Reflection of J.C and the Alchemist...

My writing shows appropriate ideas and content in my Julius Caesar essay.

“And am moreover suitor that I may
Produce his body to the market-place,
And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend,
Speak in the order of his funeral.”
This shows that Antony is going to do something big. He wants to talk to the people after Brutus so that he can change their minds, so that they turn against Brutus and the conspirators. He wants to take his revenge for Caesar’s death and he will, with the help from the people. Antony speaks to the people in a way so that they will understand him. And he repeats that Brutus is an honorable man so that the people will start to think for themselves. Which leads the people to joining Antony’s side and help him have his revenge.


This quote and explanation shows that I do not veer off topic much. I try and stay within the barriers of the task. I explained the quote clearly and also lead the paragraph into the next one.
I can practice explaining things better. I can always take quotes from the books we've read and practice explaining them. This will help me with explanations and my writing skills as well

My writing demonstrates appropriate organization in my Julius Caesar essay.

“I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank:
If I myself, there is no hour so fit
As Caesar’s death’s hour; nor no instrument” (pg. 116, lines 151-154)
Caesar has just been killed and Antony, who loved him so, wishes that he could die with Caesar. But he is rejected which leads him to his plan, to have his revenge.
Antony loved Caesar and by his death, he is enraged. He wants Caesar to forgive him for being so gentle with the conspirators and to show Caesar that he is still loyal to him, he will take his revenge and knock out all the conspirators.

Here I give a quote from the book Julius Caesar and then explain its significance. I organized my essay just like this. For each paragraph I used different quotes and explained them. I did this to build off of my topic sentence in the beginning of my essay. I try and give examples from the book and explain them the best I can.
To get better at organizing my essays I think I should defiantly plan more before the essay is due and ask the teachers for help. I can also practice writing essays about different subjects and practice organizing them much better.

I improved on my Julius Caesar essay actually. I had done the Alchemist essay once and then redid it. I did much better on the second time but that is because I had help from my mother. On the Julius Caesar essay we had very little time to write it and it was hard to write so much in such a short time. But to me the book Julius Caesar was much more easier to understand than the Alchemist. The Alchemist was very deep and rich with many writing techniques, so was Julius Caesar but I understood the book much better. I seemed to grasp the idea and information from the book much better than the Alchemist. My writing technique became a little better but I still need to work on that. Writing in a pressured situation is much harder for me. I am a creative writer. It's harder for me to read a book such as these and then write an essay on it. When writing creatively and freely I seem to do very well, and I have in my past Humanities and English classes.

An SLR I would choose to explain how I craft my essays would be Reason Critically. When writing an essay I really try to make the essay organized in whatever way the teachers want us to make it. I find evidence and put it in where it should be, but I have problems with explaining the evidence. I think very hard on how to word my essay and sometimes it still doesn't come out right. I do need to work on organizing and explaining my essays and to do so, I need to Reason Critically over everything that I will put in my essay.

Julius Caesar
Antony’s story

“I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank:
If I myself, there is no hour so fit
As Caesar’s death’s hour; nor no instrument” (pg. 116, lines 151-154)
Caesar has just been killed and Antony, who loved him so, wishes that he could die with Caesar. But he is rejected which leads him to his plan, to have his revenge.
Antony loved Caesar and by his death, he is enraged. He wants Caesar to forgive him for being so gentle with the conspirators and to show Caesar that he is still loyal to him, he will take his revenge and knock out all the conspirators.



Once Caesar had been killed, Antony wanted his forgiveness. He was gentle and friendly to the conspirators and he feels like he betrayed Caesar. He knew he had to show that he was still loyal to Caesar.
“ O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.”
This shows that Antony thinks the conspirators are butchers. When Brutus and the conspirators were talking about how to kill Caesar, they all agreed that they would not be butchers but sacrifices. But Antony thinks they killed him horribly. The conspirators stabbed him 20 and more times, and then bathed themselves in his blood. Antony of course would not like this, and you can tell he is planning something. It’s foreshadowing that something big will come. When Antony first sees’s Caesar’s dead body, he is consumed with emotions. But he keeps them in line so that he can forfil his plan. Which leads him to persuade Brutus to letting him talk to the people after Brutus has spoken.
“And am moreover suitor that I may
Produce his body to the market-place,
And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend,
Speak in the order of his funeral.”

This shows that Antony is going to do something big. He wants to talk to the people after Brutus so that he can change their minds, so that they turn against Brutus and the conspirators. He wants to take his revenge for Caesar’s death and he will, with the help from the people. Antony speaks to the people in a way so that they will understand him. And he repeats that Brutus is an honorable man so that the people will start to think for themselves. Which leads the people to joining Antony’s side and help him have his revenge.

