I’m not sure that
I could select one achievement to be life’s greatest accomplishment, yet all of
the possible answers to this question are essentially the same, so I don’t
think that it’s necessary that I choose.
One might say that the greatest accomplishment in life is happiness,
achieving world peace, or "enjoying the journey", which is ostensibly
how the rest of my classmates feel. I am
very glad that they feel this way, and that their goals aren’t at all glib.
However,
I don’t think that it’s possible to respond otherwise without being ostracized. I think that this question is a tad silly
because there really is only one socially acceptable answer. I don’t think that anyone would say that the greatest accomplishment one could achieve
in life is to be the dictator of Russia and that they would cross any legal or
moral boundaries necessary to accomplish their goals, including arranging
for the murders of anyone who was in their way.
This question is nearly identical to
a question we were asked a few weeks ago regarding whether or not we would “screw
our best friend over to get an ‘A’ in the class”. It makes me wonder if these questions are
being asked to find out whether there are any sociopaths in the class, although
I doubt that any sociopath that hasn’t manifested themselves already would be foolish
enough to divulge their true nature. I
don’t even think that Macbeth himself would have been careless enough to answer
that question truthfully. The only
socially acceptable answer to either question is obviously “no”. I think that it’s safe to say that no student
would admit that they would indeed want to succeed at the expense of others.
The greatest accomplishment in life is the satisfaction in knowing that you have made a positive impact on someone's life. The feeling of satisfaction can come in a variety of ways, ranging from a simple gesture of kindness to physically saving someone's life. Regardless of the act, it will most likely fill us with positivity and joy. These acts are also all equally important. Let's say you prevent your friend from going to a party that he should not be at. Not only does he not go to the party, but he may begin to look deeper into his future decisions. Now, simply keeping your friend from making a poor decision also grants him the opportunity to make more positive decisions. Simply asking a friend what is wrong if something seems off shows to him that someone cares. Unfortunately, looking out for those around you is not always easy. Most of the time, the other individual will not open up at first. Human beings have the tendency to become defensive when they are hurt. They could possibly lash out, saying some things that they do not necessarily mean. We have to be willing to look deeper into the situation before making any rash decisions. Screaming back at the other individual and becoming defensive ourselves will only escalate the negative environment. Patience is key here, staying calm and collected as we console, or even offer further advice to the other individual. The further advice comes from wisdom, which we gain as we age. Learning from past mistakes are crucial to this; however, we can even limit these mistakes ourselves by listening to the generation that has come before us. These individuals can make it easier for us to make more positive decisions down the road. These positive decisions fill us with joy, and we can later take this joy and Inner wisdom, spreading it to those around us. This only fills us with greater happiness, knowing that we have made a positive impact in someone's life.
ReplyDeleteChloe, I completely agree with your post. I am glad that someone actually decided to say that, because I was thinking about that too. When you said there is really only one socially acceptable answer to those questions, that is very true. If someone wrote they would screw over their best friends t receive an A, I think they would be judged for their morals and motives. However, at least at KO and other competitive schools, i'm sure there are many students who would screw over their best friend to get a good grade but they would most definitely not write that on the blog. So I guess what i'm saying is if your not going to be truthful on the blog, at least seek honesty and truth in yourself. Furthermore, I think its simply in our human nature. Human nature can be conniving, deceitful, and relentless (while their are obviously good qualities, sometimes its these bad ones that overpower).
ReplyDeleteMacbeth: A Crazy Stupid Psycho
ReplyDeleteAs the play has progressed Macbeth has become increasingly unsettled, deranged, and stupid, and he longer needs to Lady Macbeth to help him plot with ruthless murders. His change is first seen when in the beginning of Act 4, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, / Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' sword / His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls / That trace him in his line” (4.1.155-161). Here Macbeth is telling three murderers to kill Lady Macduff and all her children, a very heinous act alone. What makes this even more deranged is that there is no direct gain, he does just because he is upset showing that he has become increasingly sporadic and unpredictable.
