Caesar and Alchemist Essay Reflection

Ideas and Content

I believe that my Alchemist essay has a lot more ideas and content to support it's facts. My Alchemist essay was a lot better crafted than my Caesar essay since I was able to provide more information and support for my ideas and my thoughts were therefore much more developed. This might because the teachers helped us a lot on the Alchemist essay and they reviewed our drafts while we barely had any help on the Caesar essay and only wrote one draft. This allowed me to edit my work a get suggestions on my Alchemist essay while I was not able to do this on my Caesar essay. I was able to explain my quotes and examples well in my Alchemist essay, but I didn't support them enough in my Caesar essay. I believe that I am better at factual writing rather than expository writing as I received a better grade on my DBQ essay that I wrote without help, than my Caesar essay. I also believe my DBQ paragraph was overall better written than my Caesar one. I could improve my writing by giving more support for my quotes and other examples.

Organization

I think that my writing is overall organized well as I am able to organize my essays into the required number of paragraphs and put my paragraphs into the different parts. I am able to begin with an introductory paragraph with a hook and a thesis statement in my Alchemist essay as well as my Caesar essay. I have clear topic sentences in all my paragraphs but I could make them more interesting to keep the reader's attention. I could improve on establishing a context to my quotes as I usually put the context after the quote and sometimes forget to give a context at all. In the Alchemist essay I was able to include transitions and summarizations of paragraphs for the body paragraphs but I didn't include these things in some of my Caesar paragraphs. I also believe that my conclusion was strong in my Alchemist essay but was lacking in my Caesar one. This might be because I had a lot more time to write the Alchemist essay but I had to rush the ending to the Caesar essay.

Personal Growth

I don't believe that I have grown much as a writer between the two essays since I was not able to match my level of depth and understanding in my Caesar essay, as my Alchemist essay. I believe that my writing level has stayed about the same since although I got a worse grade on the Caesar essay, I had a lot less time to write and edit it, and didn't get it checked over either. Also the expectations of the teachers has grown throughout the year and I was expected to be able to write in more detail for the Caesar essay.

SLR's

I believe that I have to be able to communicate effectively when I write an essay as I need to be able to explain and communicate my thoughts clearly and effectively for the reader. If I cant communicate my point across to whomever is reading my piece of work, they wont be able to enjoy it or even understand it. Every piece of writing has a point that it is written for and if that point cannot be communicated to the reader, the writing is useless.

Julius Caesar Essay

Antony

“O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of Earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.” (Said by Antony From ‘Julius Caesar’) This quote shows Mark Antony’s hate for the conspirators and love for Caesar. Antony thinks of the conspirators as butchers who have slaughtered a great man and begs for forgiveness from Caesar that he hasn’t done anything to them yet. Antony was angry at the conspirators and his goal was to avenge Caesar’s death by killing them. In Shakespeare’s play, ‘Julius Caesar,’ there are many characters that have goals, which are either noble, or not. Mark Antony is one of these characters who was driven to get revenge on the conspirators for killing a friend, and a leader.

Caesar was Antony’s best friend and when he died, Antony’s love for Caesar turned into anger for the conspirators. Once Caesar died, Antony starting coming up with an idea on how to avenge Caesar and began a civil war. “That I did love thee, Caesar, O, ‘tis true.” (Act 3, Scene 2) At this point, Antony has seen Caesar’s dead body and is talking to the conspirators about how he feels about their actions. Antony tries to stay calm and not let his true emotions show. This quote proves Antony’s love for Caesar and shows one factor for why Antony began seeking for a way to avenge his friend. When Antony was alone without the conspirators, his emotions came flooding out. “Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!”(Act 3, Scene 1) Antony was angry with the conspirators and hoped that they feel the same pain that he felt at this point. He started cursing them and hoping that all of Rome falls into chaos. Antony was furious and didn’t care about anything that tried to get in his way of revenge. Antony loved Caesar, but he also respected him as a great leader.

Antony believed that Caesar would have been a good king and would’ve led the country well, which made him disagree with the conspirator’s whole cause. The conspirators believed that by killing Caesar, they were making Rome a better place by ending tyranny. Antony didn’t agree with this point of view and wanted Caesar to be a king. “I thrice presented him a kingly crown,” (Act 3, Scene 2) This is when Antony is talking to the plebeians and trying to convince them that Caesar was not ambitious and didn’t deserve to die. Antony tells them about how he wanted to crown Caesar three times and that he refused to become a king. Antony wanted Caesar to become king but since Caesar refused, it made Antony think he was honorable which was another reason he thought Caesar shouldn’t die. Antony’s anger grew as he found more and more reasons for why Caesar should have stayed alive. “Over thy wounds now do I prophesy. A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.”(Act 3, Scene 1) Antony became furious with the conspirators and didn’t care what happened to anyone else so he cursed the whole of Rome. Antony eventually started a civil war with the help of Caesar’s nephew and made madness spread throughout Rome because of his anger. Antony was angry at the conspirators for killing a great leader and was out for revenge.