Antony hates what the conspirators have done and since they wont kill him so that he can be with Caesar, he will take his revenge against them. Caesar’s death has made Antony enraged. Antony becomes very violent in what he says.
“Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
This shows that he actually hates the conspirators. That he feels bad for what is going to come to them, because he will cause them pain and have his revenge. He is determined to take down every single one of the conspirators and he won’t stop until they are all gone. He is so angry he prophases that he will bring war upon them.
“ A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
All pity chok’d with custom of fell deeds;
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial”
Antony is so violent here. He speaks of the goddess of war coming from hell and destroying Italy, Mothers smiling when their children are torn apart, Blood and destruction everywhere and the dogs of war running amok. You know that he is foreshadowing the downfall of the conspirators. They thought that what they did was so great, but in the end it cost them all. They will get hunted down and killed, with Antony leading the people.

Antony loved Caesar so much that he wanted to die just to be with him. But Brutus didn’t have the heart to kill and innocent man who had done nothing to help Caesar be so ambitious. It was Caesar’s own arrogance that got him killed and Brutus didn’t think Antony should have to die for Caesar’s faults. So Antony made a plan. He was to be friendly with the conspirators so that the trusted him and let him speak to the people. He felt upset at himself for betraying Caesar and that is when he decided to show Caesar that he was going to be loyal to him, and take his revenge for Caesar. With this all on Antony’s mind, he became violent but very tactful when speaking to the people of Rome. While being tactful while talking to the people, he got them on his side and they fought against the conspirators, running them out of town. Antony in the end did win the battle. The conspirators slowly fell. From being killed by the people or just guilt. I think that Antony was right about Caesar being killed. Caesar could have changed and become a great king, but no one will ever know. The conspirators did kill Caesar brutally. It was noble of Antony to take his revenge because he showed that he was noble to Caesar. And as Antony prophesized, Rome was destroyed. But in the end after the war, Octavius, Caesar’s nephew, took over Rome and so the people were being ruled. It would have been either Caesar or his nephew. So maybe it wasn’t so worthy to start the war. To destroy Rome and peoples life’s, but it was worthy of Antony because it still showed Caesar that he loved him and was still loyal. Antony will always be loyal to Caesar.

Lost boys Collage Reflection

Think Creatively

I made my collage into a nest. It’s symbolic for the ‘Lost boys’ home. They were forced out of their home just like a baby bird that has fallen out of their nest. I put a bird picture on my collage. The bird is just taking off from the water and that symbolizes how the boys left the refugee camps to leave for the United States.

Reason Critically

I chose the pictures I did because I think they captured the ‘Lost boys’ story. They show pain, despair, longing, hope, peace. I chose the pictures because I thought they showed my understanding of the story of the ‘Lost boys’.

Comunicate Effectively

My collage shows the ‘lost boys’ flight from my pictures such as:
Help Sudan
And the picture with the website to go to that shows people how you can help.
Also just the pictures in general. They show so much feeling, you can’t help to feel empathy for the lost boys. It all depends on how someone looks at it and how much they feel for the lost boys, that may cause them to take action. I know I would very much take action and help the lots boys.

Live Ethically

The pictures have a lot of emotions in them, that people will feel empathy just by looking at how much the lost boys went through. They’ll see that their homes were burned down, that people died, that they went through so much pain, and hopefully they do feel empathy. I would. Looking at my collage and at everyone elses I can see what they went through and I would help if I could.

The World of the Lost...

My name is Peter. I was forced out of my home country, Sudan. The British had come to Sudan and had governed the North and the South of Sudan, but as separate regions. Since they left, the North had backed down on the agreement, made in 1953, to give the South autonomy. The South didn’t think that it was fair that the North was the rich and powerful. Which lead to the North and South fighting in a gruesome war.

I was sitting at a fire with my father and grandmother when the shots were heard. My father and I ran while my grandmother and the rest of my family ran a different way. We ran and ran with the heat on us from the desert. Our feet started to wear away and we had very little supply of water and food. Many of the boys that were with me died, they just fell never getting back up. Some were attacked by lions or shot by hunters. My father was one of the men that fell. I was only four when this happened and had to finish the journey on my own. We finally made it to Kenya where we heard there were refugee camps. They welcomed us and gave us beds and clothes to cover our backs. I made many friends who I now call brothers. We stick together and help each other. The people at the refugee call us the Lost Boys because they found us without any parents. We we’re alone. I stayed at the refugee for more than 9 years. The refugee was good to us, but it was hard to live there. We had small homes, no electricity, had rationed food, and the hygienic stations were just a metal sheet for a wall. But we had things to do. Like me, I had basketball. I really enjoy it. When the UNHCR group came to the Refugee camp and set up a program with us to send us to America so that we could start a new life, I was actually excited. America seemed like heaven and I would be able to go to school. The program has been going on now for years now, but now I am finally able to apply to be sent to the states. I was chosen to be flown over to the states and I have given my old basketball shoes and books to my brothers that will be staying here at the refugee. I am going to be living in Houston, Texas with many of my brothers.



Once we get off the plane the group of people that work at YMCA come and help us get started in the states. They tell us they will help us with rent for 4 months and money for 4 months. They teach us about jobs and that we may be able to get into school. We learn how to shop for food and hygienic supplies. My English will hopefully get better too.

Me and Santino are very close now. He is a very close friend. The apartment here is nice but many of the boys are afraid that they will fall through the second floor. There is a lot of food here and I might get fat.



