Back in 2400 B.C, all we had were papyrus scrolls. However, once the Egyptians introduced these scrolls to the Greeks, documentation boomed. Rome developed libraries, woodblock printing is invented in China, and the modern book was born in the 1st Century A.D. (Book History Timeline). For centuries, books become the primary source of historical documentation, story documentation, and the storage unit of all information that cannot be stored in our minds. However, in 2007, the electronic commerce company, Amazon.com, released the Amazon Kindle. The Amazon Kindle’s purpose was to make reading easier. It provided more novels without the hassle of packing the physical books themselves, and the ‘e-ink’ used made reading less strenuous to the eyes than reading off a computer screen. Since then, Amazon.com has produced over 10 new versions of the Amazon Kindle, including the Kindle Fire and Kindle Voyager (Popular Science.com). At the time, the Amazon Kindle was the future of reading. Books were going to become extinct, just like the papyrus scrolls before them. However, books have brought more to humanity than the e-books ever will. The e-books were just an improvement upon books. Books are better than e-books because they have assisted us for thousands of years, and they continue to help us today.
Your brain sees words as objects rather than abstract thoughts. For example, your brain sees words like you see a glass of orange juice. The glass, the color of the juice, and the shape of the juice tells your brain that it is a glass of orange juice. When you see the letter ‘A,’ you observe that the letter is made up of three lines, and you recognize that assortment of lines as the letter ‘A.’ So when you are reading, you are writing these words and letters out in your mind, registering each letter as its physical self. This characteristic allows your mind to create a mental map of the passage, helping it remember where the important information is. With e-books, the reader can change the font and size of the text, making it more distracting for your brain to gather information. With e-books, it also changes the pattern on the screen when the reader slides to a new page, so if they were to slide back, the position of the words would be different, making it harder to find information (Ferris Jabr). Not only do paper books make it easier to process words and information, but they help retain information as well. Back in 2015 a study was performed with two groups of undergraduates. These students were asked to read five different texts; one group read off of paper, the other read on an e-book. After they read one text, they were required to take an assessment based on the text. However, each text was read under a certain scenario. Two of the texts were read in a seven-minute time period. Two texts would be read with no restriction on time. The final text would be read with no time restriction; however, they would be interrupted after seven minutes. The results showed that across the board, no matter which assessment was taken, the paperback readers did better than the e-readers by at least five percent (Caroline Myrberg). “Touching paper and turning pages aids the memory, making it easier to remember where you read something. Having to scroll on the computer screen makes remembering more difficult,” Caroline Myrberg explains in her article, “Screen vs. paper: what is the difference for reading and learning?” However, there are still benefits of the e-book that can be applied to both the youth and the elderly of our day. Kindles such as the Kindle Fire accommodate for the youth by being similar to the electronic devices they use in their everyday lives. It not only provides them with a universal access to books, but also to apps and the internet. With others, e-books make reading easier, not only with the elderly, but with the visually impaired as well. Since they are able to change the font, size, and color of the text, they can adjust the text so the words are visible and their brains can comprehend words easier. The elderly can change the background color and screen brightness as well, making the letters clearer to their eyes (Caroline Myrberg). The opportunity to adjust these settings also helps people who are visually impaired or suffer from dyslexia. Changing the font size helps them focus on each word better than if it were in a real book, which doesn’t have such settings. They would just have to buy a book with a bigger font right off the back (Amy Kraft). These were the original purposes of the e-book, of course. E-books are easy to purchase, they’re available in a second, and they don’t use paper, which saves us trees (SuccessConsciousness.com). Though these perks are useful to many, there is one major factor that makes paper books better than the rest. Paper books are healthier than e-books. Staring at a screen isn’t healthy for the human body in the first place. Monitors, computer screens, tablets, and even a variety of e-books have screens that constantly change brightness in order to bring out color and three-dimensional shapes. However, this constant change of brightness hurts your eyes, causing itchiness and burning (HealthGuidance.org). People who constantly use these devices for reading also develop conditions such as ‘iPad Neck’ and ‘Computer Vision Syndrome’ (Caroline Myrberg). Putting this strain on the eyes also causes sleep problems, which lead to brain issues (Amy Kraft). There are many benefits to using an e-reader, but to quote psychologist Jim Taylor, “Technology is beautiful, but it is still a box,” (Scholastic.com). This will be a battle for ages to come. Should mankind advance in technology and throw out paper books forever, or should they reminisce in the relaxation that comes with picking up a book, opening the cover, and diving into a technology-free hour of adventure? Humanity can easily take to the future and burn all of the world’s books, just like in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, but there will always be book lovers who appreciate everything the book has done for us. Many will side with the quickly-accessible, new age e-books, but others with defend the classic, page turning novels that humanity has grown up with (Scholastic.com). When considering which side is superior, take into account that paper books help the reader with cognitive skills, test taking skills, and staying healthy by driving them away from the constant attention given to electronic devices. Works Cited "The Benefits and Advantages of eBooks." SuccessConsciousness.