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cantos 21-25

                              "A great flame follows a little spark." - The divine comedy

      In cantos 21 through 25 Dante and the poets continue their travels through the different bolgias. As they travel through the bolgias they find different sinners amongst them all. All of these sinners in bolgias five through seven have commited different sins and that is the reason they are placed in the certain bolgias and have these certain punishments. Each of the sinners most likely did not believe that they committed a big sin during their lifetime, but they know they are getting punished greatly. Just like the quote says a great flam follows a little spark, a little sin is followed by a great punishment.

    In bolgia seven Dante and the poets come to the bank of the theives where they find the sinners who have comitted theivery when they were living. Their punishment in thier hell is to be in a ditch full of reptiles who are surrounding them and torchering them. Some of the sinners get bitten by the reptiles and burst into flames and come back themselves as a reptile, while the reptile who bit them comes back as a human. The punishment for their sin in to be forever painfully changing from a human to a reptile becaue stealing is a reptile like. During thier lifetime these sinners may not have thought that their crime was that bad when they comitted it, but their punishment is now very terrible. "and their great coils of serpents met my sight, so hideous a mass that even now the memory makes my blood run cold with fright." (pg208). This quote is what Dante says about the sight of the thieves because their punishment is so bad. Just like the quote from the divine comedy says a little spark is followed by a big flame, the theives small crime their punishment is terrible.

      In the sixth bolgia the poets come to the hypocrits, who during thier lifetime when agianst their own word. This may not seem liek a huge crime, but in hell they have a terrible punishment. The sinners have to wear heavy capes that weigh them down, and they are forced to walk around a narrow pathway that just keeps going in circles and they never stop walking in these circles. They where heavy capes that make them look holy and heavenly on the outside, but on the inside they are gloomy adn weighed down. this easily describes the life of a hypocrit they act like a good person with good intentions, but on they really go against everything they say they believe in. This may not seem like  a great crime, but the punishment they have in hell is very great. Just like the quote from the divine comedy something small becomes something very large.

      Parents all around the world tell their children not to tell white lies. Even though they may seem small at the time they also grow into something greater and greater until it is uncontrolable. This is related to the quote from teh divine comedy and the cantos 21-25  greatly. Just like the Cantos the sinners have commited small crimes during their lifetime but these small crimes turn into greater crims such as stealing which leads them into reside in hell with a terrible punishment. When people tell small white lies they usually lead into greater lies which get them into trouble. The quote from the dvine comedy states that a small spark will turn into a large flame, just like a white lie could turn into many many more worse lies, and maybe even into hell like the sinnners in the Inferno.

cantos 16-20

    "If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought"- the divine comedy

    In canto twenty Dante enters the fourth Bolgia. He finds here the souls of the fortune tellers. These are the people who during their life thought that they could look into the future and predict what was going to happen.  Dante found such people in this place as Michael Scott and Asdente. It was thought that being able to tell the future what as distortion of god's laws. "who is more arrogent within his soul, who is more impious than one who dares to sorrow at god's judgement?" (page 175) .Because people could see into the future and they went against god's laws they were thought of as making the world change and go astray. When these people looked into the future they changed the course of their live's and others. Just like the quote from the divine comedy states; these fortune tellers were the cause of the world going astray and just like many other people in hell the reason the world is astray can be found within yourself.

   In canto eighteen Dante comes to the eight cirlce at the malebolge which are called the evil ditches. In these ditches he finds people who comitted simple frauds during their life, such as seduction. These people affected others during thier life and fooled them into believing what they thought, they always had the upper hand. For their punishment there was a devil who had total control over them, which is the opposite of what they had during thier life. These people could have caused a lot of problems during their lifetiime because they made others believe what they wanted them to, they made the world go astray like the quote from the divine comedy states. They had a great impact on others around them and treated them very badly. Dante comes upon one person found here who was horrible to their lover and he says "And there he left her, pregnant adn forsaken. Such guilt condemns him to such punishment; and also for medea is vengeance taken." (page 161). Ths is how Dante describes what this man did to his lover and why he is being punished the way he is. When many people act like this in the world it causes the world to go astray, just like the quote from the divine comedy states.

