Who to live by

   Chaucer used his position in life to discover the various walks of life in his time. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories told by differing people who are going to the same place, Canterbury.
Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales using a modern style of English to appeal to everyone. This ability to appeal to everyone allowed him to express a common hubris among humans when it comes between living by reputation or by character.
 "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation because your character is what you really are, and your reputation is merely what others think of you."- John Wooden.

Canterbury Outline

- uses irony to contrast reputation and character, uses satire to make fun of the inner battle
- sympathetic tones to connect the audience to the characters
- encourages characters to have tales that contradict their lives

Green eggs and Hamlet

A) the only thing I know about Hamlet is that Shakespeare wrote it.
B) I know that Shakespeare was somewhat the muckraker of his time. He had the freedom to express his ideas but had to do so in a way that was uncomprehended by the elite.
C) I think so many people frown at Shakespeare because it means that there is an obvious meaning to the work and a lot of times the teachers expect the students to decipher the meaning just by reading the text. Shakespeare is hard to decipher due to the language.
D) I think it would help to read the text aloud and if we don't understand a scene, we can act it out using modern English.

The point of the Canterbury Tales is...

Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales using a modern style of English to appeal to everyone. This ability to appeal to everyone allowed him to express a common hubris among humans when it comes between living by reputation or by character.

Vocabulary #5

Shenanigans- secret or dishonest activity or maneuvering

My brothers shenanigans nearly drove me crazy when I couldn't do my work. 

ricochet - noun a glancing rebound; verb spring back; spring away from an impact

 I drove a ball and it hit a tree and ricocheted back to the tee box.

schism - noun division of a group into opposing factions; the formal separation of a church into two churches or the withdrawal of one group over doctrinal differences

Catholics and Christians became two different sects which there was a schism in the church.

eschew - verb avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of

I try to eschew from the bete noire in my class.

plethora - noun extreme excess

When I was done baking, there was a plethora of cookies.

ebullient - adj. joyously unrestrained

The girl was ebullient when she got three birdies and won the match.

garrulous - adj. full of trivial conversation

A typical interview is garrulous because the employer wants to know you.

harangue - noun a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion; verb deliver a harangue to; address forcefully

Those that have a lot of pride use harangues to improve how they see themselves.

interdependence - noun a reciprocal relation between interdependent entities (objects or individuals or groups)

There is an interdependence between teachers and students. Teachers teach and students learn. 

capricious - adj. determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason; changeable 

If I were to make a goal, it would be capricious not due to my skill.

loquacious - adj. full of trivial conversation

The loquacious conversation about colleges I like bores me.

ephemeral - adj. lasting a very short time; noun anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

Baking for hungry people , means that food will be ephemeral.

inchoate - adj. only partly in existence; imperfectly formed

The belief in aliens is inchoate, most don't believe in them.

juxtapose - verb place side by side

perspicacious - adj. acutely insightful and wise; mentally acute or penetratingly discerning

I juxtaposed my red earrings with a white dress so they would stand out.

codswallop - noun nonsensical talk or writing

Babies typically have a codswallop that nobody understands.

mungo- A cheap fabric

I wished mungo wasn't used to ale this may because it's itchy.

sesquipedelian- long, characterizes by long words , long-winded

Playing eighteen holes of golf is seaquipedelian.

wonky - adj. inclined to shake as from weakness or defect; turned or twisted toward one side

Sometimes I have a random, wonky shiver when it's cold outside.

diphthong - noun a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another

Dipthongs have a stressed first syllable and then a second one.

