Essay Reflection- The Alchemist Essay and Julius Caesar Essay

Ideas and Content

In both essays, I explained an idea by having quotations from the book, and help me explain the idea more easier and more clear. For example, in the Alchemist essay, I included, "“…try to make your own decisions.” ‘ (Coelho 28)". I chose this passage to explain about Santiago's open- minded nature. Also in the Julius Caesar essay, I quoted, "“It must be by his death; and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general” (Brutus, page 62, line 10)". This helped me to explain Brutus showing his patriotism to Rome.

In order to improve on explaining an idea, I will start explaining an idea in more detail, because I usually finish explaining an idea by just stating it.

Organization

My organization for both paragraphs are appropriate. The paragraphs in the essays were ordered correctly, topic sentence, 2 or 3 reasons/ examples and ending with a concluding sentence.

For example:

The patriotism spirit guided Brutus to take actions to save Rome. He only had Rome in his mind, and cared about the people. “It must be by his death; and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general” (Brutus, page 62, line 10). In Brutus’s soliloquy, Brutus starts to understand more about Caesar and predicts possibilities of how Caesar may use his power. In his final decision, he knows that the assassination will suit for Rome and Caesar. Caesar being murdered and Brutus held a funeral speech for the conspirators. “Not that I love Caesar less but that I loved Rome more” (Brutus, page 128, line 20). In Brutus’s funeral speech, he talks about reasons of his murder of Caesar. Here, he exclaims that the love of Caesar was less than Rome. Brutus murdered Caesar because countrymen will earn freedom and be happy for the rest of their lives. The actions he took towards Rome were led by his patriotism which makes Rome honor him.

Next time when I write another essay, I would improve on writing a brief sentence before expressing an idea or reason, because in most of the paragraphs of the essay, I have just put a quote suddenly.

Personal Growth

Looking at both essays, I don't see that much improvement. I am feeling that my Alchemist essay was much better than my Julius Caesar, since I had a lot of time to work on them and to revise with classmates. The concepts that both included, was great organization but needed few improvements. I needed improvements on especially with word choice and sentence structure. These were reasons that have been marked low because it was not a good word choice such as, 'good', 'bad' and others too. Also I had short sentences that could have been explained more in detail, also had mistakes on the arrangement of the words. In future essays I don't want to have these simple mistakes, to make an absolutely different essay.

SLR Reflection

Think Creatively

By thinking creatively during the creation of the essay, it allows me to think of creative topic sentences to start a paragraph, and end with an excellent transition. These can help me also in the future to make my writing more easier to write because I don't have to suffer with thinking of a fabulous transition.

Brutus, the caring man

Final Assessment Julius Caesar Essay

“And kill him in the shell” (Brutus, page 64, line 34) In this soliloquy, Brutus notices that Julius Caesar must be killed before he will use all his power against Rome. Brutus knew the assassination of Caesar would be the better of Rome and takes different actions to get closer of his assassination. Brutus the man that only cared about his country Rome was led by his patriotism and honorable nature to assassinate Caesar.

The patriotism spirit guided Brutus to take actions to save Rome. He only had Rome in his mind, and cared about the people. “It must be by his death; and for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, but for the general” (Brutus, page 62, line 10). In Brutus’s soliloquy, Brutus starts to understand more about Caesar and predicts possibilities of how Caesar may use his power. In his final decision, he knows that the assassination will suit for Rome and Caesar. Caesar being murdered and Brutus held a funeral speech for the conspirators. “Not that I love Caesar less but that I loved Rome more” (Brutus, page 128, line 20). In Brutus’s funeral speech, he talks about reasons of his murder of Caesar. Here, he exclaims that the love of Caesar was less than Rome. Brutus murdered Caesar because countrymen will earn freedom and be happy for the rest of their lives. The actions he took towards Rome were led by his patriotism which makes Rome honor him.