   In canto nineteen Dante comes to the Simoniacs which are the sellers of ecclasiasic favors. These people have a great affect on a lot of teh people in the world and the world as a whole. It can deffinetly be said that they are a reason why the world has gone astray. "O theives for hire, now must the trump of judgement sound your doom hre in teh third fosse of the rim of fire!" ([age 167). This quote is describing how these saimoniacs should be punished. They obviosly did a lot of bad during their life and caused a lot of pain on to others. They caused the world to go astray, and just like many other sinners if they look inside themselves they can find a reason to why they help to cause to world go bad.

blogs 12-15 entry #3

                   “There is no greater sorrow than to be mindful of the happy time in misery.”

 

            In Cantos 12-15 the poets and Virgil are still traveling through the different circles of hell.  They enter the seventh and a little bit of the eighth circle. As they make their way through these circles they meet and see many of the people who reside in hell.  These people are in hell for many different reasons whether it was because of what they did to themselves or what they did to other people. They all have different punishments in hell. Basically they are all living in their own hell. How they are punished is reflective of what they did during their lifetime, and the reason of why they were sent to hell. While they are in their hell they are thinking of the times they had when they were a live. It is like the quote from the divine comedy says there is nothing worse than to be thinking of a happy time while you are in misery.

            The first example from The Inferno that relates to this quote is when Dante and the poets come to the second round of the 7^th circle. In this round they come to the woods of the suicides. This is where they people who have committed suicide reside in hell.  They destroyed the life that they had so for their punishment they become thorny trees with no leaves. There can be many reasons why the suicides became trees. Referring back to the discussion we had in class earlier this week it could be because when these people were alive they had total control of themselves, but as trees they have no control and can easily be hurt. It could also be because when they are trees they can do nothing and they have to think about the life they had when they were alive. This relates back to the quote from the divine comedy because while these suicides reside as trees in misery they have all the time to think back on the happy times they had which is a great sorrow. The only time that these trees can let out their feelings is talk is when they are bitten by the harpies and start to bleed because they are talking through their wounds.

            The second example from these cantos in The Inferno that I found related to this quote from the divine comedy is when the poets and Virgil come to the river of blood in the first round of the seventh circle. This is in canto thirteen. The river of blood is where are the people who are violent are punished in hell. These people are the war makers and the cruel tyrants. Such people are found here as Alexander the Great and Attila the Hunt. The people found here are set forever to live in boiling blood because of what they did during their life. Because they took blood from others they will forever be in blood. These tyrants are living in their own hell and everyday they are in this boiling blood they have time to think about what it was like to live. They think about all the good times they had during their life while they reside in the river. Like the quote from the divine comedy says that there is no greater sorrow than to be thinking of happy times when you are in misery, just like these tyrants are doing when they are in the misery of the bloody river.

            The third example from cantos 12 through fifteen of The Inferno is what Dante says to Ser Brunetto Latino when he sees this hero of his when he comes to the Sadomites in the 8^th circle. Dante is talking to Ser Brunetto when he says “ ‘Up there in the happy life I went astray in a valley,’ I replied. ‘before I had reached the fullness of my years. Only yesterday at dawn I turned from it. This spirit showed himself to me as I was turning back, and guides me home again along this road.’” (page 137). This quotes describes how happy life is in the world when a person is alive, Dante is explaining how he got of the road in the happy life. When he is talking to Ser Brunetto about the happy life it makes Brunetto think about the life he once had, but now that he resides in hell he is in misery and thinks more and more about the happy life he had. Just like the quote from the divine comedy states there is no greater sorrow than thinking of happy times during a time of misery. This is exactly how Ser Brunetto is feeling when Dante talks to him.

