Dante's Inferno

In Dante's Alighieri's Inferno, Dante and his guide travel through the levels of hell. Each level of hell is designated for a certain sin and punishment which are then split up into cantos. As they travelled farther into hell, the actions and punishments became more severe. Some people were even put into hell for being overweight or being homosexual. Dante and his guide got to see first hand what hell was like by watching the people suffer in the specific level of hell. The most severe canto in hell, contained people who were fraudulent and the treacherous.

I chose to study the 29th canto. I didn't really have a very compelling reason to study this canto. Though with a little background knowledge I knew that every person in the 8th circle was alchemist, impersonator, false witness, counterfeiter, hypocrite, and so on. They are basically people who are pretending to be someone they're not. Therefore in my canto all of the people are trying to pick off their scabs and alter their appearance themselves in someway. This self damage is metaphorical to the way that they falsified themselves in real life. I am excited to make the visual most out of all of the elements of the project because I feel like it is interesting to pair a metaphorical element with a story.

HELL Reflection

At first I was skeptical about creating my own "personal hell", mostly because it is such a dark subject, and I usually try to avoid thinking about death and the after life. Though as I began writing I began to realize the underlying meaning to the assignment. The prompts got me thinking about who "deserves" to go to hell. It is really hard to decide who really deserves the grueling punishment of hell. I came to the conclusion that everyone has done something bad in life, whether they want to admit it or not. So in my hell, everyone would have to prove themselves in some way before they go to hell or to heaven. This would show their true colors, and make it easier to decide who would go to hell.
This topic leads us into our next section of Dante's Inferno. I do not know much about this book. I know from previous discussion that Inferno is Italian for hell. I also know that it is a epic poem about Dante's journey through hell.  It will be interesting to see what others interpret as hell, though I can already tell that this will be a very deep read.

Personal HELL

Everyone has done something bad in life, no person is perfect. But in the end it is about self redemption and doing more good things in life than bad. I do not believe in hell but if I were to create a personal hell most people would land themselves in an in between place like a purgatory, before they were to go to heaven or hell. This is where they would be weighted, and given time to redeem themselves and realize what bad things they have done throughout their life and what they can do to reverse their fortune. The people that have committed crimes that are unforgivable will go straight to hell. These people are people incapable of remorse, they do not feel sorry for any harm they have created on society.  

1. To get into my personal hell you would have to be a person incapable of remorse. After these people committed a crime they would not feel any guilt. People like this do not have a moral compass and are not capable of being forgiven for their sins. Theses unforgivable people are those like Austin Sigg, and James Holmes who take innocent peoples lives. Most all of rapists should automatically go to hell. Though most people that have committed awful crimes can change into a person of remorse and truly be regretful of their sins. These people that are able to redeem themselves can travel to heaven.


2. As a punishment they would be forced to watch their crime on a constant repeat played old televisions. They would see their victims faces, after they have committed the crime. They would be constantly reminded of the torture they placed on their victims. They would also be chained together pulling the "weight" of their crime, also constantly being electrocuted by the energy of their victims. There would be a sewage stench in the air and flames of fire constantly surrounding them. They would be confined to a trash slum to sleep at night only accompanied by rats and other night rodents. To make for an unpleasant sleep there would be a fire alarm sounding constantly. There would be no physical torture only intense mental torture.

3. The hell looks like a run down industrial park surrounded by a slum of trash. People in it are moping around with no purpose and miserable. It would smell of rotting flesh, death, and disease. Because of all of the fire there would be piles of dark ash on the ground and most everything would be burning or burned. There is no silence in the hell only screams of constant reminders of the their wrong doing. A sane minded person could not stand to live in this torturous zone very long without caving in. There will always be an episode of 20/20 playing in the arena.


4.There is absolutely revival and escape. If and only if someone does believe they can contribute positively to society. I can't think of anyone specific that would be able to escape, but personally I believe even the most terrible people have the possibility to change with the right guidance. Some people though that are not capable of change or simply do not want to change will live in this hell for eternity. Escape and revival are all dependent on the persons tolerance for this hell, and their willingness to change. Though people with metal illness, which the illness prompted them to commit a crime should receive the proper treatment so they have a chance to change also.

5. To represent my hell I would choose a television. This television is what is constantly reminding the people in hell of their crime because that's what is constantly playing on the tv. It would become a symbol of disappointment and shame. Though it is still there a constant reminder.


6. As I said before I would put the majority of the people in "purgatory" where they would show to either go to heaven or hell. The people that don't go to purgatory and just straight to hell would be people like James Holmes and Austin Sigg. I would also put rapists, murderers, and pedophiles in hell. Most people would be able to prove themselves and escape though few others, who would not be able to prove themselves a recovered person would have to suffer in hell for eternity. Also self entitled people would be included, these people do not contribute positively to society at all, nor give back. These greedy people deserve to go to hell.  

The Prestige

For the past few weeks we have been working on our tragic hero movie posters in class. We choose The Prestige for our movie poster. My part of the tragedy that I studied was the catastrophe. In our essays, which we turned in recently, I compared my element of the tragedy to the catastrophe in Oedipus Rex. The Prestige has a very complex plot, where two main characters are profiled, it moves between present day and flashbacks. So at some points in the movie it was very hard to understand, though after watching it a few times it all seemed to make more sense. My favorite part of the project was when we finally got to design the poster in a thematic way that related to the movie.

Blue was very for the theme of the poster because it is the color of electricity which played a huge role in the movie. Electricity is what produced the many clones of Robert Angier, the protagonist in the story. The clones in the movie are what fuelled his hubris and made him feel unstoppable, even though later on in the movie he does realize what he is doing is wrong, by killing one of the clones every night. The birds on our poster also are important because it shows how some birds (Borden, and every other clone) survive the trap and the other, darker, falling birds are the ones that didn't make it (Robert Angier). Lastly the red ball which is bouncing off of every picture shows  the obsession that Angier had with his tricks. Angier became obsessed with these tricks because he was intrigued by the reaction from the audience every time he performed it. The theme was by far the my favorite part about this project.  

Titanic Reflection

While watching the Titanic I began to see all parts of the tragic hero journey play out. What makes the captain of the Titanic a tragic hero is his initial arrogance and overconfidence. He believes that he can conquer anything and in the process he puts other lives in danger. Because of his high status others did not question his risky decisions, at least not directly that is. That fuelled his ego even more and he began to push the abilities of the ship to their breaking point. In this way he is selfish because he realizes if he makes the ship go as fast as possible he will become even more famous and well known. This unity of action is what the audience begins to pick up on, cause and effect chain of events.
 The peripeteia or reversal of intention comes when others realize that the ship isn't supposed to be going so fast but they light up another engine anyway. The captain's hubris gets in the way of reality and others safety. Anagnorisis comes when the crew members see a iceberg in the distance and the captain and his co-workers understand the effects of the lighting of the extra engine. The scene of chaos then comes into play when many on the ship come to a survival or death conclusion. Due to the limited life boats on the ship the majority of people will die, some people except that fact and others do not and fight for hopeless survival. Lastly the cartharsis is shown when the boat is finally sinking and many lives are brought to a close. Also the captain is shown in his quarters going down with the rest of the ship peacefully as he realizes the effect that his small decision has had on the rest of the people on the ship.