victor the same pain that it feels. I think this shows Victor being controlled emotionally by the monsters doing, putting the monster in control of victor both physically and mentally

Do not torment me, prithee; I’ll bring my wood home faster.

Caliban was not used to any outsiders on this island and thought that prospero was tormenting him for bringing home the wood slowly, in this scenario Caliban was put down in the ranks of his own power and made it seem as if prospero was the omnipotent ruler of the island. Also in this quote he tries to reason with prospero to bring the wood back faster, he might of said this so that the “torment” could end

“Hast thou not dropped from heaven?” “I’ll show thee every fertile inch o’ th’ island”

Caliban thought he had been saved from the torment of prospero when stephano and trinculo stumbled upon him the gave him a sip of liquor and from there on caliban treated them like kings “Hast thou not dropped from heaven?”. He also offer to show them around the island “I’ll show thee every fertile inch o’ th’ island” This shows another shift in power because Caliban is treating both stephano and trinculo like Kings and he is being like a slave to them
From my understanding, in both these novels there are constant changes in whom has power over one another, this makes me feel that there is a great sense of movement in both the characters and the setting. In Frankenstein the power only shifts once with Victor trying to restore it however in the tempest the power is constantly being distorted and I think that there are two people that have power in this book, Prospero and Caliban. The reason I think this is because prospero has control over the people who come on to the island but Caliban has knowledge of the whole island and has a small bit of control over prospero in that way
 

Dear Samantha Taylor,

I am writing in response to the article which outlines the perception of teens as “screen – enslaved social inadequates” by Clive Thompson. In this response I will be opposing some of the ideas given in this article. I feel strongly about this because I am a teenager myself. Therefore, I feel that this is an indirect attack on me and my peers and in this response I will be defending the rights of teenagers to socialise via the use of the internet without being stereotyped. Like you Samantha, I also do not believe that these are all representative of teens.

In your article, the idea is presented that teens cannot distinguish between the “meaningful relationships we foster in the real world” and the general relationships formed through social media. I feel that this is very wrong. In my personal experience I have both friends online and in person which I don’t think the internet strengthens or weakens their meaningfulness. I also feel that it helps to form more meaningful relationships. When you travel you would want to keep in touch with those people and it can also make distant relationships more meaningful, as you can communicate between each other which is better than to forget them.

Another point in your article is that a comedian said “he wouldn’t give his daughters mobile phones for fear they wouldn’t develop empathy”. Empathy is the capacity to understand what another person is experiencing, and he is trying to say that a phone will stop that development. I believe that a simple phone does not remove the capacity to understand emotion, most teens have phones but this does not stop them from understanding how others feel. What are the benefits of not having a phone?

Scientist Susan Greenfield claims that “we could be raising a hedonistic generation who live only in the thrill of the computer-generated moment”  which would refer to most of teens being glued to a mobile device and/or computer screen with no understanding of what is happening in the world. Me personally,I have had a lot of experience with computers and games, but this has not stopped from researching certain event that are happening in the real world. I believe that having the computer generated world help teach people about the event that are arising in the world

The first point I want to say is that you cannot base a whole statement on one person because it will create a biased opinion. You asked a teenage girl how often you text, in my opinion I would of taken a survey of about 200 teenagers, because you’ll get an average reading of how much people text, also teens can differ drastically in what they do, because technology is getting more advanced. More and more people and starting to use them, I am aware of how much people use social media, texts and calls, but if you are able to communicate with other people without having to travelling it would be easier. that is why most businesses are starting to form online online.

Another point is that teens are still going through a stage of development and will sometimes follow a crowd of people doing a certain thing to fit in, in this case there is and growing case of teens (and adults) on social media, but an important thing is to not let one group of people affect your views on the rest of the society Some of the most successful people out there such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs started out but doing things on the internet and through that it spread like a virus with hundreds of thousands of people following them in their footstep and if you look at the amount of successful businesses that are online sometimes it could have been teens that started it up Just because it can effect a SINGLE person, that shouldn’t let you talk down to everyone else.

