Genny’s Comments (group member since Sep 05, 2011)

Genny’s comments from the 2012 - Ms. Richardson L.A. group.

The book "The Odyssey" is an epic tale written by Homer. In book 5 Odysseus is living in the mundane world and is being held captive by the goddess Calypso for 7 years. He is being held captive in this beautiful luxurios place that would be fit for a goddess. She wished to make him his immortal husband, and he would sleep with her but throughout the day he would sit by the sea with tears in his eyes. He has everything a man could ever want yet he longs to go home to his mortal wife and his family.

This quote by Joseph Campbell “We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the hero’s of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero’s path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” Symbolizes so many things. Each sentence has its own little meaning.
An example of symbolism from the quote is ”And when we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” We often find that we feel alone, sad, depressed, and that no one can see us. Someone once said it doesn’t matter whether they are physically alive or spiritually alive but those that matter are always there. Everywhere a person goes there is someone to lift them up when that person is feeling down. There is someone who often feels like they don’t belong and no one can understand what they are going through and no person could ever understand how hurt that person is. This symbolizes so many things in so many ways of how people’s emotions mix with their problems and trials.
“Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence.” This sentence is talking about how when a person chooses to reach out to others in need they shall find themselves unexpectedly. People often look at themselves and say why can’t you be prettier, or taller, or skinnier but when anyone says that they are bringing themselves down instead of helping themselves. When people go through challenges in life they find that if they keep going and don’t give up that they can accomplish anything and everything. If people could have the courage and strength to take tiny steps forward then they could reach their goals and dreams, or they could overcome the fears and find that they have strength they didn’t know they had. People can find that they are more than they thought they were, prettier in their own ways, and that everybody has their own special traits and qualities to practice and love.
This whole quote symbolizes so many things, like how the paths people go down are known by somebody else who has already gone before. When we get into lots of trouble and there are lives on the line we find that the real only helpful person left is the person we love and treasure the most whether they are dead or living. When a person in life goes through trials and hard times, and serve others we find the inner most beauty about ourselves during the process and learn new things about who we are now and who we are to become. In life when jealousy overcomes pride in one another we find in the end that as we bring other people down we are really just bringing ourselves down along with it. In conclusion anyone can connect their everyday lives with this one quote and everybody knows that as people they are never alone.

This novel is very relevant to our world now, on page one it quotes” It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”. Later on in the first paragraph it says “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...”. There are people eating at five star restaurants every day and have more than enough before them, yet to them it is still not satisfying enough. They are taking in billions of dollars every day, and have have jobs that everybody dreams of like becoming doctors, firefighters, actors, and singers. There are people that are suffering from starvation, loss of jobs, and poor economy’s. They will work all day and will barely have enough for food and money to pay for bills. Still there are those who have trials and tough times in many of our lives as well, and they will be very challenging and miserable. There are those who will get our hopes up over something so little or those who might not even have any hope left in us. People in our day will go to school and come home and study for hours and eventually they will succeed and get far in life. Then there are those who will stay up late whether it is watching TV, or out partying with friends and getting drunk all night or doing drugs. For example, Therese Defarge’s character creates a portrayal of merciless, fighting, violence, war and protesting which is very much like how our modern world is today. In the novel Theresa Defarge wants to kill the family line of the Evermondes for revenge for them killing her family when she was a little girl. Throughout the book we see her constantly knitting the names of the aristocrats who are to be killed by the revolutionaries as it aids her thirst for revenge. We see her protesting and using violence as an answer to her problems. In our modern world now we use violence and death to solve our problems and to satisfy our revenge and anger. There are many people now who are like Therese because they overlook peace and use revenge as an excuse to use violence. We often see protests, fighting and war and it is becoming a huge problem for us. In conclusion, the story “A Tale of Two Cities” is relevant to our modern world in so many ways. Throughout life there will be the best of times and the worst of times. There will be wisdom and education and there will be foolishness and mistakes.

In the novel "The Hunger Games" Suzanne Collins embodies Cato with the Villain archetype. An archetype is a repeating pattern throughout an extended period of time. Througout the novel it shows many different villain characteristics like violence, revenge, and the desire to kill.
On page 224 it states"He held him in a tight headlock and jerks his head sharply from side to side." Instantly a bomb goes off. Cato is out to kill Katniss Everdeen and anyone that gets in his way. Throughout the book you constantly see cato using violence in many ways. An eaxample of that would be on page 217"When we find her I kill her in my own way, and no interferes" This shows that he desires to kill Katniss in a painful and slow death. When Katniss is up in the tree Cato says"he seems to intentionally be avoiding my gaze as he polishes his knife with his shirt and says no pushing awawy the bow and says no I'll do better with my sword."pg.182 This shows that he is planning some cruel and viscous way to kill Katniss. Cato shows many other examples throughout the book about how he embraces the villain archetype and the characteristics.

