Mercy vs. Revenge

For my thesis I selected the topic Mercy vs. Revenge and I decided to side Mercy. I choose Mercy because during a class we had a discussion on the topic and I sided that Revenge was better than Mercy but in the end of the class I ended up with Mercy. So in the few paragraphs below I will state that even people in the world side with mercy from the period of Shakespeare and to our current life and also the outcome of revenge and my opinion of how to prevent it or at least reduce it.

In The Tempest, Shakespeare gave the readers an impression that Prospero was mean and lusted for vengeance for what his brother did to him. Though during the end of the book in Act 5 Scene 1, his plot came to the time of decision whether to forgive his brother or have his revenge on him and he choose mercy and forgiveness. On line 27- 40 he gives his reasons, that his in the battle between Fury and Reason that he choose reason because it’s nobler than anger. Anger is an emotion and your emotions are stronger than your wisdom but at the same time also clumsy because your not use your judgment for your actions.  He also quotes that “the rarer actions is in virtue than in vengeance” portraying to the readers that mercy is a high-quality of life and just that people use revenge more. Also stating that vengeance is the unwanted and bad quality.

Shakespeare siding with mercy was years and years ago. So you might think that people back then only thought mercy is better because they didn’t know better. That there intelligence weren’t as developed as now. But your wrong the same message is presented in the same way presently. Spiderman 3, Peter Parker searches for his uncle’s killer who escaped from prison. Knowing that he was struck with great anger and revenge. One night a overwhelming poison took over him and he went out to kill the killer. After killing him he went to visit his aunt. He told his aunt that when his uncle killer has died and he asked his aunty isn’t she happy and she said no. Why? Because quoting from his aunty “Revenge is like a poison that can turn us into something ugly”. So after awhile his uncle’s killer revives and Spiderman meets him although he can kill him he doesn’t he gives him forgiveness and mercy. Why? Because he realized that he doesn’t have the power and right to take away someone’s life. Taking revenge would eat into him and his uncle wouldn’t want that. If you take revenge what does that make you? It makes you exactly like the killer. A killer.

People also say that if we keep giving Mercy the killers wouldn’t ever learn and keep on continuing their criminal acts but imagine if the entire world decided to take vengeance. Here is an example: North Korea launches a nuclear bomb on USA, USA and the rest of the countries are furious so they launch their own bomb, then Russia joins and bombs UK, UK is angry they bomb Russia and Japan wants to join in for the times that America has crushed them in war and bombs multiply countries to show their power. With all the anger, revenge and need for power after they finish there would be no more gravel to live on. But I’m not saying that a killer should just be set free. He should get punishments to teach him a lesson. This all started years ago before Shakespeare’s time and the only way to stop it is to look at what are the reason that the criminals are causing this crime? Money, food, and education is the answer giving them these essentials they wouldn’t need to steal and before they think of committing a crime they would know that it is wrong and there are other ways to fulfill your needs all it takes is time and effort which has to be started from young.

In conclusion of my thesis I think that Shakespeare was right for giving Antonio mercy because killing him would not help you in anyway. You will be haunted with the memory of killing your own brother or even taking any human life. Spiderman 3’s subtext was showing the audience that even people now are still siding with revenge and not mercy. During the show when Spiderman killed his uncle killer he was so dark and evil and that was what the director wanted the audience to see so they did but when he gave mercy to his uncle’s killer the audience knew that it was the Spiderman they knew. Lastly I hope that people start helping those in need so that they do not grow up and envy wealthy people and start making bad decisions in life. Maybe I a few years girls can walk at night knowing that they’re safe from rapes, or men walking into the gas station toilets can enjoy their time there in peace knowing that there aren’t guys behind him holding him at knife point wanting his wallet and keys. Were all humans and we aren’t perfect.

A project to make a book from scratch, add a few pictures, add some hand written poems, your short biography and what do you get? A masterpiece? A reflection of how your character is through paper? But whatever it is or was have passed and now the analyzation of the unit of in my case the book has to be made.

Firstly, being an Effective Communicator and Self-Directed Learner played a big part in this project. If your poem wasn’t understandable then people would lose interest in your poem. No one likes reading things they don’t understand. The interesting point of poetry was making it understandable but adding that twist or mysterious vibe which made it unknown and hanging around the moment. I demonstrated the skills of effective collaboration and how did I go that if this was a solo assignment? Well I collaborated with the words and pictures which stood by each other to give meaning and symbolism. Any one could write poems but I think a good poet is one that is friends with the words. The words are allies with the pictures and eventually your collaboration together will makes a great army.