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2017. <http://www.successconsciousness.com/ebooks_benefits.htm>. Book History Timeline. ENG 5933 fsu.Edu, 2007, english8.fsu.edu/Courses/ENG4834_S11/Book_History_Timeline.pdf. Accessed 22 May 2017. Bradbury, Ray. 451° Fahrenheit. Bucharest: Editura Tineretului, 1953. Print. "E-Books vs. Print: What Parents Need to Know." Scholastic.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2017. <http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/developing-reading-skills/e-books-vs-print-what- parents-need-to-know>. "Kindle Screens and Your Eyes." HealthGuidance.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2017. <http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15903/1/Kindle-Screens-and-Your-Eyes.html>. Kraft, Amy. "Books vs. e-books: The science behind the best way to read." CBS News. CBS Interactive, 14 Dec. 2015. Web. 18 May 2017. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kindle-nook-e-reader- books-the-best-way-to-read/>. Jabr, Ferris. "The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens." Scientific American. N.p., 09 Apr. 2013. Web. 18 May 2017. <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/>. Myrberg, Caroline, and Ninna Wiberg. "Screen vs. paper: what is the difference for reading and learning?" Insights. UKSG in association with Ubiquity Press, 07 July 2015. Web. 18 May 2017. <http://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.236/>. "News Releases." Smithsonian Experts Find E-readers Can Make Reading Easier for Those with Dyslexia | Newsdesk. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2017. <http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/smithsonian-experts-find-e-readers-can-make-reading-easier-those-dyslexia>. "See How Amazon's Kindle Evolved Over Time." Popular Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2017. <http://www.popsci.com/evolution-kindle>.
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This PowerPoint is a collection of information from research papers we did in class.
Alexandria Victoria (1819-1901) was one of the most important female monarchs in history. Commonly known as Queen Victoria, she succeeded her uncle, William IV, and ruled Great Britain and Ireland between 1837 and 1901. (History.com) Queen Victoria is known for her involvement in foreign affairs, as well as her social impact on the Romantic Period, otherwise known as the Victorian Era. (My Perspectives, 550) However, her success could not have been achieved without the influence of her husband, Prince Albert, son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-1861). (Biography.com) Prince Albert was not only Queen Victoria’s husband, but her secretary and advisor as well. (Biography.com) Prince Albert guided his wife through many of the hardships she had to control, such as the Crimean War and the Irish Potato Famine. (Heritage History) Queen Victoria consistently listened to her husband, taking his advice and making her reign one of the most memorable of all time. He gave Queen Victoria the catalyst to address child labor, social welfare, and political neutrality. He also assisted her during the Trent Affair with the United States (1861) and her foreign disputes with Prussia (1856). (Biography.com) Without Prince Albert, Queen Victoria may have never been successful when addressing these affairs, which would have changed the course of history. On December 14, 1861, Prince Albert passed away due to typhoid, causing Queen Victoria to go into a state of eternal mourning. (Biography.com) Queen Victoria began to neglect her duties and isolate herself from her subjects, resulting in multiple assassination attempts and a republican movement. (Britroayls.com) This emotional state brought a decline to her popularity. The only person to “coax her out of her seclusion” was Benjamin Disraeli, a leader of the Conservative Party at the time. Her popularity as queen rose with age when she hit her 50th and 60th year as queen, celebrating these milestones with the traditional golden and diamond jubilees. (History.com) However, she could never get over Prince Albert’s death. She joined her husband in death on January 22, 1901, making her son, Edward VII, King of England. The Queen mourned for her husband even in death. By her request, photographs, clothes, and a plaster cast of Prince Albert’s hand were placed inside the Queen’s coffin before she was lowered inside. (Rosenberg) Queen Victoria is known for her long and successful reign as queen. She will always be known for her social impact, her handling of foreign affairs, and the impact she made on the Romantic Period. However, all of her success could not have been achieved without the advice and support of her loving husband, Prince Albert. Without him, the entire future of the world could have changed. Without him, we would have never had the Great Exhibition, child labor laws, and the peace between the United States and Great Britain after the Trent Affair. (Biography.com) Without Prince Albert, the Victorian Era would have never revolutionized the 20th century. Without Prince Albert, Queen Victoria would have been just another monarch on the throne. Prince Albert was the pen that wrote the Victorian Era into every history book in the world. Prince Albert was the Queen’s salvation. He was her best friend. Works Cited History.com Staff. "Queen Victoria." