Alchemist and Julius Caesar Essay Reflection

Ideas and Content
My ideas and content for both the Alchemist essay and the Julius Caesar essay were appropriate because I knew the topic well. ‘I shall remember: When Caesar says, ‘do this,’ it is perform’d.’ This was said by Antony in the very beginning of the Julius Caesar play. You can see that my idea on what to write about was very clear because this quote of Antony’s showed how much he loved Caesar and it foreshadows how he will react when Caesar was killed, which is a good quote because this was my main idea to write about. “If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” I chose this quotation to start my Alchemist essay because I thought this sentence that summarized the whole story, especially what the boy was going to go through to achieve his goal. My writing could have been better if it was more interesting and detailed. Also, I think I should have reasoned more critically on why I chose the quotations to relate to the main idea of the essay.

Organization
I started both essays with a quote from the book. ‘Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar!’ I chose this to start my Julius Caesar essay because these were the last words that Caesar said while falling down to the ground in front of many Romans, and because this was a great hook to start the essay. In my Julius Caesar essay I did not have a very strong/clear topic sentence to tell the reader what he or she is going to read through out the paragraph. But I did have a very strong conclusion. I brought back the two driving factors in my conclusion, which were ‘love,’ and ‘revenge.’ This was a good way to remind my readers and end my essay because it summarized my ideas. “If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” This was my hook sentence for my Alchemist essay, I chose this because it summarized the whole story in just one sentence and because I thought it would hook the reader’s attention at once. My Alchemist essay was the total opposite of my Julius Caesar essay. I had good topic sentences but I did not have a strong conclusion that summarized my ideas. I think I should always read my essay over and over again before handing my essay in. This would make me look for errors that I have made.

Personal Growth
My grade did not grow but my understanding of my writing grew. Although my grade got lower I had the chance to really know my weakness and noticed some improvements that I have accomplished from the first essay. I had improved a lot on knowing my topic well and writing a strong conclusion that summarizes my ideas. But I think my grade went down because I had a limited amount of time to finish my essay. However, I have realized that I do make a lot of repetitions, and my writing is not clear/all over the place.

SLR
When you craft an essay I think the SLR ‘Communicate effectively,’ helps you the most. ‘Communicate effectively,’ is what helps me as a writer and what I need most improvement on. When you write an essay the main thing you need to focus on is if your essay will send a clear message to your reader that you are trying to send and if it did send the message/clear message that you were trying to send it is a well written essay. If your essay did not send a clear message, it means that you did not have a good essay. Since, ‘communicate effectively,’ is what I need most improvement on; I always use that SLR when I craft an essay, so that my writing meets the standard where a reader gets my message easily.

Does the end justify their means?

Marc Antony

‘Et tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar!’ (3.1 lines 77) ‘Julius Caesar’ a story that shows the conflict among the noble Romans, there was the conspiracy that were against Caesar and there was people like Antony that loved Caesar. There was only one conflict to Antony; it was Caesar’s death. Antony was just a normal person that liked to have fun all the time, and had no hatred against anyone in the Senate or in Rome. However, when Caesar was killed Antony was not the Antony he was before, he changed into this man with determination to kill everyone as revenge for Caesar. Having his best friend die, Antony was motivated by revenge and love to take down all the people that had any connection to Caesar’s death.