A few months later:

We are living on our own now. Santino has a job at a factory and I have finally got a job as well. But I noticed that America is not like heaven at all. It's very hard. And people back home at the refugee are waiting for money from us. They expect us to send them money, but we don't make much. And the people at the YMCA said that we could go to school. I can't go to school here. I want to start somewhere new. Where the people here are not mean. We don't fit in. We are darker than the black people here and they play rough when it comes to playing basketball. That's why I've decided to move to Kansas, Missouri.



Kansas, Missouri:

I left Santino behind. I'm still helping him with the rent though. He's upset that I left him without him knowing. He really wanted to be with me since we are close friends. Once I got to Kansas, I really wanted to start school, but the people at the program said that I was to old to start. But they don't know my true age because when we are born, we don't get birth certificates. I finally got a letter saying I could go to school.

It's hard, school is. I had to fight my way in, and its hard to keep up. I have to live on my own and I have no friends. Money is hard to make, but I will hopefully get a job. I made enough money at my last job, that I was able to get a cheap car.

I've finally made friends, and I have a girlfriend. I even tried out for the basketball team but did not make it. I have done much better in school and I would like to go to college. But my family and friends back in Kenya are waiting for money. I don't have any right now and they want me to borrow it off someone else. So I got a job at Walmart. The manager stuck me outside in the heat just because I was from Sudan, where it is hot and just because I am black.

America is not heaven like I thought it would be before. It is a very hard place to live in. It's hard to get money and I will never truly fit in.

I am a lost boy in this new world...

void

The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides(Silence) an exceptional education that challenges each student to develop the attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become a highly successful, spirited, socially responsible global citizen.

I put the word silence after the word provides because it makes the viewer start to wonder and ask questions. What does the International School of Kuala Lumpur provide for the children? What will the children learn? It creates a Void in the piece and creates tension because the viewer will want to know what will be said next. I also think it paints a picture in the mind. You can actually imagine what happens at this school. The silence makes the piece more powerful and gives it more meaning.

Composers can create a Void in music by putting a Silence in a piece of music. It adds tension and the people start to question what will happen next in the piece.

Julius Caesar Performance Assessment

Caesar has been recently killed, and Brutus has come to speak to the people to give them reasons for what the conspirators did, so that the people will trust and not turn against them. Antony then arrives with Caesar's body, and he too, speaks to the people about what the consipartors did. He loved Caesar very much and believes what the conspirators did was wrong. Brutus and the other conspirators believed Caesar was very ambitious, but Antony gives reasons to the people that he wasn't ambitious. He tells the people that Caesar loved them very much and would do anything for them. The people then think again of what has happened and decide that Antony is right, that Caesar should not have died.



The signifigance of this passage is that the people have changed their minds once again and truly believe that Caesar should not have been killed. Antony's speach really foreshadow's many things. When the people start to believe in what Antony says, you know that they will turn against Brutus and the rest of the conspirators. Something big will happen, aslo because of the previous acts there have been a lot of tension and irony. Now something huge and unespectable will happen. Antony thinks that Brutus is a very honorable man, but he is still greiving over Caesar and thinks strongly of what the conspirators did was wrong.

Act 3, Scene 2, lines 12-44; 47; 53-59; 63; 67-108

Brutus - Be patient till the last. Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom, and wake your senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any in the assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. 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. Had you rather Caesar were living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears, for his love; joy, for his fortune; honour for his valour; and death, for his ambition. Who is here so base, that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude, that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so bile, that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.

All - None, Brutus, none.

Brutus - Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enroll'd in the Capitol; his glory not extenuated, wherein hi was worthy; nor his offences enforc'd, for which he suffered death.

(Enter Mark Antony with Caesar's body)

Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who though he had no hand in his death, shall recieve the benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth, as which of you shall not? With this I depart, that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my county to need my death.

All - Live, Brutus! live! live!

1st Pleb - Bring him with triumph home unto his house.

2nd Pleb - Let him be Caesar.

Brutus - Good countrymen, let me depart alone, and, for my sake, stay here with Antony. Do grace to Caesar's corpse, and grace his speech tending to Caesar's glories, which Mark Antony, by our permission, is allow'd to make. I do entreat you, not a man depart, save I alone, till Antony have spoken.

Antony - For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you.

1st Pleb - This Caesar was a tyrant.

2nd Pleb - Nay, that's certain. We are blest that Rome is rid of him.

1st Pleb - Peace! let us hear what Antony can say.

Antony - You gentle Romans-

All - Peace, ho! let us hear him.

Antony - Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath Caesar answer'd it. Here, under the leave of Brutus and the rest, - for Brutus is an honourable man; so are they all, all honourable men - come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me; but Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is and honourable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, whose ransome did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; ambition should be made of sterner stuff: yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and sure he is an honourable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, but here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause; what cause withholds you then to mourn for him? O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason. Bear with me. My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me.

1st Pleb - Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

2nd Pleb - If thou consider rightly of the matter, Caesar has had great wrong.

Nicole is my partner.
Nicole: Brutus, 1st plebian
Meaghan: Antony, 2nd plebian