This project is an extension of an analytical paper about the play Macbeth. By choosing a character a poem was written about Lady Macbeth, Macbeth's wife. It explains the changes Lady Macbeth went through throughout the play. The poem is based on a thesis from the essay. The thesis is Lady Macbeth, the most hyper-sexual and controlling woman grew weaker as the days passed after she came to the realization of what she had done to Duncan. 

The process for writing the poem was simple. I gathered words to describe Lady Macbeth  and her actions, while quoting her at the same time. To get a good sense of a free verse poem, sample poems were researched. Researching free verse poems helped me get a sense of how the poem should look and the rhythm of it.

There were a couple difficulties I encountered while trying to complete this project. One being, I had to use the correct word, as little as possible, and incorporate the quotes into the poem. Even though the poem is free verse, trying to use/find different words to describe what was happening in the play was difficult. 

I am most proud of how the poem turned out. I began to believe the poem wasn’t going to come out well. The turnout of the project was good. Over coming the difficulties of writing this poem was exciting. I’m proud that I got the project finished in a short amount of time and I went through with writing a poem instead of doing something else. I enjoyed writing the poem. 

While watching my other classmates present or glancing at their project I learned a lot. I learn how to interpret the play in many different ways. These different was wouldn’t have been done if it were my project. A lot of thought and time was put towards these projects.  All of the effort put into the project showed through the final product. It was really cool to see everyone else’s ideas and learn in many different ways by many different projects. 

During this project I learned that I could write a poem really well, in a short amount of time. Writing a poem in a short amount of time about a play is hard. Especially if you don’t write poems a lot. Writing this poem made me realize that i’m pretty good at writing poems. I should write them more often. 

Here I’m positioned, 

Alone with nothing in hand in utter silence,

And the only thing that

keeps me company are the

Vivid barriers that change positions every time 

the silence is broken. 

Who am I?

I don’t know what happened to me,

Becoming a man was my goal,

Not having emotions and dealing with regret

Who was I?

Things that broke silence 

Make me cringe

Silence soothed my mind 

Going over my thoughts but then memories

Horrible memories would come 

Into play one by one

Who am I?

Memories when I stated

things such as

“Under my battlements. Come, you spirits

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty.”

Who was I?

Praying to the spirits seemed to 

Be only right. 

They could grant my wishes,

And change my features

Who am I?

I criticized people,

Just so they could prove me wrong

What did that get me ?

My heart is pounding 

People can hear it

Is it that loud? What’s happened

Who am I?

“My hands are of your color, but I shame , To wear a heart so white.”

I used to be the boss and control things

That was my position. 

The queen that wore the pants of me and

my husbands relationship 

Who was I?

Completing deeds, struggling

Not emotionless, not regret less

Greed is gone, “Naught’s had, all’s spent,

Where our desire is got without content

‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy

Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.”

Who am I?

In this state of depression,

Not talking to anyone,

Seeing things no one else can see,

Not being able to erase the evidence from 

my body parts 

“Here’s the smell of the blood still. 

All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. 

Oh, Oh, Oh!"

Who was I?

People are beginning to feel sorry for me,

Saying “I would not have such a heart,

In my boom for the dignity of the whole body”

Who am I?

My heart is pounding faster and faster,

Voices, I hear voices,

They surround this room

Louder and louder they get

I CAN’T take it!

DEATH, death is the only way

I take my knife and plunge it in my stomach

Four times, that’s all it took 

The voices are gone, but i’m not free of regret

What have I done? 

   I made a piano collection of various piano pieces for the creative extension of the Macbeth quote analysis. I used little parts of the five pieces that I thought best describes Macbeth in each act. I mostly used minor songs to describe Macbeth because I wanted people to pity him and remember why he became hungry for power and became a killing machine. Therefore, I used more sad songs than loud, dark songs. This video below shows the change in Macbeth's character journey and the downfall of his life. To begin with, Macbeth was a decent man, but his hunger for power and dominance led him to become a killing machine. 

   My process of crafting the creative portion of this project was fun but somewhat difficult. First, I had to choose five piano pieces that I wanted to play to describe Macbeth. When I chose five of them, I had to choose the parts I think would connect naturally to the next piece I was going to play. Then, I had to learn the parts and film the whole thing. It took me hours to do this process.

  I am proud about how I overcame the difficulties and got to film the video. I am also proud that I learned the pieces well in a short amount of time. 

   If I had a chance to change my creative portion, I would try harder to compose a piano piece on my own rather than using piano pieces that has been composed by other pianists. 

   From doing this project, I learned a lot from my colleagues and myself. From my colleagues, I learned what talents and skills they have. I also learned other creative ideas that I could’ve done. From myself, I learned that I don’t approve myself if something is not how I want it to be. I also learned that I like my final products to be something I will be proud of. 

Description:

This diagram/poster displays the similarities between the stories of AMC's Breaking Bad and Shakespeare's Macbeth. Although the two stories are not directly related in many aspects, general themes are transferable between them. I flushed out the majority of these within the chart by illustrating them in a simplified form. I tried to incorporate my quotes into the illustrations by having each of the relations correlate to one or more of the quotes I chose. 

