Digital Citizenship

For my digital citizenship photo journal I am making it a mix of pictures on the blog and a scrapbook type photo-journal.
This is the link for the blog:
digital citizenship

Fourth Diplomatic Mission Reflection

Diplomatic Posting 4: A Reflection on Prezi

Humanities Portfolio

This is the link for my portfolio:
http://humanities10portfolio.blogspot.com/

Romeo and Juliet Essay

“He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.”  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson.  One faces fear everyday throughout their lifetime but the real question is how does one deal with that fear? Shakespeare in the play, Romeo and Juliet, shows us how people react in fearful situations; given time people are able to make positive choices but if time is limited the wrong choice is often made.

                The decisions we make effect all of the people that surround us in our everyday life. In the play Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare writes about the many different ways that the decisions Romeo and Juliet made when they were in fear of the outcome and made a quick decision that negatively affected people around them. The main example of this is the decision made by Friar Lawrence and Juliet for Juliet to fake her death and be able to run away with Romeo. When Friar Lawrence came up with the idea he thought of it in a matter of minutes and was pressured from a fearful Juliet. When Juliet made the final decision to go along with the Friars plan she had no idea how much her decision would affect the people in her life, sure she knew that they would all think she was dead but if she had wanted to she could have come back into contact with people such as her parents or the Nurse. The Friars plan didn`t work at as he had hoped and Romeo and Juliet both ended killing themselves in the name of love. The negative outcomes of this decision that Shakespeare describes is that Juliet`s parents didn`t really know their daughter like they thought they did, Paris couldn`t marry Juliet and was heartbroken, and Romeo`s and Juliet`s parents have to deal with the loss of a child. Shakespeare also shows us that there can be a positive outcome from decision made while in fear, after the discovery of the bodies the Montague`s and the Capulet’s decided to end their fighting. Shakespeare does a great job of showing us the outcomes that can come of making a decision without foresight.

                The decisions we make always affect ourselves in one way or another and can either lead to a better decision, acceptance, or a worse decision. Shakespeare, in the play Romeo and Juliet, shows us the way our decisions can affect us in a negative way because we made them in fear. In the play after Mercutio dies and Romeo feels it is necessary to avenge his death so he kills Tybalt and as a result of his action the Prince declares, “And for that offense immediately we do exile him hence… Let Romeo hence in haste, else, when he’s found, that hour is his last…” (III, 1, 185-186 & 193-194, pg. 153) When Romeo and Juliet make the hasty decision to be wed because they are afraid to be without each other there are a few consequences that Shakespeare wrote about were having to lie to their parents and everyone they knew and having Juliet’s hand given away to Paris even thought she was already married to Romeo. Almost everyone knows about the story of Romeo and Juliet and what happens, they all know about Shakespeare’s famous message about how making bad decisions can lead to terrible consequences, such as death. The only real happy thing that comes out of Romeo and Juliet’s decisions is that they are happy with each other while it lasts.  Shakespeare seems to be saying overall that if you make a decision because of fear then it will often lead to a worse decision later on or have bad consequences.

                Throughout Romeo and Juliet the messages that Shakespeare is saying about fear and foresight in making decisions is that it affects all of the people around us and that it often affects ourselves in negatives ways.  Overall Shakespeare in the play, Romeo and Juliet, shows us how people react in fearful situations; given time people are able to make positive choices but if time is limited the wrong choice is often made. Perhaps if there was more time for Romeo and Juliet to make their decisions there would have been different outcomes but as it stands they didn’t have enough knowledge or foresight and made the wrong decision.

Obstacles are like wild animals.  They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can.  If they see you are afraid of them... they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.

