Noting Details

In the essay “How to Mark a Book” by Mortimer J. Adler, the author explains that “marking up a book is not an act of mutilation, but of love” (1). Adler points out that marking books keeps a reader vigilant to what they are actually reading (2). The author continues on to say owning a book is more than having it sit on a shelf; owning a book means for the reader to make it unique for him or herself, doing so will make reading that much more enjoyable for the reader. Adler also claims that writing small notes or comments as you read helps readers to summarize what they’ve just read, even days later. He says that writing in books allows the brain to store that information deeper into the long term memory making it easier to come back to (2).

The Greek drama “Oedipus The King” evidently leads to the unveiling of a tragedy. Oedipus, the protagonist of the play uncovers his tragic birth story and the curse he had been baring his whole life. Oedipus is notorious for his personal insight that helped him defeat Sphinx, which lead him to becoming the king of Thebes. He is admired by the people of Thebes and is considered to be a mature, inelegant and a rational leader. From his birth, his story began with a prophecy that Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother. Through out the play numerous people, who tell him of his unknown past, visit Oedipus. Blind to the truth he casts them away until a blind man named Therisis gives a sight of truth to Oedipus. As Oedipus learns the truth he realizes the great evil his life carries. After finding his wife and also mother hung in her bedroom, Oedipus blinds himself with the gold pins that held Jocasta’s robe. Oedipus blind to the truth is finally able to see when the old blind man visits him and tells him the truth about his life. Both metaphorically and physically sight plays a significant role in understanding the irony of a blind man seeing the truth while Oedipus who isn’t blind doesn’t seem to the truth that’s right in front of him.

People may be blinded to truth, and may not realize what truth is, even if truth is standing in front of them. They will never see truth becase they are blind to it. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles it is easy to see how blindness affects the transition of the story. It is said that blind people see “in a different manner” because they sense the world in a totally diferent way, such as Teiresias in the play. Oedipus Rex is a tragedy due to the content the Sophocles, the playwright, decided to include, first, murdering his father, king Laius, then marrying his mother, Jocasta, and ending by blinding himself. Oedipus has been blinded to the truth all his life. Eventually, when he seeks the truth he intentionally loses his physical vision, and

When you think of blindness you think of sight and when you think of ignorance you think of knowledge. Throughout the play Oedipus, sight and blindness imagery is very noticeable, along with ignorance and knowledge. Sophocles creates Oedipus as a character of ignorance, confidence, and good insight. The story starts out as Oedipus is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta. The oracle told the parents that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents refused to let this happen and sent the servant to pin Oedipus’s feet together and leave him on the mountain to die. The messenger knew this was not right and stepped in immediately to help the poor child. As Oedipus grew older he found out the truth about his life and why certain things happened. Over time, Oedipus's blindness shows him the lack of knowledge he knew about his true life story.

In Oedipus his backstory is important because it is the basis for his uncertain vision. Oedipus the King was the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta, but because of a Prophecy that Laius would be killed by his son, he was ordered to be bound and left on the mountain to die by his parents a few days after his birth. Instead the shepherd who was given the duty gave the newborn to a shepherd from a nearby kingdom to rear as his own. That shepherd instead, gave him to Polybus, the King of Corinth who, unable to produce children of his own, raised Oedipus as his son. Years later Oedipus unknowingly killed Laius, and then solved the riddle of the Sphinx, becoming the King of Thebes and winning the hand of Jocasta (his birth mother) in marriage. Several years later, when told of his deeds, Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus tore his eyes out.

In “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles, being blind and seeing appear to be an important theme throughout this section of reading. On page 719 Teiresias says, “But I say that you, with both your eyes, are blind: You can not see the wretchedness of your life” (Sophocles 196-197). This quote shows how Teiresias is blind but is able to see the truth and Oedipus for who he actually is, while Oedipus is able to see but is blind to the truth and who he really is. I find it ironic how Oedipus is so determined to find the person who murdered Laius, yet in the end, he was the murderer. The way that the sentences are broken up between different lines was different than what I am used to reading. Overall, I have found this short story interesting and not

The theme of sight and blindness is undoubtedly important to notice while reading Oedipus the King. The number of times the words “see” or “blind” are in the play make it make it undeniably obvious that they are significant. The theme is developed throughout the dialogue, through characters such as Tiresias and Oedipus, and also directly in the irony of the play. It is important in a play about the truth because almost every character was “blind” to the truth. All of the characters, except one, can physically see, but mentally cannot see the truth.