Questions:

a. My project was about relating the themes that Shakespeare created in Macbeth and seeing how they relate to media in modern times. The ideas and story telling devices in Macbeth are still very viable options for writers to use today. 

b. I tried to make an easy-to-understand chart that displayed the similarities and story sections/themes.

c. At first it was difficult to draw all of the characters in a consistent style, but after a few drafts I got the hang of it and started on the final. I am not that good with photoshop, but this was a good learning experience for future projects. 

d. I am most proud about the style I used to draw all of the characters. I think they turned out really well. I used the Macbeth charter designs from the Patrick Stuart version, and those characters worked very well along side the Breaking Bad characters.

e. I would find a way to incorpate the quotes better into the actual art; I think that flaw might be the downfall of my project.

f. I learned about making a good vocal presentation to the audience.

g.I learned that when you are really invested in part of the project and you put your best work into it, it becomes less of a chore. I really wanted this project to reflect some of my skills, and not to be sloppy. 

Upon examining more into the pandemic of hunger and homelessness, I went out into the world, into the Science leadership environment, and on Facebook to ask people  thought provoking questions about their awareness of world hunger and homelessness. Based on a survey of 54 people, 39% have claim that they have been homeless in one point of their lives. Also, 32% say that they know someone who eats only one meal a day. 

Here is a link if you want to view my survey:  https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajm4KyXhAiaYdFlVNzRyRldXaV85V3hDOXJqZmNrUkE#gid=0 

Knowing that we live in the United States, I find that these statistics are slightly mind-boggling. The the United States has a GDP of approximately 15.3 trillion dollars which is the highest in the world, but yet out of 54 people, already 39% say that they were homeless and 32% claim they only eat one meal a day. If you put that on a grander scale, 672,000 are homeless in America currently and 6.7 million people suffer from food insecurity. Although the rate of homelessness has decreased, which is substantial progress, people are still going to bed each night hungry. Or they might not even have a bed. 

An other major predicament is the amount of food we waste each year. I inquired in my survey if anyone has ever wasted food, and 81% said they did. According to The Charity Sub, the United States throws away 96 billion pounds of food each year. That is enough to feed the the whole state of New York, for three years! I believe our problem is that we have the resources to tackle this obstacle, but we just don’t know how to use them. 

In my survey, I also questioned peoples’ opinion on whether or not they thought homelessness and hunger was an epidemic. More than 80% agreed and 91% of the people said that these conditions are common in their neighborhood. 

I am seeking further advice from an organization, Bread for the World. Bread is a 501(c)4  Christian organization that presses our nation’s government to put an end to hunger in this country. I am corresponding two of their representatives, Jon Gromek, the   Central Regional Organizer and Larry Hollar, the Senior Regional Organizer. Upon motioning through the interviewing process, they are away in Washington D.C. until Monday, January 21. You will hear from them in my final blog post with their response to   these crucial affairs. But the Senior Regional Organizer has responded back to me with an urgent plea to call our Congress members to urge them to continue to fund programs  that address hunger and poverty before the fiscal cliff negotiations are made soon. If you would like to participate here is a link for information on how to inform our congress: http://blog.bread.org/2012/12/act-now-congress-needs-to-hear-your-voice.html. Call Congressmen Bob Casey, Pat Toomey, and Chaka Fatah and tell them to pass a deal that includes protection to essential programs to hungry and poor people in the U.S. and around the world. 

Here's a link to my bibliography: https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1va6NEzQioqza2fzxFDTiaYiKoWn-vnI50O0FopaOarY/edit 

Hey everyone this is Isabella Blackwell. Welcome to my second post of my “You and the World” blog. If you didn’t read my first blog, check it out here. What I wanted to look deeper into & focus on for my 2nd blog post was how kids and parents deal with having special needs & attention. I decided to reach out and actually talk to a representative who works with these kids (& volunteers) to see what life is really like for people in that situation. I talked to someone named “John” from the Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia. 

Q: What exactly do you do?

A: I pretty much do whatever Linda (Director of Volunteers) tells me needs to be done. I help out with the kids, & make sure everything is in order. 

Q: What types of support does the Ronald McDonald House provide for both the kids & parents? 

A: Its a home away from home where generally, it puts the parents at ease knowing that they have a nice warm bed to go to at night while the children are in the hospital. It’s just a friendly environment for them to stay at, and not really have to worry about anything else. 

Q: How do the kids cope with their environment at the hospital?

A: The kids cope with the environment very well actually. They don’t really see it as a place where they get better, more as where they go for a vacation. They think of it as just somewhere to have fun with the other kids that stay there. 

Q: How do the parents deal with leaving their kids at the hospital?

A: The parents deal with leaving their kids at the hospital feeling fine. They know that their child is getting better. 

Q: When you volunteer, what do you think that high school students like me take away from it most?

A: They probably take away the fact that they can play with the other kids. They learn that kids who have cancer or whatever the disease they have is aren’t really different than them, but the same in many ways. 

Q: Do the volunteers actually get to talk to the kids and their families?

A: The volunteers do get to talk to the kids and parents, but there are some guidelines they have to follow. They aren’t allowed to pick up a child at all. So they are allowed to talk to them, but they can’t get on a very friendly basis because it would turn into a liability issue. 

I took a lot out of this phone conversation. It made me think about how patients and just regular students live the same. They all have goals, & like to do the same things. Just like our parents are supportive of our goals, the parents of these patients are the same about their child’s growth and recovery. Overall, I enjoyed learning more about the different ways people live.