Macbeth and Fate

This blog post is a response to the following question:

3. Do you believe events in your life have been guided by fate or chance?  Why or why not?  Based on the text, what do you think Shakespeare's attitude was towards fate?  Does Macbeth have any choice in his actions or was everything predetermined? Use exampled from the text as your support.

As a 17 year old high school student, I have lived at home with my parents for my entire life.  Most of the major events in my life are somewhat related to my parents because they have been a huge part of my life since I was born.  I believe that the events that have happened so far in my life have been guided by fate.  My parents have morals and beliefs that they have taught me and through out my life I have had a set of expectations from my parents about what I should be doing with my life.  In the long run all of the things they want me to do will be helpful for my future (even though sometimes I don't want to do them).  The events that have happened to me so far are mostly because of things my parents want/influence/tell me to do and I believe that this has ultimately contributed to my success.

I think that if my parents adopted a child and raised it as their own, this kid would also be successful because of my parents influence on childhood.  I think that events in my life are guided by fate up until I end high school.  After that everything is up to chance because there are so many opportunities and choices that I must make as an adult.  There are many pathways I can take after I graduate from high school, but I believe that my whole life was fairly set from birth to high school.

Based on the text, I believe that Shakespeare's attitude towards fate is positive I think that he believes in it.  One reason I think this is because of the supernatural power. "Third Witch: All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter (Shakespeare 1.3)."  The use of a higher power (witches in this case) gives Shakespeare the ability to control the characters in whatever way he wants.  This higher power in some way controls Macbeth's life and sets Macbeth on a pathway to become king.

I think that Macbeth doesn't have any choice in his actions.  In the beginning Macbeth killed Duncan because of fate and the supernatural, and after that everything went downhill from there.  I think that fate allowed Macbeth to do this and it was predetermined that Macbeth would ultimately commit all of the evil deeds that he did.  In terms of Lady Macbeth, I think that her actions were influenced by Macbeth's, so her actions could be considered fate as well.

#IBmakingart

In late October the current IB classes were given the opportunity to visit the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in downtown Raleigh.  This field trip was not all that it seemed; we had to write a blog post about what we saw there! For this blog post we have to analyze one exhibit in the museum and I chose one of the firsts one I saw.  When you come into the museum and look to the left you see a truly amazing piece of art.  One thousand bells hanging from the ceiling is definitely not something you see everyday, which is why I chose to analyze The Temple of One Thousand Bells.

Pictured below is a picture I took with my phone of The Temple of One Thousand Bells (The corner is messed up because I used panoramic mode) :

Below is my interpretation of The Temple of One Thousand Bells:

The title of the exhibit I am examining is The Temple of One Thousand Bells.  It was created by Laura Belem in 2010.  It was made with 1000 glass bells hung from the ceiling at different levels.  There are also speakers that play a sound recording that goes along with the bells.  The whole piece put together is about 14 feet long by 8 feet wide.

This piece of art is Latin American and the bells were put together collectively as a piece of art in 2010.

At first sight this work of art seems only like a visual piece of art, but after our tour guide turned on the sound track that goes along with the exhibit you can grasp a deeper understanding of this art.  This sound track gives the bells an meaning and makes them represent something.  There is a Latin American folklore story told about these bells that withheld an amazing sound.  These bells and the island they were on disappeared into the ocean, but people still said they heard the bells.  The bells in the exhibit do not have a clapper (the thing that hangs in the middle and makes the bell ring) and yet you can still hear bells ringing.  The sound of bells ringing is sounded though the speakers, but it creates the illusion that the bells above you are ringing just as the people in the story heard the bells.

The message in this art is really created through style.  The element that makes this art contemporary would probably be the art's simplicity.  The whole exhibit has black, white, or clear and there are no other colors.  The lack of color and complication forces the viewer to pay attention to the story being told.  The layout of the bells hung from the ceiling is very appealing because the bells are hung from different levels.  The other interesting element of the bells is that the amount of light in the museum changes the viewing experience.  The later in the day it gets the darker the exhibit gets and the brighter outside it is the more light there is that reflects off of the bells.

The purpose of this art is to represent a story and was created by the author to tell this story.  One function of this art is to display how art can be simple at the surface, yet have a deeper meaning below the surface.  Although this art looks cool and is appealing to the eye, there is a story behind it that I would have never thought was there at first glance.

The Deadly Sins and Advertising

Author: Unknown Date: 2013 Location: N/A

This advertisement was created to promote Panasonic and was presented to Panasonic for approval.  The ad was ultimately not approved and was never published, but is all over the internet.  At first glance you see a nice-looking camera on the left and the text "shoot your girlfriend" on the right.  Reeva Steenkamp is pictured in the camera's screen, showing that she is being photographed or "shot".  The front of the camera and the name of the camera are displayed in the bottom left of the ad.  The simple layout of the ad is appealing and focuses all of the attention to the center.

After further examination of this text you see the obvious use of wrath, a deadly sin, to appeal to customers.  This deadly sin is expressed through twisted dark humor.   This use of "shoot your girlfriend" is humorous at first because you can "shoot" your girlfriend meaning take a picture of her, not shoot her with a gun.  But after you look at the ad you realize that Reeva Steenkamp is the girlfriend being "shot".  Well who is Reeva Steenkamp?  She is the former girlfriend of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius and was shot do death by Pistorius in 2013.  Suddenly the slightly comedic phrase on this ad becomes heinous because the girl pictured was shot and killed. This is likely the reason the ad was not approved and not published by Panasonic, but it was still created and is all over the internet.