Brutus takes honorable actions towards Rome. Brutus always takes action for Rome to make them respect him. “Our course will seem to bloody Caius Cassius…” (Brutus, page 74, line 62). From this passage, Brutus takes away leadership of the conspirators from Cassius. All the conspirators including Cassius followed Brutus’s commands and started to respect him as a leader. Conspirators brought away Antony from the capitol, interpreted Calpurnia’s dream and other events that respects Brutus. After the murder of Caesar, Brutus started a funeral speech. “Be patient till the last. Romans, countrymen, and lovers…” (Brutus, page 128, line 12) Brutus held a funeral speech for Rome to exclaim about the causes of the murder of Caesar. During the speech Rome was quiet and respected him because it was an important speech about their great leader Caesar. Brutus carefully took honorable actions, and trying not to take dishonorable actions. He wanted to have respect from Rome and others, to earn more power for him and for everyone to love him. Honorable thoughts swayed Brutus to make Rome respect him.

Brutus thinks Caesar must be assassinated for Rome and for his friends. Brutus’s actions were controlled by the characteristics of patriotism and honorable. Brutus being led by these motivators, he has achieved his goal but not as he wanted to. He wanted to assassinate Caesar boldly, but eventually Caesar was murdered as a carcass fit for hounds. Brutus regretting of what he has done, he sacrifice himself. I believe this goal was both noble and worthy. The goal was noble because Brutus was able to earn honor and power from Rome and the conspirators. The goal was also worthy because Caesar was dead and Rome earned freedom. In ‘Julius Caesar’, Brutus was led by his different character that made him care about Rome, which were patriotism and honorable.

Collage Reflection

Thinking Creatively

In this video, I zoomed into the sections I explained, such as the part where I explained the six word memoir, I had a zoom in of the words and had my voice recorded over it. I have done this achievement for the audience to understand the different parts of my collage clearly.

Reason Critically

In this collage, I used key words, quotes and news heading. I had six key words, which represented what the Sudanese had experienced during their migration and during their life assimilating to the American culture. I had quotes that I made up to show what they suffered with in the past and to show what they need. I used a heading I found on the news in internet to show that the migration and assimilation of the Sudanese was a huge news for the news reporters.

Communicate Efffectively

My collage presents awareness by displaying key words and emotions of the pictures. The key words represents what they suffered with during the civil war in Sudan and the assimilation to the new culture. The pictures shows the different emotions, such as Sudanese looking sad, happy, suffering, and other emotions. These pictures make the audience feel sad of the Sudanese people and creates awareness to the people.

Live Ethically

When people look at my collage, I think the first word that will come up is 'why'. The collage shows different emotions of the Sudanese experienced in Sudan and America. After looking at the pictures they will feel sympathy for the Sudanese and will want to take actions for them and will find ways of helping them.

The 'Lost Boys'

Peter

The ‘Lost Boys’ in Sudan were forced migrated and Sudanese were separated apart from their families and friends. Peter one of the Sudanese boy, who was forced migrated to Texas Houston along with his other friends. He faces many difficulties and a totally different experience as he assimilates to the American culture. Starting to live in America, Peter started to suffer with earning money, and needed a usage for his house rent, foods, education and etc. Peter decides to move away from their friends and decides to live at Kansas City. In Kansas City, he makes a decision of going to school, because he wanted to get education, friends and to show everyone about his culture. Peter also struggled with the pressure from the Sudan people. The people from Sudan wanted money from Peter because the Sudanese don’t have enough money to live. This situation made Peter struggle on how to earn more money. To solve this problem he started to commute to school and earning new jobs. Peter who was one of the lost boys, he slowly starts understanding and blends into the American culture.

Julius Caesar: Performance Assesment

1. Casca thinks of the strange omens as heaven was warning and showing anger about murdering Caesar. But Cassius interprets the strange phenomena as a warning that Caesar is threatening Rome and he has to be stopped fast. After interpreting the unnatural phenomena, Cassius manipulates Casca to join the conspiracy against Caesar.

2. This passage is significant because it is when Cassius interprets Casca’s views of many strange omens, and manipulate Casca to join the conspiracy against Caesar.