The Inferno Cantos 6-11

              

               "Consider your origin; you were not born to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge."

     Cantos 6-11 in Dante's Inferno describe what the hell that the I character finds himself in is like. It describes what the hell looks and smells like and also describes the people that reside in the hell. The quote above greatly relates to the book as a whole, but also is relates to these cantos six through eleven. The quote greatly relates to the people that are found in hell and why they are there, it also relates to why the description of what hell looks like is the way it is.

     The first way that this quote relates to these cantos is when the I character describes what the hell he has come to looks like how it smells. He finds the hell is somewhat of a wasteland, the weather is bad and the smell is horrendous. The quote that I found in the book that describes this is ; "Huge hailstones dirty water and black snow pour from the dismal air to putrefy the putrid slush that waits for them below." (page 66) This is how the I character describes what the hell is like when he first sees it. The hell is like is waste plant because that is the way that it is taken care of. The people in the hell are bad people who do not no how to take care of their world, even when they were living. This means that they were living like brutes like it states in the quote from the divine comedy, and this could be the reason why they are in the hell and why their hell looks like this. The hell could be different for everyone, since the people who reside in it lived like brutes and did not take care of their world when they were alive that is why they have to reside in such a terrible place.

      The second way that this quote from the divine comedy relates to cantos six through eleven is when the I character is describing the people that he sees in hell. These people are the ones who did bad in the world, they do no live their life to the fullest they hurt themselves and others around them. When the I character sees the different groups of people in hell that had used violence in their life. There were such groups as; killers and the suicides. When he saw the suicides he said; "The suicides and all who gamble away and waste to good and substance of their lives and weep in that sweet time they should be gay." (page 105). This quote directly relates to the quote above because these people didn't live their life to the fullest when they were alive they wasted the good substance of their lives, just like the quote says above that people are not born to live like brutes and since these people did they were sentenced to hell. The quote from the divine comedy also says that people should follow virtue and knowledge, must like this quote from Inferno says that the people should be happy and gay.

      The third and final way that this quote relates to the book is the most obvious. The quote that i found from Inferno is when the I character comes upon some the buried people in hell. He read this from one of the gravestones as he entered hell; "I guard Anastasias, once pope, he whom Photinus led from the straight road. (page 104). This quote is saying how this person who is buried in hell got there. He was once a pope, or good person, and he was headed on the straight path to one day reside in heaven, but this other man lead him off of his path and now he resides in the horrible world of hell. This relates to the first quote because it talks about how in life you are supposed to live by virtue and knowledge, like this man was doing on the straight path. The quote also says that men are not born to live like brutes, but after this man got sent off from his straight path he started to live badly and became a brute, which eventually led him to the hell he resides in.

 

Cantos 1-5

Dante's Life:

Youth

1. His mother died at a young age            2. Father remarried

3. He was left orphaned and abandoned    4. He befriended poet, Guido Cavalcanti

Middle Years

1. Took part in the battle of Campaldino and the capture of caparona

2. in 1299 he filled a minor ambassadorship    3. He married Gemma

Older Years

1. His first friend Guido died during Dante's banishment    3. Spent last 19 years with a series of patrons in

2. His voluntary absence was considered exile under the penalty of being burned alive.

 "In the middle of the journey of our life i came to myslef within a dark wood where straight way was lost."

    This quote from Dante relates directly the book The Inferno. In the book the charecter "I" is suppose to be protraying Dante, and through what this charecter says it can directly relate to this quote. When reading the first five cantos there were many places in the story that related to this quote adn many of the relations were through the "I" charecter. The first quote that i took from the book greatly related to this quote from Dante. The quote is; "Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in the dark wood." (Page 28). This quote is greatly similar to the quote from Dante, it is basically the same quote only reworded. To me both of these quotes are saying the same things. The person, or in this case "I" protraying Dante himself, is trying to reach a place (maybe heaven) but they get off course and end up in a dark wood (maybe being hell). These two quotes relate greatly to one another and they are greatly represented in The Inferno.

