Essay Reflections

My writing can demonstrate appropriate ideas and content because it's always on topic and I don't often stray away from the topic, but sometimes I lack in detail. In almost everything I've written, I've been told that I need more detail. I could better improve my writing by giving more details. My writing can have good organization because I keep things in order and I'm able to stay on the task that I've been given, but there's always room for improvement. I can demonstrate more organization by setting up a basic plan before writing, so that I can be sure that I know what I want to write.
I think that I did better in the Julius Caesar essay than in the Alchemist essay, because I had gotten bored with the Alchemist, so I don't think I really cared how the organization was, and also, with Julius Caesar, I had a well thought out plan that I could build from and I had better word choice and had better voice. I think that for my writing I use the SLR "Think Creatively" because you need to be able to think creatively in order to come up with things to write. You need to be able to have creative thoughts to keep your reader interested and to keep yourself interested. I feel that I still need to improve my writing skills, and I need to add as many details as I can, but it can be difficult to write especially if you haven't prepared, which usually I don't do. That's one thing I can try to improve.

Does the End Justify the Means?

Does the End Justify the Means?

“Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds. And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, stir up their servants to an act of rage, … We shall be called purgers not murderers” page 74.
This quote characterizes Brutus as wanting to be an honorable man who would do anything for honor. Brutus was driven to rid of Caesar, and was motivated by his honor and his nobility as well as him being gullible. He listened to, and considered, everything Cassius told him and was easily influenced. Brutus was afraid of Caesar’s ambition and how it could lead him to tyranny. Caesar had to go.
Brutus was motivated by his honor, something he was very proud of. Brutus was motivated by honor because he wanted to do something that was good for the people of Rome and something that could help improve the city. At the beginning of the book Brutus just dislikes that everyone would have Caesar as king, but he is still his friend. Cassius came in and started to tell Brutus how Caesar was a bad person and that Brutus could just as easily have the power. Cassius eventually got Brutus to believe that killing Caesar was what is best for the people.
“Set honor in one eye, and death i’ th’ other, And I will look on both indifferently; For the gods so speed me as I love The name of honor more than I fear death.” Page 32.
This quote is set when Cassius is starting to talk to Brutus about Caesar. Brutus looks at honor and death indifferently and he loves honor more than he fears dying. This shows that he is motivated because he would do anything for honor.
Brutus, after Caesar’s death, tried to convince everyone, even himself, that what the conspirators and him had done was an honorable act.
“…If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” Page 128
This is during Brutus’s speech to the crowd, to explain what the conspirators had done. He believes that what they did was for the good of the people and that this would improve the city. Brutus says that his reason for killing Caesar was that he was ambitious, and then gives no proof that he was at all. Brutus thinks that he is an honorable man, and might be, and believed that killing Caesar was for the good of Rome.
Cassius also motivated Brutus, because Brutus was quite gullible. He believed what Cassius told him and took this into consideration when deciding if killing Caesar is a good idea. Had Cassius not been there, Caesar may have lived, and been a great ruler of Rome.
“Be any further mov’d. What you have said I will consider; what you have to say I will with patience hear, and find a time Both meet to hear and answer such high things.” Page 36-38.
This is something that Brutus replies with when Cassius tells Brutus that he and Caesar are equals. They are all equals and yet, they have to feel grateful if Caesar even nods at them. What Brutus says here is that he’d like not to be persuaded any further, but what he has said he will consider and whatever he may say later, he will patiently listen to. This shows he is gullible, because although he asks not to be persuaded any further, he listens to what Cassius says and thinks about what it means. He would like to be honorable, but he is still gullible.
“I must be by his death; and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general.”
This is when Brutus is alone in his garden and is thinking to himself. It shows that he is trying to do what’s good for the people, but also that he is gullible. He has no personal reason for killing him, but Cassius said that he was ambitious and got Brutus to think so as well, and now Brutus thinks that it is good for the people that he kills Caesar. What Brutus means by this is that he can’t think of any personal reasons to kill Caesar, but it’s what’s best for the people, and everyone will be happy one Caesar is gone. He believed what Cassius told him. These quotes show that Brutus is gullible and is easily influenced by others, especially Cassius.
I don’t think that the end justified the means, because by the end, everyone was dead from lack of good communication and Caesar didn’t have to die, there was no proof that he was ambitious. Brutus was easily motivated by his love for honor and his ability to be easily influenced by the words of others, especially Cassius. These were problems with Brutus. He was blinded by honor that made him believe that killing Caesar was the very best thing he could do for the people. His thoughts were only reassured whenever Cassius came to talk to him, to tell him more about how Caesar could never be a good ruler; he’s too ambitious and will turn Rome into a tyranny. Yes, technically Brutus achieved his goal of killing Caesar, but he didn’t improve Rome, he led it into war (which was against Antony). I don’t think that his goal was noble, or worthy in any way, because killing Caesar was what he thought was good, and he did it with good intentions, but managed to turn most of Rome against him.

