Perspective on Love and Marriage Romeo and Juliet

While I don't have a clear perspectives on love and marriage that completely aligns with the characters in Romeo and Juliet,  I do share some similar view points.

The first character that I align the most with is Mercutio. In Act I, scene IV, lines 27-28, Mercutio says, "If love be rough with you, be rough with love. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down." I think that the meaning behind this line is that you shouldn't let love control you and influence all aspects of your life and should therefore have a balance, which is something that I strongly believe in. In addition, Mercutio seems to be implying that one should go with the flow when it comes to love and just like one shouldn't let love control them, one also shouldn't try to control love. I also like this concept because it gives the feeling that love is an ethereal uncontrollable force that if you lend enough power, can break your heart, which I find beautiful.

My feelings on love are also similar to those of Romeo since he is conflicted on the idea of true love which he expresses through the use of oxymorons in Act I, scene I, lines 168-175. I, too, don't exactly understand what true love is is, or even if it exists, and also have many questions regarding soulmates. However, my beliefs do not completely align with Romeo's since during these lines, Romeo appears to be head over heels in love with Rosaline and ready to do anything to win her heart. This is when my beliefs shared with Mercutio come in as I don't think that one should let love control them to the point that they almost can't live without it.

As for marriage, my perspective is the most similar to Lord Capulet's perspective since in Act I, scene II, lines 8-11, he says:
"My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years.
Let two more summers wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be bride."
I think that the meaning behind these lines is that Capulet believes that marriage and love shouldn't happen too early as experience and time with one's future spouse are necessary to build a strong, healthy relationship, which I agree with it. My views are slightly conflicted here though because I also don't believe that you can put an age on love, however I think that sealing the relationship with marriage should only occur if one is 19 years old or older.

Lastly, my perspective differs the most from Benvolio's view since even in the simple line, "Be ruled by me, forget to think of her." (Act I, scene I, 220), he demonstrates that he believes that love can easily be forgotten and quickly replaced by someone else. This implies that he doesn't think that love is special or unique but is rather a bond that can one can quickly move past. I am opposed to this because while I don't have any experience with love, I like to believe that it is an important bond that is worth more than just a phase. Therefore, I share many similar view points with the characters in Romeo and Juliet, but don't disagree with everything everyone has to say.

Romeo and Juliet Shakespearean Insults #2

Grahams vs. Tewksburys

Graham: "Tis' unbelievable we were once friends for thou art a pernicious, iron-witten clotpole."

Tewksbury: "Nay, thou art the knavish, ill-breeding rabbit sucker! Twas' a privilege for thou to even talk to me."

Graham: "Thou just erased all remorse I felt for killing thy haungty, heavy-headed son, the resemblance was uncanny."

Tewksbury: "Thou roynish, eye-offending, canker-blossom! If thou hadst not stolen my cattle, perhaps I wouldn't of had to shoot thy shrill-gorged, lily-livered, rampallion cousins."

Graham: "Nay, thou snatched my cattle and land! Thou should be gracious I ceased firing so that thy clay-brained, onion-eyed wife could bury thy child and friend."

Tewksbury: "Listen thou brazen, empty-hearted miscreant, when thou art last man from thy family standing, with my own hands, I will kill thee."

Graham: "Thou art a distempered, ill-nurtured, raw-boned weak-hinged moldwarp and thou will be dead long before I will be."

Tewksbury: "Only time will tell, horn-mad, fat-kidneyed, muddy-mettled hedge-pig. Goodbye."

Romeo and Juliet Baz Lurhmann Movie Response #1

I think that Baz Luhrmann cleverly portrayed Romeo and Juliet because the more modernized version appeals to a younger audience, like myself. I have never read Romeo and Juliet or seen any plays of it so this movie was really my first impression of Romeo and Juliet. The movie has made me interested in learning more about Romeo and Juliet because I want to further understand the relationship between the Capulets and Montagues. I also want to learn more about what the world was like when Shakespeare wrote the piece and how people originally reacted to it. While I enjoyed the movie, some parts of it were confusing because there were so many characters. The writing could also be a little confusing at times. When watching the movie, I was the most surprised by how quickly Romeo and Juliet fell in love, and how quickly they acted upon it by getting married, which I found a bit unrealistic.

I chose to track the gendered expectations I saw in the movie. Starting from the beginning in the movie when the guys from the Montague and Capulet family were shooting at each other at the gas station, like it was the men’s duty to protect the family. This is again shown later when Tybalt kills Mercutio resulting in Romeo killing Tybalt, as if men have to secure the family name and are the only one’s able of seeking revenge. The expectations for females is to follow the male’s orders like when Juliet is expected to follow her Father’s will and marry Paris even though she doesn’t want to. Another example is how Juliet waits in her room for Romeo to come, rather than seeking him out herself, since the stereotype is that men save women.  

