Class Assignment.

Class Assignment

In the last article I read, there were many people who wanted the bones of the slaughtered to be respectfully burried, instead of being out in the open, in the exact states they were when they were first slaughtered. The author of the article used various techniques to highlight the tragedy, one of the most prominent, being the description of the victims. In one bit he referred to a child who had a split in his skull; most likely from the blow of a machete. In another he referred to a woman who was kneeling on the ground covering her head, as she had been when she had first been attacked. In the Children of the Genocide, the article referenced the Children, who had been most affected by the violence they were forced to live through. At least half a million had been killed and over two million people had been forced to run away. The Author creates a sense of darkness by referring to the Children as his main focus in the piece. It creates a sense of disgust and evil, when you think about what kind of people would endanger innocent children. It also creates a parallel emotion, of sympathy, for these people who don't know how to recognize the value in human life, Or who are faced with such devastating living conditions, that their own lives take the number on priority. "These children were faced with having to deal with feeding themselves, clothing themselves, whether they went to school or not and just determining their own future," said Lizanne McBride, the deputy director of programs for the International Rescue Committee in Rwanda.

Film: Donnie Darko

DonnieDarko
" you can never go too far."

Andrea and I watched Donnie Darko, a film about a troubled, intelligent boy, who's told the world will end in 28 days. We really liked this movie, because of how much it allowed us to think. Its one of the darkest movies we've seen, and it has so many layers. You can watch it over and over again& pick up something you missed, or make another connection that completely changes how you see the movie. That's part of what we like most about it; everyone gets something different when they first see it. It takes a lot of thinking, and maybe even research, to understand the movie. We looked up the director's cut, and various explanations, just to get a better idea of what it was supposed to be. Its one of the best movie's we've seen. It balances quirkiness with darkness.

the cask of amontillado

the cask of amontillado

As I was reading the cask of amontillado, I noticed how Edgar created a dark setting through intense vocabulary and hidden meaning. I imagined the surroundings were shades of charcoal gray by the way the story was read. The sentence, " We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs," paints a picture of death. Catacombs spark the thought of the myth that features a beast banished to wander a labrynthe for eternity. That one thought created the feeling and personal foreshadowing for the duration of the story. Another line, when used to describe a coat of arms, left a vivid image in my head: "A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure ; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel." A foot thundering over a serpent who'd bit it seconds before. Revenge. The main character was hinting to his victim of his fate, which would be to follow the main character into the depths of a dark space, in promise of seeing a rare artifact. Once there, drunk and humiliated, ( in a jester's outfit,) he's chained to a wall as his murderer begins to seal the entrance brick after brick. The last thing the murderer hears is the jingling of the bells on his victim's clothing.

Macbeth: a tragic hero.

"tragic hero: A privileged, exalted character of high repute, who, by virtue of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory into suffering."

Macbeth is definitely a tragic hero. We started out seeing him in a heroic light, brave and loyal to his King. There was no foreshadowing of the tragedy that would befall him, if you had only looked at his role in the very beginning. Macbeth's tragic flaw, which in my opinion, is the fact he's human, ( which lead him to the power struggle between the forces of good and evil), caused his downfall.I think the forces of evil are more dominant in our lives, only because they don't require dedication, and promise glory, although it may be tainted. The crown is at the bottom of a dark and narrow pit, and all you have to do is jump. You can always climb back up, can't you? Although I believe you can always redeem yourself when you sucumb to jumping, its never as easy as it looks, and not once in my sixteen years of life have I personally experienced a jump down that pit that was worth it. Its so much more difficult to make the choice to do good. We find the prize to be much more rewarding, having gained untainted glory, and the new traits of the journey we embark on as we struggle. We learn things, instead of falling endlessly down into darkness, collecting different sorts of traits-- traits that stick to our consciouses like leeches, and perhaps even drive us to insanity in extreme cases, like Lady Macbeth. Her husband unfortunately wasn't strong enough to resist the temptation; the suggestion of power. Even though the witches sent him apparitions fortelling of Macbeth's end, he denied them. He created an entirely new reality for himself, one in which he was in control of his fate now. He had the power, and he decided above all, that he would stay in power. With mortality comes greed and vanity. I'm not suggesting there aren't opposites for all terrible qualities, but being human makes it hard to resist temptation, hard to strive to be good, hard to keep from falling. Macbeth's tragic flaw, was the fact he was a man who wasn't strong enough in himself. Macbeth's tragic flaw was the fact he was a human being.

class presentations - questions

1. Please explain why you chose the method of presentation that you did?

- I thought it would be easier to understand for everyone if it was shown through a relatable tv show that was popular.

Cartoons seem to make things simpler, and can make even the most tragic and deep texts, comical and light. Even though it was a lot of work, I'm glad we chose to create clips.

2.What were your influences for this presentation?

- The Simpsons and the text of Act 4.

3. Was this presentation any different than
past presentations? Please explain.

Perhaps. It took hours to create, and record everything correctly.
We created individual graphics to go along with the gif's,
and added music and tried our best to translate the text correctly.

4. Was this presentation any more challenging or was it
easier than past presentations? Please explain.
It was challenging in the sense of the actual production; carrying out the design of what we did.
The concept wasn't at all complicated. We'd discussed and dissected the text before hand, so we had a clear understanding.

5. Do you find yourself writing more on your private blog,
or on the class blog? Please explain.

Private blog. For one, I'm not an author for the class blog and I just find it
awfully complicated to track what I've done when its mixed in with so many other people's posts.
My blog has my own posts one after another. Simple.

have you handed in your metacognition piece????

Thank you for catching up on all of your work. Have you handed in the reflective journal and the self assessment piece? They were due today. I will e on the computer again tomorrow.

what ive learned or discovered today

Today, I discovered that my group works rather efficiently. Our brains are working well together and we've decided to film a popsicle stick version ofThe Simpson's Macbeth. We have two classes left and we're on our way to creating a lovely presentation. This project is working well for me because my teammates are positive and creative, which helps me to better contribute to our overall success. We've simplified our ideas, which was something I initially worried about.