Antony could be described as a sheep in the beginning of the story because he had nothing to worry about; as long as Caesar was alive Antony was always happy. Antony was this innocent little sheep that listened to everything that Caesar told him to, not because he was weaker than Caesar, because he loved Caesar. ‘ I shall remember: When Caesar says, ‘do this,’ it is perform’d.’ (1.2 lines 9~10). This is the first time that Antony was introduced to the story. And as you can see Antony’s lines show how much love he had towards Caesar. This shows that Caesar was Antony’s best friend and that Antony would do anything for Caesar. Everything was so peaceful for Antony when Caesar was alive, but since he loved Caesar that much, when Caesar was taken away from him, Antony was motivated that he will have to kill the people involved in the conspiracy. Because they had killed Antony’s best friend, not only his best friend but also the person he loved the most, Antony’s love for Caesar made Antony trust Caesar as a friend. ‘He was my friend, faithful and just to me;’ (3.2 lines 83). Antony talks in Caesar’s funeral, which the crowd was all happy of Caesar’s death. Antony’s speech means that Caesar was his friend and was a reliable man. Which was the total opposite of what the conspirators had said. From this you can identify that Antony was disagreeing with the reasons why Caesar had to be killed. When Antony says ‘friend’ it shows that Antony wants to say that Caesar had no ambition of being the king of Rome. But since the conspirators had killed his friend because of the fact that they thought he had started growing ambition in him made Antony unhappy. His best friend that he loved the most had been killed because of a stupid reason that didn’t even suit Caesar. The love that Antony had towards Caesar affected the decisions on saying either Caesar was ambitious or not. If Antony had no love for Caesar nothing much would have motivated him to take action after Caesar’s death. But love was not the only motivators that drove Antony to kill all the conspirators; Antony also killed them for revenge.

Caesar’ death changed Antony from a little innocent sheep to this bug hungry lion. Antony was determined to bring destruction to Rome, there was no limit on where he would stop, but his goal was to bring destruction/ kill the conspirators until everyone that he had listed died. Revenge came after love. Antony loved Caesar, so as Caesar could not do anything about his death Antony decided to take revenge for him. ‘ Over thy wounds now do I prophesy… Domestic fury and fierce civil strife shall cumber all the parts of Italy.’ (3.1 lines 259,262,263) Here Antony is making a prophecy to Caesar’s dead body. Antony is saying that there will be a civil war in Rome and that there will be destruction all over Italy. This foreshadowed that Antony was going to be the one bring destruction and the one who was going to start the civil war. Revenge drove Antony to act like this. Since Caesar was killed like a carcass for the hounds Antony decides to bring a huge destruction back to Rome as Caesar died. ‘ These many then shall die; their names are prick’d.’ (4.1 lines 1) This shows that Antony had planned out everything and chose the people that he was going to kill. Antony became a strong leader for the Romans to follow and kill the guilty murderers. Nothing could stop Antony because he mind was fixed on killing the people he had listed. There was no motivator that could stop Antony behave the way he did.

Caesar’s death being the only conflict for Antony motivated him to kill everyone involved in the conspiracy because of the driving factors of ‘love,’ and ‘revenge.’ Love and revenge made Antony decide on a goal and navigated him to his goal. The love he had and the burning fire of revenge he wanted to take for Caesar did not stop him from his goal. Antony did achieve his goal at the end, since he had the help from Octavius and the people of Rome (that he had convince with his speech at Caesar’s funeral) he had brought down everyone that was involved in the conspiracy. I think Antony achieved his goal because of his motivators. They were good driving factors together, because love leaded onto revenge. Which made Antony have a stronger motivation. Antony’s goal was noble because it justified his mean. Antony had made his revenge for his best friend Caesar and Rome was back to peace again.

'Lost boys of Sudan' Collage

Think Creatively!
Collages always seem to go well with the SLR ‘think creatively.’ I had to think how I could send a clear message through pictures and words. So, I decided to shape my collage as Sudan because I wanted my collage to represent the lost boys and the Sudanese people and I also made my six word memoir stand out more than any other thing on my collage by cutting them out in big capital black letters on the middle of my collage. I also decided to scatter all the pictures on my collage because I wanted to show ‘chaos’ and chaos is what the lost boys and the Sudanese people experienced because of a civil war.