Semester 2 Reflection

During science this semester, I have developed various skills through our lab experiments and research. This semester, we worked through our physics unit and biology unit. This is a reflection of how much I have grown as both a scientist and learner this year.

In the biology unit, I practiced the desired student learning outcome(DSLO) of collaboration. This was when we had to dissect a cow's eyeball. I practiced this skill because to dissect this eyeball I had to collaborate with my partner to ensure that both of us were splitting the work equally but also doing the work correctly. In addition, I believed that it was important for both of us to understand the steps we were going through, not just blindly following directions. It was evident that my partner and I both understood and learnt a lot about the dissection of a cow's eyeball in this document, where we realised the purpose of parts of the eyeball and compared them to a human's eyeball.

Dissecting a cow's eyeball

My collaboration also improved this semester because I got to know my peers much better since we had all of the first semester to get to know each other. This helped me feel more comfortable when talking during labs so I asked more questions which enhanced my knowledge. This applied to several labs in which we had to collaborate in to achieve a common goal. For instance, when we had to extract DNA from a wheat germ, I had to trust my partner since this was a delicate procedure, as you can tell from this document. This semester, it was much easier to put my trust in my partner and collaborate to complete this procedure correctly.

During the biology unit, I not only practised the DSLO of collaboration but also that of cultural competence. This is because when we discussed about genetics, cloning was a touchy topic. Some believed that people should be allowed to create clones while other's completely opposed the idea. Therefore, I had to ensure that I respected both opinions and took into factor the ethical morals of doing such a thing. We went deep into this topic and even viewed examples in nature, Hollywood, and the science lab, as you can see in this document.

While I have written a lot on biology, in addition to this unit, we also had our physics unit. For our very last project, we had to create a mouse-trap car(a piece of wood with DVD wheels that moved because of the force a mouse-trap created). This project really tested my creativity, one of the DSLO's. This is because my partner and I had to come up with a way to make our car move a long distance which was difficult considering our materials. In the end, we decided to use a triangle design which wasn't a very original idea, but we had to be creative on how to make it work. 

As you can tell from above, I have improved a lot this semester. My ability to collaborate with my peers, my creativity, and cultural competence, have all grown, thus not only making me work better in a science lab but improve me as a learner!

My Independent Writing Project: Double Crossed

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HxqpUU3iqOvhO4zyPVRjUlCfBA4RfbXH5VGwyvgCk2E/edit?usp=sharing

Analyzing a Conflict

1. Our conflict is a war in Afghanistan between the Afghan Government and supporting countries against a terrorist group called Al-Qaeda, regarding political power and religious beliefs.

2. This conflict is a national and international conflict.

3. The main issue driving this war is political control since both groups are battling for power, but right now the government is control. Another issue is the difference in both of the parties beliefs since Afghanistan is a Muslim-based country, most of the people including the government are Muslim, but Al-Qaeda is an extremist group who uses violence in their religion which isn't what most people believe being Muslim is about. A third issue is the country's history since once the twin towers were bombed, the U.S wanted the leader of Al-Qaeda since the group was behind the bombing, however, the Afghanistan government refused to hand the leader over, which hence started the war and created the issue on what the U.S should do.

4. This is an inter-group conflict because it affects two different groups: the terrorist organization and the government. Outside of the people directly involved in this conflict, the U.S and other supporting countries have a stake in the outcome since currently sending U.S troops and other country's troops to help the Afghanistan government is helping the Afghanistan government stay in control.

5. The two parties do not have equal power, the Afghanistan government has more power. The actions of each party directly affect both, for example, the Afghanistan government receiving help from other country's troops affect the Al-Qaeda group and their ability to control Afghanistan.

6. This war has been going on for 17 years and is an intense conflict. It is life-threatening since many troops and people are dying, whether it be that people are caught in the cross-fire or are fighting.

7. The style of this conflict is competing, as both parties are fighting for power and their beliefs. None of the parties are listening to each other or compromising so there doesn't seem to be an immediate solution.

8. This conflict has been going on for a long time and the result has been that no side wants to give in to the other, in other words, no party wants to admit defeat or even listen to each other's ideas. There have been attempts to solve this conflict including Saudi Arabia and the U.S intervening, but the conflict has not yet been resolved.

P.E Reflection - Sending and Receiving