Writing Reflection

Ideas and Content

My writing demonstrates appropriate ideas and content in both essays. In both essays my writing makes sense most of the time. In my Alchemist essay, My writing was pretty detailed and was very in depth about the subject at hand. In my Julius Caesar essay, my writing didn't always make sense. My topic sentances are area always clear and focused, "To complete his journey, Santiago remained open-minded to conquer some of the obstacles along the way." This quote shows very well that my topic sentances are good and prepare the reader for what they are about to read. Finally, in both of my essays, I explain how my quotations were relevant with my topic in that paragraph. '“If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”(p128, lines 19-21). In this excerpt from the play Julius Caesar, Brutus is telling the people that, he didn’t have Caesar, Caesar was his best friend, but he saw that he wasn’t a good leader for Rome, and he values Rome more than any friendship.' As you can see my essays demonstrate appropriate ideas and content.

Organization

My essay organization was overall alright. I tried to begin with an interesting hook to grab my reader's attention, I made sure that all my body paragraphs had good topic sentences, but my conclusion was not so strong on my Julius Caesar essay. I had a pretty clear thesis statement, and I usually established context prior to introducing a quotation. I think that the biggest problem was that in my conclusion, I rushed too much to finish on time, that I didn't pay attention to my writing, and it ended up not making much sense, and it was a bit rushed. In my Alchemist essay, my organization was a lot better than in my Julius Caesar essay. I began with a good hook that grabbed my reader's attention, I then followed with a clear thesis statement. All of my paragraphs began with very clear topic sentences, and I mostly established context prior to introducing a quotation. My body paragraphs closed with summarizing or transition sentences, and my conclusion summarized all my ideas that I mentioned in my essay.

Personal Growth

In my Julius Caesar essay, my writing quality seemed to decrease. I believe that this is because of the limited time we had to finish it in class, and the pressure that was on us. But I think that my first body paragraph in my Julius Caesar essay was good, and it had a lot of detail in it, not as much as in my Alchemist essay paragraphs, but it was not that much of a step down. Maybe, if we had gotten a chance to draft our essay's a bit more, and go over it with our teachers, I would have done better on my essay than I did.

SLR Reflection

One SLR that I accessed when crafting this essay was reasoning critically. I did this when I had to figure out how each quote suggested that Brutus was a specific characteristic. In a way, it was also thinking creatively, because for both essays, I had to find how the quotes probed the personality of the characters and how they affected them. Finally, I also reasoned critically when I had to remember how much time I needed to set aside for each of my paragraphs on my Julius Caesar essay.

Collage Reflection

Think Creatively!
Some of the creative elements of my collage are the groups that the pictures in my collage are placed, the pictures I included, and the color of the poster background. The groups that my pictures are placed in begin with showing the beginning of their story,the war and genocide in their home country (Sudan). It continues down to where they begin to migrate and all the problems that they face in between, like starving and death. Surviving is placed in the middle, to show that for all the parts of my poster the boys had to survive. The pictures I included in my collage fit the categories that I picked to include. And finally, the black of the poster stands for misery, the misery that the lost boys had to go through during their journey.

Reason Critically!
I used the images and text that I selected to highlight my understanding of the lost boy's situation. I did this when I put all my words into specific groups to show all the hardships that the boys went through. Starvation, death, and others. And on the right side of my poster I put the refugee part of my poster to show that many of the boys had hope to hold on to. Some were sent to America to have better lives, but this was at the end of their journey, so I put it at the end of the journey on my poster as well.

Communicate Effectively!
My collage creates awareness for the Lost Boys' plight because it shows the hardships that they went through during their journey. If people can see how hard it was for the Lost Boys to go through this in their life, people might feel bad for them and want to help the situation in Sudan. If someone saw the life the boys had, the starvation, the dehydration, the death that they faced, people would feel obligated to send some sort of help over to Sudan.

Live Ethically!
I think that my collage demonstrated empathy and might evoke and emotional response from my viewers and it incited them to act. It did this by putting pictures that make people feel bad. For example, I put a picture of what the starving children looked like, skin and bones. Another thing, is that I put the words that the boys faced, starvation, death, migration, and for each horrible thing, I put pictures. I put a lion under death, because many were eaten by lions on the way, and many died in the Gilo river when they were crossing because of gun shots and crocodiles. Finally, I said that Sudan was in conflict and war, a strong word I used was 'genocide' because that is a big thing in Sudan at the moment.