Empathy for the Lost Boys

My collage uses creativity, because the piece in the center, the part with the Sudanese flag on it, is in the shape of Sudan, but the edges have been covered with pictures. I thought that this was creative because, not many of the collages have the shape of Sudan. Also, i think it was sort of creative to, at the bottom, to add how you can donate to the the Lost Boys.
I used pictures that clearly depicted the lives of the Lost Boys and how, even though they've suffered, they still have hope that there is something better to look forward to. The pictures are a good representation of the Lost Boys' lives, because some pictures are children alone, but one picture is of Lost Boys dancing, because they have hope, and they can celebrate their culture.
I reasoned critically when choosing images, because there were some pictures that were good, but I couldn't fit them onto my collage.
I think that my collage creates awareness and I was able to communicate effectively for the boys because there are some pictures representing different societies and charities that help the lost boys, like the Red Cross/Red Crescent/Red Chrystal, and there is a piece of paper at the bottom of the collage giving a website that you can go to to donate to the Lost Boys of Sudan. There are pictures for other charities and how they are trying to rebuild Sudan.
By making this collage I was able to live ethically because I was raising awareness about the cause of the Lost Boys.
I think that my collage may create empathy or evoke an emotional response from my viewers because there are some emotional pictures on the collage. It can make you feel hopeful, it can make you feel like you want to help, because it shows different charities. Also, there are some sad pictures of children and how people are surviving.

The Lost Boys of Sudan: Peter

In 2005 a 21 year long civil war ended in Sudan. This war forced many sudanese boys to migrate from their homes to refugee camps. These boys would soon be know as "The Lost Boys" because they were found without their parents. One of these boys was Peter. Peter was used to life in the Kenyan refugee camp, living with many other lost boys, and basically going through the same things everyday. Everything would change when the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army).
Peter is excited about the change, going to America and leaves his most valuable memories to the friends he will be leaving behind. The SPLA has decided that he will be one of the boys going to Houston, Texas. Peter was excited to move because he believed that America would be like heaven compaired to the refugee camp. He promised his friends that he would send money that he earned to them, because he wanted to do everything he could to help. Peter was going to be grouped with Santino and a few other boys in a house in Houston.

Eventually, Peter decided that he had nothing to work for and he needed to get an education. Peter moved from Texas to Kansas, without even telling Santino, whom he promised he would tell if he decided to leave. Peter moved to Kansas so that he would be able to get a good education and finish school, and from then he could probably get a better job with better pay.
Peter called his friends back at the refugee camp, who asked him to send more money. He felt pressured because he didn't have enough time for everything. He woke up early for school, then came home and then went to work and then did homework and barely even had enough time to sleep, and so he didn't have much time to call or send money to them.

Peter, when he had first arrived, had to deal with culture shock because everyone was dressed differently, and he felt uncomfortable and left out because his skin was a darker color than the black americans. He was surprised by the way the black people of america acted because they were so aggresive when playing games as well as most everything else, and he developed an image of all black people to be aggresive, gang member, thieves. Later his view of the other people changed when he was able to mix with other cultures at school and was able to talk with people of the same culture on the streets.

Julius Caesar duet

Act 1.3 pages 48-50 lines 1-40
The passage we chose to do is significant because it is the storm, and it creates tension in the scene, and it shows how things are changing, nothing is going to be the same. Also it is a bit of forshadowing of the war and despair that will come after Caesar's death.
Casca had been explaining to Cassius and Brutus what had happened when Caesar returned, how he had fainted on stage from the falling sickness. Once Casca leaves, Brutus and Cassius discuss Casca, and decide to meet again later.

"A street. Thunder and lightning. Enter Casca and Cicero.

Cicero: Good even, Casca:brought you Caesar home?
Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?

Casca: Are you not mov'd, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen
Th' ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
To be axalted with the threat'ning clouds:
But never till tonight, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Inceses them to send destruction.

Cicero: Why, saw you any thing more wonderful?

Casca: A common slave, you know him well by sight,
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorched.
Besides (I ha' not since put up my sword)
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glazed upon me, and went surly by,
Without annoying me. And there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
Transformed with their fear, who swore they saw
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did sit,
Even at noonday, upon the market place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say,
'These are their reasons, they are natural';
For I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate they point upon.

Cicero: Indeed, it is a strange-sidposed time:
But men may consture things, after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Caesarto the Capitol tomorrow?

Casca: He doth; for he did bid Antonius
Send word to you he would be there tomorrow.

Cicero: Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

Casca: Farewell, Cicero.
[Exit Cicero]"
This will be done by myself and Ann-Mari.

Art can be a mirror of society when the painting is of current events, or life at the time of it being painted, and of course not all art was painted. Art can also be a mirror of society if it shows people of the present, where they stand what their social life is like. This can show a great amount of present society. This painting especially mirrors society of that time, showing what people believed in, what they studied, how they may have dressed and other important details.
If I were in the painting, "The School of Athens" by Raphael, I would probably be Apollo. Apollo is a God in Greek and Roman mythology. He is usually known as the god of light and sun, truth and prophecy, archery, medicine and healing, music, poetry and the arts, and several other things but was most commonly the God of art and music. I chose Apollo because I like art and music as well and I thought that we were similar in that way. I love to think creatively and thinking of new ideas, even if I don't always share them all the time.

Da Vinci: A Genius

Da Vinci can be characterized as a Renaissance Man because, he lived during the Renaissance and played a large role in it. He was a great artist and scientist that was the Genius of his time. He was way ahead of his time, although some people wouldn't have realized it. We can tell from the Exhibition, Da Vinci The Genius, that he was very intelligent. He designed all of these flying machines from his fascination with birds, including a pyramid shaped parachute that came down easier and smoother than a modern parachute. He also designed "wings", and a hang glider so that people could fly just as the birds could. Also many of his paintings are well know including the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa. She is in the Louvre, in Paris, France, and it's said that she may be Da Vinci himself although in a woman's form. Da Vinci used many layers when painting Mona Lisa so create the look of a thin 'veil' on her head. Da Vinci was a genius and may very well be one of the most famous artist/scientist known to people.