The ESLR’s I feel I used was Self-Directed Learner and Effective Communicator. The Self-Directed Learner point I used was ”I Accept responsibility for my own learning.” This to me means that it is up to me to produce the quality or what I want for the project. The teacher thought us how to write poems, the basics, structure, order, types of poems, and word choice but the content of the poem depends on ourselves. No matter what a poem would always tell a story and that would be your murderous story. It’s was up to me to decide what the content of the poem would be the quality of the information and the message which it portrayed. It’s like music, you can get the best lyricist but if your vocalist and band mates aren’t connected to the song mostly likely the song is going to suck. The Effective Communicator point I used was ”Incorporate/Utilize technology as a tool for communication.” This to means that I used a method of technology to communicate to the reader.

Effective Communicator, I connected the poems and pictures together some by using a literal translation and some using my idea of what the poem actually means and translating it to an image. In my opinion I think I “effectively utilize technology as a tool for communication.” I love technology, how it works and what causing the devices to generate that mind gasping experience. Plus, I’m not talented with art and my creativity is not in art at all. I spend the whole night searching for pictures which I thought would have matched my poem criteria. I read poems over and over while looking at the picture trying to see if the picture would have symbolized what I wanted. After finding the picture I would modify it trying to make it look different. Self-Directed Leaner, when I was writing the poems I had some trouble on words and what my next line would be so I used a dictionary and tried to researcher for something that would give me inspiration related to my topic like a picture, object, or symbol. I think I ”Identify their needs and apply appropriate learning strategies”.

. I was a Self-Directed Learner by identifying what I needed and applying appropriate strategies to complete my tasks. I wanted to make the book different. I didn’t want to print, cut, draw, and glue. I wanted it to be my own. So I had an idea that I wanted some of the poems to be seen through the pictures and on some of the poems I wanted the picture to be on a different colour than the background. After completing the book I thought about the cover and I felt the book was a book wrote by the dead or made for it. During the final stages of the book I had realized I have no life or that the life I have now isn’t mine. It’s ruled by someone else and I’m just living as their slave. I found a picture coincidently that blew my mind for the theme and cover. I think if I didn’t identify my needs and apply appropriate learning strategies than I would have probably given up on the book or the book would have just been another cliché project.

Self-Directed Learner, what if I tried taking creative risks in developing untried ideas on my book? Instead of printing the pictures on plastic paper and poems on normal white paper. I would try something different and print the poems on plastic paper and pictures on normal white paper. That would have had a different effect on the book. The poems may not be able to be read because of the colours from the pictures and people would read the poems and look at the image keeping the poem in mind so that they can understand the image. I prefer my way where as people look at the image and ponder of what the poet is trying to convey through the image. Also the curious people will look at the image and then read the poem after that flip back to glance at the image again. Even after putting the book down they would remember the image that was connected to the poem trying to understand its purpose. Even though the poem was the last thing they saw they still will remember the image.

In summary I feel that they project was really good because the images play a big part to me in poetry. It’s another way of twisting around the world to convey a message. I think next year there should be more connection from poetry and images. The two ESLR’s Self-Directed Learner and Effective Communicator were my two goals to be presented in this project and I think that they shined through pretty well. Furthermore, I think one of the reasons why I like poetry is because of music. Music, lyrics, poetry are all connected through different forms and adding modern technology adds imagery to the whole package.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

For the project I used symbols and images like Anne Frank and her family, Miep, 9/11 bombing, holocaust, World War II, racism, yellow tulips with blood, and world suffering. The images time and were divided between black and white and colour. The black and white images represented images of World War II and the colour images represented the images of the time now. The music used was a song, sang by Sarah Brightman called Ave Maria. It is a slow and peaceful song.

The image like Anne Frank show the audience the good in her and the type of person she is. Her family’s guidance and influence and she is also the whole reason for the commercial. Miep is a symbol of courage and hope that she risked her life to help those in hiding for the years. She also gave them hope that they had someone who was still good during the war. The 9/11 bombing showed that there is still destruction and chaos in the world today but people should also look at the good that happened that day not only the bad. Holocaust represented the people that suffered because of the people that didn’t like their religion. World War II showed the destruction and cruelty of the people but also showed the good that happen like soldiers helping people. Racism to me showed similarity to the anti-religion at the time of the war. Why should people suffer because they believe in their religion at the same goes for people’s race? Yellow tulips with dripping blood showed the blood shed caused in
Holland but showing Anne in the same picture was a symbol of goodness and hope that would come out. World suffering was also another way of showing people that what was happening years ago is still happening now. The music gave a clam and sorrowful vibe. Towards the end of the song the sorrowful vibe was slowly changing to a hopeful and heavenly.