Reason Critically!
I chose many symbolic pictures to represent many different things. One was the one with racism with a big cross over it, which means ‘stop racism, because racism is what the lost boys found difficult to come across when they migrated to America. Other pictures that are very symbolic are the pictures that show starvation, despair, hope, separation, and death. These shows my understanding of the lost boy’s situation because they have been separated from the people they love many family members did not see each other again, they went through a life of despair at such a young age, there was no sign of food because the war had brought destruction that destroyed all the food sources, they saw people dying right in front of their eyes, and finally they started to grow hope inside them because of the help they got from UN. Also, my six word memoir ‘Kill us, separate us. Why us?’ supports the collage by giving an idea of what the lost boys experienced. I also had images with words which represent the following things; no more violence, no more killing in Sudan, no more racism, no more slavery in Sudan and fear. Most of the images showed the negative part that the lost boys experienced but also some strong images that showed the positive part that the lost boys experienced. I feel I have reasoned critically by using images and words that represented the lost boys’ feelings and what experiences they went through.

Communicate Effectively!
I’ve chose 6 words that would communicate effectively to any audience. ‘Kill us, separate us. Why us?’ These words definitely create awareness for the Lost Boys’ plight because it is what they really experienced. I did not only convey message with my images and words on my collage but the design I had. I did not glue my images in a patterned way because I did not want the images that represented the same meaning in one place. Since, the lost boys’ had taken so many stepped migrations they were all confused, which also goes well with my collage because you can not see a steady idea going on. But this does not mean I just randomly glued images onto my collage. All the images I glued were the images I thought would best to create awareness for the lost boys’ plight.

Live Ethically!
I think my collage demonstrated empathy, because I used thoughtful images and words. There are images that would definitely evoke an emotional response from my viewers. There is an image of a mom and a baby crying together, a young kid who is very skinny that you can see the child’s bones, a woman crying, and a child burying his face to his knees. Also, I added images of the group/organization that is helping out Sudan so the viewers could go to the site of the organization and learn more on what’s happening in Sudan.

A new start

Peter, one of the 'lost boys' from Sudan's Dinka tribe was force to migrate to Kenya because of the civil war that started in Sudan. The Sudanese people lived in refugee camps where they waited until their names were on the list of the group that would go to America and start a new life. Peter was chosen to go to America and he left with a mind to get a good education and help his family, people in the refugee camp and the people of Sudan in general by sending back money. Peter thought America would be like heaven and it was heaven for him and the rest of the ‘lost boys’ at the beginning because they could eat anytime they wanted to and everything was just better than Africa. However, Peter’s mind started to change as time went by. He realized that life in America was harder than the life in Africa.

Peter started to come across problems. He wasn’t being educated as much as he wanted to be, life in his apartment was dangerous because the security level was very low, needed more money to send back to Africa, and the life he was living wasn’t the way he expect it to be. After living for a while in Houston he moved to Kansas. From here a lot of things changed for Peter, many things started to meet his needs.

When he arrived at Kansas he met with some of the other Sudanese refugees and stayed with them for a while. Here he learnt from them that he could get a birth certificate and apply himself to a public high school. He applied to Olathe East High School. From this school he was well educated, and started to pick up the American life real quick. He played basketball with his American friends, went to church to fit in with people, attended parties, got driving license, dressed up and talked like an American teenager. Everything seemed to turn out well for him. However not everything turned out to be a good thing. Peter came across stereotypes the people set towards his race (racism). The boss at walmart said to Peter and the other workers (that had dark colored skin/black) that they can work under the heat because they were already used to working under heat because Africa is very hot. The teacher at his high school expected him to go into the easy classes and came to a conclusion that he would be going to a community college because he expected Peter to not meet the standards a normal college was looking for. But Peter worked hard and changed the thought that his teacher had. Peter also learnt and saw that people judged people by their skin color and if a person was black he was judged as a dangerous or a person in a lower class than them. Facing the racism and stereotypes weren't the only problem he came across. Peter had more responsibilities, because he had to go to school, study, make his own food, work, do his school work, and send back money to Africa. Peter surely has a much better life than Santino (his friend from Sudan who is still living in Houston) but Peter does come across problems too.

Although Peter has not yet fully accustomed to life in America living in Kansas got Peter to think that life is actually becoming easier in America than in Africa as time goes by, which is because Peter is adapting to the life in America.

