“The Taming of the Shrew” & “The Silver Linings Playbook”

Deception & honesty are  recurring events in “The Taming of the Shrew”, between the characters. The same thing goes for the 2012 movie “ Silver Linings Playbook,”.

Pat Solatano, Jr. is a bipolar man, who has just been released from prison after he beat up his wife’s secret lover.  His later love, Tiffany Maxwell is a recovering sex addict. Her husband, Tommy Maxwell recently died. Pat & Tiffany could be compared to Petruchio and Katherine’s relationship but in reversed. Petruchio uses devious tactics to get with Katherine’s. In “Silver Linings Playbook,” Tiffany uses similar tactics on Pat. She made him think that her goal something else but in reality, it was something completely different. In dissimilarity, Pat isn’t knowledgeable of Tiffany’s goals until the end of the film. Katherine although, most likely knew Petruchio’s plans already. These stories shows that,while deception and dishonesty aren't moral, they can benefit you a lot depending on the way you use them.

"Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp, i’faith you are too angry.

Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

Petruchio: My remedy is then to pluck it out.

Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.

Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting?  In his tail.

Katherine: In his tongue.

Petruchio: Whose tongue?

Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.

Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail?"

(Act II, Scene I, 207-214)

In this scene, Petruchio and Katherine are first meeting.  While on the surface they are insulting and testing each other mentally, they are also making hints at the sexual attraction between the both of them. This represents deception, because they are hiding true meaning behind their words.

Pat & Tiffany’s Interaction

 Pat and Tiffany meet for the first time at Pat’s friend Ronnie’s house. Pat first says that Tiffany looks nice, and soon after asks about her dead husband. Which then turns into awkward and sub- hostile conversation between both of them.  However, during the conversation, they are both giving each other attracted stares all in front of Ronnie. When Tiffany leaves him and Ronnie, she gives Pat a sensual look, implying her intentions, just like Katherine and Petruchio. This is a perfect example of each other. Their relationship starts off little hostile but then grows into something more special.

"Signor Hortensio, ‘twixt such friends as we

Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know

One rich enough to be Petruchio’s wife—

As wealth is burden of my wooing dance—

Be she as foul as was Florentius’ love,

As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd

As Socrates’ Xanthippe or a worse,

She moves me not—or not removes at least

Affection’s edge in me, were she as rough

As are the swelling Adriatic seas.

I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;

If wealthily, then happily in Padua."

(Act I, Scene ii, 62–73)

Petruchio explains to Hortensio about his intention of finding a bride in Padua. He states that his main goal is to marry for money. Petruchio says that he does not care about anything else. He says that the woman may be as “foul as was Florentius’ love”, “old as Sibyl” or “unpleasant as Socrates’ Xanthippe”. Petruchio does not care as long as she is rich. This show’s his feelings towards her at first are blatant about his materialism and selfishness. Later on in the book he falls in love little by little.

In this scene Pat is walking Tiffany home. They start to talk about what just happened and then Tiffany offers the option of sex. He rejects and she walks away. This shows her first attempts and stating her objection of the relationship but Pat is slowly falling in love and doesn’t see her intentions. She originally only wants sex and tells him that but from the beginning Pat fell in love with her slowly.

Both of these prove dishonesty and deception can affect future situations.  Petruchio’s manipulation and deceit at first only brought a difficult relationship and a forced marriage. But, in the end Katherine ended up to be happy. In Silver Linings Playbook, Tiffany does something wrong, very manipulative and dishonest. Throughout the dishonesty that is part of her friendship with Pat, comes an honest

I found inspiration to do write this personal essay when I read a scene in The Things They Carried: "The truth," Norman Bowker would've said, "is I let the guy go."  When I read this, I thought of when I was attack by a dog because after the attack I lied, saying the dog just randomly attacked me. What really happened was very different.

