Discrimination.... old or new issue?

The following paper is focused on the movie “The merchant of Venice”. This story occurs in Venice, in XVI. During these times, people use to differentiate to other people because of their religion. The most dominant religions were Catholic and Jewish. Jewish people had to wear a red hat in order to show their religion. This paper will be focused in contextualize the situation in which Jewish people had to live and how they were treated by the existing Catholic society.

The main Jewish character was a man called Shylock. He was an usurer; someone who lend money to people and then people had give it back with some taxes. This action was not accepted by the society at all. But anyway people use to do this business with Jewish people.

During those times, people did not treat Jewish in a good way. They hit them and split them all the time. Jewish were treated as something inferior by the Catholics, even though there as human as them. Once, Shylock, who was the main Jew character in the film, decided to yell at a Catholic. He said Jewish were the same than the Catholics. They cry, laugh, blood, take revenge, feel and think as much as Catholic. He did not agree with the current society.

Antonio, who was a Catholic person, needed to help his friend Bassanio. Bassanio needed money because he wanted to impress a girl to marry her. As Bassanio did not have enough money for that, he decided to ask Antonio for some money. He did not have the amount that Bassanio was asking for, so he decided to talk with Shylock and ask him for 3.000 ducats. Even though, this action was not acceptable for Catholics, Antonio spoke with Shylock, who accepted to lend him money because he was a very good merchant.
As Shylock did not want to loose his money, he asked Antonio for a condition. Shylock asked a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he did not pay the money in the next three months. Antonio accepted the condition because he really loved his friend, besides he was sure he will receive more than 3000 ducats in one his business the next month.
One day, people knew that Antonio’s businesses were ruined. His ships got lost in the ocean. As Antonio’s money was in those ships, he would not be able to pay the bill he had with Shylock. So, Shylock decided to ask for his part of the deal. When he decided to go for Antonio’s flesh, he went into a judgement because of that action. The lawyer, who in fact was Porcia, gave Shylock the right to take the flesh but he could not drop any blood. As he could not take Antonio’s flesh without dropping blood, he could take his flesh. Later, he was discovered a conspirer and the state asked him for his positions.
Porcia wanted to help Antonio, for that reason she pretended to be the lawyer. Her plan worked and Antonio got saved.
At the end of the film, people noticed that the rumour of Antonio’s ships was false. They all landed without any problem.
After watching the film, I could realise that discrimination is something that has been present during many years. They way people behave in front of someone they consider different has not changed at all. They way society acted in film was totally disrespectful. They treated Jewish as something absolutely inferior and with different rights. They were split and hit them every day. But what people could not see was they were as human as everybody else. They feel, think, see, eat, and sleep as much as Catholics. There were not differences; the only thing they did not share was religion. That was the only reason because they were discriminated, religion.
At least, now people choose their religion freely. But even today, religion issues emerge among people. Perhaps this rivalry will never end.

Outline

Introduciton.
-Jew treatment.

Brief summary of the film.

Personal Opinion.

the letter...

In "letter to Sir Walter Raleigh" Spenser wanted to express his feelings and messages through a different way. He did not want to write the content explicitly but he wanted to do it in hidden way. He starts the letter by saying it is an allegorie, which means people will not get the real message just by reading it but they will have to interpret the meaning that is behind of the sentences. Maybe he decided to write the letter that way because it may be in wrong hands. So, if someone would read the letter he/she wouldn’t understand the real meaning of it.
He mentions more than an important character in his letter. He refers to King Arthur, Homer and Aristotle. I think he decided to mention these people because he wanted to show some characteristics through them. They were and still are people very known by everybody in the world, so who better than them to express the characteristics he wanted to express?
I do really think the only purpose of his letter was to let W. Raleigh know about the topics he wanted to say. Besides, Spencer did not want that every single person know about the real meaning of the letter, so he decided to write it in way that W. Raleigh could understand but not the rest of the people.

What women love most.

Women are special, that’s something that has not changed during the whole life. It’s so common so hear men complaining because of their wife. This is because girls feel differently to men and this difference produces a “brake” between them. Historically, women and men have always had problems of “understanding” each other.
What I really appreciated from the story was the girl who thinks a “so liberal” way. I totally agree with her when she talks about sexuality. She says it isn’t just to give born but to enjoy it. Viewing this from the point of view of the epoch, she had a very advance way of think.
For the society of these times, she may look not as a girl from the right wing. Anyway, I like her way of think because she felt free to think the way she wanted, which is something that even in 21st century does not happen.

An appreciation of "truth"

I think Geoffrey Chaucer called "truth" to his poem because he thought that people need to be conscious about what are the real things that happen to them. When he says “greed entails to hate” he may refers that bad actions with end in bad consequences. Many times people do actions that bring unfortunate consequences for others, this way the affected people create resentment to the ones who acted in a bad way.
I would say a religious implication in this poem may be that people need to be in the right side of the track in the sense that they need to do well in order not to injure others.
I think we should think about it for a while and reflect about the times we have made something just in our favor and knowing that this "something" hurted someone else. This is the thuth, a truth that conect us with the reality and make us think about what do or did.

My definition of an Epic Poem.

Epic Poems are stories that are closely connected with heroes' life. These poems talk about what they did, who they have lived with and some brave situations that they had to deal with.
Epic Poems are related with issues that occurred in the very past time. They are connected to the time of world’s conqueror and to the time when history was starting to be written.

Opposite

For this blog entry I chose a quotation written by Kennedy and Gioia. “No text provides self-contained meaning; literary texts do not exist independently of readers‘interpretations. A text …is not finished until it is read and interpreted....religious, cultural and social values affect readings”
I really agree with this paragraph in the sense that it says that texts have more than one interpretation. The interpretation will depend on who is going to read the text and what will be the impact that it is going to cause in the reader.
For the same text, there will be several different interpretations because every person has their own point of view. If I read a text and then I analyze it, I may agree with some points and disagree with others. If someone from another genre or country or age read it, he/she may have other point of view about the same text. It does not mean that we can not have things in common, but it means that we are all different and that we may have opinions that will not be the same.