Each symbol has a different meaning and different powers, but if I had to choose one image I would choose the racism image because I think that racism has been around for a long time and no one is stopping it. I also feel that it might be the next biggest thing since the holocaust if no one stops it, Genocide. If I used a rock song I feel that commercial would have a whole different effect and people but yet again no effect because I feel it doesn’t flow together properly.

Making this film really help me understand more about World War II and also made me realize that the holocaust is happening now but starting from racism and genocide. It also helped me realize the good in people when the times are worst. Everybody thinks that 9/11 was a bad day but we should also think of the people that helped to find every person that day. They helped make those people’s day a hopeful day. If I had to grade myself on this project I would give myself an 85% out of 100%. I just feel that the commercial would have not been good enough for her. I feel that not only her but other survivors deserve more than a video made by a few 8 graders.

KnowledgeWe used the Nazi symbol to represent the World War II and the background of living life of Anne Frank. We also used the symbol of Jew because Anne Frank was Jew and the killing Jew and the holocaust was one of the important incidents of World War II and it is also related to the whole Anne Frank’s diary. We used the symbol of train because the train can represent many different varieties of meanings. The train can be categorized in the sound and the image. We can use the sound of train moving because trains were the main transportation during the World War II. We can also observe for the images of trains to represent the main transportation during those days. We used the image of yellow tulip with blood and the yellow tulip represents Holland and the blood represents that the
Holland has destroyed and the country is with full of blood. Our group also used an image of skulls because many people had died. And also an image of an almost dead young kid because during the World War II, many kid especially who are related to or are Jews had died because of typhus, food conflicts and etc. We used powerful songs instead of soft songs, which can describe the sadness of this event because we believe that the powerful songs can show the anger, panic, fear, horror, death and wars. We also made a Nazi symbol with blood on so it describes that the Nazis were terrible and were crazy about killing people especially people who are Jews.

Comprehension

In our short film, all the pictures, symbols, and sounds are related. The whole idea of this short film is Anne Frank but we are getting more into it and we are looking and researching stuff about World War II, holocaust, Jew, and the Nazi. The sound will be related to the images and symbols. For example, if we put a picture of Hitler in the movie, we will use the marching sound, so it makes more sense and it can help the audience understand better and more precisely. Besides marching sound, you can also use bombing sound, shooting sound, and Hitler’s speeches because those sounds are related to Hitler and they can describe him very well and they also show what kind of person Hitler is. We also used a picture of a child who is starving to death because in Anne Frank’s days, there were many children who were starving to death.

Application

For the sound, we used powerful music to represent the anger, fear and darkness, so it might make the audience scary and it will make the short film stronger and more sensational. Also the music can help the images for representing the anger, fear and the darkness. The symbols can teach audience what my group is trying to tell them or what we want to teach them. For example, if we show the Jew symbol to the audience, they will know that the short film would be related to the Jew. For pictures, they will be more specific than symbols and they will describe the symbol and what happened during the Anne Frank’s days. And the sound or music will be the back-up for the symbols and pictures.

Analysis

I think the most powerful symbol is the Jew symbol because this is what separated the Jews and Christians and this is what caused the war. For music, we are using the powerful music, so I think all the songs are as powerful as others. For images, the most powerful one will be the picture of Anne Frank because she is related to the Jew, the Nazi and all other symbols and pictures. She is a Jew and she was in the holocaust which was run by the Nazi. She helped us to understand more about the World War II and holocaust and she made us to get excited about the World War II and made us to get more into this historical event.

Synthesis

We made a short film that spreads Anne’s hopeful message of peace. We made a short film about important events or pictures that can describe the days during the World War II and Anne Frank’s days. We defeated or accomplished this aspect of Blooms Taxonomy by creating a short film.

Evaluation

Overall, we think that we did an excellent or a great job even though we only very little time to complete this gigantic project. We used the best of the best images, sounds, and symbols to describe the Anne Frank’s days and the events that were happening in her days. I think using powerful songs instead of soft songs is very creative because no one would think of using powerful songs in this sad event. And the yellow tulip with blood on it is also creative because it can represent the death of Holland but it can also describe
Holland by yellow tulip and blood/death with the blood on tulip. I also think that it’s creative by making a Nazi symbol with the blood on it so it represents how Nazis were. If we can give a grade ourselves, we would give A- ourselves because we put a lot of efforts in, tried our best and the short film we made is excellent.

