I could not figure out how to save and attach my picture.  But in the picture, I am completely bundled up with gloves and a scarf and waiting at the bus stop.  This is because I feel like that is ALL that I do.  I'm continuosly layering up to go outside and waiting for the bus.  My facial expression is tried, frustrated, and fed up with everything.  My hair is completely frayed and going everywhere.  I am SO TIRED of snow and I feel like it's never going to end.  A few of my classes are really frustrating and I'm trying to work I really hard, but sometimes I don't feel like it's paying off.  I'm ready for a break from classes and exams.  I can't wait for spring break so I can go somewhere without snow and not have to think about school for a while.

The time period of Odysseus is obviously completely unlike today and probably very unrealistic.  During those times it probably was acceptable to take one's own revenge to a certain extent.  The book is entirely based on revenge and it shapes the way all the characters act.  It seems every action is spurred from the need for revenge.  I'm not even sure that I neccessarily agree with it in the book.  In the slaughtering of the suitors, there were some who regreted what they had done but they still had to die because "Athen destined them to die".  I think that what Odysseus did was too strong a reaction, which is the major problem with doing things yourself.  When someone has wronged you, your judgement becomes clouded.  Revenge never works appropriately.  Often times, the punishment is worse than the crime.  This just sets off a chain reaction that doesn't solve anything.  An example of this is the fathers of the suitors who wanted to attack Odysseus because he killed their sons.  For revenge to be actual justice, the punishment of the person who committed the crime should be decided by a group of impartial people.  Odysseus' style of revenge would obviously not work today.  If someone had a relative who was murdered by someone and then they went out and found the killer and killed them, they would still go to jail.  It's wrong to be the "vigilante".  It's not really justice at all.  I don't think that justice can ever be put into the hands of just one person for them to decide.  You have to do what is fair.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/academic/department/AandL/classics/epicpage/circe_barker.jpg

This is a picture of Circe at her home with lions and wolves at her feet.  I thought it was a very interesting painting and exactly what I pictured Circe to look like.  In this picture Circe herself looks very inviting and beautiful.  Her arms are open, shes smiling, and she is exposed on top.  It seems her sole mission is to tempt in travelers.  Her home looks very rich and luxurious with the large colomns and the flowers on the steps.  At the same time, however, she does look very ominous because the lions and wolves are lying and lounging at her feet.  It obviously seems as though they are under some kind of spell.  I think this is the epitome of the "woman as temptress".  She is displaying alot of power by having the lions and wolves at her feet.  I really like how the artist portrayed her and I really like the painting in general.  I think it is a very good representation.

1. The fairy tales by Grimm and Anderson, and the stories by Jewett, Carter, and Oates, all have very similar underlying meanings.  They all have a central character who is young and pure, who is later corrupted by a menacing figure.  They all have a path that they are supposed to stay on, or they are supposed to act or live a certain way.  The young, pure character’s all have some sort of temptation or things that draw them off the path.  In the Grimm and Anderson stories however, the pure character maintains her purity and moral throughout the story.  In the other stories, however, the young girls almost seem to part of the temptation or “evil” and they do not maintain their innocence in the end.  2.  In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, it starts out describing Connie personality and relationship with her family.  The story builds up as you learn that Connie strays of her path when she lies about going to the mall and goes with her friends to hang out with boys.  It climaxes when an older man she saw once shows up at her house when she is alone and convinces her to leave with him.  There are examples of the Hermeneutic Code when you realize that Connie kind of leads a double life and when she first sees Arnold Friend when he says, “Gonna get you, baby.”  It raises questions about what might happen.  There are also examples of the Proairetic Code when she skips the mall to go somewhere else so she meets Arnold Friend, and when her family leaves so that she is home alone.  These events just lead into the story.  3. The stories of “Cinderella” and “The Little Mermaid” are very similar to later versions such as Disney.  The main difference in “Cinderella” was that they took out the gorier parts that would not be suitable for a younger audience.  The main difference in “The Little Mermaid” is the ending.  In the earlier version she does not end up with the prince and the witch is not as evil as she is portrayed in the Disney version.  It is more a story of her search for a soul, rather than the normal contemporary fairy tale where the main character ends up with the prince.  The more contemporary fairy tales are made to fit the common mold and have happy endings.