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 24 Apr. 2017. <http://www.history.com/topics/british-history/queen-victoria>. Morrell, Ernest, et al. My Perspectives. New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2017. Print. British and World Literature. "Prince Albert." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 08 July 2014. Web. 25 Apr. 2017. <http://www.biography.com/people/prince-albert-20845371>. "Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901)." Queen Victoria | Britroyals. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017. <https://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?id=victoria>. "Queen Victoria dies." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017. <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/queen-victoria-dies>. Rosenberg, Jennifer. "How Did Queen Victoria Die?" ThoughtCo. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017. <https://www.thoughtco.com/queen-victoria-dies-1779176>. "Victoria I." Heritage History | Homeschool History Curriculum. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017. <http://www.heritage-history.com/?c=academy&s=char-dir&f=victoria>. Going to a college or university is life changing enough as it is. From the point of view of a freshman, a sophomore, or even a junior, it seems terrifying. It is true that, as a senior in high school, the very idea of going to college still seems terrifying. Every year seniors apply for colleges. If it is required, they have to audition in order to get into a certain class or career path. For me, the application process wasn’t difficult. Through the entire process, the idea of going to college didn’t seem real. However, reality settled in once I began preparing to audition for Central Michigan University’s School of Music.
Since I was in the seventh grade, I wanted to be a music teacher. My band director, Mrs. Tippett, was my role model and inspiration. It was my goal to earn a degree in music education from Central Michigan University. Halfway through my senior year, I was accepted to Central Michigan University. I was absolutely overjoyed to know I was one step closer to my goal. However, I still had to be accepted into their School of Music. This is a key element for graduating with a degree in music education. The challenge that faced me was passing the audition. The way I saw my situation, the expectations were far greater than that of any high school test. I come from a Class D school where our musical abilities seem below par compared to schools like Petoskey and the Traverse City schools. The audition felt larger than life compared to everything I have done in the past. I began to think I didn't have the skills to be accepted. Mrs. Tippett had recommended early on that I should take a lesson with the oboe professor at Central Michigan University in order to be introduced to them and give myself a better chance of being accepted into their music program. So, I contacted Professor Lindabeth Binkley of Central Michigan University and set up a lesson. When I arrived at the campus for my lesson, Professor Binkley gave me a tour of the music building and I showed her everything I could do as a musician. She asked me to play some of my solo, to sight read, and to play some scales. While I was having my lesson with Professor Binkley, all of my nerves and worries about the audition vanished. However, they all returned when she brought up the audition. We talked about what she thought of my abilities as an oboist, and what I need to work on to improve my playing. She gave me a list of skills to work on before my audition, and that she would be watching for those when I came to audition. It was then that my nerves hit the ceiling. The weeks they came and went. I practiced and improved upon the skills Professor Binkley recommended I work on. A week before the audition, however, I realized I had forgotten to memorize my melodic minor scales. The next week was an emotional rollercoaster of tears and regrets. I worked with Mrs. Tippett almost every night that week, pushing myself over an emotional wall and crying in her presence. All I wanted by this point was to get this audition done and over with. To my dismay, the day came where I had to travel down to Central Michigan University and audition for enrollment at the School of Music. When I arrived at Central Michigan University, the size of the school overwhelmed me. However, my nerves subsided as I took two mandatory music tests that would not affect my acceptance into the school. I was actually quite care-free till we were given the option of taking a practice room to warm up before our audition. The only help the practice room gave me was a place to release my nerves in the form of tears. Finally the time came. I felt like I was walking into death itself. My entire future depended on this audition. Then it happened. I walked into Professor Binkley's office for the second time in my life and all my nerves vanished. It was only her and I. We chatted before I actually did any playing, and she spoke kindly to me. I forgot I was even there to audition. I played my solo first. It was the best I ever played it. Next, I played some scales. Those were not as great as the solo. Before I