ESLR’s

We chose Effective Communicator, Involved Citizens, and Academic Achiever because we thought we hit most of the points.

Effective communicator means to listen respectfully and ask questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight, collaborate with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals. In our own words, we listen to each other respectfully, ask questions, and disagreed respectfully to some of the ideas we didn’t like. We all worked quiet ok to complete this assignment together as a group. Examples that we were an effective communicator, is when we all had to choose something to do. One is to do the movie, another one is to do the ESLR’s and the last one is to do the Bloom’s Taxonomy. One wanted to do the same things as the other. Instead of shouting at each other, we listen to what we all have to say and compromise.

We were also an involved citizens. Involved citizen’s means to demonstrate responsibility in active decision-making, interact respectfully with people of diverse cultures, and demonstrate awareness and respect for the rights of others. In our own words, we all are from different culture and religion. Not only are we from different cultures, Anne is a Jew, and that’s different from all of us. We had to interact with her from her books, and we all did it respectfully. When someone from our group has something to say, we listen and discuss, not just don’t care, because all our team members have the rights to speak out their opinion and ideas. Examples that we were an involved citizens is when we were discussing about the whole project, what we wanted to do, what symbols we wanted, because believe it or not, some religion have different meanings for different symbols. Like the Nazis symbol, their symbols may symbolize war, death, but for the Hindu and Buddhist it means piece. So we had to choose what would be appropriate for everyone.

Academic Achiever means to demonstrate the ability to work both independently and collaboratively, Access information from a variety of sources, and Demonstrate technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project. In our own words, we worked together as a group and by ourselves. We work collaboratively during class times, and when we arrange time after school to do work together, and we work independently at home. We use a variety of sources, such as books, and internet. Our project is a movie, so we’re using technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion for our project.

Anne Frank Commercial

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During class Mr. R. my English teacher had us some task which he was not able to help or guide us with. He sat there and watched us make a fool out of our selves. The task was a team meeting, choosing a leader, following the given instructions, and finishing the questions given.

The first team meeting the ESLR I used was Involved Citizen because I used the skill of interacting respectfully with people of diverse cultures. To me this means that I respected people from different cultures and also people of the same culture. Like being nice and respectful. What do I mean by being respectful to people of diverse culture and also the same? Well, for example when we were choosing a leader to lead the meeting I stood behind and listen to what the people who were taking power of the group and giving us instructions on how to vote for a leader or to be a leader. After they gave the instructions, I voted accordingly. Being an Involved Citizen helped me finish my part of the team meeting which was following the instructions for me by listening respectfully and waiting for my turn to talk and completing the task given.

I can connect the ESLR I worked with to other things for example when I am listening to my parents when they are mad or when they give me instructions to do things, I am being a Involved Citizen. When you are learning how to drive or learning about something important you would listen to the person teaching and follow the instructions given and ask questions if things are not understood. If I did not try using the ESLR during the team meeting for deciding on leader things would have gone really slow. I would be distracting people and taking them away from their objectives. I would have spoken when I felt like it and would have voted for people who weren’t supposed to be voted for to be our leader.

I think that this was definitely good ESLR for everyone including to have during that team meeting but I also would have been fond to use other ESLR’s too not only one. In the next meeting or another event, I will try to use most of the five ESLR’s. I would definitely give my self a 64% out of a 100% for this meeting.

Some other ESLR’s I didn’t use during the team meeting were Self-Directed Learner which identifies their needs and appropriate learning strategies, Critical Thinker which solves problems using a variety of strategies. What I mean being identifying there needs and appropriate learning strategies, is that when there is a problem I find the reason why there is a problem and when I find the reason, I find a way to correct the reason which would solve the problem. Solving problems using a variety of strategies means that I solve the problem using more then one method. Using different equations to solve the problem than only using one or the one that I know like when u do math there are different ways of solving the equation and you would find the equation which work best with you.

If I applied being a Self-Directed Learner during the meeting I think I would have done much better on completing the task and would have got a better grade. I would have actually tried to solve the questions instead of giving up. If I applied being a Critical Thinker I would first need to find the problem instead of skipping it or ignoring it.

Comparing the two ESLR’s to other ESLR’s that I would have needed during that time I think that those two are the most important because I would have been able to finish the task that were given to me and would have been able to score higher grades.

