MAAN and Stereotypes

These stereotypes didn't really sway my interpretation of the events of the play too much. I thought that he showed the stereotype of the lower class people being very dumb and stupid with the characters Dogberry and Verges. This showed this stereotype very well throught the way taht they acted and spoke. I also saw the stereotype that women do not derserve a say in society and they can get beat whenever it is nessicary. This was shown when Hero was accused of cheating on Claudio and she didn't even get a say of her side of the story and on top of that she was pushed around by Leonato and Claudio. This didn't sway my viewing of the play but i noticed that they were there.

I believe that Shakespeare didn't believe in stereotypes and he put these in there to teach the audience a lesson. One of the reasons why I think he was trying to teach a lesson is at the end of the movie the men were wrong (a stereotype is that they are always right) and the woman (Hero) was true to what she said. This would support the idea that people misjudge people on what stereotypes say and they don't actually get to know the person. Another way that shows that he was trying to teach his audience a lesson is that Leonato based his descision not to follow up on the criminals, that were caught by the watchmen, because he thought that they were stupid and didn't know what they were talking about. The audience learns that you should always listen to everyone no matter what "kind" of person they are because you don't know what they have to say. This is why I thinkt that Shakespeare was trying to teach the audience a lesson with all these stereotypes.
Thanks,
RJ

MAAN and Ethics

I think that lying is never ethically or morally justified. You should never lie because of this. It is never justified becuase lying means that you are not telling the truth and that is very bad. If you lie once you are bound to keep lying and that can lead to all sorts of trouble. Lying is against correct morals because you should always be truthful because the truth is what keeps everthing going. If no one told the truth, or lied contiuously, then all of society would fall apart. The only situation that I think you would be able to lie in is if you are faced with a life and death matter and you need to lie to stay alive and not die. All in all, lying is never morally or ethically justified because it is against all morals and lying can always lead to trouble and corrupt people.
There are many instances in "Much Ado About Nothing" when the characters lie. One of the biggest lies in this play so far is when the Prince, Claudio, and Leonato trick Benedick into think that Beatrice is in love with him. They say loudly, so Benedick who is spying of them can hear, "
Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of today, that your niece Beatrice was in love with Signor Benedick" (II.3.72-73)? This is a huge lie because now Benedick is convinced that BEatrice is in love with him and now he will try to show his affection too. Another example is when Don John realizes that he shouldn't lie about his happiness and his true feelings toward his brother. He states that, "I cannot hide what I am. I must be sad when I have cause and smile at no man's jests, eat when I have stomach and wait for no man's leisure, sleep when I am drowsy and tend on no man's business, laugh when I am merry and claw no man in his humor" (I. 3.10-14). He realizes that lying is bad and that he should stop and show his true feelings and what he is really like.
Many times people lie in life. This normally leads to bad things. One of the most notorious public "lyings" is when OJ Simpson said he didn't kill his wife. Even though he was never convicted of this crime all evidence points toward him being guilty in this case. He wrote a book (it never was released) about what he would have done if he would have killed his wife. All of this lying has lead to trouble for OJ with his fans and people who were following the case. He has never been respected the same as when he was an "honest man" and that will probably stick for the rest of his life. The lying has also gotten him into more trouble. He said that he is not guilty to a case in which he held up a few memorabilia collectors at a hotel room at gun point. If he is convicted than he will face major jail time and will be watched carefully for the rest of his life. This first big lie has lead to another big lie involving the law again. This is an example, from real life, that shows that lying is bad and that one lie leads to another lie.

My Poem

Author: Deanna C. Dilley, USA

Win or Lose
1 It doesn't matter if you win or lose
2 It's how you play the game
3 Give your teammates a chance to score
4 Don't take all the credit
5 Everyone deserves a day of fame
6 You're not perfect
7 Don't pretend you are
8 It doesn't matter if you win or lose
9 It's how you play the game


When I first read this poem I thought it is was just o.k. Then I reread it and I started to think about what it is saying, what the message was. The main message in this poem is that you should try your hardest because you want to and not because of winning or losing. I think that this message applies to everything in life and not just sports, or something that you play. This applies to taking a test, doing well in school, and working hard. You should ALWAYS try your hardest even if you know that you are going lose or fail. This also conveys to the reader that sharing is good and you are not perfect. As Ms. Froehlich always says, "Stive for excellence, not perfection." So at the end of the day it is how hard you tried, how you helped and shared with others, and if you strove for excellence and not perfection.