In Act 5 Macbeth shows that not only is he berserk and deranged but also an overconfident idiot that thinks he is invincible because of fate. He begins Act 5 Scene 3 with the following lines:
“Bring me no more reports. Let them [the thanes] fly all. / Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane / I cannot taint with fear. What’s the boy Malcolm? / Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know / All mortal consequences have / pronounced me thus: / “Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman / Shall e'er have power upon thee.” Then fly, false thanes, / And mingle with the English epicures. / The mind I sway by and the heart I bear / Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.” (5.3.1-12)
Here Macbeth is saying he doesn’t care how many thanes abandon him and join the rebels because until the trees of Birham move to dunsinane he is untouchable and will fear nothing. Macbeth is putting his complete trust in the prophecies of witches even though witches distort the truth and try to trick you. He also says he doesn’t fear Malcolm at all for the Prophecies said that no one born from a woman will harm him. Macbeth proves his inhumanity and evilness when he is told that his wife has died and he responds with the following lines:
“She should have died hereafter. / There would have been a time for such a word. / Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time, / And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!” (5.4.17-22).
This shows that he never loved his wife and he doesn’t care that she died because everyone dies eventually. He doesn’t mourn or show any signs of sadness that his wife has died showing how cold-hearted and emotionless he is. He then talks about how days creep to a slow end of time and that everyday fools are brought closer to death, possibly meaning he himself is close to dying. He finishes this passage saying that his wife is dead and compares his wife’s life to that of a brief candle flame. He almost seems happy that she has died. At the end of this scene Macbeth has another depressing line “I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, / And wish th' estate o' th' world were now undone” (5.2.47-49). Meaning that he is tired of living and seeing the sun everyday, and he wishes the state of the world would plunge into chaos.
.The 2nd half of Scotaland PA: A turn for the worse
ReplyDeleteIn the second half of the movie there was less comic lines and more tragedy and mental instability. Although this happen in the play, the movie goes more into the depth of it. The audience gets it's first glimpse of mental instability when Banko ask Mac why he didn't tell him about the drive thru secret. Mac responds with something around the lines of, "shut up I don't have to tell you everything" this is macs first outburst and his moments of rage increase until he dies. More evidence is introduced that pat is cold hearted and sinister. When talking to Mcdufd she says, "I don't give money to homeless people,” this shows that she has no compassion. Many Symbols are introduced in the second half of the movie. All of the scenes in the Mcbeth home showcase many stuffed animals. After Joe kills Banko the audience sees one stuffed deer, after Mcbeth kills the homeless man and the man at the garage there are three stuffed animals. This suggests that the dead animals represent the people that he has killed, implying that he is hunting these people down and they are just “prey” to him. Making Joe look like a ruthless killer. In the last scene when Mcduff takes over the restaurant he is shown with a dog that is alive, this could symbolize that Mcduff is going to protect the people. Another interesting actions that happen in the play is that when interviewing witnesses each witness gets up and tries to hug Mcduff, implying that he is hero and savior because everybody loves him. Another possible symbol is that when Joe and Mcduff are fighting on the top of the roof in the last scene and Joe goes to shot Mcduff he runs out of bullets. This could have many possible meanings. One could be that this is just showing how stupid he is. Another interpretation is that doesn’t have the guts to kill anymore because it goes against his moral values too much. Another symbol is the burn on Lady Mcbeth’s hand. She gets burned in the process of the murder and the burn, in her mind, won’t go away to even with all the medicine she puts on it. Lady Macbeth had a very similar problem like this in the play, where she hallucinated there was blood on her hand from the murder and all the perfumes in the world wouldn’t hide the smell. The burn on Pat Mcbeth’s hand never going away symbolizes how murdering these people will never leave her conscious and she will be forever haunted by her actions.
Another important aspect in the Movie are the Hippies. The 3 hippies represent the three witches. The difference between the movie and the play is that the hippies seem to be more light-hearted, comical, and silly and only one hippie is a woman the other two are guys. The female hippie sometimes talks in a deeper, manlier voice and seems to be the most villainous and evil. This plays into the theme that men are emotionless creatures and women are temptresses. The movie is suggesting that the female hippie has the worst qualities of both genders; meaning that she is both emotionless and a temptress. The two male hippies also have some thought-provoking features to them. One has a bushy blonde hair (interesting connection to nine stories) and has two little bushels of jelled hair protruding from the rest, giving the impression of horns, symbolizing he is a horned devil of some sort. The other male hippie is nicer and always saying that they shouldn’t be committing these acts. This brings to mind the image of the devil on one side of the shoulders and the angel on the other. My theory is that they are on Mcbeth’s shoulders and represent his conscious.
