Meet Macbeth

Some of the play's first lines are Sergeant describing Macbeth's bloody ways of warfare. The lines "Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, And fix'd his head upon our battlements." involve grotesque imagery, implying Macbeth's bravery and brutality in battle. Through this conversation, Macbeth is indirectly characterized as a valiant, bloody soldier. While Sergeant gives insight to Macbeth, the three witches give insight to the theme and future events in the play. The first lines of the play are said by the witches and end with the catchy phrase, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair". This use of chiasmus is also an introduction to the theme of the play, meaning that there is a twisted standard of morality in the characters and what is known to be right may not always be right. I think this will be an underlying theme throughout the play. The witches also foreshadow to the wicked characteristics of Lady Macbeth.
Shakespeare's characterization of Macbeth is somewhat contradicting. The first information the audience finds out about Macbeth is that he is capable of vicious murder, however through the author's tone, it is implied that Macbeth isn't a bad guy, just an obedient soldier. 

Literature Analysis #3

The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

1. The Joy Luck Club is written by Amy Tan, an American-Chinese woman. Tan’s personal journey is The Joy Luck Club premise. It contains sixteen interwoven stories of mothers and daughters that went through the same obstacles that Tan had endured: the conflict between American-raised daughters and their Chinese immigrant mothers. The story revolves around many relationships, but the focus is Jing-mei and her mother, Suyuan. Suyuan recently passed away, and Jing-mei has taken her mother’s place playing mahjong in a weekly gathering her mother had organized in China and brought with her to San Francisco, called the Joy Luck Club. Jing-mei is also wants to reunite with her long lost half-sisters who are back in China. Suyuan was forced to abandon the twins when fleeing from the invading Japanese during WWII. The first four sections of the books are told through the mothers’ point of view. They recall their own relationship with their mothers with perfect recollection and reveal that they are afraid that their own daughters do not have the same intense relationship that they had with their mothers. The next four sections are from the daughters’ point of view. They also recall upon their childhood memories with their mothers, putting to rest their mothers’ fear that they won’t treasure the mother-daughter bond. The Joy Luck Club represents the difficulties of the struggle to maintain the mother-daughter bond across cultural and generational gaps.

2. There were multiple themes within The Joy Luck Club, but the most significant one to me was cultural transition and ethnic identity. I am also from Chinese descent, which is part of the reason this book appealed to me so much. I too also feel a gap between my heritage; I may be American, but I am also Chinese. But then again, I’m neither, because to Americans I’m not “truly American”, but to the Chinese, I’m not “truly Chinese”. So what am I? This is exactly what the daughters are feeling in the book, they don’t feel truly anything. This is why the Joy Luck Club is such a safe-haven to them. They are all considered an outsider to the rest of the world, but in the club, they are connected to one another through their differences. The daughters are genetically Chinese, but aren’t true Chinese. Their mothers are “true Chinese” and so the gap between the two can put a strain on the relationship.

3. Tan’s tone throughout the book is evocative, memory-filled with happy thoughts and sometimes remorseful ones. Tan’s words are filled with emotions.

“My breath came out like angry smoke. It was cold…The alley was quiet and I could see the yellow lights shining from our flat like two tiger’s eyes in the night.”

4. 

• Tone: Her tone moved you; I couldn’t not help but feel what the character I was reading about was feeling.
•  Diction: She used bold, emotion-charged words that would help convey the character’s feelings.
•  Syntax: Seeing the story from both the mothers’ and daughters’ view explained many of the missing links between the two. While you understood their problems and what they could do to change it, the characters struggled/thrived on.
• Symbols: Tan used symbols such as the coy fish in the pond that the mother loved and the goldfish in the bowl that the daughter loved. It represented the gap that the two had and the cultural difference they had even though they were mother and daughter.
•  Imagery, specifically metaphors and similes: Like Tan’s tone, her imagery painted in vivid detail the sorrow, happiness or whatever emotion she was trying to portray.

“A mother is best. A mother knows what is inside you,” she said. . . . “A psyche-atricks will only make you hulihudu, make you see heimongmong.” Back home, I thought about what she said. . . . These were words I had never thought about in English terms. I suppose the closest in meaning would be “confused” and “dark fog.”But really, the words mean much more than that. Maybe they can’t be easily translated because they refer to a sensation that only Chinese people have. . . .”

“I . . . looked in the mirror. . . . I was strong. I was pure. I had genuine thoughts inside that no one could see, that no one could ever take away from me. I was like the wind. . . . And then I draped the large embroidered red scarf over my face and covered these thoughts up. But underneath the scarf I still knew who I was. I made a promise to myself: I would always remember my parents’ wishes, but I would never forget myself."

My Macbeth Resources

1. Macbeth Study Guide
2. Timeline of Macbeth
3. Historical Context of Macbeth
4. Reading Shakespeare's Language
5. Introduction to Characters in Macbeth

Is there an expert in the house?

"The Adventures of Us" is our first draft name of the our Masterpiece project. A project documenting a group of seniors living adventurously, stepping out of their comfort zones, and helping and inspiring others. Groups before have done what we are trying to do. The Buried Life, a television show from MTV a few years ago, was what inspired us to focus our passion on this project. So the experts we are calling out to to help us validate our Masterpiece are anyone who went into making The Buried Life, The Human Experience, Happy, I Am, and any other inspiring documentation of people's lives.

This is only a Test

Our Masterpiece is broad and vague. It has no quantitative goal at the end. Our goal is to be inspiring, not only to ourselves but to others. We want to spread a sense of adventure and emphasize the need to live life fuller and bolder. So I think to prove we have been successful by June we need to be able to answer yes to ALL of the following questions...

• Do we have a following?
• Have we helped others?
• Are we happier?
• Are others happier?
• Was the last few months of your senior year amazing?

10 Questions

The 10 questions I would ask my expert are...

1. What is your favorite adventure you have ever gone on?
2. What do you think the most important thing to focus on is as a senior in high school?
3. What is one thing you have to experience in college?
4. What is your favorite memory? Why?
5. What are simple ways to make a big difference?
6. How do you motivate others to jump on board and make a difference?
7. How do you keep yourself motivated in times of doubt?
8. How do you become a credible source of inspiration/action?
9. What do you hope to accomplish with your life?
10. What is the meaning of life?