sight read, she complimented me on my improvements since we had last met and how happy she was that I auditioned. She put the sight reading music on my stand and I was surprised at how easy it was. After I played the sight reading music, she turned to me and smiled. "I will tell you right now that I will accept you, but you won't hear anything about it till after all of the other auditions are done." I let out a sigh of relief. The future I desired was secured. Why was I so worried about this? The audition went on as if I just had a lesson with her. Thinking back, I believe that I was overthinking everything. I believed that their expectations were too high and that my skills were too low. I pushed myself down with every mistake. In reality, the university and I were the same size. To look at this incident with a new view, I can see that my expectations for myself and for what the school expected of me were not realistic. If I could have only understood this before, I would have saved myself not only tears, but emotional turmoil as well. When reading Khaled Hosseini’s, The Kite Runner, the reader will venture on the journey of Amir’s twisted life. They will experience his guilt, his sins, his love, and his desire to be good again. Director Marc Forster brought this heart-breaking novel to the big screen in 2007, casting Khalid Abdalla as the middle aged Amir and Ali Danish Bakhtyari as Sohrab. The movie and the novel have many things in common that make this movie as enjoyable as the book, even if there are a lot of minor differences.
For starters, let’s analyze the differences between the two. The structure of the movie is slightly off compared to the book. In the novel, the first chapter is Amir discussing the phone call he received from Rahim Khan. However, in the movie, Amir picks up the phone before the flashback happens. From there we see the young Amir and young Hassan living out their lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. When Amir begins to write his own stories, Rahim Khan’s entrance into this portion of Amir’s life differs. In the movie, Rahim Khan invites himself in, whereas in the book he only enters when Baba ignores Amir’s newly found talent. Little differences like this are littered throughout the movie. Some major differences include Amir’s age when he travels to the United States and Amir’s adventure back in Afghanistan. In the novel, Amir is eighteen when he leaves with his father for the United States. While Amir is in Afghanistan, the plot is extremely skewed. In the novel, Amir goes to Afghanistan to visit the dying Rahim Khan, with the only inspiration being Rahim Khan’s words, “There is a way to be good again.” When Amir gets there, he learns of Hassan’s death and his orphan son. In the movie he does acquire this information, but the reveal is less emotional than the book. In the novel, Rahim Khan tricks Amir into going for Sohrab by saying there is an orphanage run by a couple of Americans who will surely take him in. In the movie, they jump right to the case and flat out tell Amir to adopt Sohrab, missing the element of deceit and Amir’s inner struggle. Amir’s trek to acquire Sohrab from Assef’s clutches is about the same as the novel, until Sohrab and Amir leave Assef’s office. In the novel, Amir is so badly injured that he is in the hospital for days on end, whereas in the movie he suffers from minor injuries. Also, the movie cuts out Sohrab’s fear of orphanages, which leads to Sohrab’s attempt at suicide, that being the whole reason Sohrab shuts himself away from the rest of the world once he gets to the United States with Amir. Even though the ending of the movie changes from the novel, both forms of this story share many common details. The movie did a great job of depicting Amir, as well as keeping true to the Farsi language spoken in Afghanistan. The movie depicts Amir’s last kite fight as a child perfectly, even including Hassan’s tragic punishment from Assef and his ‘friends.’ They keep true to the overall plot by sending Baba and Amir to America, where Baba soon dies of cancer and Amir marries Soraya. They include Baba’s growing pride for his son while Amir graduates and gets married. The movie stays true to Amir’s visit with Rahim Khan, and even include the important fact that Amir and Hassan are half-brothers. Even though minor details still take away from the performance, Marc Forster’s interpretation of The Kite Runner stayed accurate to the novel for most of the movie. The ending was skewed, though that could be because of run time. There are definitely elements that could have made the movie more accurate to the novel, but the movie is still as enjoyable as the novel. In Khaled Hosseini’s novel, the Kite Runner, Amir demonstrates the dynamic change in the relationship he has with his father before and after death. In the beginning of the novel, their relationship is very static. Baba is a very distant father who seems disappointed that Amir is even alive. Amir tries his best to try and be the son Baba wants, but to no avail can he accomplish this task. Amir and Baba’s relationship is so disappointing that Amir becomes jealous of Hassan and Baba’s affections towards the Hazara. All Amir strives for is time alone with Baba to prove himself worthy of his father’s love. It is only when Amir wins a kite fight tournament that Baba finally believes he has something to be proud of. However, this is just a little bump in their relationship, which quickly flatlines again due to the heavy guilt that befalls Amir after the kite fight tournament. Their relationship only improves with their evacuation to the United States, where Amir can run away from all the demons that caused his relationship with Baba to even quiver.