Innocence in Chapter 1:
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 1 the reader is introduced to a variety of characters; all with varying degrees of innocence. These characters (Danny, Ray, Howie, Rafe,) have all had rough childhoods--in one way or another—and have lost their innocence in ways and kept it in others. Danny had an easier childhood than the other characters; he enjoyed loving parents, an active social life, and success in sports. The only “traumatic incident” in his childhood was when he pushed Howie into the pool. Although he was peer pressured into doing this by Rafe, ultimately he was the one who did the pushing. Guilt ate away at him but he wasn’t brave enough to tell his parents that he had pushed Howie in. Eventually, he got over it. Even though not much is known about him, we can assume the Ray had it pretty rough growing up to land himself in prison. He most likely had the next roughest childhood, and lost of innocence at a young age. The Character with the next hardest childhood would be Rafe. Although it can be argued, I think Rafe (as opposed to Howie) had the next hardest childhood and lost of innocence. Most of his childhood was great; he was a leader, popular, and funny. The only dark part of his story is when “Rafe died three years later (killing two girls from his class at Michigan in his pickup)” (17). Explanations for this could be that he was driving drunk or just straight up murdered them for no reason, after all he is pretty deranged. After Danny pushed in “Rafe was grinning” (15). The Character with the worst childhood is definitely Howie. Howie has always had it rough growing up, Danny describes him as having “sweaty pale skin and a lot of dark hair around the face” (7), he was also “wrapped in pear-shaped girl fat’ (7). “The other cousins thought he was weird, a loser, plus he was adopted” (8). Clearly he wasn’t very popular and didn’t have many friends. After getting pushed into the pool and being trapped down there for three days, Howie’s life got even worse. “He couldn’t sleep with the lights off” (17), “and he got into drugs and eventually tried to rob a 7-11” (17).
Howie was hated and had no friends or family to talk to about his problems and help him get through them. He turned to drugs and robbed a 7-11 to get drug money most likely. He was desperate and couldn’t deal with reality so he turned to drugs. All of this happened when he was a teenager and “his sweetness [innocence] was gone” (17).
Imagination: Too Much of Anything is Bad
ReplyDeleteImagination had been a major theme in the book thus far. The audience is introduced to Terminal Zeus, the “imagination pool, and the idea the technology eliminates imagination—all of which revolve around the central idea that imagination is a good thing. Imagination is a good thing, but like anything too much of it is unhealthy and can lead to depressing and suicidal lives. The dangers of this habit can be seen in Howie. In the book Howie creates magic worlds that he travels and adventures in, a game called Terminal Zeus, later when he grows up he plays Dungeon and Dragons, an online version of the game he played as a child. This causes Howie to become a loner and unconnected with the people around him. He spends too much to much time in his fantasy world which causes him to lose his gripe on reality and ties to the people around him. Howard however thinks “imagination saved… [his] life… [he] was a fat kid growing up, adopted, [and] didn’t have many friends. But [he] made things up.” (48). Imagination might have kept him sane, but if he faced facts about how his life was and realized the gravity of the situation, maybe he would have changed the reality of it instead of just having “a life in [his] head that had nothing to do with [his real] life” (48). Imagination has the potential to be a drug—to either hurt or heal someone. Howards wife Ann gives an example of a positive use of imagination. “A woman… [who is] unhappy[,]… shutdown[,]… numb, [and] dead to herself” until she lets her imagination “wake her up… [and] she’s ready to start her life over again” (49-50). All it takes to turn this woman’s life around is just a speck of imagination, and bam she is a new person. However if a person uses their imagination too much and begins to substitute the real world for the world in their imagination, then they slip into depression. Some people use imagination to escape reality and that is very sad.