Reflections, Reflections...

This year, I have done two essays, about the same kind of topics, and different books. Both of them have been uploaded on this blog. The first essay is about the characterization of Santiago in the alchemist. In the second essay, which has been uploaded recently, is about the characterization of Cassius in the play Julius Caesar. The first essay was written in October, while the second was written in October. During those months, I was able to increase my writing drastically.

Ideas and Content:

In October, I had problems with finding quotes that are important and straight forward. I also had a hard time saying why they were important. I was able to gradually improve this over the months, using trial and error methods, as I went through other units such as the Renaissance.

In my first essay, it did have appropriate ideas and content, but it was just not clear when first read. While I was reading the essay, I was just confused, therefore, had to read the essay over and over again. On my second essay, I have improved on getting appropriate ideas and content, however, it still is a little repetitive, especially on the conclusion. This was because I was out of ideas while writing the conclusion. I could improve on this with more practice and planning, before writing the essay in class. Doing this, I might be able to avoid too much repetition.

Organization:

The alchemist essay was very messy, and because of that, the ideas were all over the place. The biggest problem of the essay was that the transition between each phrase wasn’t that smooth, which also gave some problems with the organization. On my Second essay, I was able to fix this with reading and checking my essay after writing it. Also, during the school year, I learnt how to carefully read the directions, by taking time to read the directions first, and highlighting it. This has helped me think about what to write and plan things out before I started writing

Personal growth

I think that I have been able to see personal growth in myself during the past few months. Not only has the length of the essay increased, but the quality and the depth has increased as well. I say this, because, for one thing, my grade difference between the two essays was 13% (75% for the alchemist essay and 88% for the Cassius Essay). I think that the sheer practice I got over the months helped me increase the quality of the essays.

SLRs

Reason Critically: I had access to it while writing the essays, because that is what writing an essay is all about. In the first essay,which was about the alchemist, I was able to reason critically, but, I lacked evidence that showed the reader that I was doing so. This was due to the lack of planning. I realized this after I got the papers, and the grade for the essay showed this.

In the second essay,I was still able to reason critically, and this currently has no problem. Instead, I have to work on preparing for the essays.

Cassius' caracterization

“Why man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs, and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves.”
(Act 1, Scene 2, Line 133-136) This quotation shows how Cassius felt before the assassination of Julius Caesar. He clearly was driven by ambition and envy in his actions. His justification for doing it was because of his ambition forbid him to have anyone above him, and he envied Caesar’s power.

It is said that when men with great ambition clash, major conflicts happen. Both Cassius and Caesar were extremely ambitious. Cassius was motivated by ambition because of his fear that Caesar might take away his power when Caesar becomes king, and Cassius just hated the fact that Caesar had more power than him. Perhaps, Cassius might have wanted to become a king himself. This drives him into killing Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar knew that Cassius was ambitious, and he makes a characterization of Cassius in Act 1 Scene 2 Line 191-196 to Anthony: “Let me have men about me that are fat, sleek-headed men and such as sleep-a-nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.” This characterizes Cassius as an ambitious, and a dangerous person, whom Julius Caesar definitely hated. The quotation also shows how Cassius is thought of in the public. After this quotation, it should be clear that Cassius was motivated by ambition. Also, little did Julius Caesar know, that a conspiracy was being made against him by Cassius. Cassius, in Act 1 Scene 3, line 121-124, talks of the conspiracy he is making to Casca: “there’s a bargain made. Now know you, Casca, I have moved already some certain of the noblest-minded Romans to undergo with me an enterprise.” This quotation means that Cassius had gathered some “noble- minded” Romans to assassinate Caesar. This quotation clearly shows this.

how Cassius was so motivated by ambition, to the point that he carefully planned and gathered people to kill Caesar. Cassius’s ambition, was definitely not noble or worthy, as his ambition was driven by personal gain.

