In this video the people in it basically describe Ah Q and why he does what he does in the story.  They then compare Ah Q to another character in another book of Lu Xun to make the point that Ah Q was basically living in a fantasy land.  He kept on telling himself that he was winning in life but it was really just “spiritual” victories which aren’t actually real.  In reality as described by the people in the video he is actually just a thief, a bully, and someone with no respect.  All of this happens due to Ah Qs ego.  He has become so full of himself that he refuses to accept reality.  In the end Ah Q dies from bullets and the people are disappointed in his death.  Why? Because they wanted to see him die in an even worse way by cutting his head off.  In the end they make a point that having a poor character and perspective in life will lead you to poverty and disappointment.  I agree with this because no matter how rich or poor one ever becomes having a good character is something that no one can ever take away from you.

King Lear

I chose this video of a summary of king lear because of how it is all explained.  The lady in the video goes through all of the story scene by scene which helps because you can see how each event sort of leads to the other.  She talks about act 1 which was the main one that we discussed in the class.  She explained how Cordelia was actually the only daughter who truly loved her father and yet was banished by her father because she wouldn’t say how much she loved him.  I thought that out of all the scenes and acts in this whole story this was the best.  I liked it because Cordelia not saying or explaining how much she loves her father like her other sisters has a purpose.  The purpose being that when true love is involved there is essentially no need to explain how big that love is.  Anyone can say they love someone but its how they act towards that person that someone can truly tell weather the love is real or not.  Actions in my opinions always speak louder than words.  I personally think that talk is cheap because anyone can do it.  Action on the other hand is real.  So Cordelia not just talking about how she loves her father actually proves that her love is bigger than that of her sisters.  Why? Because she shows it with action.  During the story when both of the older sisters turn against their father Cordelia is the only one that doesn’t.  Not just that, she actually takes her father in after his own daughters, that spoke about how big their love towards him was, turned against him.  This shows true love because even after she was exiled from her kingdom by her own father she still has love for him.  

 

In this video the woman analyzing the story of Oroonoku talks about the failed love between himself and the woman he loved Imoinda.  She first talks about how they make up a prototypical love story based on how they are described.  Oroonoku as very handsome and Imoinda as very beautiful.  She then moves on to talk about their love.  From the very beginning their loved was doomed due to the king wanting Imoinda for her beauty.  However all throughout the story Oroonoku continues to fight for what he wants, which is simply to live happily with the love of his life in Imoinda.  Oroonoku eventually becomes a slave in South America after he is betrayed by a colonist whom he treated as a guest at one point.  However he eventually does end up back with the love of his life due to the fact that the king had sold Imoinda into slavery.  They were together and living with their owners whom were described as nice and who also promised Oroonoku that they would one day be free.  However he again is betrayed when he finds out that he is never really going to be given his freedom and decides to start a revolution.  He eventually agrees to stop the revolution but then is betrayed once again.  All throughout the story Oroonoku wants to be with Imoinda and he eventually is.  However he is never able to live freely with her.  So he is constantly fighting for their love and their freedom.  In the video the woman talks about how this is a failed love because they never truly get to be together freely.  But in my opinion this is a story of more than just that.  This is a story of a man fighting for he believes in until his very last breath.  Fighting for his freedom and fighting for what he believed was right in revenge for his love.  Most people would have given up on whatever it was they wanted after going through what he went through.  But not Oroonoku because he was willing to give his life for what he wanted.  So I think that this story is not just about a failed love but instead of a courageous love.  Courageous love that eventually led him to his death but nonetheless courageous.

 

This video is a great one in my opinion because it gives a brief summary and then goes on to give an analysis of the story.  During the analysis the Sparky, who is the on analyzing, talks about the subtitle of the book “The modern Prometheus”.  He compares victor to the ancient titan prometheus who also created monsters which is the similarity that they both have in common.  He also compares victor to Adam because they were both chasing knowledge at the cost of everything else.  He then explains how both Adam and the monster both came to be.  They were both created.  Adam on one hand was created and put in the garden of Eden along with eve so that they would both have a companion for the rest of their lives.  The monster on the other hand was created alone and in a laboratory that was surrounded by body parts.  He then tries to get victor to create him a companion but before it is almost done he goes on to destroy her because he doesn’t want them to have monster children.  The most interesting part of the analysis is when he asks the questions “are we inherently good or evil”, “are people driven to murder and to bad because of society? Or is it written from day one that someone is going to be a cold-hearted killer?”.  This is a great question because it makes you think weather a murderer is a killer because of the choices he made based on society or was he made a murder by his creator.  The creator b being God or whomever people might believe in.  