Casca joining the conspiracy is important for Cassius because the more people against Caesar, Rome will agree about Casar’s murder, and the conspirators will have and earn more power.

3. This passage is located in…

Act 1 Scene 3 (1.3): page 52 Line 57~78

4. Cassius:

You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life

That should be in a Roman you do want,

Or else you use not. You look pale, and gaze,

And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder

To see the strange impatience of the heavens.

But if you would consider the true cause

Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,

Why birds and beasts from quality and kind,

Why old men fool and children calculate,

Why all these things change from their ordinance

Their natures, and preformèd faculties

To monstrous quality—why, you shall find

That heaven hath infused them with these spirits

To make them instruments of fear and warning

Unto some monstrous state.

Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man

Most like this dreadful night,

That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars

As doth the lion in the Capitol—

A man no mightier than thyself or me

In personal action, yet prodigious grown,

And fearful as these strange eruptions are.

Line 89~99

(If it was Caesar)

I know where I will wear this dagger then;

Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius:

Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;

Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,

Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,

Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;

But life, being weary of these worldly bars,

Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

If I know this, know all the world besides,

That part of tyranny that I do bear

I can shake off at pleasure.

The School of Athens

How can art be a mirror of society?

In the fresco ‘The School of Athens’ by Raphael, includes classical architectures and artistic techniques, which reflects the Renaissance society. The most impressive architecture in this painting is the “rounded arches” which the blueprint was rediscovered by a greatest architect, Fillipo Brunelleschi during the Renaissance. Rounded arches were the great technique to support and decorate the building. They started to be used in buildings after this rediscovery. Also there were many artistic techniques used by Renaissance artists to improve their own works. One of the techniques discovered was the linear perspective, which was another discovery made by Brunelleschi. Perspective adds depth into the painting and made viewers focus on the focal point. The fresco, ‘The School of Athens’ painted by Raphael contained many classical architectures and different artistic techniques that were discovered during the Renaissance era. In the middle ages, paintings included simple backgrounds and had only few colors, but after the Renaissance era, artworks evolved. Renaissance artworks included more detailed backgrounds and displayed many varieties of colors. All of the artworks reflects the society in each era.

If I were part of the fresco ‘The School of Athens’ I would be Euclid. He was a Greek Mathematician, and many people saw him as the father of geometry. He went to Plato’s school during the Ancient Greece. After finishing school, he went to Alexandria, where he discovered and wrote his theories on geometry. In this fresco, Euclid is shown as the mathematician trying to obtain a deeper understanding about the universe by using geometry, which are shapes and lines. Same as Euclid, I have a great interest about the universe. I always thought that using telescope could help discovering ideas of universe. But I was surprised how Euclid tried to use geometry as a key to discover new ideas. This way of determination made me gain more interest in discovering the universe. I want to discover new theories and ideas that can help other people to study like Euclid did.

Courage is a Key to achieve your Destiny

Courage by Hanson Chen

Courage is what it takes to stand up to others Courage is what it takes to make your own decisions Courage is what it takes to succeed But it also takes courage to sit down and listen It also takes courage to admit a loss It will take courage to respect someone others don't Courage is needed to withstand peer pressure So what does this mean? Courage is essential in your journey through life.

Duty, Courage, Honor

Courage is important to culture and all the time. Hanson says that courage is essential in your journey through life. This means that courage is the key to achieve your destiny. Being brave is part of being courage. You would have to overcome the obstacles you pass and to challenge into a harder adventure. My destiny is to become a baseball player. Overcoming obstacles for me is to go through hard practices. I do practices to improve my throwing and my batting form. I challenge into a harder adventure by joining into a baseball team and I try hard to improve my skills. By being brave anytime, it allows you to achieve your destiny. Courage is also important for different culture. Long time ago there were wars going on. During the wars, people were being courage and sacrificed their lives to save their own country. I think their destiny was to be part of the army and after they complete their destiny, they sacrifice their lives to save other people. If people had courage, they will be brave and sacrifice their lives to save the other people's culture and time.