Antony’s fury at the conspirators made him hungry for vengeance and he started a civil war and made chaos in Rome to get it. Antony was angry with the conspirators for killing his well-loved friend and well-loved leader and he set his wrath on them. Antony achieved his goal in the end as all the conspirators were dead, and the only way he could achieve it was by sacrificing a whole country to kill a few people. Although Antony achieved his goal, it was not a noble or worthy one, as he had to kill a lot of people and put a country into pandemonium to achieve it.

Lost Boys of Sudan Collage Reflection

Think Creatively

In this project, I thought creatively in many different ways. One of these was that I chose to make some of my words pop out as I thought they were some of the most powerful words on my poster. I was also able to make the different stages in the stepped migration have their own section on the poster. These three sections are shown on the background of the poster where the black represents the biggest hardship and the war, the brown represents the time in the refugee camp and the white represents overcoming their obstacles and being able to go to america for a new life. I was also able to make the first half of my six word memoir stand out as I made it out of different letters but my second half of it didn't make it seem important. I could have improved upon my second half of my memoir and I didn't because I ran out of space.

Reason Critically

My text and images showed that I understood the conflict in Sudan as I was able to find pictures from all the points in the Lost Boys' journey. I was able to emphasize my understanding of their troubles in Sudan and the refugee camp with powerful images. I showed that the Lost Boys walked a long way together to a refugee camp, fleeing war and what they called hell. I also showed my understanding of the refugee camp with the pictures of the people preparing their food and other pictures of very thin people which showed their lack of food in the camp. I showed my understanding of their time in America with pictures of Peter going to school and working a low pay job. I also included words such as culture shock, education and racism which showed my understanding of their troubles.

Communicate Effectively

My collage creates awareness for the Lost Boys' plight as I am able to show many striking photos of what is going on with their lives. I tell the viewer that there is a civil war in Sudan and and the pictures and some words help tell their story. I show the viewer that the Lost Boys get a somewhat better life in America with education but that its still not perfect with racism and the culture shock that they have to deal with. I also put a website to which the viewer can go and learn more or even help.

Live Ethically

I lived ethically as I was able to demonstrate empathy in my collage an make the viewer have an emotional response. I showed many powerful pictures such as a starving young boy and the people walking a far distance. I was also able to use powerful words such as despair and racism. All these were used to evoke an emotional response from the viewer which would make them act and help the lost boys with their struggles. I also put a website called 'Care' where people could get started helping the boys and hopefully learn more about the crisis and tell other people about it.

Lost Boys of Sudan - Peter

My country, Sudan, had been in a civil war for many years. When my village was attacked by the rebels, I was forced to flee from my home. I was separated from my family and lost. I found other children who had run away from their villages and we started walking. Our journey seemed to never end and many of us died along the way. We were forced to migrate out of our country and into Kenya where there was a refugee camp. We were branded the name, 'The Lost Boys of Sudan' when we were found and given refuge.

My name is Peter and I am one of these 'lost boys.' I lived in the Kenyan refugee camp for over ten years after fleeing from my country. After so many years the camp had become my home. I was given the opportunity to go to America yet I wasn't sure what I would find there. I had heard that it was like 'heaven' but I wasn't sure I wanted to leave all my friends. Before I knew it I was on the plane to america. Everything on the plane was new to me. The food was different, even the tray they brought the food on was strange. I didn't know what to do and how to react.

I was chosen to go to Houston, Texas to a low budget house. I was shocked to see all the electrical appliances like the stove and the oven. Luckily a guide was there to show my roommates and I the way. We were starting to become familiar with the place but we still couldn't believe how much we could eat there as we only had to meals a day at the camp. I was working a minimum wage job and just getting enough money for food and rent. Since my roommates and I were paying rent together, I had some extra money and was able to send some back to help Sudan.We were trying to adjust to the American culture as it was greatly different to ours. For example if two men were found holding hands they would be called homosexual and ignored by people while this was normal in Sudan.

I didn't have almost any free time in Houston and that wasn't the life I was looking for. Almost all I was doing was working and eating and had almost no spare time to get to know people or go to school. I also felt insecure in the house I was in as it was a poor neighborhood with a lot of crime. As soon as I had enough money, I bought a car and moved to Kansas City.

When I got to Kansas, I met a few other Sudanese and lived with them. I tried to apply for school only to find out I was too old to get in. My friend told me that the age I had been given wasn't exact and I could change it to get into school. Eventually I got into school and started to meet new people. I also tried out basketball and went to church where I met even more people. I was still balancing work with other things but my life felt a lot better here. In school I was interviewed by a person who was writing for the newspaper and she asked me questions about my past. I felt a bit uncomfortable when she asked me certain things like "How did your father die?"

I got along in school and eventually I was getting close to graduating. I went to the principal to talk to him about getting into a 4 year college but he tried to persuade me to go to a public college. I told him I had got into honor role and he seemed amazed that I could've done that. We kept talking and he kept getting surprised by my achievements, like he couldn't believe I could have gotten so far. Eventually I did get a scholarship ('Lost Boys' FAQ) in a full length college.

I was still trying to balance my life in America, and what I believed was my duty to help my country. I have now built a life here in America, but I will still go back to help my country when I can.