Gears of War (not the game)

"Iago, as Harold Goddard finely remarked, is always at war; he is a moral pyromaniac setting fire to all of reality.......In Iago, what was the religion of war, when he worshiped Othello as its god, has now become the game of war, to be played everywhere except upon the battlefield."
--Harold Bloom

At the beginning of the play, we are bombarded with images and metaphors of war. Write about the various ways this warlike atomsphere occurs so early in the play and shapes the tone of the play and its characters.



Iago is immediately introduced to the reader and begins his rant on how he is not the one that Othello picked to be a lieutenant, his second in command. From this moment, we see an almost continuous stream of references to war. These allusions set the circumstances for the entire play. Though it starts in Venice, the play moves on to Cyprus, which was, and still is, a battleground. First we hear about the actual war, and then we witness the private war that Iago wages on everyone around him. The plot of the story revolves around the military men in charge of fighting a war, including their private lives. War is used so heavily in the beginning of the play because the play is a war, albeit a war of emotions and words.

Flying is freedom

1. Milkman lives a privileged existence in a town that is mostly owned by his father.
2. Because of his privileged life, he is unable to appreciate it and live it well.
3. Milkman feels locked up in his existence, and this manifests itself in his dreams of flying, and his leaving home later in the book.
4. "He had stretched his carefree boyhood out thirty-one years" (Morrison 98).
5. Milkman's life has been privileged and he has lived under the shadow of his father his entire life, even working for him when he is old enough. His longing of being able to fly are representative of his wanting to live life on his own, out from under the long shadow of his father.
6. I find Milkman interesting because he reminds me of someone that I met at TIP. This person came from an extremely wealthy family and was able to gain friends because of his sheer ability to buy people things. I personally did not befriend this person, but I did observe him from a distance and noticed that, like Milkman, only a few of his friends liked him despite his wealthy background instead of because of it. What I find most interesting is the contrast between the two. Milkman wants to be out of the shadow of his father and to live life on his own terms, but my "acquaintance" had no such desires and was perfectly happy to let his parents affluence influence his life to such a great extent.

Love?

What is love? Love is... That's it. Love is. There is no real such thing as love, except for the way that electrons line up in the brain. There is no way to define love, other than in an abstract sense. Is it the feeling that exist between two persons. How is love developed? People always talk about compatibility, but then what makes a husband beat his wife? Is love associated with lust, or is it a higher form of emotion?

Love is known as a deep connection between people, and has varying degrees. Platonic love is the love that exists between friends. This is a love that does not involve sexuality and can be between families and friends. There is a deeper love that is more, romantic. People who are in a romantic relationship experience deeper feelings for their partner than would friends.

Love is an intangible, but everyone knows that it exists. The problem with love is that it is hard to understand it. Many have tried to understand love, from psychological standpoints to scientific explanations. The question to me is not "What is love?" but "Why do we love?" Why is it that we, of all animals in the world, experience love? Many animals experience lust, an instinctual need to reproduce and continue the genetic cycle. It has been proved that there are a few animals that experience monogamous relationships. The vast majority of these animals are mammals, indicating that love is a higher brain function. We may never know what love truly is, and perhaps it is just better to let love happen.

10 Things / Fame Versus Longevity

1. Body Armour
2. Pistol
3. Extra Blankets
4. Extra Canteen
5. Cigarettes (to trade, I don't smoke)
6. Underwear
7. Socks
8. Some kind of Journal type thing, uhh, yeah, let's go with that.
9. Extra ammunition (lots)
10. Picture of my Family.

I would choose fame over a long life. I would rather be remembered thousands of years later than live long. A full life is appealing, but why would I want to live in obscurity? One of my favorite quotes of all time is from the movie The Sandlot: Remember kid, there's heroes and there's legends. Heroes get remembered but legends never die, follow your heart kid, and you'll never go wrong.