It was May 26, 2007. I was 8. My mother and just born sister was in North New Jersey helping prepare for a family friend's baby shower. Meanwhile, my brother Ato, my father Paul & I went to my dad’s friends house near Saint Joseph's University on cityline avenue. His friend Mr. Chicago was hosting capoeira event where many of his students and friend came. He lived in a huge three story house with about one fourth of an acre of land with a huge Willow oak tree with branches expanding everywhere. There were a jungle gym with a slide, rock climb and three swings with a little one story house with a full living room and couch. When we got there, there were kids running around everywhere, parents talking and eating. In the mini house the adults played on Berimbau, Pandeiro, Atabaque, Agogô, Reco-reco and more. They were so loud you could hear it down the street. Me, Ato and my dad greeted everyone and then went our separate ways. My dad went inside the mini house and played for hours while me and Ato went to the food section. There was vegetables, fruits, meats, desserts and many more. For many hours me and Ato ate food, played with friends and chilled in the main house for a while. I had a very bad stomach ache after eating so much food, so I went to the bathroom for a while. When I came out Mr. Chicago’s dog, a large black and gray color akita. He was as tall as my chest. I have never ever been afraid of a dog before in my life and I was not gonna let this my first. Me and Ato joined back together and played with the dog for awhile. We even ate more food together. We followed the dog around and the dog followed us around as well. I felt like we were really friends. Boy I was wrong.

Me and Ato were swinging on the swing set and I turned to my right to see the dog eating rice and beans off a plate some kid left next to the swing. In my mind I was trying to save a dog’s life from either death or diarrhea. I started staring at the dog until I gained the courage to reach down with my left hand to try and take the plate from the dog. That was the worse decision made in 2007. The dog jumped up and bit into my wrist. As soon as that happened my entire world stopped. I started to ask myself questions like, why am I here right now? Is i'm dreaming right now? Im very tired. This is gonna hurt. Time speeds up again and I see the dog shaking around my arm. I let out a bloodcurdling scream, it didn't hurt at all but I felt like I was supposed to scream. It let go and then jumped my forearm and shook me more furiously. The dog threw me to the ground on my butt. The sudden adrenaline rush made me back away from the dog. The world stopped again for another three seconds and I was able to look into the dog's eyes and it scared the crap out of me. It eyes were icy blue and were focused on me. The world sped up again and the dog started running towards me. I had no time to think. My body, without thinking, flipped around and I laid on my stomach protecting my chest and stomach. Sadly my back was exposed and the dog jumped onto my back and began tearing up my back. I looked over to my right and to see my Dad running at full speed towards my attacker like he was the iron titan from attack on titan. He ran into that dog like Clay Matthews when he’s sacking a quarterback. The dog flew ten feet away from me and dad and two other guys grabbed the dog. While that was happening I managed to get up and climb as high as I could onto the jungle gym crying and in shock from what happened. My dad came over and tried to grab me but I was to scared and pushed his hands away. I wasn’t moving until that dog left. While thinking this in my head, I realized that i’m bleeding a lot so I decided it would be smart for to go with my dad. Him and a bunch of other guys took me to bathroom and probably did the dumbest thing ever in this type of situation. They took a fresh unused bottle of CVS hydrogen peroxide a basically poured it onto my cuts. I screamed until one of my dad's friend made the suggestion of me going to the hospital. My dad came to the realization that, that was actually better than what they were doing act that moment. My father picked me up and carried outside to the car. I was still in pain but the combination of shock and adrenaline leveled me out. I was meet with outside with a yard full of confused, concerning stares. My day was pretty going really badly at that point bad luckily my dad let me sit in the front and rolled down the window for me. Got from the outskirts of philly to center city in probably like 3 minutes. It was probably more like 10 minutes but the mixture of shock and adrenaline sped time up for me. When we got there the security guards took me out the car and put me in the wheelchair and rushed me into a operational room. I sat there and waited for the doctor to come in and tell me that all I needed was bandages and no school but, instead I had to be given stitches which sucked. When the doctor asked what happened I lied and said I was reaching for my gatorade bottle nowhere near the dog and it  just randomly attacked me. I felt bad for saying it but also I thought I would get in trouble if I told the truth so I just lied. As the doctor was sticking needles into my back and arm I screamed the whole time even though they gave me numbing medicine and I only felt a little I just felt like it was an appropriate time to scream. When the doctor was down he informed my dad that I was given 18 separate stitches. After about 20 minutes my mother came rushing in freaking out about how i'll be scarred for life and I must be feeling sad and scared about though I was alright because I got mcdonalds and was watching spongebob and laughing my butt off. Eventually the doctors had to kick us out because their were others kids who needed help. When I got home I started to feel really bad about what I said because they were going to unitize the dog but, I still didn't want to tell, so I waited a couple of months later and then I told my mom. It turned out that she wasn't mad at me and it was all right. The dog was gonna die anyway. Still to this day I have scars from the attack but, I still also have no prejudice against any dog.