It was a cold December, colder than the peaks of mount everest. The nights were dark; streets frozen over by the freezing temperature, no one was to be seen within arms distance because the fog was so thick, not even light could penetrate it. I had never been to a place where no one speaks to each other. As I struggled to walk along the road, I saw a dark figure slowly start forming in front of me, it seemed like it was approaching me quickly. As I readied myself for an attack I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning my head, I tried to see what it was. I blacked out. As I started to regain consciousness my body was numb. My vision was blurred. I was restricted in place, unable to move. Then I realised I was not alone.

My surroundings were hard to picture as my hearing and vision was impaired with a sharp piercing tone ringing in my ear. I felt numb, unable to move any of my limbs, every time I tried to take a deep breathe, I felt my ribs impaling my lungs. As my vision cleared slightly I could see a little distance in front of me, only then I saw a middle aged man panting for his life; He seemed to have had been brutally beat up with his bloody face and torn shirt. Crippled on the floor, his withered face looked up at me in desperation, I couldn’t do anything but look back with no emotion. Through the sharp tone, I could hear footsteps on the solid concrete slowly becoming louder behind me, but suddenly the sound stopped. As I struggled to turn my head around to search for the source of the sound, I felt the rope which tied my hands together being pulled and loosened. About 30 seconds had gone by and my arms were free, even though I couldn’t move. I felt my body falling off the hard chair, there was nothing to cushion my fall.

Freezing temperatures shocked my nerves just enough to pick myself up , as I leaned against a wall for support I saw a half opened door a couple metres away from me, I began to stagger towards the door with the energy I had left, but I was so desperate to leave this room, I was unaware of the disappearance of the man on the floor. My struggling efforts to open the were just enough to which I could inch my body through the gap, I took a few moments to analyse what lay ahead of me. There was a long corridor with 4 closed doors on the way to the end which wasn’t visible from where I was stood. For once in this situation I felt a sign of hope as I edged closer to one of the doors. Moving faster now, the pain which once took over my body started to wither which allowed me to walk without support. Able to get to one of the doors, and tried to open it, I put my hand of the handle, but as I opened the door, I saw a figure in the corner of my eye. managing to be unseen, I leaped into the room which in the process of doing, I ripped the shirt I was wearing. Little did I know, I ended up in the same room I had previously escaped from and the door that i just closed was half opened again and footstep getting louder for each step. My chest began to get heavy and I started breathing more frequently to the point where I was on my hands and knees panting for air, I looked around to see if there was a way to escape then, I saw my self, motionless, restrained, sitting on a chair.

I was that man.

Dear adults,

In everyday life teenagers are faced with challenges that separate them from everyone else, but why is that? Have you ever noticed that teens are basically doing what adults did but because you have “matured” you identify their actions as a rebellious act towards everyone else, the common perspective towards teenagers is negative (90%of the time) but there is a reason for this, I am here to dispel some of the reasons why teens act this way.

Firstly WE ARE ALL HUMAN. When we are between the ages of 13-19 our minds are very open and we find different ways of expressing feelings. Even when these ‘expressions’ result in injury, most teens will take the risk. Even though this is bad this is not always the case, in fact there are many successful teenagers out there who have got their success from taking risks such as facebook; one of the biggest social media websites in the world, the website created by a teenager who wanted to keep in contact with everyone, little did he know that a local website would go global. Some of the most talented people are teenagers and holds some of the worlds most interesting records, teenagers aren’t always perceived as bad but a large majority of people do not like the way that they act because maybe they were brought up differently or it could be that it is just the people who have had bad experiences with them give them a bad reputation.

Jealousy. I know what you are thinking but its true, certain adults get jealous of teenagers because they have had better advantages than you. Think about it, if adults would have spoken out to a higher being then your words may have affected them in in some way that there would of been a change in what thing you had access to during the time of which you needed it, but wouldn’t you still be jealous? Those advantages you could of had when you were younger would of just been improved in the future so in the end you’ll just have to accept the fact that technology is improving and electronic devices and equipment are just going to keep getting better.

