The proem is the very first part of the Odyssey. It begins with "Speak Memory -" and ends with "And tell the tale once more in our time." The proem sets up many of the major topics/themes of the Odyssey. What do you think you might be able to tell about the topics/themes of the Odyssey just by reading the proem? Use evidence from the proem to support your claims.

The proem at the beginning of the Odyssey is explaining what happened to Odysseus in very little detail. It is like giving a head start into what the book will talk about. The topic within the proem and throughout other parts of the book that stuck out to me the most is the kind of person Odysseus was and how people viewed him. Farther into the book it talked about how important Odysseus was to the people in Ithica and seemed to portray him as a good person. The proem also discusses the kind of person Odysseus was. The proem says, "As he struggles to survive and bring his men home but could not save them, hard as he tried." That part of the poem shows how much Odysseus cared about his men and makes it clear Odysseus was a fighter and unwilling to give up on himself or his men. The proem starts the book off by giving clues into the topic of what kind of person Odysseus was and some of the things he went through.

Final thoughts on Frederick Douglass

The book, "Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass," was an autobiography about Fredrick's life as a slave and his journey to freedom. My favorite part of the book was when he said, “Whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to think of plans to gain my freedom,”(Douglass 58). I wondered why improving your conditions make your urge to escape stronger. Why would being treated better by people make you want to get away from them? Then I realized, the more freedom he was able to have to more freedom he wanted. In my opinion, that is a natural human response. He was deprived of human rights for most of his life and the more he found out what life should be like for him the more his was willing to fight for it.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Dover Publications Inc, 1995

How is education related to human freedom?

Freedom is having the right to act as you wish without anyone stopping you. Having an education has a lot to do with freedom. People with freedom are able to receive an education. People who don't have freedom are usually kept from receiving an education. People with an education are then prone to more opportunities later in life and will be able to create a happy life for themselves. Having the ability to receive an education without someone stopping you is a human freedom. Like freedom of speech, which allows people to say what they want, having the freedom of education allows people to learn what they want.

Why is the ability to read and write a statement about freedom?

The ability to read and write can be interpreted as freedom of expression. Having the freedom to write down what you want and be able to share others ideas through reading was definitely something the slaves did not have. If the slaves had been taught to read or write they would have been able to learn that the condition they were in were not okay. Being able to read and write shows that you were taught by someone. Being taught by someone meant the slave was being treated as a human which did not happen. If slaves had been given freedom of expression they would have not obeyed. Having the freedom of reading and writing would have given the slaves a reason to fight back.

Why were slave families separated? How did it benefit the master?

In the first chapter of, "Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas," he talks about being separated from his family at a very early age. The separation of families would affect the development of the child greatly. This was done to break all connections that the master's slave had. The master would do everything he could to dehumanize his slaves. If the slave felt more like property than a person they had little emotions and would work harder. The slaves wouldn't have compassion towards others because they didn't learn to love their families. Slaves and their families were like strangers to one another.

Ancient Poetry at MFAH

Last week during ELA I found a clay vessel that used to hold wine, oil, and other liquids. This vessel shows combat between two soldiers. One side shows a younger soldier wearing a pleated chiton and a sword over his right shoulder. The other side has an older soldier who is falling backwards and seems to have been stabbed in the leg. This pottery is from 490-480 BCE which is from the time of Archaic Greece. The poetry from this time depicts a lot of war and combat which obviously had an influence on this art piece. Poems from that time period also explore the importance of learning to fight.

Describe three major characteristics of the sub-genre that you chose and apply that knowledge to one of the poems in your sub-genre reader

There are a few main characteristics of an ancient lyrical poem. The easiest one to distinguish lyrical poetry is the fact that they sound like song lyrics. They have a sort of tempo that makes it possible to read in a song rhythm. The lyrical poems also talk a lot about emotion and expressing feelings. 

The poem I chose to use as an example is a poem by Mimnermus:

What is life, what is sweet, if it is missing golden Aphrodite?

Death would be better by far than to live with no time for

Amorous assignation and the gift of tenderness and bedrooms,

All of those things that give youth all of its coveted bloom,

Both for men and for women. But when there arrives the vexatiousness

of old age, even good looks alter to unsightliness

And the heart wears away under the endlessness of its anxieties:

There is no joy anymore then in the light of the sun:

In children there is found hate and in women there is found no respect.

So difficult has old age been made for us all by God!

This poem expresses a lot of anger. I interpreted it as being angry about how life changes as you get older. The author also clearly has strong feelings about death because in line two it says, "Death would be better by far." This is showing how strongly the author feels about. "the gift of tenderness and bedrooms," because the author would rather be dead that to not have time for those things. The main characteristics I had trouble finding in this poem was the lyrics because I couldn't find a rhyme pattern and that is normally what makes a poem sound kind of like a song.