Once in the United States, Baba’s relationship with Amir seems to take off quite well. With it just being he and his father, Amir finally can prove himself. In the United States, Amir graduates high school, becomes an author, and even gets married. All of these titanic events bond Amir and Baba together, even persuading Baba to say, “I am moftakkhir, Amir. Proud.” (Pg 131) This is the peak of their relationship. In this time, Amir cannot believe that his life could falter any more. However, there is a new change in the relationship that waver some; Baba’s cancer. Through Baba’s last days, he does what he can to make it up to his son. Baba performs his duty as a father and lives long enough to see Amir and his bride, Soraya, marry. Baba, the stubborn, prideful Pashtun, does what he can to pay for his sins, even though the bill still lies on Amir. When Baba dies, Amir thinks highly of his stubborn father, but his trip to Afghanistan at the request of Rahim Khan changes that. While in Afghanistan, Amir learns of the sin he executed to preserve his education, leading to Amir’s relationship with his father to drop so far. Amir had been robbed of a brother and a guileless future, and his father was the thief. How could he respect a man who did all that to him? Some would argue that their relationship was static, that Baba never respected his son enough to tell him the truth. They would argue that Amir’s real father figure was Rahim Khan. However, Baba was still a father to Amir, and eventually Baba did get the son he wanted from the son he legally had to claim. Amir was his guide in the new, strange, life they lived in America. When Baba died, he was proud of Amir, but the same could never be said of Amir about his pride and respect for his father when he dies. Their relationship was ever changing, even after one of them died. Lights, camera, action! William Shakespeare’s famous play, the Tragedy of Macbeth, is reborn to the public as a drama from PBS’s Great Performances, titled Macbeth. This regeneration of the Thane of Glamis takes place in the early 1940s, primarily in Scotland, but briefly in England. Here we follow the story of Macbeth, portrayed by Sir Patrick Stewart, and his rise to insanity with his wife, Lady Macbeth, portrayed by Kate Fleetwood. We begin this story in the depths of Dunsinane, learning that war is over and a traitor is to be killed. It is here where we meet Shakespeare’s three witches, disguised as war nurses. These witches will control Macbeth’s life till his last breath. In an eldritch fashion, these witches propose a future to the Thane of Glamis that he cannot possibly refuse; the chance to be king. Amused by the idea, Macbeth informs his wife of the absurd prediction, but she sees it as no conjecture. With the words, “Your hand, your tongue: look like th’ innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming Must be provided for: and you shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch; Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom,” (Act I, Scene V, Lines 65-70) Lady Macbeth institutes the rest of the play. This line is the beginning of their insanity, their greed, and their untimely end. Lady Macbeth’s words lead to the murder of King Duncan of Scotland, the murder of the noble Banquo (Martin Turner), Macduff’s family (Suzanne Burden, Hugo Docking, Lillian and Madeleine Dummer), and the murder of many innocent lives. Macbeth turns from a nobleman of Scotland to its demonic dictator. While watching Macbeth, director Rupert Goold made it a point to focus on each character when they had something to say. With this being a Shakespeare original, it can be hard to follow who is saying what, which makes this aspect of filming a vital characteristic. When Stewart is reciting one of Macbeth’s soliloquies, the viewer is not distracted by the mess of people on screen. They see Macbeth and only Macbeth. Goold’s use of colors is also a key aspect to this movie. The use of colors was extremely important for the movie, especially during Macbeth’s dinner party with the ghost of Banquo. During the joyous scenes of the banquet, the actors are surrounded by warm oranges and reds. However, when Macbeth witnesses the dreaded ghost of Banquo, all colors die into a mess of grey and blue, casting an unnatural presence upon the viewer as well as Sir Patrick Stewart. The colors correlate with the characters moods perfectly. This adaptation of the Tragedy of Macbeth, I will admit, is not my favorite. The production of the movie was well kept, helping viewers decipher