I find this poem compelling for a few different reasons. First off, this poem says one of the messages that I try to live my life by. I try everyday, and everytime I play sports, to strive for excellence and try my hardest. I also believe in my teammates, like they believe in me, and I share the ball or spotlight with them because I know that I wouldn't be able to have fun without them and vice versa. I also apply this message to my school life because I try my hardest, and even if I don't as good as I thought I could I know that I tried my best and that is all that matters. Secondly, I like this poem because it talks about sports and I like sports. Lastly, I never take all the credit no matter what I do (when I am on a team or working with someone). If two or more people are a part of something everyone deserves some credit. All in all, I liked this poem and it sent a powerful message to me. I hope you like it too.

Q1 Debrief

I thought quarter one was a nice quarter to start my first year of high school. I was nice because we got to meet new people and try new things with the added freedom, but also the added responsibility. I thought I did pretty good in this class, I know I can do better though. I hope I can apply what I learned so far this year, in all my classes, and have an even better second quarter. I learned many new things in this class. I learned how toi expand my idea's and created better and bolder theisis statements. I also learned how to cite things in different ways than I have before. I cannot wait to learn more tools to writing and analyzing. I am still struggling alittle in my use of quotes in my essays. I think that I need to choose some better quotes or explain them further.
I think that the class enviroment is pretty good, but it can be better. There are some people who are disrupting our learning during the class. I think that I can help by telling them to stop and remind them not to act rude before they do. I can also do other things to help the learning of my classmates. I will contiue to express my idea's in class discusions and I will help them when they have questions or need help. This should help the learning enviroment expand and get better.
I have many goals for quater 2. They can all be summed up with one word: imporvement. Although I am pleased with my grades for this quarter, I know I can do better and I plan on doing that. I hope that I will be able to look back at quarter two and say, "Mission Accomplished." I cannot wait to get rolling again, and I hope my hard work that I will put in quarter two will pay off.

Scorpia 5

This book was definitely the best book of the series. This is what happened in the cliff-hanger ending. Alex was summoned to a commission of the high gov't officials of Britain, they discussed a letter about Scorpia's demands. These demands were outrageous. He is an example of one of their demands, "The American President must resign (within their 72 hour period)... otherwise we will be forced to use Invisible Sword on your school children" (201). Then Alex is sent back to Scorpia, he needs to act like nothing happened, to find out how Invisible Sword works. Mean while, Scorpia ran a test run with Invisible sword by experimenting with it on the English Soccer team. This is described in the following statement, "The whole team, including the coaches, fell to the ground grasping their chest's" (250). This confused the British so much, they couldn't figure out what happened to them. Alex finds out how, they used nano shells in vaccines, which the Enlgish school children and the soccer team took, to kill the people. The shell's will break down in the heart when a terahertz beam is aimed in their general vicinity, sending a dose of arsenic to the body. The beams need to be active for 2 minutes, non-stop, at at least 10,000 ft. above the target. Alex and MI6 need to find out more about this operation before it is too late.