An archetype is a repeating pattern or theme that occurs in different texts across an extended period of time. These are seen in many types of work such as literature,movies,myths and much more. Different kinds of archetype are Hero,Villain,Gender male, and Gender Female.
The Villain archetype characteristics are poeple who are violent, single minded,and want sastisfaction of people suffering and power. In the novel"The Hunger Games" Suzanne Collins makes Cato embrace the villain archetype throughout the book.
Cato is constantly focusing on trying to get Katniss and kill her. It states in the book"Let him tag along. Whats the harm? And hes handy with that knife. Besides hes our best chance of finding her."pg162. His one goal by the end of the games is for himself to kill Katniss and to be the last one standing. Cato will do anything he can to get what he wants. He doesn't care for other people who aren't in his alience or what they are up to he just has one main focus throughout the book.
Cato is violent.He kills anyone who gets in his way.
He stays up late with the careers trying to find anyone last minute. In the novel it states"He held him in a tight headlock and jerked his head sharply from side to side." Instantly a bomb goes off. This quote shows how much he can do without a weapon and what he can do with his bare hands. It also states"I know where I cut him.Its a miracle he hasn't bled to death yet.","I can kill better with my sword." With or without a weapon he has the strength to kill someone easily without having to put up a big fight.
Cato doesn't mind killing people, injuring them, or bother helping them if they are hurt. "When we find her, I kill her in my own way, and no one interferes."pg 217. This means that he wants her to die slowly and to suffer pain in the way that he wants her to. Cato didn't mind cutting peetas leg and didnt care that he was out their bleeding till death with no one to help him and not being able to get very far without making lots of noise. Cato is the leader of his formed aliance and is satisfied that they will all listen to him knowing that if they dont he will turn against them and that they will be his next target.
Suzanne Collins did an absolute great job on showing archetype throughout the book. Not only did she make Cato embrace the Villainous archetype but she showed it in many other characters like Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark,and Effie Trinket.

In the Hunger Games to me Suzanne Collins makes Cato embrace and show the villain archetype the most.To me the villain archetype shows revenge,heartless,cruel people who in this story is what Cato is.
He has always hated Katniss since the spinning in the dress, her high score in judging and her attention with her "love" for Peeta. Cato is large, mean, and very good with a sword. HE is sneaky and very clever.
Cato has the boy from District 3 reset the bombs to protect their food, but he has done his job to well. When all the food gets blown up the Boy from District 3 tries to calm him down, but the story states "he held him in a tight headlock and jerks his head sharply from side to side." Instantly the bomb goes off. This shows how much Cato can do with his bare hands and how angry he can get when something he wants goes wrong.
When Peeta goes to finish off the girl from District 8 one of the careers say"why dont we just get rid of him now and get it over with?" Catos response is"Let him tag along. Whats the harm? And hes handy with that knife. Besides he's our best chance of finding her."pg162 This shows that Cato uses peeta for his benefits and that that is the only reason why hes letting peeta live. He just wants to find Katniss and kill her.
Cato states on pg.217"When we find her,I kill her in my own way, and no one interferes." THis is a very big villian archetype because generally villians want to kill there enemy by themselves and take the credit, power, and the satisfaction. They usually also want their enemies to suffer.Cato doesnt spare their feelings or really care for anyone or anything.
Towards the end of the book when Cato is down on the ground trying to fight the mutts he is also trying to stay alive because he still hasn't been able to kill Katniss or Peeta. Cato is not willing to give up killing Katniss at all in this book. He knows what he wants and will try anything to get it.
To me Cato shows villain archetype just about every time he is mentioned throughout the book. He has one goal throughout the book and that is to kill Katniss Everdeen. Cato is showing many villain archetype characteristics like he is single minded,highly motivated,not concerned with others,he doesn't mind people suffering or them being in pain and much more. This is how i can tell Cato embraces the villain archetype. Cato is not the only character that embraces archetype many other characters embraces their archetypes for the better or worse as well like Katniss Everdeen,Peeta Mellark, and Effie Trinket.

In the story "The Most Dangerous Game" Rainsford is most deffinitly the protagonist. He lacks empathy when whitney is telling him "what about the animals how do you think they feel." His response is "stop talking rot who cares how the jaguar feels." He ends up on an Island and winds up meeting General Zaroff who he can tell is a hunter. General tells Rainsford about how he once became bored by hunting animals of all sorts jaguars,tigers,bears and tells him how he now hunts a more difficult creature "man." General Zaroff tells rainsford " I give them a three hour start and if I cant find them within three days they win but that hasn't happened yet." Rainsford tells him it is wrong it is murder and Zaroff replies "I am a hunter not a murder." When Zaroff is hunting Rainsford he keeps finding him but chooses not to kill him because he finds it amusing and fun. When Rainsford ends up back in Zaroffs room it explicity states that he says"I am still a beast at bay." I think that he has gotten worse and had taken over for Zaroff after he threw him out the window. I think he begins to like hunting human more than animals like General Zaroff did.

The scarlet Ibis is a symbol for doodle in mant ways. They both traveled so far to come all this way. They both struggled to try to achieve their accomplishments. The scarlet ibis was form the tropics and has exotic beauty. Everyone thought that doodle was going to die but he learned to do things like normal kids. He is very fragile to. They both achieved so much and struggled but were really amazing. This is how i think they are symbols of each other.