Donald Trump is a man of many talents and successful at it all his life. He has been is the business game for a long time and successful at it all his life. On June 16, 2015 he decided to use his business skills to try to run for president. Many people thought of him as a joke or took him very seriously. Many famous comedians would make jokes about him. However, other people praised him because of his supposed sturdiness and strong will. As a result, Donald Trump is ahead in the polls because people view him as a joke or a blessing

When Trump announced that he would run for president; many people laughed, and many people rejoiced. Some citizens believe that this country was so outplaced, destroyed & lost that Trump is the only & best answer for America. Some of his supporters were asked why do they support Trump and many of them had mixed reviews but some stood out from the crowd. One support stated, “Politicians spend no time helping them. Black lives matter more and illegal immigrants who break the law get a free pass. Evangelicals in this country no longer feel they have the right to religious freedom and have watched what they perceive as a sacred institution in marriage gutted. All the while, politicians they voted for to represent them just plain don’t.”(theatlantic.com) This supporters believed that Trump was the answer to america's problem. Another supporters stated, “Trump Has Successfully Run Large Organizations” he explained that “He(Trump) leads an enormous, diversified organization that is worth billions. This requires leadership. Leadership, by the way, is different from knowledge. When you lead a large organization you set vision, goals and expect results. You do not know every detail of every level of your organization. You can’t. The world is just too complicated. You delegate and empower. You can get information when you need it and the president has no shortage of people ready to educate him on issues.” The supporter related the country to one of Trump organizations which is completely false. While running an organization can affect not a lot of people, running the country means that he has every single person in that country’s life in his hands and every decision you make can affect someone for the rest of there life good or bad. It would not be right nor correct to compare his business skills to how he will run as president.

While many supporters were serious for him becoming president, many saw it as a joke. They mostly wanted Trump to become president because they thought it would be funny. Most of these opinions are coming from white americans because they know Trumps action will not directly affect them. In the same article, some of his supporters were asked why do they support Trump. One stated,  “I wanted to explain why I'd vote for Trump...1)His desire to be a successful president to feed his ego could paradoxically motivate him to be an extremely willing, conscientious delegate, surrounding himself with effective political operatives so he could stick to his strength of being a showman. 2) Partly I just want to watch the chaos unfold if a purely ego-driven man were to experience success with a presidential run…...”(theatlantic.com) Another supporter states, I would like to offer my reasoning for supporting Trump. I know he would do a pretty terrible job at this point, but I really am at the point of letting the whole thing burn down and explode. Trump would help us get there faster and more efficiently. Like the joker from The Dark Knight, I just want to see the world burn. I guess I am an anarchist in that respect. Once it's all burnt down maybe we can have that constitutional convention we really need to fix things and get this country back on track if it still exists. Happy Friday. If you do decide to publish please include the email signature below.” This supporter obviously didn't not care who won and just wanted a good laugh out of the situation.  

Some people ask why support a candidate they think is a joke. It is a combination of believing  that their actions will not affect them and they do not know a lot of information. A supporter of the Trump campaign was interviewed and asked why they support trump and stated, “Why trust Trump? The political system has been set up against the public for years……..The presidency is a joke! Trump is the wild card. Do I trust him? Not necessarily…”(theatlantic.com) The supporter does not even like the idea of presidency and doesn’t support it but is attending a rally for someone who wants to become the president. This shows how some people will make a decision without thinking and will not care what happens on the future.

These show that there is a wide spectrum of supporters for Donald Trump. Some are for selfish reasons and some are for outrageous reason but at the end of the day people still support him.

Work cited

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2015.

"Donald Trump Biography." - Family, Childhood, Children, Parents, Story, Wife, School, Information, Born, College, Contract. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2015.

This unit was about climate change and how it is affecting the world. I thought the whole unit was very interesting and fun. I appreciated how we were able to come up with are own ideas and was able to use them. I believe that projects were very meaningful and cool. For my first project I came up with was a meme that represented what the news want to show compared to what they need to show. My second project was 3 monologues that all had to represent global warming. This whole unit was very fun and I would like to do something like this again.

Monologue #3

Blog post #37

CLIENTE: El Senor Gamal Sherif

Señor Sherif es tienes 59 anos. Señor Sherif es colores favoritos es verde oscuro. Señor Sherif tienes mascotas un pez. Señor Sherif tiene un carro y dos bicicleta.  Señor Sherif tiene tres personas en casa.  Señor Sherif le gusta natación,ciclismo y esquiar.

La cocina:

Habitación:

El baño:

La sala:

El comedor:

El jardín:

Sólo cuesta: $390,000

Arquitecta: Sr. Johnson y Sr. Zou