Stereotyping. This plays a huge factor in why teenagers are outcast from everyone else. trends are what influence what teens do, say and wear and nowadays there is a lot of influential content in the media and in the news, and teens either think this is “cool” or “dumb”. If teens think it is cool they’ll start to do similar things to what that person has done or speak in the same dialect as them. This will affect the people around them, as you know first impressions are important ,and if you are walking down the road with your trousers halfway down your legs, hoodie with the hood up, then everyone around you would want to try and avoid you because you present a negative image. On the other hand if the same person, wearing the same clothes (but properly), with trousers where they are supposed to be and hoodie un-zipped with the hood off, then people will react differently.

The final fact is that because the media shows teens doing bad things, it does not necessarily mean that they are ALL bad. Like I said before teens take risks and sometimes those risks pay off leaving them with a good reputation. However, when the risks become too extreme then that is when things get out of hand. Some teens may just only want attention, but they get none so they start a riot and try their best to get attention but in the wrong way. You might be living in debt and you try to find a way to get money and you end up selling drugs or robbing a bank in order to survive. Teens, like all people, react to their changing circumstances and hardships. What’s different is the extent that people, including teens but not exclusively, will do to survive. Perhaps it is true that teens are more susceptible to bad decisions, but they are young and should be forgiven.

 NEVER trust what the media says, they can always put lies into your head to make you think otherwise. There are over 7 billion people in this world, 3 billion of them being teenagers and you’re going to let 1 individual make them all look bad.

Think about that.

Dontaye hudson-francis

Dear Samantha Taylor, the first point I want to say is that you can not base a whole statement on one person, you asked a teenage girl how often you text, in my opinion I would of taken a survey of about 20 teenager because you’ll get an average reading of how much people text, also teens often find it easier to talk/interact with other people through social media web pages, and because technology is getting more advanced, more and more people and starting to use it, I am aware of how much people use social media, texts and calls, but if you are able to communicate with other people without having to travelling it would be easier Another point is that teens are still going through a stage of development and will sometimes follow a crowd of people doing a certain thing to fit in, in this case there is and growing case of teens (and adults) on social media but an important thing is to not let one group of people affect your views on the rest of the society Some of the most successful people out there such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve jobs started out but doing things on the internet and through that it spread like a virus with hundreds of thousands of people following them in their footstep and if you look at the amount of success businesses that are online sometimes it could have been teens that started it up Just because you’ve seen what the internet can do to a SINGLE person shouldn’t let you talk down to everyone else. Certain people online especially teenagers have very imaginative minds You might say the teens don’t care about privacy but because technology is being improved people are finding ways to access people’s personal information so technically its not the teens fault that texts, pictures and videos are being revealed to the public, it could happen to anyone but I think that teens are the main threat because they are the most socially active than any other type of being Sometimes surveys are not enough to get the information you want; it may only look like 9% of teens are concerned about third party companies but I am certain more teens are concerned, they just don’t want to speak out just in case they get criticised on what they say, and also these surveys were taken in 2006 which was 8 years ago people including teens have changed over that time so I would suggest redoing the survey because some of the results that have been recorded may change dramatically both in a good and bad way e.g. a lower percent of people could be exposing their real names but a higher percent posting pictures of themselves in social media sites To sum up never turn a blind eye to a subject just because you think you know what is going on investigate further into the subject and you mind might change

In everyday life teenagers are faced with challenges that separate them from everyone else but why is that, have you ever noticed that teens are basically doing what you did but because you have “matured” you find what they do as a rebellious act towards every else, the common perspective towards teenagers is negative (90%of the time) but there is a reason for this, I am here to dispel some of the reasons why teens act this way.

Firstly WE ARE ALL HUMAN. When we are between the ages of 13-19 our minds are very open and we find different ways of expressing feelings. Even when these ‘expressions’ result in injury, most teens will take the risk. Even though this is bad this is not always the case, in fact there are many successful teenagers out there who have got their success from taking risks such as facebook; one of the biggest social media websites in the world, the website created by a teenager who wanted to keep in contact with everyone, little did he know that a local website would go global. Some of the most talented people are teenagers and holds some of the worlds most interesting records, teenagers aren’t always perceived as bad but a large majority of people do not like the way that they act because maybe they were brought up differently or it could be that it is just the people who have had bad experiences with them give them a bad reputation.