  ~Orison Swett Marden

                 

Diplomatic Posting 3 Reflection

This posting had been challenging for me for the most part. The most challenging part would probably have to be understanding Shakespeare and the Keynes and Hayek assignment. What was hard about the Keynes and Hayek assignment was that you had to find the information on the internet and I found it really difficult to find accurate information that I could understand, most of the information was so much about the economy and theories that it was as though it was a different language. I could have done better if I had asked for some help and clarification or looked in my text book to see if there was any information. As we continued to read Romeo and Juliet it got easier to understand, it's still not the easiest thing to get but it's getting clearer. When we discussed what happens in the scene before we read it I found that it really helped me to understand what was happening and that without that I would have been so lost. One of the things that I was happy with was my logo. I wasn't very happy with my first one, it didn't really show who I am and it didn't relate that well to globalization but I think my new one does a good job of showing who I am and has a good job of showing globalization. I was especially happy with my logo because I’m not the greatest person with creating things and doing visual representations and I was proud to have been able to create that logo, even if I didn't really draw it still took creativity. As for finishing this posting I just hope that my critical analysis essay goes better this time than it did in the last posting. Overall I am pretty happy with how the posting went but there are some things I wish I had done better.

Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet: A Review

The main question of the review was "How does this adaptation capture the mood and atmosphere of the original script?" This adaptation of the play was kept fairly close to the original script, it was set in the same time period as the book but the mood and atmosphere seemed to be different. The book had a certain mood to it; it was humorous at some points yet serious and dramatic in others. The movie seemed to have the same mood throughout the whole movie: Dull. The actors that were chosen seemed to be flat and had very little emotion. Juliet, Olivia Hussey, seemed as though she never really had been in love and had one of the worst death scenes ever. Throughout the whole scene where she was in the tomb she seemed to be lacking any real feeling and was more just there and dying than anything. This was different compared to some of her other scenes such as the one after Tybalts death, it was as though it had been overacted, in the book Juliet was sad about Tybalts death but not devastated. The actor that played Romeo, Leonard Whiting, fit the part well but at times it was as if he was really 10 instead of his actual age because of the way he portrayed his joy. When compared to Baz Luhrman's adaptation it made a lot more sense even though i only saw the beginning of his version it had a more comedic mood and was portrayed as more unserious than Zeffirelli's version. I don't really think either movie did a great job of conveying the mood and atmosphere of the original play but if I had to choose one to watch it would definitely be Zeffirelli's version because it did a much better job of telling the story.

Individual Assignment 7

                The friar’s plan for Juliet is not likely to succeed because of the many flaws and the reliance on others that is in the plan. In the plan the friar presents to Juliet he tells her to take a potion that will her appear to be dead while she is actually just in a deep sleep. The friar tells Juliet that the potion will last for 42 hours and that when she wakes Romeo will be there to take her to Mantua. This is one of the main flaws of the friar’s plan, he’s relying on someone else to give the news to Romeo instead of doing it himself, which would ensure that Romeo knows of the plan. Friar Lawrence entrusts the job of sharing the plan with Romeo to Friar John whose is unable to complete the task because he is quarantined in the house of someone who is suspected to have the plague. Another unforeseen event is that the intended wedding for Juliet and Paris had been moved up a day. This means that Romeo will have even less time to come to Verona and be informed of the plan. Balthasar brings the news of Juliet’s death to Romeo and Romeo unaware of the plan and the fact that Juliet is not actually dead decides to “lie” with her. All of these were unforeseen consequences of the friar’s plan but from the beginning it was unlikely that the plan would succeed because there were so many variables.

                I wouldn’t consider doing what Juliet decides to do because even though true love is rare and hard to come by there is still more to live for. I couldn’t imagine killing myself for love, I know that it’s hard to move on but I think Juliet took it a little too far. Why couldn’t she just move on? Even though she’s 13 and has hormones raging and unaccepting parents there were other things that could have been done, it wasn’t like Romeo was dead. Maybe it’s just that I don’t see myself that way or that I’ve never been in love but I don’t think I’m the type of person that would be able to give my life for someone I’d known for less than a month or anyone. My thoughts and opinions and may change when my first love comes along but I don’t think I could ever make the decision Juliet made, even of my first love does come with heart break.