-Starts in Odysseus’ halls
-Athena (off-stage) “inspires” Penelope to get out the Bow (gun in our case) and the iron axes (targets in our case) for the competition
-Penelope goes upstairs to her room, and with a special key, unlocks the door to the secret room in which Odysseus’ treasures are kept (gold, silver, bronze, weapons, etc.)
-when she opens the big, old door, it creaks and groans
-(the details of the room are from lines 60-70 on page 426
-at some point, Penelope delivers the bow (gun) and axes (targets)
-This is an important sign, because making the choice to hold a competition to see which suitor is most
worthy to marry herself requires her to make the decision to give up believing Odysseus will return to her
-the information from lines 78- 109 in The Odyssey are important note at this point
-telemachus is the first to try, so he sets up the axes (targets) and tries to string the bow (shoot the targets). After a few failed attempts, he says something from line 149 to 154
-following Telemachus’ little speech, Antinous speaks to the all the suitors from line 159 to 161
-then, the first suitor attempts to shoot the targets with the gun (string the bow)
-he follows up his attempts with a small speech that is from line 172 to 185 in The Odyssey
-Antinous speaks again from line 191 to 198
-another suitor tries to shoot the targets (string the bow)
-the suitors continue to try as Odysseus takes the swineherd and goatherd outside
-details for this scene are in lines 218-269

-other important parts are found in lines 440-464, and on line 350

if this is not clear, the Word document I have attached may be more understandable Book 21

The armies are standing opposed to one another, prepared for fight, when they agree to a treaty that the whole conflict will be decided by a duel between Paris and Menelaus. Paris is overcome in the duel, and is only rescued from death by the intervention of Aphrodite. When Agamemnon presses for the fulfillment of the treaty, the Trojan Pandarus breaks the peace by shooting an arrow at Menelaus, and the agreement falls apart.  (Trojan War Summary)

This is an interesting detail.  The Greeks and the Trojans agreed to decide the entire conflict be having a duel between Paris and Menelaus.  The winner would determine the winning army.  But Aphrodite intervened when Paris was nearing death, and when Agamemnon proposed to fulfill the treaty Pandarus broke the piece with an arrow.

          I am still confused about what happened to Helen.  We talked about it in class, but neither of the documents fully explained the whereabouts of Helen by the end of the Trojan war.  So, it becomes hard to believe what was talked about in class if the two documents I just read did not mention that Helen was in Africa the entire time.  Actually, the Trojan War Summary started off by talking about the disappearance of Helen and when the other went off on his (necessary) tangents about the war, he seemed to have forgotten to explain what had happened to Helen, the reason for the war.

          I cannot be sure why the Trojan War is such a well known story.  But I think the story of the Trojan War is so well-known because it demonstrates the ways in which society worked back then.  When there was a feud between two people, it was taken to the battlefield.  It is a clear demonstration of humans’ emotional insecurities.  Throughout history, people have blown things out of proportion.  I don’t remember where I heard this from, but I read or someone once said something like, “People cause bigger issues to solve smaller ones.”

          Odysseus’ experiences in the Trojan War will influence other things in the Odyssey besides his actions.  In the Trojan War, Odysseus fought hard when he was alone, but when he needed help it came to him.  There were times when he fended off the enemy alone on the battlefield and when he needed help the most his companions would conveniently join him by his side.  This is already seen in the sections we have read in The Odyssey.  Odysseus has been at sea for nearly five years and his son is putting together a crew and going out in search of him.  His son’s action could eventually become the reason he is able to return home.  Also, Odysseus’ determination in the Trojan War will probably reflect itself in The Odyssey.

Perhaps they had a secret process for making chickens chemically—who knows? Said Jurgis’ friend; the things that went into the mixture were tripe, and the fat of pork, and beef suet, and hearts of beef, and finally the waste ends of veal, when they had any.  They put these up in several grades, and sold them at several prices; but the contents of the cans all came out of the same hopper.  (Sinclair, 96)

In a second example the same idea came into play with sausages.

Some of it they would make into “smoked” sausage—but as the smoking took time, and was therefore expensive, they would call upon their chemistry department, and preserve it with borax and color it with gelatine to make it brown.  All of the sausage came out of the same bowl, but when they came to wrap it they would stamp some of it “special,” and for this they would charge two cents more a pound.  (Sinclair, 135)

The quality of the sausage meat was also never paid any attention either.

There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped in the hoppers, and made over again for consumption.  There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs.  There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it.  It was too dark to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats.  (Sinclair, 134)

            It was not only during the rainy and snowy months that the road was in bad shape.  They were bad all year round.  Rotting wood planks served as sidewalks in some places, and the sidewalks were raised many feet above a dirt road below.  Little Antanas, Jurgis’ son, died from falling through the planks, getting stuck in the mud below, and eventually drowning in it.

