Arielle Baer

So even after our workshop I didn't really have any clue what I was going to write about. I decided to go to the central library in Jamaica (I know an actual library! how very 1995 of me) and just kind of stroll around until I found some books that interested me and consequently create a paper out of that. Amazingly it worked.

I'm going to stick with the whole dream/sleep idea but lose the Jew bit (sorry, I know you were all so fascinated by it). Instead I was thinking of writing a paper/literary essay on sleep, dreams, and insanity in literature. There are so many great examples out there from classics to contemporary - Fight Club, Macbeth, Hamlet, ok almost any Shakespear play, Alice in Wonderland, Yellow Wallpaper (maybe?), Jekyll and Hyde, and so many more

Basically I want to discuss the connection between dreams, sleep (or lack thereof) and insanity and how this is used as a literary tool. An example that popped into my head right away was from Macbeth when he can't sleep and he goes outside and sees the dagger. But is it a dagger? Is he dreaming? Is he crazy? Either way this is the point in the story where he makes the decision to kill Macbeth and alters his life forever. Also, he doesn't know for sure if the weird sisters are real or a dream. Ah, too many ideas!

Ok I realize I really need to focus this in a bit. I figure once I start writing it a more focused theory will take shape.

So I've been doing a lot of research, reading a lot of different books in new areas I've never really explored before in any of my other english lit classes (literary psychology - who knew?) and this are starting to take shape. Sort of.

Reflecting on my final project I've realized that I haven't written a paper in a really long time. And I think I might have almost forgotten how. Is that even possible? I suspect it might just be my natural laziness coming out. And my complete disbelief that I decided to do a real paper over a fiction piece. I feel bad for my group-mates who'll have to read the jumble of thoughts that is my first draft. I'm not really sure if I have a clear thesis yet, which is probably a bad thing to admit this late in the game, but I'm stuck with this topic now so I'm going to try to make the best of what I've got.