The encoding hypothesis says that writing helps to encode the information better. The external-storage hypothesis suggests that by writing down the information is helpful because you can review it later, therefore increasing retention. Even though, there has been a mix of results in these hypotheses it is certain to say that the use of these two hypotheses together can help improve the academic performance. Other research suggests that note taking can be generative (in our own words) and non-generative (word for word). Verbatim note taking tends to lower our cognitive process. The deeper the information is processed and encoded the better the comprehension and retention of the information and better it is for encoding. The research has shown that people who take verbatim notes show a lower academic performance than those who use non-verbatim notes.

Details are the significant part of the story that gives clues to the reader what's going on the scene. For example, from the Great Gatsby passage: The eye of Doctor T.J. are blue and gigantic. This phrase states that the author is attempting to make the reader ponder about how is the eye relevant to the story and what does it have to do with the valley. Besides, it gives them clues about what does doctor T.J's eyes symbolize. On the passage, there's another example of the detail that plays a significant role in letting the reader know about the situation. For example, The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river. This sentence also acts as a detail of the passage because it provides the fact of the valley of ashes saying that the valley also has a small river. Because of this details, it shows that the author provided everything that assists the reader to comprehend the scene.

Another revealing example of irony intertwining with sight deals with Polyneices. Antigone pleads, begs Polyneices to relent of his hatred of Thebes and call off the war that will destroy so many men, but Polyneices refuses. Antigone cries, “Sweet brother! You go with open eyes to death!” (154)  This is a powerful condemnation, for Polyneices lacks vision in the sense that he cannot discern what is proper.  The Greeks must have considered the act of seeing an the interplay of the mental, spiritual and the physical. Divine sight reveals another aspect of the conceptions of Sophocles and the Greeks.  The gods were thought to have perfect sight.  The analysis of divine sight, the type of vision Sophocles considered admirable, should shed light on his intentions.  The eyes of the gods are unlike those of men; they deal primarily with the spiritual.  “Think: their

One of the many symbols Sophocles portrays throughout the play is sight and blindness. Sight represents how Oedipus had eyesight, but was still “blind” to the truth of himself throughout most of the play. He was both hesitant and unaware of the events that built up to

Blindness plays a two-fold part in Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King.'; First, Sophocles presents blindness as a physical disability affecting the auger Teiresias, and later Oedipus; but later, blindness comes to mean an inability to see the evil in one’s actions and the consequences that ensue. The irony in this lies in the fact that Oedipus, while gifted with sight, is blind to himself, in contrast to Teiresias, blind physically, but able to see the evil to which Oedipus has fallen prey to. Tragically, as Oedipus gains the internal gift of sight, he discards his outward gift of sight. Sight, therefore, seems to be like good and evil, a person may only choose one.

During a lecture I often times will catch myself doodling on my paper when I should be taking notes. I often will remember the “real” things that happen. VARK helps recognize what will help different people with their different learning styles. VARK offers the SWOT – Study without tears as an example. They suggest converting your “notes” into a learnable package by reducing them. VARK suggests that your lecture notes maybe poor because the topics were

What is sight? Is it just the ability to recognize one’s surroundings or is there more? Is it knowledge? Is it understanding? Can a blind man see? Can the sighted be blind? And beyond, when the truth is too terrible, do we choose not to see? The phrase "too see" has so very many connotations. One meaning is to know or to understand and the other is based on the physical aspects of things. As humans, we are distracted by the physical world, which causes us to be blinded by the most obvious of truths. Oedipus, the main character in Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, could not see the truth, but the blind man, Teiresias, "saw" it plainly. Sophocles’ uses blindness as a motif in the play Oedipus Rex.

The first quality of Oedipus that justifies him as a tragic hero is in his lack of self-knowledge. Oedipus can be seen has someone who is not genuinely satisfied until he or she solves all of his life’s puzzles and the last riddle of his life. Oedipus physical strength gave him a great opportunity to be the king. This physical strength which he possesses and misuses also marked the beginning of his downfall. In the beginning of the play Oedipus has perfect vision; however, he is blind and ignorant of the truth about himself and his past. As a result; he gains too much pride and confidence and starts to believe he is impalpable. He desperately wants to know, to see, but he can’t. His actions must somehow overcome his blindness. Ironically, into the play a prophet was introduced, a seer, Teresias, who is physically blind, but who is clairvoyant. Teresias says to Oedipus, I tell you, no man that walks upon the earth/ shall be rooted out more horribly than you (S1. .1117). This describes Oedipus as a man ignorant to the true appearance of things, this blind man could see the truth about Oedipus, yet Oedipus in all of his physical strength cannot.