The likely intended audience (if it was actually published) would have likely been middle or upper class because the camera pictured is about a $500 camera which is pretty expensive and is a luxury to most people.  While the camera can be for men or women, this ad would have most likely been placed in a magazine for men because it uses the term girlfriend appealing to the male gender.  It is likely that the intended audience would not realize the significance of the girl pictured and will only find the humor on the surface.

Can't bury these tales: Canterbury Tales & Jane Eyre

A good way to sweeten your food for free is with honey.  How do you get free honey?  With a freebie of course! This is my FREEBIE #2busy2post

The "Key" to my Name

Names, what are names? A name is a word or phrase that refers to or that can refer to a specific person.  Names interest me because they are something that individualize a person.  Names are usually one of the first things you learn about someone when you meet them.  My name in its entirety is Kevin Patrick Key.  My last name is the part of my name that I find most significant to who I am.

My last name, Key, is fairly simple. Three letters.  One syllable.  Also something most people carry around in their pocket.  Yet, nobody ever understands my last name.  People often mistake my name with Keith.  I've even seen my last name written as Qui.  When giving my name over the phone or at some place like the doctors office I've gotten into the habit of spelling out my last name.  Key also rhymes with a lot of things (hence the web address to this blog).

My last name, like most people I know, comes from my father.  His family immigrated to the Bahamas from England and Scotland a long time ago.  About three generations ago my dad's family came to America from the Bahamas.  My dad does a lot of investigation with ancestry and family tree stuff and over the years he has built a fairly extensive family tree and gathered lots of information.  Two summers ago, my family vacationed in the Bahamas and we intentionally went to a small island called Elbow Cay.  While we were there we met a few local families with the same last name as us and my dad proved that they were related to us.  I thought this was pretty cool.  Growing up, I always thought my last name came from the Florida Keys because we visited the Keys many times as part of visiting family in south Florida.  Anyways, to me my last name brings humor to my name and links me to the Bahamas and England.

In Anna Quindlen's essay, "The Name is Mine", she talks about there being "two me's", her as an individual, and her as part of a family.  I can relate here in many ways, but a good example would be lacrosse.  One way of looking at this would be how I view myself as an individual and part of a family.  As an individual on the field I always feel I can better myself and improve my game.  I spend hours hitting the wall trying to get my stick skills to the best they can be.  Lacrosse is a team sport, so I also have a responsibility to my team.  I also spend hours at practice working with my team, trying to figure out how we can be most effective as a unit.  Without my team and my defensive unit specifically, I would be useless by myself, but together as a team we can accomplish great things and reach goals.  There is also the aspect of how other people view me as a lacrosse player, and how they view my lacrosse team.  In considering this perspective I believe that myself as an individual is irrelevant.  I could be the worst player ever or the best player on the team, and it wouldn't matter because I represent the results of my team.  So the dilemma is: What is more important to focus on, being better as an individual or as a part of a family?  In the grand scheme of things I believe that me as an individual is only relevant to me and people close to me, but me as part of something bigger is more important and relevant.  Me as a part of my lacrosse team makes a bigger impact and effects more people.

Huie and Atwood

The photo show above is from Wing Young Huie's 2012-2013 album We are the Other.  At first glance you see a boy, maybe in his older teens holding a sign that says "Equality for the Undocumented".  The black and white photo shows that he is sitting on a bench built into the sidewalk.  Although there is no color the tree behind the boy still has its leaves, so it is likely spring or winter.  The boy is not looking directly at the camera and his face contains a hint of depression.

Looking at the photo in more depth reveals more about the issues I believe Huie is trying to represent.  The boy looks as if he is of Latino descent and it is safe to say he is undocumented based on the sign he is holding.  He was more than likely born in a country other than the U.S.  The bench the boy is sitting on contains a phrase that is only partially visible.  You can read "Enco" and "uplift" which I believe is a reference to uplifting the economy.  I believe the bench he is sitting on is a bus bench based on the fact that the bench is on a sidewalk, has an advertisement on it, and there is a pole in front of it that could have the bus stop number on it.  Based on the fact he is sitting on a bus bench and is undocumented I can assume he is of the lower class, or lower middle class.  I think the equality that the sign references to is economic equality because the bench says economy on it.  The boy likely wishes he had the same economic opportunities as U.S. citizens do.  In the United States illegal and undocumented immigrants often do not receive minimum wage because they are paid under the table and employers are illegally paying them.  His lack of equality is more than likely the reason for the boy's sad face.

How do Wing Young Huie (in your selected photograph) and Margaret Atwood (in The Handmaid's Tale) present the concept of "othering" through  image, layout/format, language, and/or color? -
First lets define othering.  The dictionary definition of othering: The process of perceiving or portraying someone or something as fundamentally different or alien.  In The Handmaid's Tale handmaids are alienated through language and color.  Handmaids wear red making them different than the rest of Gilead and the lack of color in the picture above could represent the lack of opportunity the boy has, alienating him as well.  Language in The Handmaid's Tale is often used to diminish handmaids and make them their own social class and language in the picture above shows the boys core issues and what he likely struggles with daily.  In IB film we learn in depth about the layout and format of a picture.  In the picture above there is a lack of balance of masses meaning one half of the photo contains much more content than the other half.  This lack of balance makes the boy seem very alone because he is essentially surrounded by nothing.