Random Acts of Shakespeare Part 2

In this scene from Twelfth Night, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby are drunkenly discussing the meaning of life and beef. Sir Toby is making fun of Sir Andrew, who is realizing that he is not a bright man.

Sir Toby: Charlie K

Sir Andrew: Eric D

Location: Development Office

Date: April 25

Reflections on The Lovely Bones

I read The Lovely Bones on a car ride to Michigan. I had a very hard time reading it the first time. I found the subject material very hard to accept, and because of that I had trouble moving on from her rape. After we started discussing the story, however, I was able to get past that. I really enjoyed Skyping Molly. It was awesome to be able to actually be able to talk to someone outside of class about the book and talk to someone who was (sort of) famous. I think this is a good thing for future students to do.

Reflections on Flight

Prior to starting our latest novel in class, Sherman Alexie's Flight, we did a group project to learn about the history of Native Americans and the United States. My group was responsible for Pine Ridge, the American Indian Movement, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee. Although I was gone for the first day of research, and thus not assigned one of the major parts, I was able to learn a lot about all three through proof reading my classmate's work.

After a week of preparation, we presented to our class. I was horrified at how Natives were treated. I knew that they had been treated poorly, but some of the things the US has done to them are horrible. Our presentations were almost all about how awful the Natives were treated. The novel focused on how both sides did horrible things. This surprised me because I expected Alexie, a Native, to focus more on the horrible things the US did rather than on the horrible things the Natives did, but instead he focused on how both sides were wrong.

Learning about the back story of things such as the Ghost Dance and the Battle of Little Bighorn helped in my understanding of the story and some key aspects of it.

What I Learned From My Shawshank Project

I learned many things about modern prisons and solitary confinement during this project. I never knew how big of an issue prison overpopulation is until I began researching it. I learned that solitary was invented by the Quakers as a way to force a criminal to come to peace with himself or herself. This sounds good, but after all my research, I believe that current solitary practices alone can not help an inmate become rehabilitated, and in many cases can actually hurt the inmate more. Solitary is used freely to combat prison gangs and violence, but gang activities and violence have increased in spite of it. I believe that solitary, while sometimes necessary, should come second to active rehabilitation programs that work towards helping the inmates re-asses their morals and reintroducing themselves back into society.

Learning about solitary helped me understand parts of Shawshank for several reasons, mostly because solitary was commonly used as a punishment for the inmates. Prisoners could be punished for things like talking back to guards, not doing work, or fighting. The actions that warranted solitary at Shawshank were not set in stone, rather it was up to the guards who went to solitary and how long. While solitary was a popular punishment in Shawshank, it was never talked about in detail. Learning about modern prisons also helped me understand a little about life inside Shawshank. While there were no "gangs" in Shawshank, the Sisters would be close to one. I'm sure there are guys in modern prisons who are similar to Red in that they can smuggle things into prison fairly easily. 

Summer of Brotherhood

Last summer was filled with with brotherhood and camaraderie. Between football, the Naval Academy, and UCOIN, I created many new relationships and strengthened old ones. 

My class has always been into football. Since seventh grade, we have had a core group of players. We have always been close, but last summer we realized this was our last season. I think that knowing this has brought us even closer together. It shows this season. We are currently four and one and have created some great team chemistry. While I don't always totally like all of my teammates, when we step onto the field it doesn't matter. That's one of the reasons I love football.

The next experience I had with camaraderie was at the Naval Academy. As I said in my last blog, I was there for six days for their Summer Seminar Program. I became very close to my squad mates because we were all similarly minded and driven to succeed. I sincerely hope that we can all see each other again next June at the Academy's Induction Day. 

The last and most extreme brotherhood experience I had was at UCOIN. As I touched on before, I would do anything for my fellow cadets. The strongest bonds are made through hardship, and hardship was the one thing we had plenty of at UCOIN. This is one of the major reasons I want to join the military. The relationships forged through shared suffering are very hard to break, and I want to experience that.

Throughout my summer, brotherhood has been a recurring theme. I experienced deeper and more meaningful relationships than I ever had before. It makes me excited about what my future can hold.

Give In To Get By, or Hold Out And Pay The Price

In Stephen King's Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, his characters are almost daily faced with the choice between giving in to get by or holding out and paying the price. I faced a similar situation this summer at a Sea Cadet training.

After an operation that resulted in the better part of the day spent hiding in thorny bushes, the last thing we wanted to do was pull night watch. To make things even better, half of our platoon was captured or injured, and thus unable to stand watch. This meant that the remaining half-dozen plus of us had to stand watch all night, which was not improving our already stressful situation. 

Although I knew we needed rest for tomorrow, we couldn't risk more of our team getting captured, so I argued that we just suck it up and stand watch. Some of my other teammates argued that the OPFOR, our cadre, would pull back to their trailers because of the rain. They said we should all sleep and get rested for whatever tomorrow might bring. Collectively we decided to pull watch in groups of two or three, so one of us could sleep for fifteen minutes while the other one was awake. 

After an hour of sitting out in the rain and not seeing any movement on our perimeter, we talked about pulling back into the huts surrounding our village. I knew going inside would fatally limit our lines of sight, but I compromised with my teammates and spent the rest of the night indoors.

The night passed uneventfully. As we had thought, the OPFOR withdrew to their base as soon as the rain really started coming down. Looking back on our decision, I think it was the right one considering the circumstances. We were undermanned, tired, stressed, and facing a night of little sleep in addition to the pouring rain.