the characters intentions with colors and focus, but it was not word for word. This movie is 160 minutes long. If they are willing to pass the two hour mark, they might as well keep everything from the original tragedy in the final cut. They skip over some scenes and lines such as the Son’s famous line, “He has killed me, mother: Run away, I pray you!” (Act IV, Scene II, Lines 83-84) as well as any scene with the witches’ leader, Hecate. They do keep true to the language for the rest of the play, however. I have mixed feelings about this adaptation, so if you are considering watching this movie, read Shakespeare’s the Tragedy of Macbeth, first. This essay is straight out of Pearson Realize, where I have to write an argument essay on how Macbeth controlled his future and buried the past in the Tragedy of Macbeth. It is a difficult task, considering the fact that I have to find a counter-claim to a simple fact. This is a great example of how to try and make a claim against a topic that could be easier to write a report about rather than an argument essay. In the Tragedy of Macbeth, our protagonist tries to bury the old Scotland that was loved by so many, and control the future illustrated by the three witches. The lead in this play, Macbeth, performs this deed through illogical murder. Frankly, he could have controlled his future in any other way, but in the play, he just murders all who stand in his way.
It all began with the murder of King Duncan of Scotland. The citizens of Duncan's lands thought of him as an honorable king and he was well-liked throughout Scotland. When their beloved king died at the hands of Macbeth, their joyous lives under him died with him. After Duncan's death, Macbeth continued to bury the past by murdering people who could talk him out of it. For example, Banquo. Banquo was with Macbeth when he first heard the predictions about Macbeth becoming king. Banquo could have easily talked to Macbeth and convinced him that murder was not the answer, but instead Banquo was murdered just to make sure he would have no other offspring. Some would claim that it is not Macbeth's fault and that the true character who was trying to control their future was Lady Macbeth. She is the wife of a nobleman, after all, and she has a lot to gain from being married to a king. When Macbeth told her about the witches' predictions, she immediately tells her husband that he must kill King Duncan in order to assume power on the throne. The counterargument would also state that Macbeth was extremely cowardice throughout the entire first act, especially after he killed King Duncan. If that was the case, then Macbeth could have done a number of different things to prevent the murders of everyone who died after King Duncan. He said in Act I, lines 148-150/152-153, "If chance will have me King, why, Chance may crown me...Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day." Here Macbeth is saying that if he is to be king, then he will not have to do anything. He's suggesting that he will let destiny decide whether he will become king or not. He did not have this additude throughout the entire play. After King Duncan's murder, he continued to have people executed. Lady Macbeth did not push him to have Banquo murdered, and Lady Macbeth certainly did not tell her husband to go and murder Macduff's wife and children. He decided that he was going to control the future based off of what the witches told him. Eventually Lady Macbeth was not stable enough to manipulate her husband, so it was Macbeth who had the final say in who lives and who dies. In conclusion, Macbeth's attempt to control his own future and bury the past was not worthwhile and could have been performed differently. This all happened because Macbeth chose to control his future in that fashion. He controlled his future through the murder of thousands, all to secure his future as king. Yes, Lady Macbeth promoted the first murder, but the rest was done by Macbeth alone. During the turn of the twentieth century, women’s roles in capitalist countries, or first world countries, played out as follows; the man of the family will go and work for money, the mother will stay home and take care of the children, as well as clean, and the children, if there are any, will attend school. This is how it was for a majority of the twentieth century. However, as time rushed on, women fought their way through the oppression of men for change. Slowly but surely, the number of housewives diminished and women worked their way to being equal with their male peers.