Back to Alex, who is undercover. He has a retainer in his mouth, which pressed in the right place, will release a "panic signal" so MI6 will be able to locate him immediately and move in to stop the deadly operation. Meanwhile, MI6 finds some terahertz beams on a build that is near the center of London, surpassing 10,000 ft. They think that they have found the really beams but the unthinkable is about to happen. Alex is taken to an old church and he sees a huge hot air balloon being pumped up with, you guessed it, 4 terahertz beams on board. He immediately signals MI6 and they move in just too late because the balloon has already taken off. Alex is forced to climb up a rope to the balloon, with Ms. Rothman's right hand man Nile on his tail. Alex reaches the top just in time to dismantle the beams. Then the part of the balloon explodes into a fiery ball and Nile goes plummeting to the ground. Alex then used the balloon as a parachute and floats to the ground. The mission was accomplished but then there is something else. After Alex is debriefed, where he learns that his fathers death was faked by MI6 (he later died in a plane crash because Scorpia somehow found out), he is shot in the chest by an assassin, working for Scorpia, and falls to the ground. This is the end of the book, I cannot wait to read the last, and final book (so far), in the terrific series.

This was, again, the best book in the series and one of the best books I have ever read. It was actioned packed and I cannot wait to read the next one for Q2.
Thanks and I hoped you enjoyed reading my post's,
RJ

Scorpia 4

This book is getting very interesting. Here is an over view of what has happened so far, just to refresh your memory. Alex Rider is looking for keys to his fathers life while on vacation with his friend, Tom, in Venice. He sees a speed boat gliding down the canal and he then sees a silver scorpion on the side., He realizes this is a Scorpia boat and he follows the occupants into a castle named the Ca'Vendova. He then goes to a lab on the coast of Italy o a lead that he found in the castle. He is confronted with a man, whose name is Nile, that he fought in the Ca'Vendova. Nile then realizes who this is, the son of the famous Scorpia agent John Rider. He brings Alex to a hotel on the Mediterranean sea and introduces his to one of the board members of Scorpia, Ms. Julia Rothman. She is a very powerful lady and she fell in love with Alex's father when he was a member of Scorpia before he died. She is conducting and operation. It is described in the following statement. "Alex, this operation is called Invisible Sword. A Middle Eastern client of ours is wants revenge on what the British and American troops did in the Middle East. He is paying Scorpia 25 Million dollars for our troubles, as you can see this is a very large sum of money. This operation will target London in the following weeks" (202).
Furthermore in the book we find out more about John Rider and his involvement in Scorpia. He was one of the best agents Scorpian had. We also learn, even though he was married, Ms. Rothman was in love with him. She describes he love in this quote. "I was very fond of your father, he was a very attractive man" (197). Alex then decides to follow his father's footsteps, after seeing his supposed death on a videotape, by joining Scorpia. Alex then heads to an island off the coast of Italy where he trains for Scorpia. He is sent on his first mission after a week of training. He is scheduled to kill a woman named Mrs. Jones, one of his leaders when he worked for MI6. She was also the one who ordered his fathers death. He cannot kill her because when he shoots there is a pane of glass in front of her that is bullet proof. He then is captured. He then attends a meeting of Britain's leaders to figure out what to do because Scorpia has said that they will use Invisible Sword to kill all of London's school children if the US and GB don't comply with their demands. They also said that there will be a showcase of the weapon, which will kill all the GB soccer players. I cannot wait to find out what the weapon is, and what it will do. I also want to find out what will happen to Alex, will they kill him or will they let him go?
This book has been amazing, I cannot wait to finish it. I hope that I can fit the ending into one more post!!

Scorpia 3

My book has been great so far. This book is similar to, Extremley Loud and Incredibley Close, in a few ways. First of all, the main cahracter, Alex Rider, is searching for something like Oskar in EL and IC. He is searching for keys to his fathers life. This is very similar to Oskars search becuase he is looking for something to do with his father. He is just searching for answers to what his father was like. One last thing that is similar between them is that their fathers were both great men. Alex's search is summed up in the following quote, "Mrs. Rothman, all I want to know is what my father was like" (124).
This book is interesting the whole way through. Alex is continually trying to find answers about his father and at the same time he is try to stop Scorpia's attack on London's school children. He needs to stop an attack that Mrs. Rothman describes by saying, "At exactly 4:15 next Thursday, all the school children in London will perish" (201). It is very challenging because Alex doesn't even know what the weapon that she is using is called, or most importantly, does. This book is very good and I cannot wait to find out more about it!