Topic 1- Wed. Dec. 8

    Bernard Madoff's 50 billion dollar  "Ponzi Scheme" was and currently still holds the status of the greatest financial fraud in the history of our country. This statement is agreed with by Spero News when writer, Justin Rohrlich, says "...in the second week of December 2008. Charities were wiped out, the life savings of entire families were lost, and innocent lives were ruined in a tragedy that is a failure of morality, a failure of regulation, a failure of unbridled capitalism, and a failure of common sense." (Bernard Madoff: An American Tragedy). Bernie Madoff started his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, in 1960 with $5,000. Madoff also served as the Chairman of the Board of the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University, as well as Treasurer of its Board of Trustees. His firm was one of the top five market makers on Wall Street, and his estimated net worth grew to between $200 and $300 million. He began to put aside his humble nature and began to become extremely rich, owning estates in Roslyn, N.Y. and Montauk, Long Island, and in addition a luxury apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side which took up the whole twelfth floor, worth more than 5 million dollars. He also owns mansions in Palm Beach and France and owns a 55-foot fishing boat. Madoff did not provide his clients online access to their accounts, most likely because they did not exist the way the client thought they did. To pull this off, he marketed his fund to the rich communities in New York, Florida, and even Europeans attending skiing competitions. brought down Bernie Madoff, were redemptions of $7 billion from investors that overwhelmed his ability to pay them from new funds. Because of him, tons of people lost just about everything including millions of dollars, or even whole retirement funds saved up one's entire life. 
   The fact that someone would do this and think it is okay really baffles me. Someone who has done nothing thinks that they can just steal all the money that people have saved up for years or maybe even their whole life really does deserve to go to hell. After reading Dante's Inferno, I think he would also agree. Putting into account all of the circles of hell, one can infer that Madoff could in fact fit in more than one section of a circle. In the 8th Circle, both Bolgia 5 and 7 fit Madoff well. Bolgia 5 consists of the Grafters or the extortionists, those who try to obtain money or something valuable by the abuse of one's office or authority. In other words, they used other people's weakness to their gain. This relates to Bernie Madoff because he used the wealthy people's ignorance of the situation for his own person gain. Bolgia 7 fits in perfectly with the crimes Madoff committed, seeing as the 7th section on circle 8 consists of the Thieves. Sense he is considered a theif due to his stealing of Billions of doallars from innocent people, I feel that this Bolgia is suitable for him. Although Dante would choose one Bolgia or the other to place Madoff into, I feel like he fits in both of them equally. Because Pistoia says "I am put down so low because it was i who stole the treasure from the Sacristy, for which others were blamed" (210) it shows that Dante thinks of stealing as stealing even if you lie about it. This is why I am led to beleive that maybe Bolgia 7 is a better fit for Madoff because he did in fact steal something, although he did use extortion, Pistoia lied and he is still in this section. If I had to pick which one Dante would chose for him I would have to say Bolgia 7.

Topic 3- Wed. Dec. 1

    The first of three rounds of Circle 7 is the dwelling place of those who were Violent Against their Neighbors. In this circle there is a River of Blood, in which those enveloped boil endlessly. It is described to Dante when Virgil says,"there we shall find the river of boiling blood in which are steeped all who struck down their fellow men"(112). The River of Blood, as described, most plainly represents the blood shed by the victims of this sin, making it understandable on a simple level in which the average man would most likely catch on to. While in a deeper, more enhancing, sense, one my connect that since these sinners lusted for the blood of others during their life they must now wallow and be scalded by it in hell for eternity.
    Not every sinner in this section suffers from the same severity, for example said by Dante "Thus, as we followed along the stream of blood, its level fell until it cooked no more than the feet of the damned." (114) Dante's hell is actually quite flexible according to the degree or seriousness of sin as spoken of. This is shown by the fact that as the poets moved on, the stream of blood became shallower and less torturous to those who may not have killed as many as others who boil in blood to the brown rather the lesser, merely to the foot. By using this River of Blood, Dante is able to symbolize the idea of level of punishment of sin and also the contrapasso of the sin, since they killed and shed the blood of others in life, they must suffer in the blood of others in death forever. 

Topic 3- Wed. Nov. 17

   In the book The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, the character, Dante, is guided through the many circles of hell by Virgil, who is part of the first level of hell, The Virtuous Pagans, at the time. The different circles of hell all symbolize different types of sins which slowly get worse the deeper into hell you get. In Dante, the author's, mind the worse the sin the worse the punishment. Sin and punishment and how they relate is a very important motif in this book, called Contrapasso. Contrapasso plainly means how the punishment for the sin committed is of the same nature as the sin. 
   The first punishment Dante, the character, sees occurs not really in a circle of hell but in the vestibule or entrance in which the air is dirty and there is sighing, crying and wailing. These souls are known as the Opportunists or the people who never took a side, good or bad, but only did what was best for themselves and their personal desires. The location in which this group of sinners dwell in torture is a large part of the punishment. They are spoken of by Virgil when he says," These are the nearly soulless whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise". (42) As a result of these people failing to choose a side in life, they are eternally punished by not having any place after life, for example they are not considered part of the circles of hell because they reside in front of the entrance, never to enter or have a place. In addition to the first punishment I spoke of, there are three more, one of them being a blank banner that symbolizes opportunity that one can never receive so they continue chasing it eager to maybe one day catch it. The main problem with the opportunists is that they do not listen to their conscience, they listen to their instinct and ignore their conscience, because of this, the sinners are constantly stung by wasps. In the book, it speaks of how the wasps push them to do something as would a conscience in many aspects, "..ran naked in a swarm of wasps and hornets that goaded them the more and more they fled". (45) The text could also be taken literally, the more they tried to get away the more they were stung which could quite possibly relate to the conscience they ignored, the more they tried to get away the more they were stung.  Worms and maggots feeing off the blood and puss caused by the wasps, conscience, also may symbolize the opportunists themselves feasting on the misfortunes of other creatures to please only them. One can conclude that Dante, the author, does not have a liking for these type of sinners because of the seemingly harsh punishment.