Sunday, November 27, 2005

Poem

I made a poem about Brutus's perspective to disprove the others who clearly aren't on his side. He is known as a hero in the book, because he had thought of the people rather than power. He had a mind that yearned for power, but he longed for a republic, rather than a dictatorship.
Brutus's Eyes
What can I do
When the world is changing
Before my eyes
And it feels like just yesterday
When I had been running down the streets of Rome
With my best friend of all friends
Julius
And As we grew into strong men
Strong conquerors
He soon grew into a king of Rome
And I soon grew into being unknown
Is life fair as granted?
To both deserve equally pleasing names
And one be more powerful than the others?
How vague is life and what does it mean?
We were just friends
Promised until the very end
But now I can't take it
Because he is wielding more power than ever
What should I do?
What could I do?
See my friend fall on his knees
Or see him prevail over the city?

Disposition: Brutus versus Caesar

I decided to do some research on Julius Caesar in order to understand where it comes from, and I wanted a broader perspective on Caesar:
We all know that the book is called The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. It was written in order to represent a play an almost drama of historical events. Theres was no narrator in this story, and the writing was used in present tense.
The basic moral that I got out of this story was that power controls how people think of you. The moral that I found after researching was that there is a relationship between rhetoric and power. The tone varied and mainly considered a deep and eloquent tone. I could definitely predict some things such as when all of those omens had appeared before Calpurnia's eyes. In any play, omens always represent bad things to come, meaning whatever bad thing MAY happen WILL happen.
The most surprising thing I found about this research was this:
The women in the play, Portia and Calpurnia, symbolize the neglected private lives of their respective husbands, Brutus and Caesar. The men dismiss their wives as hindrances to their public duty, ignoring their responsibilities to their own mortal bodies and their private obligations as friends, husbands, and feeling men.
Like The Odyssey, this too had somewhat prejudice towards women! I never caught that, even though I had alittle inclination towards the fact that there was some discrimination.
Without a doubt the climax was when Brutus had killed Caesar. It was written in 1959 in London, and many find this to be a classic piece of literature.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Julius Caesar






















Here are some pictures I found about Julius Caesar. I like both of them because they both portray the two different sides of Julius Caesar. The first piece of art illustrates his valor while the second piece of art shows his deeper/meaningful side.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

"Beware the ides of March"(I.ii.19, I.ii.25).

In the Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, when Caesar wins against the Roman general, Pompey, he goes out to the citizens and calls for many celebrations. As he celebrates he notices a soothsayer saying to watch out for the ides of March. The key point here is thast Caesar ignored his comments/pleads, and continued to celebrate, ignoring the clear warnings. It has wlays been said to be alert, and Caesar never was. He was intellectual, eloquent, and had captured the attention of the public. He had never listened, and it had just lead to his downfall. His wife had warned him to not go to his crowning ceremony, yet he continued to not listen to anyone or anything. But everyone knows that suspiscion lies everywhere, but it is our instinct that tells us to move forward. As we may know, Brutus lead to Caesar's downfall, but I believe that it was Caesar that broguht upon his own downfall. He had made bad decisions. For example, he knew about many of his enemies like Cassius, yet all he had done was try and avoid them. His actions never led to his words, making a nongenuine character. evn if Brutus had killed Caesar, I believe he is a good character. He had done it in fears of his own area to be under a dictator. Instead his words followed his actions, and he acheive a goal. Caesar never reached one. I believe Shakespeare has a hidden meaning in all of this. He wants to prove to always listen to your heart. Caesar had feelings of doubt. If there is doubt, we shouldn't try and automatically take the path. Decisions matter period.

"Et tu Brutus?"

Wouldn't it just be depressing to know that all these years, your trustworthy friend turned his or her back on you?
Everyone has known that Julius Caesar tells of betrayal, and I find it very saddening. We all have gone through the times where our friends have betrayed us, because of different reasons. In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Brutus betrays Caesar in fear of Caesar inclining towards dicatorship in Rome's republic. Basically, a republic is a form of government where the people have a say in the legislation and overall decisions for the public. Brutus feared this and just had to turn his back, because he did not want to be overruled by 1 leader. With conspirators, he killed Caesar by stabbing him. "Et tu Brutus?" These were the words of Ceasar before he had died and faced Brutus killing him. These words mean "And you Brutus?" He is saying how could Brutus have done this to me. For all these years, Brutus was a true friend to Caesar, but in the end one had more power than the other. Caesar and Brutus had "equally pleasing names" but one had more approval in the eyes of the public. But what I believe is that any friendship can not be called a friendship, when a friend feels that one should do adverse things to each other. Isn't amazing how as things change, people change?

Wednesday, November 09, 2005



"Inside the snow globe on my father’s desk, there was penguin wearing a red-and-white-striped scarf. When I was little my father would pull me onto his lap and reach for the snow globe. He would then turn it over, letting all the snow collect on the top, then quickly invert it. The two of us watched the snowfall gently around the penguin. The penguin was alone in there, I thought, and I worried him When I told father this, he said, 'don’t worry Susie; he has a nice life. He's trapped in a perfect world."
I have just started a new book, called The Lovely Bones by Alcie Sebold. This strong novel is a first-person narrative that tells of a girl explaining her death, and what she sees from the heavens above. She sees her family in grief, and she learns many things from different people. She sees a slow contortion of her parents's relationship, and she sees how much has changed since she has gone. This book seems so good, in that it makes us realize that Alice Sebold's concept of hevaen may be possible. She thinks that the people who have died go to heaven and can observe us. This concept makes me wonder, and I can only think of Susie's position. To know that you have died, because of a man who cannot be suspected of, would break me to pieces. She's trying to scream it out, that the killer is right under their noses. In the end, I beleive she will learn more about her family and friends, and mainly herself.