Culture Shock

The play "Romeo and Juliet" is referenced all the time in modern culture. One example I found is in music. I came up of three songs that clearly give allusions to this play. Although I could only think of three off the top of my head but I'm sure there are countless other songs.
In "Cherish" by Madonna, one of the lines repeated many times is "Romeo and Juliet/They never felt this way I bet" Madonna is referring to the true love Romeo and Juliet found and expressing her jealousy of it. Their devotion is one of the main aspects of the play that people tend to remember.
My next example is a song by the band We The Kings called "Check Yes Juliet." The title immediately provides a reference to the play but there's many others in the lyrics. "I'll keep tossing rocks at your window/There's no turning back for us tonight." This describes the scene we read in class today where Romeo comes to visit Juliet and she talks to him from her balcony. This scene has become a classic romantic scene that happens all the time in movies.
And, of course, there's "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. The whole song is basically about the ball scene where Romeo first sees Juliet and the infamous balcony scene. If you watch the music video like I just did, you'll notice the antique-looking clothing much like what might be worn in Shakespeare's time.
A uniting theme for these three songs, is their jealously for Romeo and Juliet's love. I think that's what most people remember in this play. They are willing to die because they're so in love which isn't something most people would be willing to do.

Extra Credit!

I really didn't want to take this class. I mean, I've always done fine in English but I've never enjoyed it that much. But last year, my fabulous block teacher (Samantha Chandler) encouraged me to take it. I was pretty nervous going into Honors English this year and didn't know what to expect. And truthfully, I probably would have wimped out of it if I knew what was coming. There's been a lot of things that have challenged me this year. One example is memorizing poems. I never thought I could memorize a poem as long as Dover Beach but somehow I did it and still have it memorized! It definitely was a confidence builder to be able to recite it in front of the entire class. My favorite thing we've done this year was writing those short stories in January. It was really fun and not too hard. My least favorite part about English is DGP. Probably because I'm just bad at it and Jacob is a very harsh grader.