 

This story can be viewed as a funny story due to the fact that Gregor turns into a cockroach but at the same time it can also be viewed as just a sad story.  Gregor in this story is a hard working sales man who hates his job and the life he’s living but keeps doing it so that his family can live a good life with no worries to be had.  During the story Gregor turns into a human sized cockroach and is immediately rejected by everyone.  The narrator in the video describes this as “sad” and I think thats the perfect word to use.  Gregor used to do nothing but work to provide for his family and at a time when he needed his family to be with him the most he was rejected as if he had never done anything for them.  The narrator in the video mentions how some scholars question if he was even an actual bug or if it was just a form of symbolism.  Symbolism to describe the way he was treated by the ones he loved.  This is a great point because he in no question was treated like one although he didn’t deserve to be.  His family squeezed everything that they could from him until eventually he couldn’t do it anymore and simply rolled himself up in a ball to die.  I didn’t realize this while talking about it in class and I think this is am important point.  I think the moral of this story is essentially to warn people to not live their lives for someone else and if you are to make sure that those people are the right people to live your life for weather thats your family or a loved one.  At the end of the day we only have one life and its best to live it on our terms and for the things and believes that we want. 

 

This video is a summery of the Bartleby story by Herman Melville who is also the author of Moby Dick.  This video explains what goes on during the story in a really short manner.  What I liked about this video is when he starts to talk about Bartleby.  He first says that  Bartleby is a dude who at first gets alot of work done for the narrator.  This is good for the narrator because without Bartleby the other employees that he has working for him basically only get the job of one person done.  This is because one is only efficient during the day or before 12 o’clock and the other is only efficient after 12 o’clock.  But during the times in which they are not efficient they are basically useless which is why in the beginning Bartleby is a great addition to the team.  Soon after Bartleby simply refuses to do any of the tasks that the narrator asks him to do by simply saying “i would prefer not to”.  He gives no explanation as to why he refuses to do so and just walks away every time.  At first I didn’t think much of this but after watching the video the guy in it makes a good point.  He says that, since Bartleby doesn’t actually care what anyone thinks of him and just does what he wants regardless of the actual meaning behind his actions, he’s actually free.  Which didn’t really make sense at first but now it actually does.  Because the definition of being free is “not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes.” Which means that Bartleby is simply a free man by his own standards because he is in fact doing what he wants and nothing else.  

 

This video on song of my self analyses section 51 of the poem/song.  This video is short but concise in the way that the woman examines the section.  My favorite part of this section is lines 1324-1326 and the analysis she gives of theses lines.  “do I contradict myself?”, “Very well then I contradict myself”, “(i am large, I contain multitudes)”.  The woman says that in this moment Whitman is challenging society and everything that we are thought not to do, which is to contradict ourselves or to just contradict the way that things work.  She then goes on to say that by Whitman doing this is the only way that he can break from society and eventually become himself.  I agree with this take because I do think that most people just follow a script thats given to them by society instead of doing what they want.  They go to school, get a job, and work for the rest of their lives doing something that in most cases they don’t love.  I think that by challenging this and becoming and doing what we want is also the only way in which we can grow and become our selves.  Without doing this we just become another body on earth with no actual meaning or purpose.  Its a lot harder to do this but there is also a much bigger reward on the other side.  Happiness is whats on the other side.  So yea the bigger the risk the bigger the reward and in this case I think its 100% worth the risk. 

This review of Don Quixote is different than most of the ones that people would choose.  I picked this video because I feel that it shows a different voice with different opinions.  Although some may have the same views as “Sparky”, which is what he calls himself, the way he says things are more realistic.  He doesn’t try to be politically correct.  Instead he just says what he wants to say.  The video is divided into two parts.  First is the summary and then the analysis.  In the analysis sparky mentions how he would of liked to see Don Quixote keep going with his journey instead of dying in a lonely and quiet way.  I also agree with this because I would of gathered seen Don Quixote died doing what he wanted to do instead of defeated with his dreams shattered.  I know that all of what he thought he was wasn’t real but I feel like that sort of sends a message in a way to the real world.  The message being to be absolutely crazy about what you want to do even if it means most people will call you crazy and make fun of you.  In my eyes Don Quixote sorta lives the life of an entrepreneur who has a big idea and its just starting out.  Most of them usually get called crazy in the beginning because no one believes in them except for themselves.  I realize that both things aren’t the same but both attitudes should be the same, that of Don Quixote and any entrepreneur.  This is why I liked this video because it is sad that he gives up on his dream even though it is all fake.  But translating that to real life I think it sends a message that we should never give up on our dreams and what we want to do.