After reading all my posts I noticed that a common thread among my posts is the discussion of the sinners and how their sins are related to their punishment in hell. I focus on how their punishments reflect their sins and vice versa. I think I’m so fixated on this topic because understanding the different sins and their equal punishments throughout hell, for Dante, is part of his journey and necessary in understanding Hell’s design and Hell’s intended purpose by God. This understanding is a very crucial take away from Dante’s journey and I like to talk myself through it by analyzing how Dante reacts to the sinners he encounters along the way. In blog post 2 I mention Dante’s encounter with Ciacco and say, “The reality for those not in heaven weighs heavier on Dante’s conscience because he has witnessed Ciacco’s pain.” Dante’s exposure to Ciacco’s suffering allows him to formulate his own opinion about Ciacco’s situation and in response Dante feels bad for him although Ciacco is a sinner and is receiving his just punishment. In my fifth blog post I explain a change in Dante’s view on sinners and their equal punishments when Dante encounters Pope Nicholas III. Dante does not pity Pope Nicholas III and completely agrees with his designated punishment that carries out God’s justice. This change shows growth in Dante the pilgrim as he comes to better understand God’s design and purpose for Hell.
Some things I would like to better in my future posts would be to over all dive a little deeper into the topics I wish to discuss and use more support from notes both in the book and outside sources such as Barolini’s commentary. I think that sometimes I take the very surface meaning of events that occur in Inferno and miss key ideas that I would have noticed had I read a little more carefully and intuitively. Sometimes I find myself formulating my own ideas of what events mean and get so excited that I write my posts on my ideas alone without searching outside commentaries that could take my idea a little bit further as well as support my ideas. Finding solid support would not only validate and explain my ideas but would also help other students reading my posts better understand the ideas I’m trying to express if maybe the way I have worded something isn’t as clear as it could be. In that case they will have something to refer to, worded in a different way they may grasp better. I think I try to keep my posts simple but in doing so I leave things out and dig deeper in my explanations. I would also like to use images to guide my way through the upcoming cantos because when I read other students posts using images that represent each canto, it helps me pick up on ideas I had missed and over all gives me a better understand of what is going on. I think it would be an effective way for me to make sense of the text when I get lost. I would also like to respond to other posts in the future like I did for my second blog post. In my opinion, it is a great way to give one’s post a set idea and keep the post focused while building off the original post and dissecting it altogether. Lastly, I would like to organize my posts a little better by giving them more of structured feel. I want to focus on one idea and formulate a hypothesis that can be supported by outside commentary and images instead of just rambling on about an idea I came up with on my own aimlessly because I don’t think that’s very effective. I am definitely guilty of doing this, but I would like to change this in my future posts.

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