Hiding Behind a Mask

      For this weeks blog I'm going to combine two weeks of service into this last blog post because I feel that it fits well with the first two acts of Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. When I started reading the Twelfth Night I immediately could see a love triangle forming. I reflected this into service because I volunteer at a middle school with the program of Soccer Without Borders and I work with mainly sixth graders who are in the stage of testing out "cooties" and actually liking a friend and having small crushes. While volunteering with them, I noticed a small love triangle myself amongst a boy named Kenneth, a girl named Jasmine, and a boy named Eric. Kenneth had a crush on Jasmine had a crush on Eric. They are always trying to be on the same teams and are always the three of them together. They are like the three musketeers, its them against the world. In the Twelfth Night Orsino has a crush on Olivia and Olivia has a crush on Cesario (who is truly Violoa who has a crush on Orsino). I related these kids to the characters in the book because the book reminded me of this childish relationship which is bound to end in heartbreak which eventually they will get over as they grow older and mature.  These kids don't really show their feelings flat out as adults would instead they pass love notes just as Orsino does with Olivia.

      A few weeks ago was Halloween and for this day of service we took the kids trick or treating in a local neighborhood. The kids dressed up and puts masks on and it was hard to tell one child from another.  Once one person has a mask on that person takes on a new identity and can be a entirely new person. For example, one child dressed up as the a werewolf and took on the identity of growling and howling. He wasn't the boy I knew him as he was now a new character that I had never seen before. As I the day went on we saw so many other kids dressed up in the neighborhoods as we walk through the stores to get candy the children still behaved as I would expect them to but took on new personas that I never thought I would see. I thought of this as I was reading because I found it interesting of how Viola was taking on a whole new persona and changing gender to fit in.  Viola used this new persona to find a job and become one of the closest companions to Orsino and it worked in her favor.  Although the children dressed up for Halloween it was just for this one night, and Viola made it part of her everyday life. I'm interested to see how this love triangle turns out.

      Another part of the book that I found is very dominant and seems to be a trend is that there is the theme of being deceitful and betrayal. In Soccer Without Borders this theme is widely not approved and we teach the opposite of these themes. One way for soccer to truly be successful is through teamwork and communication. These two things seem to be lacking in the Twelfth Night.

    As we keep reading the rest of the novel I am interested in seeing the love triangle develop further and interested in seeing the outcome of this complicated situation of Viola lying about her identity.