      The second quote from The Inferno that directly relates to this quote from Dante is ; " here must you put by all division of spirit and gather your soul against all cowardice." (page 42). This quote is taken from the book when the "I" charecter is at the gates of hell. He is told what the sign above the gates mean. This describes what it is like in hell, which also relates to the dark wood from Dante's quote.  It says "gather your soul against all cowardice" this greatly relates to the quote because when it says that i lost my way from the straight way and ended up in a dark wood, it is greatly needed for this person to gather their strenght and not be cowardly in order to make it through. just like how the "I" charecter needed to be strong to get through hell, this person the quote above is describing also needs to gather their strenght to get out of the wood and back on the straight way.

       The third quote from The Inferno that can be related to Dante's quote is; "and having risen; rested and renewed, i studied out the landmarks of the gloom to find my bearings there as best i could." (page 50) This quote greatly relates to Dante's quote from above. In his quote  i describes how the person is lost from their straight way and end up in a dark wood that they have never been in before and this is scary to them. In the quote from The Inferno  it states that the "I" charecter has found themselve in a bad place that was unfamilar to them, but after resting adn renewing themselves they find their bearings to survive in this new place, much like the person in Dante's quote must do after find themselves in the unfamilar dark woods.

church vs. state

Question(s):  Will the American government come to a place where a balance can be forged between religion and the state (or are we already there)?  How do you see the role of religion in the civil affairs of government in the United States

     Throughout my elementary, middle school and highschool career I have been in a lot of history calsses. While sitting in these classes I have heard and learnt a lot about the government and the religous stature of different states and countries.  I have also learnt a lot about the relationship between the church and the state. People have a lot of different ideas about the relationship between church and state some think they should be connected, but there are also many who think these two should be and always be seperated.  My personal opinion is that they should be seperated and they have no reason to mesh with one another.

     I do not believe that the United States have come to a place where religion and state are seperated. I feel that the government may not be trying to have an impact on the church adn religion, but I think that they do. From what I have seen and experienced is that people in the United States are so  greatly impacted by their government that their idea of religion is changed because of the government. It seems that without even trying the government basically tells its citizens what religion to practice and how to practice it. I do not strongly practice any religion but i feel that if I was to feel strongly about a religion i would not want that religion to be impacted by the government.

     I feel that the government cares greatly about religion as a civil affair. If you look at our country there are so many types of people who all practice different religion and beliefs. Our government has welcomed all of these people with very few questioning. A lot of what the government does for our country is based on the good of its people, and there is no doubt that the government cares greatly about their people's religous beliefs also.

Leader

Question(s): How do you truly know when someone is competent to lead? How do you define a great leader in terms of the qualities that he or she exhibits? Use examples from "The Iliad" to support your arguments.

       Becoming a leader comes with a lot of responsibility. when a person takes their place as a leader they become the controller of a group they are the one that is looked up too, and the one that everyone comes to with problems adn questions. only certain types of people can be considered good leaders. you have to be a strong, independent and smart individual that knows what to do when a problem occurs. there are certain qualities that a person must exhibit in order to be considered a good leader or a leader at all.  a leader must be independent to make the best decisions, not for themselves but for the group they are leading. a leader must be strong so that nothing can bring them down and they will stay a leader for thier required time period. a leader must be supportive of themselves and especially to the people they are leading, meaning they must be kind to thier supperiors and help  them when there is a problem. Lastly a leader must be intelligent, they must know  a lot about what they are leading. If a superior comes to them with a question they should know how to solve it.

     in the Iliad there are many leaders and they all lead for different reasons. an example of a leader is Zeus, who is said to be the leader of all the gods. he sees everything adn hears everything, this way he knows how to handle situations. he is an all powerful god and many have come to worship and look up to him which makes a good leader. there are some curcomstances where Zeus does not lead in the correct way because he lets his popularity get to his head adn thinks that nothing he does is wrong, but many leaders have this feeling. this can be a good quality for leaders to have sometimes because it leads them to make strong decisions and never look back on what they have done. overall Zeus is one of the most famous leaders in the Iliad adn everyone knows his name.

