Anna Liu 11/6/18 Period 2 - Blog#1

11/6/2019

Anna Liu Period 2

Aim: How are death and mortality approached in the Oedipus Trilogy?

Do now:

Suicide is a controversial topic because across cultures and time periods, the perspective amd purpose has evolved. Japanese Samurais would stab themselves through the chest when faced with defeat, Japanese Kamikaze pilots would fly to their deaths during wartime, Islamic suicide bombers would do the same. Think about how suicide is used in Antigone and compare it across time periods and cultures.

• We discussed about how our perspectives on suicide are based the time and culture. 
• PRIDE and HONOR versus DISGRACE and SIN
• In Japan, they had the tradition of seppuku also known as harakiri is a ceremonial ritual suicide where a samurai would die  honorably by disembowelment. In India, historically they had Sati or Suttee known to us as widow burning where a woman sacrifices herself by throwing herself over her dead husband's funeral pyre. These were treated as courageous and heroic; however in other cultures or time periods, suicide was not seen in the same admirable light. In fact, such as today's time, suicide is usually frowned upon like with the  youth in Asia suicide rates or in christianity where it is considered a sin.

How do we decide what is wrong and right about suicide?

• A point brought up by a student: When you die for something you love or die for the benefit of the people, it is considered honorable but when you die for personal  reasons it is considered disgraceful and treated as "an easy way out".

Fate versus Free-will

In the lessons we have learned from the Greeks, the more we try to avoid fate, the more we play into it. The Fates - In Greek mythology, the Moirai (often known in English as the Fates) were the white-robed incarnations of destiny. Their number became fixed at three. Clotho (the spinner), Lachesis (the allotter) and Alropos (the unturnable). They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were often depicted as weavers of a tapestry on a loom, with the tapestry dictating the destinies of men.

Antigone - The First Rebel Feminist?

Antigone's crime was defying the laws of her land to appease her morality. Is this a crime? How would it play in our justice system (translating the circumstance into a modern perspective, of course)?

• How do you determine your perspectives on justice? Is there a formula for deciding what is justified? If so, what is embodied in that formula?
• Why is this still a problem? How will you fix it as you go into the world?

In class we discussed that although it was a crime against human law and the "government", the ultimate law in this world of divinity would be divine law which says that you must bury the dead. So in actuality, Antigone was just following the laws made by the divinity of her world by burying her brother like he was meant to be, even though she knew the consequences of doing so. Another topic brought up was how justice was seen in the debate between divinity and government. 

Student Reflection:

• Today I learned that suicide is not what I thought it was as I walked into the classroom. I never really put much thought into it and it was always sort of a taboo topic in my perspective. There's this gray area between beneficial/ honourable and shameful/cowardly. Not everyone has the same opinion about suicide and that's perfectly normal. I also learned that fate is a very intriguing topic because you never really know if you are the one in control of your own life or if your life has already been drawn out on a magical tapestry. We learned about these topics because it relates to our own society and how much people's perspectives on things like suicide and destiny have changed over many many years. I  will use the information I learned today to think more intuitively about the world around us, perhaps our fates really are woven out already but what's yet to come will remain a mystery until fate decides to unravel itself for us.