Canterbury tale-esque narrative

It had been Danielle's first day as a college student, and after a long day of being welcomed
 into the crowd, she couldn't help but ponder life and where she was at right now. Danielle knew that she wanted to be a doctor ever since she was little. But something inside her had always been attracted to fighting for injustices. Starting here at UCSD, she knew that she was on the right path.
The next morning Danielle awoke to a news broadcast about race riots that had been happening all across the nation. "It's weird to think that this stuff still goes on." She told Alison, her new roommate. "Yeah, someone should do something about it." She said. "Yeah someone should" She thought. As Danielle went to class, she couldn't help but think about the scenes on TV. They were violent, almost remnants of the 60's when racial injustice was peaked. "How can people still think that way? It's such a backwards way of thinking" she thought before class started.
Later that day, she received a text from Erica. It was out of the blue. She was doing well at UCLA and they got on the topic of the national race riots. Danielle told her they should do something about it, and they talked for hours on what we should do. After that talk, Danielle decided they should actually do something. But what could two girls possibly accomplish? How can they change what people believe? And not only that, but what about her medical career? Should she leave it all behind in a wave of regret or should she do something more important. It took her weeks to decide what to choose. The volition of what to do haunted Danielle night and day until finally she saw another broadcast about the murder of a little, innocent child who got caught in a protest turned violent.

Tale of a Canterbury tale

My summary of the Friar's tala can be found
here dcadena314englitcomp.blogspot.com/2014/09/canterbury-tales-ii-what-character.html
 1. "Lady," said he, "God grant you a good life! 
You have here touched, as I may prosperous be,
Upon school matters of great difficulty;
You have said many things right well, I say;
But, lady, as we ride along our way,
We need but talk to carry on our game,
And leave authorities, in good God's name,
To preachers and to schools for clergymen.
But if it pleases all this company, then,
I'll tell you of a summoner, to make game.
By God, you could surmise it by the name
That of a summoner may no good be said;
I pray that no one will be angry made.
A summoner is a runner up and down
With summonses for fornication known,
And he is beaten well at each town's end." 

Here the friar wants to avoid talking about his own tale because he wants to keep his reputation of a benevolent friar. The host of the story telling sees this and tells him to tell his own tale.

This false thief, then, this summoner (said the friar)
Had always panders ready to his hand,
For any hawk to lure in all England,
Who told him all the scandal that they knew; 

For their acquaintances were nothing new. 

the friar talks of an archdeacon who is high in the church but chooses to steal. In reality, he is talking about himself. He considers himself false because he steals but is supposed to live a modest life.

This summoner, ever lurking for his prey, 

Rode out to summon a widow, an old rip,
Feigning a cause, for her he planned to strip.
It happened that he saw before him ride
A yeoman gay along a forest's side.
A bow he bore, and arrows bright and keen;
He wore a short coat of the Lincoln green,
And hat upon his head, with fringes black.
"Sir," said the summoner, "hail and well met, Jack!"
"Welcome," said he, "and every comrade good!
Whither do you ride under this greenwood?" 

Said this yeoman, "Will you go far today?"
This summoner replied to him with: "Nay,
Hard by this place," said he, "'tis my intent
To ride, sir, to collect a bit of rent 

Pertaining to my lord's temporality."
"And are you then a bailiff?"
"Aye," said he.
He dared not, no, for very filth and shame,
Say that he was a summoner, for the name. 

The friar has done so much stealing that he knows exactly what to do to get paid. He pretends to be someone else so that his true greedy character can emerge without being forced down by his reputation.

This summoner, who was as full of words 

As full of malice are these butcher birds,
And ever enquiring after everything

The friar is a pathological liar. He has to come up with lie after lie to make a decent living. but his job as a friar has pushed him to this life so everything he does to live contradicts the way he's supposed to act.

"Brother," said he, "here lives an ancient crone
Who'd quite as gladly lose her neck as own
She must give up a penny, good or bad.
But I'll have twelvepence, though it drive her mad
Or I will summon her to our office;
And yet God knows I know of her no vice.
But since you cannot, in this strange country,

Make your expenses, here take note of me."
This summoner knocked on the widow's gate. 

The friar is so desperate for money that he'll take advantage of an old woman so he can live. It shows that survival is more important than benevolence for the friar. 

2. Chaucer told the friar's&m tale to show innate human nature. the friar is basically an animal trapped in a corner and has no choice but to fight back and survive. The friar decides to take on the persona of a bailiff and extort money from people like the cart man and the old woman. He does this to save his reputation as a friar, but as a result his true , basic human character emerges. But society and th elite have pushed him into this corner. societies expectations of a friar are to be benevolent and modest, but when one constantly sees others lives, how can one not be jealous? When the friar is is pushed into a standard of living that is conceived as poor, how can he not want to try and move up in stature.