Heroes in the western culture

    

  It seems that any film that has recently come out these days always have a male role as the hero. it doesn't have to be these days those in the past it was also like this. if you look at movies such as; batman, superman and even in sports movies the heros always are male. this is just what is normal for the western society. there have been films that have appeared that have a female hero, but they don't seem to do as well in the theatres as the male hero movies.

    In these films where the male charector is protrayed as the hero the female charector is usually the victim. the female is the person who is being saved by the male hero. this protrays that females are weaker than males and when they are in trouble they need a man to save them, which isn't true all of the time. there have been movies that have come out in the past years that have had a women as the hero in the story. the western culture isn't used to this and they don't support these films as much as others. the movie cat women came out this past year and it stared hally berry as the main charector as a hero. the film didn't get a lot of support in the US, but in other countries it was a well selling film. this goes to show that the western society is still stuck in thier ways that women can't be heroes, but in other countries they are open to it.

    I'm not sure if there is a way to break this steryotype of men being heroes. it seems that the western culture if very stuck in thier ways, and this means they will strongly see men as the hero figure. men have always been considered the stronger of the sexes, because they used to be. in today's world it isn't like that women play just as large of part, sometimes even larger part, as the men do. since men and women have equal rights and are treated with the same deal of respect they should both be able to play the hero role, because in the real world they more than often share the role. i don' t think there is exactly one way to break this mold, but i think that as time goes on people will start to realize that women can be as strong, if not stronger, as men and they will soon take their spot as the hero.

Response to Howard Dean's statement and Hurrican Katrina

     Hurricane Katrina stormed over the enitre Gulf Coast during it's span, but the most affected area was New Orleans. many homes and lives were destroyed in this city. women, men, children and elderly of every race,  financial ground and age were killed or hurt during this terrible storm and there is no difference between each of thier live's a life is a life no matter how you look at. Howard Dean stated that race, age and class were primary factors in who suffered adn died as a result of Hurriane Katrina. i can agree and disagree with this statement. i think that some parts of this are true, but i really disagree with the fact that they are.

     I would say that class would be the biggest factor out of the three for people who survived. class has to do mainly with the amount of money somebody has. a person living in new orleans who has a lot of money most likely has a better chance of getting out of the city to a safer enviroment, which means a better chance of living. if a person with less money, of a lower class, was trying to leave the city there might be too many people trying to escape and they might get stuck in thier homes. in this way i would agree with Dean saying that class had was a factor in surving the huricane.

    When citizens were trying to escape from the hurricane certain people were able to go before others. women before men and the oldest and youngest first. this is how it is during most disaster when people are in need of help.  when Dean stated that age was a factor in surving hte hurricane i agree. the elderly and young were rescued before the middle aged more healthy people. this makes sense to me because they have a better chance of survivng the hurricane than and old women or young baby. just like women before men, it should go youngest and oldest, before healthy middle aged.

    when Dean said that race was a factor in who was killed or injured during Katrina i strongly disagree. there is a great diversity of people in New Orleans, and black, white, asian or whatever race all had a equal chance of surivivng. the leaders did not look at people's races in order to decide who would be sent to safety it was decided on many differen't factors. All races are equal, especially in a city like New Orleans that has a very diverse population.

     I don't think that any factor should decided who lives and who might not during a disaster like hurrican Katrina. i think that everyone should have an equal chance to get to safety, but i know that there are factors that do affect who survived. when a city is not ready for a disaster there are few ways of exscaping. i think that in the future in order to give everyone a fair chance of suriving cities should plan ahead for disasters and have ways of transportation to safety ahead of time so they know what to do when it does happen.