Eric Chen, Period 2, 11/21/2022

 Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.

One of the works of fiction that we covered in class, is the story of Oedipus Rex. During both the reading and the learning of the background information, it makes the story messed up and revolting. The moral dilemmas oedipus rex brings to us, such as the problems of the Oedipus complex, patricide, and multiple kids as the product of incestuous relationships, makes us question the essence of humanity. From the group discussions of these topics, I gained a larger understanding of morality, what makes a character good or evil. The morals from the background information, that Laius kidnapped a boy and raped him was disgusting. The fact that he eventually became a king later seems to add to the revolting story. After all, how could such a monstrous being of a human reach such a high position of power. Oedipus too, started killing people after an argument at the crossroads, and then just forgets about it, only realizing that it was perhaps his father after jocasta brings it up. Perhaps that might have been accepted back then, but based on the morals now, it would have been looked upon differently. Furthermore, I feel empathetic for Jocasta, for marrying her first husband who wouldn’t have sex with her until he got drunk by accident. Then when she got pregnant and carried the baby for 3 months, they had the baby’s feet staked together and thrown out in the wild. I couldn’t imagine how she felt, especially later when she realized that she married her son and had kids with him. Throughout this reading, I was able to gain a better glimpse of the society back then, for such a depressing story to be written and then played out for catharsis, making you cry from the series of unfortunate events.