Who is Julius Caesar?

Julius Caesar Blog

            Although the play is called Julius Caesar, he is not in many scenes and how Shakespeare defines his character is unclear. I see Julius as weak and like “an adder” (II i 14), which represents Caesar because if he is crowned/hatched, he will grow mischievous, forget the Romans and leave dust in their faces. Although there are many interpretations, his character is mostly revealed to the reader through others talking about him. When Brutus is debating whether to kill him he says; “That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder”(II i 22) and when Julius achieves the “upmost round” (II i 24) “he then unto the ladder turns his back”(II i 25), looks up and abandons where he came from by “scorning the base degrees” (II i 26). This means he will climb the ladder of power, and when he reaches the top he will abandon the Romans he climbed over. Cassius does not support Caesar and he tries to convince Brutus to kill Caesar. Cassius describes Caesar as weak and he uses lots of sarcasm when he speaks about him; “he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus” (I ii 135-136), and us “petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves” (I ii 136-138). Here he refers to Caesar as a Colossus (sarcastically) which is a huge important like figure, and he says that everyone has to follow him only to find themselves to die with no honour. Caesar was cocky and arrogant, but he did great things for Rome in the past. Yet he was too old and weak at the time he was killed.

I commented on Matthew Clark’s blog

LOTF Chapter 11 Reaction Paragraph

Ryan Irwin                                                                                                                    October 24, 2011

Surprisingly I am not that surprised that Piggy was killed at the end of the chapter. I know that since Jack’s tribe already killed one person they would hesitate to kill another person, this time it is someone they strongly dislike. You could tell that Jack’s tribe was slowly going insane and soon enough they would crack and do something stupid. Also when Jack throws the spear at Ralph after Piggy is killed just shows that since they’ve gone so far in there madness that there is only one way to go from now on, and that is to continue being savage. I feel like Golding has really captured reality with this novel. This is what would happen if some kids were stuck alone on an island. There will always be the few kids that know what the right thing to do is, and there will always be a bunch of kids that will only care about being cool and having fun. All the events in the book have been slowly leading up to this big main event, and Jack’s crew has edged closer and closer to becoming savage enough to do this. 

Lord Of The Flies Storyboard

Lord Of The Flies Case Study

Ryan Irwin                                                                                                                        October 5, 2011

LOTF Case Study

I. Case History

1.   Background Information

They are split into two groups, biguns and littluns. The littluns are generally under ten and the biguns are generally over ten. Ralph, Jack, Simon, Piggy, and Roger are the oldest. Jack and Ralph are the leaders. They are all male and piggy is over weight and has asthma. They are all from high-class families in London. Not all of them get along; there are generally two groups, the hunters led by Jack and the Rest that follow Ralph. Piggy has problems in the past because he lives with his aunt and he listens to everything she says, he is not very independent.

2.   Description of the Presenting Problem

Most of the boys are suffering from fear. When a child is scared of something they always look for their mother to comfort them, but when the boys are on an island together most civility is lost. Some of the boys have a severe fear of the so-called “beastie” for an exception of a few boys. The one who is not affected by this fear at all is Simon. He wanders around at night in the forest without being scared. Others with lower fear levels are Jack, Ralph, and Roger. The boys have all developed a fake fear of a beast in the forest. Every time the wind brushes a tree or a stick falls off a tree, their fight/flight is triggered and most of them chose flight except Jack, Ralph and Simon.

        

3.   My Diagnosis

Since the boys are young and they are used to their parents comforting them, they get very freaked out by what they fear. They are all taking the low road as opposed to the high road because they are so scared and convinced that there is a beastie and there is no one except other kids telling you that it is not real. The signal is being sent straight to their amygdala (where fearful memories are stored) from their eyes and then to their hypothalamus, which triggers their fight or flight. It was quite simple to figure out what was wrong with the boys, they are used to having parents comforting them but when there alone the fear is doubled.

II. Intervention

I suggest the victim learns more about the island and realizes that there could no way be a beastie on the island (make up proof to make them feel safe even if their was a beast). Placebo’s could work or get them to think about the peaceful and happy things on the island. Some of the boys mostly the younger ones are having nightmares. They are very scared of the beastie and they all dream of it. The littluns are spreading the fear to the others by talking about it. They should think about positive things before going to sleep and try not to think about the beastie all day.

Empathy On The Island Paragraph

            If I were on the island I think it would be peaceful and I would be very confident. It would be a treat to get away from the city and hang out on the island but that wouldn’t be the only thing I would be doing. I would have to survive and feed my self and take care of myself. I feel very confident that I could survive because of my outdoor skills and my love for the wilderness. I would definitely enjoy my self at times but some times it may get stressful if things don’t work out. I would also be very hopeful of getting rescued and I would not worry about that as much as surviving. I think that I would do just fine on the island and I would be up to tackle the tasks of survival.