Dialectic Journal of Uncle Vanya

Quotations
Responses
Ivan: "Oh yes. I am Jealous. And what a success with women… What a Don Juan is this man. Who is his first wife? My sister, a transcendent beauty, pure as the blue sky. Generous, noble, who had more admirers than this man had students, and who, God knows why, loved him as only the pure angels love. My Mother, his mother-in-law, dotes on him to this day, and to this day, he inspires in her reverent awe. His second wife, this beauty whom we just saw, a perceptive woman, married him, he was already old, and gave up to him her youth, her bauty, her freedom, her … luster … for what? Why? I ask you." Pg 9

This quote of Ivan already involves most of his inner conflicts. How he misses his sister, how he is jealous of the professor and how he is sad that Yelena gave up her youth her luster her freedom. However I believe Ivan is angry that like her he gave up his freedom, his youth and his beauty.


Ivan: "Twenty-five years this wise man tells us about Art. Twenty-five years, he reads the works of others and prattles about realism, naturalism, specious nonsense which the clever have long known, and which the stupid do not care about…" Pg 8

Ivan is explaining partly why he is angry at the professor. He thinks he has wasted 25 years just because the professor told him about unimportant facts he was going to study.


Ivan: "Since the Herr and Frau Professor come to visit my life's gone completely off the track. I'm sleeping days, I'm up nights, I'm served all sorts of je ne sais quoi to eat and I don't think its healthy… I'm drinking wines…Eat. Sleep. Drink. It isn't good." Pg 5

Ivan is blaming his misfortune on the professor and his wife, because the professor made him waste his life and Yelena he fell in love with. Also this shows what he does about it but that is only drinking, eating and sleeping.


Ivan: "How else can I look at you? I love you. I look and see my life, my happiness, my youth. And I know that the chances you reciprocate my feelings are nothing, But I want nothing. Only that you permit me to look, to hear your voice…"

Ivan is talking to Yelena and she asks him not to look at him that way but his response makes him look idiotic because he has given up but talks like he still hopes.


Ivan: "You're tired by him and I'm sick of myself. This is the third night without sleep. I'm tired of nausea." Pg 26

Ivan has gotten sleep issues and he feels sick constantly. He thinks his problems are more important because they are worse.



Ivan: "… My one feeling is for you. Can I renounce it? My one feeling in life and it's dying like a ray of sun shone in a well. And I am dying."
Yelena: "You speak to me of love. How am I to deal with that? I don't know. I'm sorry but it's true. What do you expect? I'm sorry. Forgive me. I must say goodnight."
Pg 27-28
Yelena is taking more distance to Ivan because he overwhelms her by telling her his only feelings are for her and how his feelings and he are about to die because of her. Ivan's self-pity and love destroy him because of what he does to himself.

Tragedy of Forced Marriage

Some people in the middle east might be lucky with their marriage, however often these forced marriages are mistaken. It is also not the man who suffers the damage of the marriage it is the wife. In Afghanistan women belong too men and have barely no rights, so women under Taliban rule have no other escape then death.
So far there have been 51 cases of self immolation which were reported of between January and July.
According to Mohamed Aref Jalali the practice of self-immolation comes from Iran especially from Kurds living close to the Borders.
Afghan refugees that live in traditional uneducated towns where girls are forced into marriage where they after see no way to leave the marriage. Choosing death over marriage is a result of the daily routine of Afghan women: many are treated like slaves, kept inside and ordered to cook and clean, while others are repeatedly beaten or raped.
The Taliban openly executed women for braking laws so every women is scared of speaking freely or leaving the marriage. The law states that no girls under 16 years of age are allowed to be married, however most traditional families sell their girls as children to be married. Since the girls are illiterate due to the law that girls are not to be in school change in this area can only happen slowly.

Uganda proposes anti-gay laws

The newly proposed law in Uganda states that anybody whom commits or abets homosexual practices is punishable by capital punishment. It states that homosexuality is preventable and that it is a disease or mental disorder. It is punishable by at least 5 years imprisonment or about 54'000 dollars fine for people who abets homosexual practices.
It is as if Uganda is back in the middle ages and fundamentalist Christians have a big role in influencing Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni. A US anti-gay activist has a big role in this Scott Lively when he attended a conference in Uganda's capital. According to the bill it is a disorder which can be fought and changed to a heterosexual orientation.
All it still takes is a signature, the law is waiting to be signed by Musevevni till it is passed as a law.

Defining poverty

What is poverty, or how do you know if someone is officially poor or living in poverty. It is hard to define poverty since there are so many different factors that add up too leading someone to that state.
There are 11 standards that you need too fulfill to not be considered to be in "consistent poverty". The 11 necessities are: a warm waterproof overcoat,two pairs of strong shoes, meals with meat, chicken or fish at least every second day, a roast joint or its equivalent once a week, a warm house and the wherewithal to buy presents for family members once a year, have guests over for a drink once a month, and a night out every two weeks. Lack two of the standard necessities on the list, and you're officially poor.
Some of these necessities are considered normal even for really poor people and some like going out every two weeks might not be standard for rich people with a new born baby. However the Irish poverty rate has decreased 6.5 percent with the new system of defining poverty. Yet it is complicated to measure who is poor and what you can't measure you can't debate. However it has been figured out that Canada has much more trouble with defining poverty then Ireland.

How does the filmmaker appeal to the audience?

The watched Documentary reported about a corporation which is active all over the world. The Corporation has arose some problems in these different habitats. The movie addresses this problems with different filmmaking techniques, using Pathos, Ethos and Logos.
The Filmmaker appeals to ethos by gathering a bunch of CEO and specialists on environment. These "talking heads" then speak from their point of view and clearly state the problems. The audience relies on these talking heads because they are made to look credible. In a way it is just like logos just that it also focuses on building up a relationship to the audience so the documentary seems trustworthy.
Logos is represented when the speaking CEO's present a problem and explain what will be the logical outcome and how it will affect them. This can be very persuasive for people who think logically and profitable. In 'the corporation' the documentary again uses the talking heads method too let credible people state why their point of view is and why it is logical. I believe no other technique can relate to logos as well as the talking heads.
The filmmaker focuses on especially on pathos by showing shock pictures and ideas of how the future will look like. Making the future look dangerous and bad lets the audience relate to why we have to change. Sometimes shock images are shown for just a second or less, this creates that the audience thinks about the image and why it was in relation with the prior subject. Automatically the brain relates that the "bad" man speaking is responsible for the shock picture.
This is how the filmmaker appeals to different areas of influencing, ethos, pathos and logos.

Summary of 'well on the way to eradicating poverty.

This article talks about how poverty in Latin America is one of the biggest threats to democracy, and how in Chile poverty has decreased faster than anywhere else in Latin America. Chile is constantly investing in anti-poverty campaigns, telecommunications and infrastructure. The article also mentions their former president Pinochet and the Marxist government before him led by Salvador Allende. In Chile within 3 years poverty fell from 19.9 down to 12.3 in 2006, and even though there are still 2.2 million people living with less then 90$ a month, it is a great improvement since in other South American countries the poverty line is still up at 40% of the population. Chile is on its way to achieving a eradication of poverty.

what is Cool?

How can cool make up our social hierarchy, as being popular or un popular when part of the definition of cool means emotionally unaffected and/or lack of interest. It used to be that cool meant engaged and loud, being part of a movement against society. To rebel you need to be able too, scream out loud, say your point and stand up against all or most authority. How does the definition of cool fit now, because 40-50 years ago cool meant to be a rebel. Now cool is uninvolved and following mainstream. So I find cool has not changed but lost its definition.