Jealousy. I know what you are thinking but its true, certain adults get jealous of teenagers because they have had better advantages than you. Think about it, if you would have spoken out to a higher being then your words may have affected them in in some way that there would of been a change in what thing you had access to during the time of which you needed it, but wouldn’t you still be jealous? Those advantages you could of had when you were younger would of just been improved in the future, so in the end you’ll just have to accept the fact that technology is improving and electronic devices and equipment are just going to keep getting better.

Stereotyping. This plays a huge factor in why teenagers are outcast from everyone else. trends are what influence what teens:

• do
• say
• wear

And now a days there are a lot of influential content on the media and in the new and teens either think this is “cool” or “dumb”.

If teens think the fact is cool they’ll start to do similar things to what that person had done or speak in the same dialect as them, this will affect the people around them, as you know first impressions are important and if you are walking down the road with your trousers halfway down your legs, hodie with the hood up then everyone around you would want to try and avoid you because you present a negative image on the other hand if you were to wear the same exact clothes but trousers where there should be and hodie un-zipped with the hood off the people aren’t going to think as bad as before, also if you as speaking in an informal manner people are going to take you for a joke and/ or walk away.

Last fact is that because media shows teen doing bad things does not necessarily mean that they are ALL bad like i said before teen take risks and sometimes those risks pay of leaving them with a good reputation but when the risks become too extreme the that is when things get out of hand. Some teens may just only want attention but they get none so they start a riot and get attention but in the wrong way you might be living in debt and you try to find a way to get money and you end up selling drugs or robbing a bank.

NEVER trust what the media says, they can always put lies into your head to make you think otherwise. there are over 7 billion people in this world, 3 billion of them being teenagers and you’re going to let 1 individual make them all look bad.

Think about that.

The cold winter of December, cold as the peaks of mount everest, nights were dark; streets frozen over by the freezing temperature, no one to be seen within arms distance because the fog was so thick not even light could penetrate it. I had never been to a place where no one speaks to each other. As I struggled to walk along the road, I saw a dark figure forming in front of me, it seemed like it was approaching me quickly, I ready myself for an attack, I felt a hand on my shoulder, as I turned my head to see what it was, everything went dark. My body was numb. My vision was blurred. I was restricted in my place unable to move, as I started to regain my consciousness, I realised I was not alone.

My surrounding were hard to picture as my hearing and vision was impaired with a sharp sting tone ringing in my ear. I felt numb, unable to move any of my limbs, every time I tried to take a deep breathe, I felt my ribs impaling my lungs. As my vision cleared slightly for me to at least see a few meters in front of me, then I saw a middle aged man panting for his life: it seemed as he had been brutally beat up and thrown on the floor, as he looked up at me in desperation I couldn’t do anything but look back with no emotion. Through the sharp tone I could hear footsteps on the solid concrete slowly becoming louder, but suddenly the sound stopped, as a struggled to turn my head around to search for the source of the sound, I felt the rope which tied my hands together being pulled and loosened. 30 seconds had gone by and my arms were free, even though couldn’t move, I felt my body falling of the hard chair, there was nothing to cushion my fall.

freezing temperatures awoke my nerve just enough to pick myself up , as I leaned against a wall for support I saw a half opened door about 3 metres away from me, i began to limp toward the door with the energy I had, but i was so desperate to leave this room, i was unaware of the disappearance of the man on the floor. My struggling efforts to open the were just enough to which i could inch my body through the gap, I took a few moments to analyse what lay ahead of me. There was a long corridor with 4 closed doors on the way to the end which wasn’t visible from where i stood. For once I felt a sign of relief as I edged myself closer to one of the doors. whilst I was moving the pain which once took over my body started to decay at which I could walk. I got to one of the doors and tried to open it, I put my hand of the handle, but as I opened the door, I saw a distinct figure in the corner of my eye. I managed to get in quick enough so it wouldn’t see me, little did i know that i ended up in the same room i escaped from and the door that i just closed was half opened again and footstep getting louder for each step. My chest began to get heavy and i started breathing more frequently to the point where i was on my hands and knees panting for air, i looked around to see if there was a way to escape then, i saw my self, motionless, restrained, sitting on a chair.

I was that man.