If I used the two during the meeting the whole meeting assignments and questions given to the group I was in would have been able to be completed and turned in. I would have not also gotten back comments like I was walking around the room, staring in space and unfinished work.

In the first team meeting we didn’t read the book Lord of the Flies but after we did we realized a lot of things that happen in the firs team meeting had happen in the book and for the second team meeting we wanted to improve a lot. About the book, Lord of the Flies is a boring novel written by William Golding which the whole class had to read and discuss. The paperback is about children who are trapped on an island with no adults. They form law and order at first but in the end fear and annihilation command them. Most of the decisions were made during the meeting they had. So after analyzing and discussing the book for about a month, we had a second team meeting with different tasks and a lot of improvements were made.

Self-Directed Learner would identify their needs and apply appropriate learning strategies, Academic Achiever who demonstrates the ability to work both independently and collaboratively, Effective Communicator someone which collaborates with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals, Critical Thinkers solve problems using a variety of strategies. These were the ESLR’s used during the second team meeting.

Being a Self-Directed Learner I would have to find a question or task and use the correct learning and solving strategy to finish the task or question. Academic Achiever I would need to be able to work in a group with team work and keep on track with my tasks. I would also need to be able to work by myself without disturbing others and completing the task given. Effective Communicator one of the most important in group assignments because you would have to decide as a group on the final answers and not only decide for yourself what is the correct answer but listen to what your team members have to say and decided as a group. Critical Thinker which I use a lot when I am concentrating is to use different strategies to solve the problem.

I demonstrated being a Self Directed Learner during the meeting was when using the Bloom’s Taxonomy on the symbolism of the Beast when a question came up on describing what the Beast means in the book I had to use my knowledge of what we learnt that the beast symbolized. Academic Achiever was used when I asked everybody in my group to write down what they think would be the possible answer for that question and later discussing the answer and coming up with a final answer as a group. Effective Communicator was used when we had to sketch a what we thought the Beast looked liked and instead of everyone giving what they thought it looked like to one person to draw I had an idea of passing a piece of paper around and everyone would draw parts of the beast and start adding on. Critical Thinker was used when there were different levels of questions to be answer like the Bloom’s Taxonomy which need different ways of approaching the question and solving it.

These ESLR’s can be connected to other things in the world not only school for example the Self-Directed learner would also be used when doctors examine patients for example if the doctor suspects that the patient has a particular virus the doctor would use medical procedures to confirm his suspicion and start treatment. An Academic Achiever can be used by a Real Estate Agent by working with a group on the marketing of a particular property and selling the particular property to a customer by your self. Effective Communicator like I said is very important in decision making that even the Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Kings use it when they want to make a decision by asking several advisors and cabinet members advice before he makes the final decision on the idea. Critical thinking which about 99.9% gamers use when playing games for example a strategy game to win you would need different strategies to complete the level and slaughtering different bosses. In the end gamers start to use this strategy in everyday life like me.

What if I didn’t use any of those ESLR’s during the meeting then a lot of things would have changed for example I would have got all the questions wrong because I had not accepted wisdom about all the past lessons that would help me to answer the questions. If I was the leader in the group I would have just wrote down the answers that I thought was right to me and not care what answers or thoughts that other team members gave. If there was a group task and I didn’t like the way the group was doing the task and they would not change just because I didn’t like it then I would have just left the group to finish it their selves. Without using Critical Thinker I would be stuck on every problem and probably only giving a Knowledge and Comprehension answer.

I think if I had to grade myself I would give myself overall a 93% out of 100% because of the improvement and effort compared to the first team meeting. The second team meeting was very different for everyone nobody walked out of their group and disturbed other groups. Everyone stayed on task and completed it with their best efforts.

Some of the ESLR’s I would have liked to use during this team meeting are Self-Directed Leaner which demonstrates competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills and Effective Communicator who understands and convey written, oral, and visual information using appropriate media. Self-Directed Learner because I think that I wasted too much time on the questions and would have liked to get into the habit of dividing my time equally to the questions and time given. Effective Communicator because during the group discussion at the second meeting we had to write down our answer to the questions and in the group of 5 only 2 people wrote down while the other including me gave our answer to them, so I would like to improve my handwriting so that I can write down my answers and improve them by myself without telling people what to write down.

If I did use those two ESLR’s during the team meeting I think that we would have answered most of the questions more effectively and that when we hand up our group work the teacher would able to see that our group had a lot of team work and cooperation everyone put in their thoughts and ideas in answering the questions. Then I think if I had to grade myself I would give myself a 95% out of 100%.