Blog #42 - Harvey Jiang - Period 1 - 5/21/2020

Blog #42 - Harvey Jiang - Period 1 - 5/21/2020

Aim: How are ancient Greek values of respect and loyalty for family revealed in the episodes, “Twenty Years Gone…” & “Argus” in Homer’s Odyssey?


Write about your thoughts regarding the reading.

I found the condition and the way Argus(Odyssessus Dog) was being treated sadening because when Odysseus went home, he saw his dog and didn’t greet him because he was too ashamed to greet his dog after so long. He left without his trusted old friend on a journey that almost lasted as long as the dog’s lifetime, and left him alone for so long and he felt guilty even though Agrus wanted to greet his master. Even though Argus was treated horribly by the servants who were told by Odyesseus to take care of him, Argus was still loyal to Odysseus and still wanted to serve him even though all he had been through for the past 20 year. I believe Argus symbolizes loyalty because he recognized his master. Argus dropped his ears and wagged his tail and wanted to greet him even though argus did not want to meet him which is a sign of loyalty. I also found the fact that Odysseus did not greet his dog as selfish on his part because I thought that Odysseus wasn’t considering Argus’s feelings.

What are the updates around the world/community regarding the virus?

Currently, May 21, 2020 an additional 2.4 million workers filed first time claims for unemployment benefits last week, the U.S. government reported Thursday, representing the weekly toll that the coronavirus lockdowns had on the economy. According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, there have now been more than 5 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 328,000 deaths. But on the bright side, nearly another 2 million people worldwide have recovered from the fast-spreading COVID-19. For updates regarding education Governor Cuomo announced that New York schools will not hold in-person summer classes and also warned it’s still too early to make a decision of opening up schools for the fall semester.

Your own personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening right now.

Currently I am worried and scared of the coronavirus because of the economic state of the U.S. My parents currently own a restaurant and we were forced to shut down for a few months because of the coronavirus, but with the restrictions somewhat being lifted we have reopened but business is slow as more people are becoming unemployed and with the restriction of only selling takeout and delivery less people are ordering food. It’s scary to think that if there is not enough business my family could be out of business, meaning that we would basically have no source of income, really affecting my family negatively. In addition with unemployment on the high I usually help my parents out on the weekends and it's scary when people come to the counter without a face mask or not practicing social distancing. You never know if they have coronavirus or not and these people could be endangering others lives. I feel like some people are taking social distancing and wearing face masks too lightly. In conclusion I feel that the enforcement of the rules should be increased and I hope that our community gets through these troubling times.

Reflection

In today's lesson we learned about motifs which is a recurring image, spoken or written word, sound, act, or another visual or structural device that has symbolic significance. We learned about motifs to identify motifs in the Odyssey and 2hile reading the story of Argus we are able to identify motifs representing loyalty and one of those motifs was Argus who was Odyesssues Dog. When Odysseus returned to his hometown, Argus was the only one who recognized Odyssesus and tried to greet him, a sign of loyalty ulike his servants who did not listen to Odsseus commands of taking care of Argus because they thought Odysseus was dead. After learning about motifs we learn that Motifs can establish a theme and since motifs have symbolic meaning we can use those clues to figure out the theme of the story. In a way identifying motifs make it easier to identify the theme.