DRJ #2 Hamlet Act 2 In act 2 Polonius reminds me of well maybe myself. I have two daughters whom I am always concerned about. I foresee that i may become a overprotective father like I believe Polonius may be. Polonius may be concerned for the whole family also but I believed he just does not want his daughter to be seen as a whore. Polonius seems kind of naive to Hamlets sarcasm and the fact that Hamlet pretended not to know who he was. Hamlet told Polonius he has a fisherman but hamlet was messing with him and Polonius did not get it. Polonius is just concerned for his daughter and wants Hamlet to leave her Alone. Hamlet will probably try to get around Polonius and the King with trickery and deception later on in the play. Hamlet is going to set up the play to symbolize to everyone including Claudius that his father was murdered. Hamlet the protagonist does not have the guts to confront the King but hopes the play will guilt Claudius or cause him to have a reaction of some kind. This is a great plan however, Hamlet ironically feels like “oh what a rouge and peasant slave am I” . He feels bad because he does not have the strength to confront and or kill Claudius.

DRJ #1 Hamlet Act 1 In act 1 there is not too much excitement but a couple of the characters reminded meo f people I have come across in my life. I am only going to focus on the person who is currently my manager at work and a very arrogant and back stabbing individual who got to his position by doing just that. I am sure by now you have guessed it is Claudius who killed for the throne just like my dumbass boss. Hamlet, who seems to be a bit of a pushover and kind of a smart ass, however is good person at heart. He is devastated by his father’s death. He comes across the ghost who wants him to get revenge for his murder. Hamlet is young and vulnerable but at this point in the story is unsure the ghost is really a symbol of his father. Hamlet may also be unable to murder Claudius because he is not that type of person. In act 1 especially during the dialog between hamlet and the ghost Shakespeare sets a very hell like setting. The references to purgatory and hell in lines 10-15 are evidence for this setting. The ghost tells Hamlet is “confined to fast in fires till the crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away”(1-5-10-15). This setting is put in place to give the audience a feeling of the results of wrong doing in a religion. At the time the play was written people were very God fearing and the hell and damnation added fear and excitement to the play. I am wondering what Claudius means by his past sins, what did he do?

SSRJ #2 When I read this story I felt extreme sympathy for the author of which the story was about. The structure in this story provides the very graphic and the horrible reality of combat. I really enjoyed this story and hope to read more like it. The author Daly walker a Veteran of the Vietnam War presents this story in a first person point of view which in my opinion is the only way to make the story so powerful. The main idea that combat veterans thought history come back from war physically but have a hard time completely leaving the tragic event of war behind. Walker uses flashbacks in the story such as looking out the window of the plane seeing clouds can cause him to break out in a sweat. Upon arrival in Vietnam 20 years later to perform surgery the narrator takes a cab, sees the Viennese driver face and gets the image of his head on a pole. Walker reviling these horrible flashbacks support the reality that Soldiers of the past and present are still trying to leaving the war behind even 20 years later. What significance do you think the grass being mentioned several times in the story represents. I think it represents the covering up of the traumatic events that occurred on that land years before and the grass is time.