The Black Box

I would still call this story 'The Black Box,' because it gives a lot of tension to the readers. When I first got the package I was looking for the title, but it wasn't there. However, later on in the story the black box was mentioned. And the black box keeps on coming out. So, I think it would still be a good way to create tension in the readers by making the title 'The Black Box.' Lotteries usually make people happy if they got it. But there was something strange about the lottery in this story. I got a feeling that the lottery meant death from the beginning because of how the people were not looking forward to the lottery day. I kept predicting many different endings to the story when the ending was not given to me. I kept asking questions to myself thinking if my predictions were right about the lottery being the lottery of death. I went last to get the mysterious paper in the black box, but I had no black dot on it which made me kind of people happy. The mysterious paper didn't really create tension in me because some of my friends started looking through the paper which just showed me what the paper was about. But I waited untill 5:00 p.m to open the paper because it was interesting to see how long I could stay resisting to open the paper. But the part that the people with black dot were doing the playing test was a real twist to this activity. I felt normal again, everything was answered, and I found out that my predictions were right. Yes, my predictions were correct. It made me feel like I achieved something. Like all artists and composers do, this was the type of story that was made to leave questions in the readers' mind. I do think that if there was no ending given to the readers would have made this a more mysterious story and people would think more about it. The best experience of the 'Power of the Void,' was just everything. The new concept of 'void' just thrilled my mind. Doing the void activities made me connect music to stories.

Julius Caesar

Context

Liam and I have decided to act the scene where Cassius starts to convince Brutus into joining the conspiracy of killing Caesar. Cassius doesn't tell Brutus right away, but plays around with his words because Cassius is known to everyone as a man of flattery and he doesn't want Brutus to think his flattering him. But Brutus struggles to make his decisions on whether to be in the conspiracy or not to be in the conspiracy.

Significance

This passage is significance because it shows the characteristics of both Cassius and Brutus and it foreshadows what the book is going to be about. In this passage you can see that Cassius is trying to convince Brutus to join the conspiracy, because someone known to the people of Rome as an honourable man is Brutus (characteristics of Brutus), while Cassius is known as a man of flattery (characteristics of Cassius). However, Brutus gets convinced and joins the conspiracy (characteristics of both characters). This is passage to foreshadow/give a background information to the readers, and the audience, so this makes it significance.

Where can the passage be found?

This passage can be found in Act 1, scene 2, lines #25 to 175, pages 28 to 38

Passage

Cassius

Will you go see the order of the course?

Brutus

Not I.

Cassius

I pray you, do.

Brutus

I am not gamesone: I do lack some part

Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;

I'll leave you.

Cassius

Brutus, I do observe you now of late:

I have not from you eyes that gentleness

And show of love as I was wont to have.

You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand

Over your friend that loves you.

Brutus

Cassius,

Be not deceiv'd: if I have veil'd my look,

I turn the trouble of my countenance

Merely upon myself. Vexed I am

Of late with passions of some difference,

Conceptions only proper to myself,

Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours;

But let not therefore my good friends be griev'd-

Among which number, Cassius, be you one-

Nor construe any further my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,

Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Cassius

Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;

By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried

Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.

Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?

Brutus

No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself

But by reflection, by some other things.

Cassius

'Tis just;

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,

That you have no such mirrors as will turn

Your hidden worthiness into your eye,

That you might see your shadow. I have heard,

Where many of the best respect in Rome,

Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus,

And groaning underneath this age's yoke,

Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

Brutus

Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius,

That you would have me seek into myself

For that which is not in me?

Cassius

Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear;

And since you know you cannot see yourself

So weel as by reflection, I, your glass,

Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which you yet know not of.

And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus:

Were I a common laugher, or did use

To stale with ordinary oaths my love

To every new protester; if you know

That I do fawn on men and hug them hard,

And after scandal them; or if you know

That I profess myself in banqueting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous

Brutus

What means this shouting? I do fear the people

Choose Caesar for their king.