Envy is one of the biggest concepts of the play Julius Caesar: many of the characters in the book were driven by envy. Cassius was one of them: he was driven by envy, as he was envious of Caesar’s power, and wanted to have it. Like Cassius’s ambition, his envy drives him into killing Caesar. Before the assassination of Julius Caesar, when Cassius is manipulating Brutus to join in the conspiracy, Cassius constantly complains about how powerful Caesar is compared to him on Act 1 Scene 2 line 115-118: “Did I the tired Caesar and this man is now become a god, and Cassius is a wretched creature, and must bend his body if Caesar carelessly but nod on him.” This shows how Cassius is so weak compared to Caesar, to the point that Cassius has to bow to Caesar, even when Caesar carelessly just nods on him. This shows how Cassius is extremely envious about his lack of power compared to Julius Caesar. Cassius’s envy is further characterized after the death of Cassius and Brutus, Anthony expresses what he thought about the conspirators on Act 5 Scene 5, line 74-75: “All the conspirators save only he (Brutus) did that they did in envy of great Caesar”. Anthony is saying that all the conspirators except for Brutus killed Julius Caesar in envy. This is yet another Characterization made by Cassius’s enemies, which say that Cassius, along with other Conspirators except for Brutus. This is also another public view of Cassius, and the Cassius readers know of. This quotation summarizes Cassius as a person. Cassius’s envy was definitely not noble or worthy, as this motivator was solely for his personal gain.

Cassius was envious of Julius Caesar’s power, and his ambition forbid him to have anyone above him. He was stinking with ambition, to the point that even Julius Caesar was well aware of Cassius’s ambition. His envy was well known among his enemies, so did Cassius’s friends, as he constantly complained about how Caesar has grown to be so powerful. These motivators led Cassius to successfully kill Julius Caesar, hoping that this will give him power, to satisfy his ambition and envy. However, Cassius was only able to achieve his goal partially, as he wasn’t able to gain power from killing Caesar, but instead, lost everything he ever had, and died. The reason why he didn’t succeed was because he listened to Brutus too much without any argument, which led to his downfall. Cassius’s main motivators say that Cassius’s goal wasn’t noble at all, because Cassius was driven by personal gain, not by the common good like Brutus…

Source for picture:

http://www.josephhaworth.com/images/Fellow%20Actors/Lawrence%20Barrett/Lawrence%20Barrett%20(1838-1891)%20as%20Cassius-Illustration-B&W-Resized.jp

Collage

The collage

Collage reflection

Think creatively:

I think that I thought creatively while making the collage, because I was trying to think of a design that was clear, and something that showed that I put some thought into the collage. Also, I considered about having the pictures filling the paper, might make it hard for people to look at clearly, so I put as few pictures as possible, to make sure that the collage is neat and easy to look at.

Reason critically:

While making the collage, I didn’t reason critically, because I never thought about how empty the collage might look after I finish. Also, later on, when I saw the collages other students made, I was amazed to see that Collages look better when they are full of pictures and are empty.

Communicate effectively

Communicating effectively was one of the biggest part of the collage as I had to communicate my message with limited space.

Live ethically

My collage somewhat created empathy for the lost boys because it showed how hard their lives were, and how they were cheated from the things they were told they would get. The quotes helped me show this very well. I think that it did evoke my viewers emotional response.

Sources

Picture: http://pelogifam.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/lost-boys.jpg

The lost boys of Sudan

Peter Dut, is a sudanese refugee, and one of the "lost boys", who is documented his first year in America, along with Santino. Although they walk different path in America, both of them face many difficulties in America. This post will discuss about the difficulties and the conflicts Peter Dut faced in the Docudrama "The Lost boys of Sudan".

Peter Dut was once a member of the Dinka tribe. When Peter Dut was very young, his tribe were attacked by Sudanese militia men. That night, many of Peter's friends, and family member were killed by the genocide. Peter, along with thousands of other boys, and some girls, survived it. They traveled to countries like Kenya for refugee and asylum. On the way, many of them were killed because of starvation, lions, and more gunfire. Those who survived were called as the lost boys.

Peter Dut, and the survivors, lived in a refugee camp for 9 years. He takes an examination to go to America, and passes. On the last day of the refugee camp, he starts to get excited, as he expresses America to be a heavenly place.

When he arrives in America, begins the cycle of culture shock. He finds everything wonderful, and what he thought of to be true. Although life is very different, he starts to adjust to the new life style. For example, he found the African-Americans very different from them. He expresses that the African Americans are very aggressive, and don't play smart. He makes a racial comment that this behavior helps them steal things. In Houston, Peter didn't get a job, or an education, so found Houston not such a good place to live, so he moves to Kensas to get a better life.

Peter, when he goes to highschool in Kensas, he is flabbergasted by the amount of students there are, and starts his adjustment again in Kensas. He starts to learn how high schoolers of America lives, and adjusts to it. However, h finds his life hard, as he wonders how a poor person without could compete with a rich person with parents. This presses on him even harder, as he realizes that in the school basketball team, dismissed him in the trials, because he doesn't know enough to play Basket ball. So, he studies hard to get to college.

Although not shown in the film, he gets a bachelor degree in an University, and returns to Sudan, because he couldn't addjust to the life in Sudan properly.