My Collage Video

Driven By Patriotism and Loyalty

“Since Cassius first did me whet Caesar, I have not slept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion, all the interim is like a phantasma, or a hideous dream…” (p66, lines 61-65). This quote really sets the scene for what drives Brutus since here he is showing his loyalty to Cassius and to Rome. He believed in Cassius enough to turn against his best friend, and he is keeping his devotion to Rome. Brutus was driven by his patriotism and loyalty to assassinate Caesar for the good of Rome.
Brutus was an honorable member of the Senate during ancient Rome; he was very dedicated to his city and would probably do anything for it. Ever since the beginning of the story Brutus has wanted for Rome to be the best and only the best. Here, when he saw that Caesar was about to turn into a tyrant… he took charge and wanted to stop Caesar from ‘destroying’ Rome. He thought that doing this was the best for Rome, since Cassius convinced him... So he did it, he assassinated Caesar, for his Rome. Because of his motivation, Brutus became crazed, even after he eliminated Caesar, he could not find a good enough reason for killing him, and because of that, Rome broke out into civil war. When Brutus was giving his speech at Caesar’s funeral, he tried to convince the people that he was right… that it was a good thing that he killed Caesar, “If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”(p128, lines 19-21). In this excerpt from the play Julius Caesar, Brutus is telling the people that, he didn’t have Caesar, Caesar was his best friend, but he saw that he wasn’t a good leader for Rome, and he values Rome more than any friendship. This really shows how motivated Brutus really was, since he is personally TELLING the people of Rome, that if something was threatening his city, he would do ANYTHING to protect it, even if that means killing his best friend. Similarly to this show of patriotism, Brutus has other moments when he stands up for his Rome. For example, in the beginning of the play, Cassius is trying to convince Brutus to join the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, and at first Brutus thought that this was a horrible idea. He believed that it would be harmful to Rome to lose a leader, and he didn’t want to harm his friend. “Brutus had rather be a villager than to repute himself a son of Rome under these hard conditions as this time is like to lay upon us,”(p38, lines 170-173). Brutus is explaining that he would rather be a peasant, then do anything to put Rome under any suffering at all. Furthermore, you can see how dedicated Brutus is to Rome, that he would never want anything bad to happen to it, and that he would do anything for it to thrive. Consequently, Brutus was a very patriotic man, and this drove him to the assassin of Julius Caesar.
In addition to being patriotic, Brutus was also a very loyal man; he was loyal to his friends, family and to his country. He did many things to show that he was loyal to Cassius, and to Rome itself. Brutus wanted to show that he was loyal to the people of Rome as well as to Cassius. This ties in with his patriotism since it shows that he was more devoted to the people, then he was to his best friend. In result to being so loyal, Brutus murdered his best friend, and, to show that he had completely gone wrong by doing that, he committed suicide.
When the conspirators were at a meeting, Cassius suggested that they should all make an oath never to tell what they were about to do. “No, not an oath…what other bond than secret Romans, that have spoke the word, and will not palter?” (p72, lines 114, 125-126). To explain what is going on in this quote, Brutus is entrusting his ‘friends’ with a secret that could ruin their lives without an oath. He has high expectations in his friends keeping their word, he is being loyal to them. In another part of the play, Cassius is trying to convince Brutus to go against Caesar. Brutus, at the time, was very dedicated to his dear friend, and would not give in to Cassius. But he was respectful of Cassius also and gave him a chance to explain himself. “What you have said I will consider; what you have to say I will with patience hear, and find a time both meet to hear and answer such high things.”(p37-38, lines 165-168). Brutus is saying that he does not agree with Cassius at the time but he will think about what he has just been proposed at a later time, where Cassius can further explain. Obviously, Brutus is motivated by his loyalty in this passage, when he wants to keep his word to all his peers, but he must pick one, and he picked his loyalty to his Rome in the end. Clearly, Brutus is driven by his loyalty to kill Caesar for the good of Rome and to keep his promises to his friends.
For almost the whole play, Brutus really wanted to prove his patriotism and loyalty. But by attempting to do this, he resulted to assassinating Julius Caesar and in the end, killing himself. His goal was to protect Rome from harm, and he did not succeed at getting that, for when he tried, Rome turned to civil war. The end was not justified by the means, since when trying to help Rome, he ended up putting it into war and misery. Motivated by his patriotism and loyalty, Brutus assassinated Caesar for the good of Rome, and although he did not succeed, he left a mark in the history of Rome forever.

Who Said This Was Heaven?

Peter first moved to Houston, Texas from the scorching heat of war-stricken Sudan. As a refugee from the camp in Kenya dedicated to the Lost Boys, Peter had gone through a lot, and he believed that coming to the US would be like going to Heaven on Earth. But when he arrived, he saw how truly wrong he was. He had a hard time assimilating to the American culture. Peter saw that he could not have everything he wanted, he had to work for it. Peter discovered that even paying rent was hard, leaving him and his roommates also hungry once again. All of the higher paying jobs in the area needed an education, an education that Peter did not have. But on top of that, Peter and his friends had a hard time finding jobs because of their colour. People discriminated towards them, and they could not understand why. They saw that the people in Houston had stereotypes towards the African-American society. They believed that they were dangerous and untrustworthy. And finally, Peter just did not really understand how everything in the US worked. He was blown away when he found out that he couldn't drive without a license, or that he shouldn't leave large sums of money in the house or it will get stolen. Soon, Peter was struggling, so he grabbed his few possessions and left Houston.

When Peter arrived in Kansas City, Kansas, he immediately went to stay with fellow Sudanese refugee's in the area. Together, they decided that they deserved an education, so they went and enrolled in the local high school as seniors. Peter found the answers to most of his problems. He found friends that did not judge him because of his culture. Although Peter was still struggling, he came through and adjusted to the American Culture greatly.