In the world of finance and work, women have come a long way. According to Michelle Fram Cohen’s “The Condition of Women in Developed and Developing Countries,” in 1924, 87% of women did over four hours of housework. By 1977, that percentage reduced to 43%. In 1999, that number reduced to 14%. What were women doing instead of cleaning the house? They were working. By 2000, one-third of wives in the United States made more money than their husband. Between 2004 and 2014, women’s salary increased by $300 (American Bar Association, 2016). It quickly because socially acceptable for women to work as much as men did. Even though a large portion of women still take up roles such as teachers, nurses, secretaries, and receptionists, they have made their way into the judicial branch (Cohen, 2006). According to the American Bar Association (ABA), in the year 2000, 14.55% of women were partners in private practice, 40.90% were associates, and 44.41% were summer associates. In 2016, women partners increased by 7%, women associates increased by 4%, and summer associates increased by 3.5%. In 2016, six-tenths of the government staff are women (Center for American Progress). In fact, progressing through the twentieth century, more women were decided to pursue an education rather than get married (Cohen, 2006). However, there are still problems today concerning women’s rights. For starters, a typical women’s pay is still lower than that of their male co-workers. Women are also being oppressed for their physical appearance, especially on social media. They are constantly criticized for clothing choice and body choice, no matter whether it's to appease the public or not (Ashley May, 2016). Women also suffer from sexual harassment and violence against them (Julie Zeilinger, 2016). Women have successfully paved the way for women equality in the financial world, but equality in the social world is still an issue. There are many organizations out there that are now turning their attention towards these issues, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the Ms. Foundation for Women. Women have come a long way since the beginning of the twentieth century. They have earned the right to vote, the right to work for pay, and the right to have a higher position than men. However, they still have a long way to go yet. Women have won the right to be financially and politically equal to their male peers, but now they must find a way to become socially equal with them as well. It seems as though every classic novel has a movie adaptation. Some classics include 1984 by George Orwell, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Out of all the movies with original novels out there, one story that must be analyzed is Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice. Now there are many television adaptations of this novel, but the current comparison and contrast will be made to Deborah Moggach’s 2005 Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy respectively.
When it comes to the main plot and general flow of the story, the novel and movie are fairly similar. They both focus the story around Elizabeth Bennet and her journey into falling in love with Mr. Darcy. They both introduce the primary characters, such as Mr. Bingley, Mr. Darcy, the Bennet Family, Mr. Collins, Charlotte Lucas, Mr. Wickum, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The movie depicts the key events of the story, such as Mr. Collin’s proposal to Elizabeth and then his marriage to Charlotte, Elizabeth’s discovery of Mr. Darcy’s involvement in “saving a friend from an awful marriage,” both of Mr. Darcy’s proposals to Elizabeth, as well as Lydia’s outrageous act of running away with Mr. Wickum. In summary, the movie did what it needed to do to meet the plot of the novel. However, every movie has their differences from the novel. For starters, the movie removed monologues, letters, and conversations to turn a book that has sixty-three chapters into a movie that is an hour long. For example, in the beginning, when Mrs. Bennet begs Mr. Bennet to see Mr. Bingley, in the novel he visits him the next day, whereas in the movie he already has before Mrs. Bennet starts to beg. They also shorten the plot by removing characters, such as Mr. and Mrs. Hurst, who are Mr. Bingley’s sister and brother-in-law, and taking Miss. Bingley, another sister of Mr. Bingley, out of the second half of the story. After Mr. Bingley hosts a ball at Netherfield, she disappears. The movie also takes less desirable characters, such as Elizabeth’s sisters Mary and Kitty, and turns them into elements of comic relief. With Kitty being Lydia’s ‘lost puppy,’ and Mary being the sister who is darker and more realistic than her siblings, they are basically there for the viewer to laugh at. In the book they don’t have much of a role, but they are the sisters to to main character, so they have to be in the movie somehow. Other characters such as Mr. Bingley and Mr. Collins are given more humorous characteristics when they do not contribute much to the plot. There are many adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and when it comes to turning a classic into a movie, the directors and screenplay writers should do what they can to make it identical to the original author’s message. With this story, screenplay writer Deborah Moggach was able to make her version of Pride and Prejudice very similar to Jane Austen’s novel, however she did removed characters and conversations for the sake of time. With language and body language, this story truly depicts the definition of pride and prejudice, both formats explaining why these characteristics are unhealthy in a society. |
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