Cassius

Ay, do you fear it?

Then must i think you would not have it so.

Brutus

I would not, Casius; yet I love him well.

But wherefore do you hold me here so long?

What is it that you would impart to me?

If it be aught toward the general good,

Set honour in one eye, and death i' th' other,

And I will look on both indifferently;

For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.

Cassius

I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,

As well as I do know your outward favour.

Well, honour is the subject of my story.

I cannot tell what you and other men

Think of this life; but for my single self,

I had as lief not be as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Caesar; so were you;

We both have fed as well, and we can both

Endure the winter's cold as well as he:

For once, upon a raw and gusty day,

The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,

Caesar said to me, 'Dar'st thou, Cassius, now

Leap in with me into this angry flood,

And swim to yonder point?' Upon the word,

Accoutred as I was, I plunged in

And bade him follow; so indeed he did.

The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it

With lusty sinews, throwing it aside

And stemming it with hearts of controversy.

But ere we could arrive the point propos'd

Caesar cried, 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink.'

I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber

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.

He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And when the fit was on him, I did mark

How he did shake; 'tis true, this god did shake;

His coward lips did from their colour fly,

And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world

Did lose his lustre; I did hear him groan;

Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans

Mark him and write his speeches in their books,

Alas, it cried, 'Give me some drink, Titinius,'

As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me

A man of such a feebale temper should

So get the start of the majestic world,

And bear the palm alone.

Brutus

Another general shout?

I do believe that these applauses are

For some new honours that are heap'd on Caesar.

Cassius

Why, man, he doth bestrude the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we pretty men

Walk under his huge legs, and peep about

To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that 'Caesar'?

Why should that name be sounded more than yours?

Write them together, yours is as fair a name;

Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;

Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em,

'Brutus' will start a spirit as soon as 'Caesar'.

Now in the names of all the gods at once,

Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed,

That he is grown so great? Age, thou art sham'd!

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!

When went there by an age, since the great flood,

But it was fam'd with more than with one man?

When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome,

That her wide walks encompass'd but one man?

Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,

When there is in it but one only man.

O, you and I have heard our fathers say,

There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd

Th' eternal devil to keep his state in Rome

As easily as a king.

Brutus

That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;

What you would work me to, I have some aim:

How I have thought of this, and of these times,

I shall recount hereafter. For this present,

I would not, so with love I might entreat you,

Be any further mov'd. What you have said

I will consider; what you have to say

I will with patience hear, and sind a time

Both meet to hear and answer such high things.

Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this:

Brutus had rather be a villager

Than to repute himself a son of Rome

Under these hard conditions as this time

Is like to lay upon us.

Cassius

I am glad

That my weak words have struck but thus much show

Of fire from Brutus.

Duet partner

Liam Callan

Power of the Void

Part 1

The Internation School Of Kuala Lumpur provides an exceptional education that challenges each student to develop (silence) attitudes, skills, and understanding to become a highly successful, spirited, socially responsible global citizen.

I think I would put the silence right before the word 'attitudes.' This will make a good void because the parents in the audience will be curious to hear what their children will develop if they were to go to ISKL. Most parents are interested in what the school provides because their children's education depends on what the school has. So, putting the silence there would attract more attention from the audience, since it is before what the school will provide to the students. While there's a silence many parents will have the chance to think about what they are wanting from a school for their children to go. So, I think putting the silence there would be a very effective void that would create the most tension for the audience.

Part 2

There are many ways that the composers can use to create tension. One way is to create a period of 'silence.' Creating silence during a piece would be very effective to the audience, because the audience will be confused on what's happening, and they will also be curious on why there's silence. And this could be the chance to hook some of the audience that was thinking that the music piece was boring. Tension could be created by creatin a void, and to create a void you could start by playing double forte at the middle of the piece and suddenly stop with a void. This will surprise some of the audience because they would be confused and think that the piece had already ended. But to answer back to the audience the composer might surprise the audience again and start playing double forte. Doing this will attract many more listeners.