            Stanislovas witnessed a boy lose his ears walking to work in the cold.  The boy came in whining that his ears hurt.  A man uncovered them and found them frozen stiff.  The first thing the man thought to do was to rub them in an attempt to warm them up.  “It took only two or three rubs to break them short off.”  (Sinclair, 79)

Fortunately, Jurgis and his family did not have to find this out the hard way like the last four families to occupy the same house.  They met an old woman and her grandson who informed them of the actualities.  This information did not matter any to Jurgis and his family though, because would lose the house later on for a different reason.  After Jurgis went to jail his family could not keep up with the monthly payments.  At which point, it was the salesman’s decision to kick them out of the house or not.

Even though Jurgis never died from the very bad working conditions he was in Old Antanas did.  Antanas felt that even though he was old, he didn’t have to stay home and not do any work to support the family.  So, he forced himself to walk to and from work.  As time went on he got sick and developed a cough.  But Antanas didn’t give up fighting and his cough got worse and worse.  Not only was Old Antanas’ cough making him weak, but the factory that Antanas worked in was literally eating at him.  Two or three inches of salt peter dissolved in water covered the entire area in which he works.  And like an acid the salt peter ate through his boots and gave him horrible sores on his feet until he could get to and from work anymore.  So Antanas eventually had to stay home and lie coughing in bed all day.  This continued until he died one night after coughing up a lot of blood.

Many of the jobs in the city of
Chicago had a statistical limit as to how many years a person could last in a certain job.

There were the beef-luggers, who carried two-hundred-pound quarters in to the refrigerator-cars; a fearful kind of work that began at four o’clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men in a few years.  There were those who worked in the chilling rooms, and whose special disease was rheumatism; the time limit that a man could work in the chilling rooms was said to be five years.  (Sinclair, 98)

            The actual story begins with a wedding celebration for Jurgis and Ona.  They are very nervous about paying the bill for the wedding ceremony. 

            In school I have learned that factories of the 19^th century used to provide horrible working conditions for their employees.  Assuming that everyone knew this and thought that the conditions should be improved, I would think that the working conditions in the 20^th century would be better that those in the past.  However, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair firmly challenges my beliefs.  When describing the environment of the meat packing town in
Chicago, Sinclair includes true details about it.  The sewage puddles and pitch black smoke billowing out of the chimneys of the factories are only a few of the many gross details that I will come upon when reading The Jungle. 

            This book greatly reminds me of Supersize Me, because this book shows what really happens in the meat-packing factories in
Chicago and Supersize Me demonstrates what really happens when you eat McDonald’s food.

“The memory of my happy, care-free childhood days on the plantation, with my little white and black companions, is often with me. Neither master nor mistress nor neighbors had time to bestow a thought upon us, for the great Civil War was raging.” (Memories of Childhood’s Slavery Days, Annie Burton)

The children could do anything. They’d play all day, and be nuisances to all others. There would be consequences and punishments for, maybe, eating the food that was suppose to be for the slaves in the fields before they received it, but the children did not realize the punishment, similar to how they did not realize what else was in the world. The persons, places, and things in and immediately around the plantation were the only persons, places, and things they knew existed.
This is particularly similar to Huck Finn. The children ran free on Annie Burton’s plantation in the South, and the boys in Huck Finn run free too. In Huck Finn, Huckleberry and Tom knew some things about the world around them, because they had gone on adventures through the countryside. However, they only knew so much. They were limited to the Mississippi, and we all know that the area surrounding the Mississippi is such a small fraction of the entire world. Therefore, the limit of knowledge in the children is eminent in both stories.

“As I read Louis Hughes’ narrative, a feeling, an almost indescribable one, overwhelmed. I couldn’t even fathom the horrors that many slaves went through.” (Norma)

It is interesting to see the differences between the interpretations of slavery that each author expresses. Annie Burton narrated her life on a plantation that was happy despite the punishments and losses of family members, but Louis Hughes approached his narrative differently. The loss of his mother must have had a greater impact on him than the loss of Annie Burton’s mom to Annie. In conclusion, life on a plantation was formed around the attitude and character of the master, the mother, and (not to rhyme on purpose) all others.

I have always liked the way that Stephen Colbert reports, because people listen to what he has to say to find the joke within. The audience is simultaneously waiting for the joke and taking in what he has to say. In this way, he makes his audience members think critically about his underlying statements. This is a very convenient way to spread information.
Anyway, Stephen Colbert proposes to have a draft. He says that it would result in productive protesting. Trying to get the soldiers out of Iraq is too high a reach for America, and Americans need a more ground-level (so to speak) protest. Americans can get somewhere with an argument about a draft.
The hidden message is that Americans need to find a way to keep conservatives out of office. AND that electing a democrat is not the right way to go, because liberal activism will overwhelm Americans and conservatives will “Bounce back” and rule for years to come.
This is satirical, because Colbert is addressing serious issues in American society and making them look stupid by comparing them to other, ridiculous current events. I did not think this video was as funny as other “The Word” specials. I was being the critical thinker in this instance. I understood most of the jokes, but because of this assignment I was trying to analyze what he said.